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Olivia Dowd Olivia Dowd
(about 3 hours later)
Olivia Dowd, a mentor at @BlackWomensBlueprint, attended the @womensmarch in Washington. “I went to elementary school during a time when our social studies books taught that we were to revere and honor and take care of and cover them, but this particular day, after a grammar lesson about proper nouns, I pulled out my social studies book and noticed ‘negro’ — we were called that then — was spelled with a lower case ‘n’. My teacher was black, and I remember raising my hand to Ms. Johnson and saying, ‘Ms. Johnson, didn’t we just learn that proper nouns — places, names, and nationalities — were spelled with a capital letter? Why is ‘Negro’ spelled with a lowercase ‘n’? Her silence resonates in my head still today. We’re talking 54 years later. I was just a child. Why is this subliminal message saying to me that I’m just an object or thing?” Ms. Dowd said, “I’m marching in memory and honor of all those who March for civil rights issues before me and all the sacrifices they have made for me.” Olivia Dowd, a mentor at @BlackWomensBlueprint, is headed to the @womensmarch in Washington. “I went to elementary school during a time when our social studies books taught that we were to revere and honor and take care of and cover them, but this particular day, after a grammar lesson about proper nouns, I pulled out my social studies book and noticed ‘negro’ — we were called that then — was spelled with a lower case ‘n’.
“My teacher was black, and I remember raising my hand to Ms. Johnson and saying, ‘Ms. Johnson, didn’t we just learn that proper nouns — places, names, and nationalities — were spelled with a capital letter? Why is ‘Negro’ spelled with a lowercase ‘n’?
Her silence resonates in my head still today. We’re talking 54 years later. I was just a child. Why is this subliminal message saying to me that I’m just an object or thing?” Ms. Dowd said, “I’m marching in memory and honor of all those who March for civil rights issues before me and all the sacrifices they have made for me.”