Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 7, 1993 TAG: 9302070133
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLYNE H. McWILLIAMS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
OUR ROAD STILL HAS SOME POTHOLES LEFT TO FILL
Susan Taylor can afford to buy her mother several pairs of shoes now.But she remembers her mother's putting cardboard in the bottom of her school shoes to make them last longer. She remembers her parents scraping up enough money to move out of Harlem in the 1950s.
Now, Taylor is editor-in-chief of the glossy magazine Essence, the leading magazine targeted to women of African descent in the United States, Africa and the Caribbean.
One of the most influential voices among African-American women today, she says that the new generation of African-Americans must remember the struggles of their parents, their parents' parents and their parents' grandparents.
Taylor spoke at Hollins College on Thursday night as part of the celebration of Black History month. In a commanding but calm, breathy voice, Taylor said it is time to remember the cardboard times as well as the Civil Rights movement.
During my childhood in the 1970s in Mecklenburg County, I watched my mother stay up late sewing and baking so I could have money to take on class trips. I remember how sunburned my father would get cutting neighbors' lawns all day so he could give me a few dollars "just to have in my pocket."
My parents rarely talked about the racism they endured earlier in their lives when they lived in Washington.
But my father did tell me once or twice of an incident in which he left a man with a bloody nose because of the "n" word. Mostly, my parents said, they did what was necessary to get to the present. That included taking verbal abuse that my generation doesn't tolerate.
I never really thought about the importance of what my parents did for me or what they went through - not until Taylor reminded me.
Many of us in the new generation of educated African-Americans read about what our ancestors went through and try to dissociate ourselves. If we do that, we will always see our obstacles far larger than they are.
Taylor stirred something in me that had been dormant for a long time. It had been covered by concerns about getting a new car, my social life, where I was going on vacation and other things that seemed so important. An appreciation for being where I am today was getting more obscure. Taylor reminded me to remember the beatings taken by people who didn't even know me, so I could learn to read.
It is increasingly easy for young African-Americans to forget. For the most part, we have everything mainstream society has. We can get a job anywhere, marry people of other races if we chose, go to school anywhere we want, live almost everywhere we want and go anywhere we want - well, except for a few country clubs.
We can do these things because millions and millions of Africans who paved the road, leaving only a few potholes. It is up to us to continue to be aware of that pavement as we drive along in our Hondas and Audis. And it's time for us to get out and fix some of those potholes.
Charlyne H. McWilliams is a staff business writer for the Roanoke Times & World-News.