Sheila Smith-Mckoy// /

SHEILA SMITHMCKOY is surrounded by artifacts at the African American Culture Center. ///
PHOTO BY JORDAN MOORE

246 /// 2012 AGROMECK

Cultivating Culture
Director enables change in students by teaching culture
/// STORY BY KATHRYN GLASER

Africans have with the rest of the world, why America struggles with race and the wider picture of the African race and the problems of race. Smith-McKoy continues to study the role of race in society and the problems that America faces today. America is very much a dream, it still is a dream, for others its a dream that can never be fully realized because there are some things put in place that make that dream out of reach for so many people that are American. The beauty of our system is that there are so many people here from all over the world that want to be part of the American enterprise and that the thing that makes our system so much un-beautiful is that we dont allow people to come to the table as equal participants. Smith-Mckoy hopes to educate people through the African American Cultural Center and show and teaching others that American history is incomplete if you leave out the history of blacks. The racial compartments that we have need to be interrogated for what they really are. You cant move forward in any relationship if you have blame, you cant move forward if you have guilt, because that takes you back to the beginning and traps you in an old paradigm. The process is going to have to look at both sides of the issue and heal. Smith-McKoy wants us to see that race is an illusion that is socially constructed and damaging, and that we export the idea of racism wherever we go. But that doesnt mean we shouldnt celebrate heritage; it means there shouldnt be a hierarchy. McKoy acknowledges that in the south the problem of race and the damaging effects of it has a long history. The south is an interesting place, thats why I still choose to live and work here. We have a long history of embracing the illusion of race, and when the south changes rest of America, Smith-Mckoy said. /// so will the

heila Smith-Mckoy grew up in Raleigh during the heat of the Civil Rights Movement. She remembers the Ku Klux Klan march downtown, segregated

schools and ill treatment of blacks. Fifty years later she is a Duke University alumni, a published author, an associate professor in N.C. States English Department and the director of the African American Culture Center. Smith-McKoy remembers going to Catholic school as a child because the public schools for blacks were of a lesser quality than those for whites. The library at the Catholic school was no bigger than a large office. To be able to go to the library you had to have good grades and good behavior. Smith-Mckoy thinks her love of literature came from visiting the library at her school. It was no bigger than a large office and you had to have good grades and good behaviour to go. It was an honor, she said. Ive always loved literature. I find that Literature is something many people turn to to understand how the world works, because literature scholars have to know the history, ways of society, regligion, marriage customs, politics...all that impacts how a piece of literature is, said Smith-McKoy. In her later years she decided to pursue her love of literature by majoring in English at N. C. State. As a single mother of a young child, she just wanted to get her degree and get out as fast as she could. But, her professors encouraged her to pursue higher education, and she applied to and was accepted at UNC-Chapel Hill and began studying for her doctorate there. While taking a summer class at Duke, the Director of Graduate programs offered her funding and Smith-Mckoy finished her doctorate at Duke. Smith-McKoy decided to do her doctorate in African and Caribbean literature. She wanted to study the relationship

A LOVE FOR ELEPHANTS

As part of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority and a lover of African American Culture Sheila Smith-McKoy has a deep love for elephants. A symbol of strength and determination many Deltas collect elephants in forms of jewlery, stuffed animals and statues. Collectors such as Smith-McKoy do so in honor of one of the founding sorority sisters who loved to do just that. When she passed away her collection of elephants was donated to the Grand Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. where they are displayed in her honor. /// PHOTO BY ALEX SANCHEZ

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