Po H# on Dope to PhD

Elaine Richardson

Description

"There was a time when Elaine Richardson was one of 'the Negroes everybody pointed to as the Negroes you didn't want to become.' The title of this book is no metaphor or allusion, but a literal shorthand for a remarkable, unpredictable journey. She inherits a plain way of talking about horrific pain from a mother who seemed impossible to shock. The way too fast way she grew up was and is too common, but her will to remap her destiny is uncommon indeed. To call her story inspiring would be itself too plain a thing, hers is a heroic life." -dream Hampton, writer and filmmaker

Sujets

• Disciplines
• Language Arts
• Literacy

Informations

• Publié par: Parlor Press, LLC
• Date de parution: 30 mars 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781602354272
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Praise for Elaine Richardson’s
PHD to Ph.D.:
How Education Saved My Life
“A powerful story by a powerful woman, told with language and imagery that pierce the reader and demand attention. An interesting parable about the intersection of personal change and the educational process – how they sometimes reinforce each other and sometimes produce disconnects. This is an amazing story that will hopefully educate teachers and students.”
—Ronald M. Berkman, Ph.D., President, Cleveland State University
“At a time when so many feel hopelessly ensnared in the toxic grip of poverty, drugs and prejudice, Dr. E offers an authentic blueprint for emancipation and a prescription for empowerment. Hers is a stout ‘I shall overcome’ story that reawakens lost faith.”
— Peter Lawson Jones, Esq., former Cuyahoga County Commissioner and Member of the Ohio General Assembly
“Dr. E’s work is one of the most compelling and honest true-life stories of the dehumanizing horrors of domestic sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Her ability to escape her highly dangerous and abusive circumstances, the glory of her redemption, and her dedication to help others inspires all of us who are working to abolish this disturbing oppression of women and girls.”
— Paul M. Herbert, Administrative and Presiding Judge, Franklin County Municipal Court, Columbus, Ohio
“If Zora Neale Hurston had a god-daughter, she could be Elaine Richardson: on so many paths, she comes to these pages a deep student of life — the one who studies it up close, unguarded, and, with a musicia n’ s ear for the song that lives in all of her experience, brings home its truths in their fearsome and freeing power. This book, like the life it describes, is a work of spirit Richardson records for us, another way to talk to, and talk about, God.”
— Ted Lardner, Professor of English, Cleveland State University
“Elaine Richardson’s autobiographical memoir, powerfully and eloquently written, reflects the tradition of the literary bildungsroman. Her book is a must-read for all those concerned about the social and educational crises in Black communities, particularly among Black girls and women. She holds nothing back in this story of her life in the world of pimps and ho’s and the magnetizing pull of drug addiction. She rose to the ranks of boss ho, getting “White Girl pay,” and she was arrested over 200 times. Dr. Richardson, aka Dr. E, neither glorifies nor sensationalizes this former life. Rather PHD to Ph.D. presents the raw, uncut truth of that life which held a grip on Elaine from the age of thirteen (and her first pregnancy) until she was in her late twenties. Her story is that of many thousands gone and the still-lingering effects of colorism and linguistic shame, that has left its mark on both women and men in our communities—the legacy of the African Holocaust, neo-enslavement and US apartheid. Elaine’s inspirational life and this narrative account represent the triumph of the human spirit and the indomitable Will to survive–and thrive–“against all odds” (as Tupac would have put it). Rising from the ashes of poverty and the debilitating effects of street life, she has become an award-winning scholar and champion of the African American quest for literacy and freedom.”
—Dr. Geneva Smitherman, University Distinguished Professor, Emerita
English and African American and African Studies
Michigan State University


PHD to Ph.D.: Po H# on Dope
How Education Saved My Life
• • •
Elaine Richardson, Ph.D. aka Dr. E
New City Community Press
www.newcitycommunitypress.com
Distributed by Parlor Press


Copyright © 2013 by Elaine Richardson
Al rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
| ISBN: 978-0-98404-297-5 (paperback)
9 78-1-60235-427-2 (epub)
www.newcitycommunitypress.com
Cover Design by Alex Everett
I nterior Design by Elizabeth Parks


Acknowledgements

H# stories. I never wanted anyone to hurt my daughters or hold anything over them, so I told them about myself from the time they were very young. Some of the stories were funny. Some were sad. It wasn’t long before they began asking me to tell my stories to their friends. My daughters’ acceptance of me gave me the courage to tell the truth about my life. I thank God for all three of you—Evelyn, Ebony and Kaila—for being my best friends, my sisters and my daughters. Thanks to my brother, Chris, my nieces Christina and Crystal, for constant encouragement, and to my Aunt Hellen Vassell.
Thanks to all the mentors and people who helped save my life: Mrs. Pauline Fullum (R.I.P), Mrs. Roberta Payne (R.I.P), Ms. Costella (R. I. P), Mrs. Janie Stanley (R.I.P), Ms. Veretta Saulsberry (R.I.P.), Ms. Betty Mitchell, Dr. Andrew Edwards, Dr. Jack Soules, Mr. Louis Brownlowe, Ms. Andrea D. Johnson, Dr. Ted Lardner, Dr. Keith Gilyard, my academic othermother—Dr. Geneva Smitherman.
Dr. Mary Weems, thank you for feedback and editorial guidance on successive drafts of the book and for encouraging me to be true to the languages of my communities. Thanks to Rhonda Crowder (Cleveland Call and Post), Charlotte Morgan, Dr. Jamila D. Smith, James Walker, Dr. Adrienne Dixson, Terrence Smith, Shelia Baylers (African American Lifestyles Magazine), Drs. Gwen Pough and Mark Anthony Neal, Dr. Adam Banks, Kevin Joy (Columbus Dispatch), Julie Cajigas (CoolCleveland.com), and Peter Lawson Jones, Judge Herbert, and Dr. Ronald Berkman, President of Cleveland State University for support. Tamara “First Lady” Allen, thanks for all you do. Alex Everett, for the cover and for being so easy to work with. You’re the best! I would like to thank Elizabeth Parks for the book design. Sister dream hampton for making my dreams come true!
Thanks to my publisher, Dr. Stephen Parks, of New City Community Press, for believing in this project.
Mama and Daddy in heaven-for everything you gave to me.
I dedicate this book to everyone who has been counted out.


Contents
Acknowledgements
1: Where I Come From
2: Sights, Sounds, My Wounds/My Womb
3: The Ropes
4: Tricked Out
5: Breakin Free (for a minute)
6 : Under the Big Top, I Mean the Big Time
7: The Death of AC and the Birth of My Drug Habit
8: Slammin Cadillac Do’s
9: Fools and Babies
10: Death Cycle
11: The Gift of Love
12: The Cleveland State University Years
13: Graduatin
14: The Ph.D.


1: Where I Come From

Grandma took Mama outta school. Her word was bond: “yuh nuh give weh pickni, yuh give weh puss and dahg.” She became an instant widow, when that truck came flying around that corner and lick her husband dead. With five small children, one on the way, not a shilling to her name, and a 13 year-old daughter big enough to work, Mama’s 6 th grade teacher could beg all she wanted. She didn’t have a shot in hell. Mama had all the right stuff for school, too. She was a good student, learned fast, and loved to read. Plus, she was “treaten fe white,” light skinned, with “good hair” just like her teacher and the teacher’s niece (Mama’s classmate). Mama could live with them and get a good education. This would be better for our family in the long run. But Grandma’s belief stood strong as a West Indian Mahogany tree.
Mama loved the ground Granddaddy walked on. From atop his casket, down in his grave, she begged to be buried with him. But God refused. Only half of Mama’s potential could be buried with him. Her eyes were closed shut for three days and reopened like a bewitched blink into her new life of hahd wuk—a wash girl, washing white and treaten fe white folks’ clothes, washing bottles in a soda factory, doing every kind of “honest” work she could for little and almost nothing. With God-given intellect, mother-wit, half of her potential, zero “oppachunity,” and the collective wisdom of Jamaican sufferers, Mama learned. For every occasion of life, Mama dished out the proper bits of wisdom to me, covered in artless artful sayings and stories with simple but perfect language that I tried desperately to dismiss.
Self preservation: “If yuh give weh yuh ahss you will shit trough yuh ribs.”
Racism and success: “You cyan reach noweh widout white mon han inna hit and yuh cyan dead unless nigga han inna hit.” (You can’t go too far in life without white folks.)
Work ethic: “Hahd wuk nevah kill nobody.”
Life Consequences: “If yuh cyan hear, yuh will feel.” (If you can’t hear … )
Values: “Shame chree dead.” (Shame tree is the spirit of self-worth inside you. Shame chree dead is said when that spirit is broken.)
Mama had to move to Kingston to work. She saved her earnings to send back down country to the rest of the family as often as she could for years. She also found time to make lifelong friends, Novlette, Merlos, and Nadine, who shared her love of ambition, knowledge, poetry, and music. Mama’s favorite poet was Omar Khayyam. Her favorite musician became my Daddy. One evening, at the end of one of his Kingston concerts, Merlos and her friend Gladstone introduced Daddy to Mama. Daddy must have hit the right note because after that, their cross-country courting was on! Daddy needed a steady J. O. B. to have a family. He knew some Italians that hired him as a tailor’s assistant in The Old Arcade in downtown Cleveland, and my soon to be parents got married in 1955, and Daddy brought Mama to America.
Mama saw enough sufferation in Jamaica and didn’t wan