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Opal Palmer Adisa

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Opal Palmer Adisa is a Jamaican Associate Professor of the Ethnic Studies Program at California College or Arts and Crafts. In her essay I Must Write What I Know So I’ll Know That I’ve Known It All Along, Adisa has a very strong purpose for her work. There was a problem of students not being confident in what they knew so the best excuse they could come up with was that they did not know anything. This weighed very heavy on Adisa’s heart. She let them talk and speak their minds. From what she gathered from the mouths of her discouraged students lead her to write this essay. With a motherly tone in her opening paragraph, Adisa is light with her words of deep substance. Telling her audience that she knows the man she lies with at night to …show more content…

It is all about self worth. She tells her audience what her was value of being a black woman and slave. As she described it, “…I was not to know anything.” (page 55) Because of her culture, she was not of any worth, just seen as a waste of space in this world. After being told her value, she was stuck in a place where she was unsure of it herself. She broke out of this dark mindset and pledged she knew who she was and what knew. It was from this that Opal Palmer Adisa felt confident enough to share her …show more content…

The problems that are approached in her essay I Must Write What I Know So I’ll Know That I’ve Known It All Along are ongoing problems in today’s society. Even though most of her main points were directed towards discrimination of race and gender, it can be accommodated with problems in the twentieth century. She spoke of a woman that had experience not knowing who she was and the struggle it truly was. Today, I believe that people are afraid to admit their struggle and do not want to confront them our of embarrassment. Adisa’s words were sincere and comforting, her purpose was seen clearly and struck deep to the

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