Who should write more? Part 2

 What follows are additional responses to our prompt about who should write more and why.

[Related: Who should write more? Part 1]

Responses: 

Black American undergraduates, like me, should write more.

As an undergraduate very little stock gets placed in the opinions we might share. Professors appear to spend little time focusing on the validity of our observations, opting  instead, to approach the work of proven scholars (i.e. their peers) with the uninhibited  open­mindedness of understanding; that solidifies a researcher’s worth.  Through critical  reading, thinking and responding issues are discussed, debated and solution are birthed.  This is the proven grounds.  We must prepare now for the next level. The more we write  as undergraduates, the better writers we will become.  Writing, for whatever discipline, is  an art that requires practice with formulating, developing and delivering an argument.  Becoming a better writer will also enhance our research abilities, our value and  contributions to academia. 

Christian Taylor

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Black African immigrants, like me, should write more.

In America, we are officially black. Who cares that we are Eritrean, Ethiopian, Somali? We are no longer any of those things. America does not care to know your ethnicity, your home country, neither does a bullet. Being black and African and an immigrant or a variation of migration (refugee, displaced citizens, asylum seekers) is an often narrative; this level of strength is not often found in literature. Our stories are unlike the stories America shares; ours include traveling on foot through the Sahara, hiding illegally in caravans, sitting in an overcrowded ship in the Mediterranean towards Europe, being filled in blocks in deportation centers and refugee camps. The journeys to Europe/America are hard enough, but we need to write more, share more, read more and introduce others to the plight and strength of black immigration and migration. I fear we will be forgotten. By writing more, we are affirming that even if our lives get lost in the bottom of the sea, our stories will surface every time.

Miela Fetaw
San Antonio, TX

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You should write more, even if you are afraid of rejection.

Someone once told me that the worst anyone could ever say to you is “no.” I never thought that to be true, knowing that the worst anyone could ever do was say yes, and not receive me in the way I intended. That is still my personal hell…Yet, does the mind not question itself? There is something we all have to say, that someone needs to hear, that someone needs to form their own perspective. Like me, you can’t hide from it.

Courtney Harris

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Related:
• AALCI 2016