Overcoming obstacles, achieving dreams and helping others along the way dominated the discussions of Saturday’s fifth annual Black Issues Conference.
The keynote speaker of the event, called ‘Lifting as We Climb,’ was Elaine Richardson, an author, lecturer and associate professor at Pennsylvania State University.
Richardson gave an intimate view into her life as a drug addict and prostitute before she got her doctorate and straightened out her life.
As Richardson took the podium, she praised God for giving her the strength to persevere through the hard times and turn her life around.
‘I never thought I would be able to clean myself up enough to be here today talking to everyone about ‘Lifting as We Climb’ or about elevating the status of black people,’ Richardson said.
‘Your life is going to mean something to somebody’hellip; your life is going to be an example for somebody, whether you want it to be or not, good or bad,’ Richardson said.
In Cleveland, Richardson started at a disadvantage, living in a place where the educational system was weak, and crime life was strong.
‘The schools were funded inadequately and could not effectively address the myriad of issues posed by economic disadvantage such as emotionally troubled students, low teacher expectations and problematic or insufficient teaching materials,’ Richardson said.
Her neighborhood had decent, honest and hardworking people, but there were always other people around to cause problems, she said.
‘There were many shady characters whose livelihood depended on sexually exploiting young girls, selling drugs or turning the youth onto the get-rich-or-die-trying mentality, a life of crime,’ Richardson said.
In 1978 Richardson enrolled at Cleveland State University, but said she partied more than she studied, and received an academic dismissal.
During her time away from school, she became ‘highly successful at the street life’ by making money as a prostitute. During this time, she found herself behind bars many times and developed a drug addiction to heroin and cocaine.
After seeing a flyer advertising a program at Cleveland State that helped out women who were tired of living the street life, Richardson decided to clean up and go back to school.
One thing she said that upset her about college was a writing professor who didn’t like the way she wrote in a dialect-like style. She realized then that she needed to ‘whitenize’ her papers in order to succeed in the class.
‘The subordination of my experience and the erasure of my voice paralleled the absence of black voices and culturally relevant material in the curriculum,’ Richardson said.
She now addresses issues of African American linguistics in her books, ‘African American Literacies’ and ‘Hip Hop Literacies.’
The conference also featured small group sessions throughout the day, which dealt with academic self-improvement, leadership development and black popular culture.
Taisia Moorman, sophomore, said the conference sessions covered many beneficial topics.
‘It has many different aspects, not just bettering ourselves as the black community, but stuff about preparing for internships and other needed subject matters,’ Moorman said.
Alex Watson, junior, said the conference helps examine issues that are not in the forefront of mainstream society.
‘Black issues are something we face everyday, but they aren’t addressed in the community,’ Watson said. ‘Here we can pay special attention to these issues.”Lifting as We Climb’ has a special meaning to Watson. ‘[It means] making sure you don’t leave anyone around you behind. Success means nothing if you don’t bring people up around you,’ he said.
