Sheri O’Rourke

November 28, 2001

The Case for Empowerment of Minority Children as seen in Black Girl Lost and Baby of the Family

In America, we are all born equal; the Declaration of Independence says so. We are all endowed with the same inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are supposed to lead us down the road to "The American Dream." This road to "The American Dream" is clearly marked; just stay on the path. Go to school, get an education, and the riches follow—the good job, the house, the car in the driveway, and the chicken in every pot. It’s a straight shot. Just don’t forget the rules: don’t be different, don’t have special needs, and be sure to have the proper background. In a perfect world, we would all have childhoods that would prepare us to realize and claim our rights. However, for many of us, this is not the case. Yet, we will eventually outgrow our childhood, and can work to overcome most obstacles in the path to personal success. If we are of the dominant culture, we can also reclaim our "inalienable rights". For minority children, the road is much more treacherous. While they too will outgrow their childhood, they will not outgrow the color of their skin, and American dominant society steadfastly refuses to see the person beneath the skin. This mindset, by its very nature, negates the dictum of the Declaration of Independence. Yet, there is a key to unlock this gate to the path of success. The key is empowerment, and empowerment is achieved through literacy and positive choices. Parents must empower minority children to ensure that they are armed with the skills and values needed to level the playing field, and to claim the rights that all persons should own.

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines the word child as one not yet of age, or one who is strongly influenced by another, or by a place or state of affairs. We can all agree that while we are young, we have no real voice of our own. We are influenced by our guardians, and subject to their lifestyles and dictates. Our choices are made for us. And while there are those who still blindly insist that we are all born with equal rights, the game changes quickly.

Lena, from Tina McElroy Ansa’s Baby of the Family, and Donald Goines’ Sandra, from Black Girl Lost, illustrate this truth quite vividly. We meet both girls in the opening scenes of each novel, and the degree of parental involvement in the lives of each girl is immediately noted. Black Girl Lost opens with nine year old Sandra standing alone in the dark, cold and hungry, and preyed upon, while looking for her drunken mother. We immediately feel for her, as it is apparent that her mother is unfit. The only other adult around is someone that wants to use her for his own perverse pleasure. She has no one in her corner. In complete contrast with this is the opening scene of Baby of the Family. Nellie has just given birth to the girl that she has always wanted. "Oh, my precious, precious," she says to Lena (Ansa 3). The doctor refers to Lena as "a mighty special little girl" (Ansa 2). Her father is celebrating her birth with his customers. Lena has love and support, while Sandra is struggling to survive. Based on just these introductions, it is apparent that Sandra’s mother is not concerned about empowering her daughter, and that Lena will have many more choices because of the family support that she enjoys.

Sandra’s mother was not concerned with empowering her daughter. Instead, she left her to push her own way out of a desperate situation, but she does not represent all African American ghetto parents, as "many African American parents place great emphasis on educational attainment, hard work, and good moral values. African American parents name a good education as the primary strategy their children could employ to succeed in a racist society" (Newman et al. 47).

As Donald Goines "spent his writing career exploring the underbelly of black urban life in what his publisher called "black experience novels" (Oxford 1997), by his very prose, he proves that parental involvement, or the lack thereof, is a critical factor in the survival struggle of minority ghetto children. He chooses to display the failures.

In Baby of the Family, Lena’s parents are everything that Sandra’s mother is not. They instill the values of education and hard work in their children, and still retain their culture. Though they are financially prosperous, and not ghetto residents, they do live in a socio-economically mixed black neighborhood. Ansa illustrates the family’s African American culture in a number of subtle ways. They eat neck-bones, chitterlings, and collard greens. When Sarah is preparing for her first visit to Lena’s, she takes a "whore’s bath", a term that "most women in Pleasant Hill used, regardless of where they lived" (Ansa 83). They patronize African American owned establishments such as Delores Beauty Shop, and socialize in Jonah’s bar with other African Americans of differing socioeconomic backgrounds. Ansa beautifully portrays the McPhersons as a thriving African American family. Her pride and confidence in her culture is displayed throughout this novel as she presents the family’s triumphs as well as their imperfections in a sincere and unapologetic view of their life. They are hardworking, nurturing parents who are grooming Lena to be the best that she can be. As Ansa proclaims in A Letter to my Readers, "As we move into another century, I think all our citizens, but particularly black folks, have to claim what’s ours. We’ve got to acknowledge who we are as a people, what and where we came from, what we believe in, what got us to where we are today" (Ansa).

Ansa seems to realize the importance of encouraging children to be the best that they can be. In an interview with Ansa by Tiffany Campbell-Spears, Spears writes that Tina is a "great pleasure…a woman who takes every opportunity to encourage those around her" (Spears). When speaking about Baby of the Family, Ansa says that she hopes it "reminds people of children who are all special in some way" (Spears).

Ansa realizes the importance of nurturing children, and this message is conveyed throughout Baby of the Family. Unlike Goines who chose to capitalize on the gritty, harsh lifestyle of a misguided African American child, Ansa flips the coin, and celebrates Lena. And while Goines’ novel is depressing, in spite of his motives, he makes the case for positive parental guidance. However, one should not take Goines’ depiction of the manifestations of inner-city life as exclusive, because his stories tell only one side of the tale. Concerned African American urban parents do exist. And their children thrive because of them. As noted in the Journal for Comparative Family studies, "despite the enhanced risks associated with their social and familial contexts, many inner-city African American families maintain high levels of functional competency and raise healthy, competent children" ( Meyers and Taylor 217 ). Perhaps more to the point are the findings of Newman et al. who state that "parental values and encouragement are more relevant than traditional measures of socioeconomic status in influencing academic achievement among low-income African American students" (47).

These children, just like Lena, have been empowered by parents who want to see their children have all they deserve.

Just as the opening scenes of Baby of the Family and Black Girl Lost foreshadow each girl’s future, the closing scenes seal their fates.

Lena’s grandmother tells her "What you are baby, it’s a gift. And no matter what, me and others who love you, we’ll always be with you" (Ansa 265).

Sandra is estranged from her mother. Covered in the blood of her dope dealer boyfriend, she lies sobbing next to his dead body. "There was a blur of motion as she attempted to drive the dripping blade into her own frail chest" (Goines 183).

The "American Dream" is within Lena’s grasp; Sandra has much farther to go.

Works Cited

Ansa, Tina McElroy. Baby of the Family. Harcourt Brace & Company. 1989.

Campbell-Spears, Tiffany. Interview with Tina McElroy Ansa

Goines, Donald. Black Girl Lost. Holloway House. 1973

Goode, Greg. "Donald Goines." Dictionary of Literary Biography 33 (1984): 96-100.

Matthews, V., N. The Oxford Companion to African American Literature, Oxford UP, 1997.

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10^th Edition, 1993.

Myers, H., and Sylvie Taylor. "Family Contributions to Risk and Resilience in African American Children." Journal of Comparative Family Studies 29 (1998): 215-229.

Newman, B. M., et al. "The Transition to High School for Academically Promising, Urban, Low-Income African American Youth." Adolescence 35 (2000): 45-66