This
Carter G. Woodson quote
from his book “The Miseducation of the Negro” has never
rung more true and loud than right here and right now in the 21st
century:
“The
problem of holding the Negro down, therefore, is easily solved. When
you control a man’s thinking, you do not have to worry about
his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go
yonder. He will find his “proper place” and will stay in
it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without
being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for
his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.”
I
discovered this profound gem in the 1980s while in college, and it’s
a perspective that I believe helps to explain Black America’s
plight.
“Blacks
are the only group of people who take their most precious
possessions, their children, and ask their oppressors to educate
them, mold and shape their minds…”
Sadly,
far too many of us believe we inherently, naturally, struggle with
math and science, that school is a “White thang,” sports
and music are “Black things,” we accept and embrace these
simplistic notions of ourselves. I’ve seen it play out
virtually every single day of the 25-plus years I’ve worked in
the public education system.
Let’s
roll n’ stroll down reality alley: I’m an aging
“Negro-Saurus” who lives and works in the Mile Hi City,
metropolitan Denver. What was already well known - the vast,
overwhelming majority of Black and Brown students were years behind
their White counterparts in reading, math, writing, sciences,
geography, language arts, you name the subject. An independent group
just determined that 95% of black and brown kids within Denver Public
Schools struggle
to
read. Can you imagine what that percentage is in Houston, Chicago,
Omaha, Birmingham, DC, Philly, Newark, Memphis, or St Louis?
Now
let’s admit this isn’t anything new, it’s only been
spotlighted and magnified because of a global pandemic.
America’s
public education system constitutes a perfect storm where at-risk
Black and Brown students, who from preschool to 3rd grade, fall so
far behind their White peers, they never catch up. Most don’t
go to a trade school or a 4-year college. They rumble,
stumble, tumble and fumble
through life unprepared for the battle it is. Under, if not,
miseducated. Trapped in the low-wage service/sales industry. Their
teachers, administrators, counselors, and coaches, are vastly all
White, and more than you’d like to believe voted against Obama
and
for
Trump and are disconnected from Black and Brown students, and their
families… in all matters that matter.
They
fundamentally disagree with contemporary Black thought and opinion on
all matters that matter, yet they mold and shape your child.
Some
are disinterested in the precarious plight of Americans of color.
Many are White folks who mean well, but they’re removed from
Black culture and thought, having come from another planet almost.
Idaho, Montana, and Maine, insulated and isolated from the real
world.
Yes,
just about every day I witness Black kids and their parents
“embracing“ the gutter-low expectations set for them by
White America - they believe themselves to be “Baba’s
kids” and have the appropriate expectations for themselves. So
much of life, its simple pleasures, and expensive experiences are
tragically, in the small simple minds of so many Black folks,
reserved for only White folks. Sadly, they know their historically
assigned place on the local/national/global stage.
10%
of Blacks, mostly males, will vote for Donald Trump in 2024.
Why
are we so brainwashed?
Without
question, we, as a people, have been brainwashed, Willie
Lynched and
convinced into believing we are the eternal outsiders and rebels.
That we are aggressive, violent, and combustible by nature. Black
America has now endured, and our culture shows the wounds
and
scars
of what I’d suggest are 3 to 5 generations of babies
having babies, having babies… having more babies.
We
used to accept that we had to
experience the
ghetto life, we were born into it, but we wanted to escape
the
physical, mental, emotional, and financial chains that bound us -
escape.
Experience
it, don’t forget it or those left behind trying to get out, but
no, don’t glorify it.
No
longer do we feel this way
Stay
with me now, mainstream Black America has endured the
“thuger-a-zation, hood-a zation-and nigger-zation” of
popular Black American Culture. The Jeffersonian concept of “movin’
on up,” which laid the foundation for The “hi n’
mighty Huxtables,” and later the “enlightened, idealistic
Different World” perspective which molded and shaped both the
Oprah and the Obama generations. Well gee, that all lost out to
Baba’s Kids,
“get rich or die tryin’, and Empire
-
it’s gangster-gangster baby.
Life ain’t nothing but bitches and money…!”
Everybody and they momma’ is a gangster. Malcolm X is turning
over in his grave… Uncle Sam is the daddy, the bread-winner
for millions of fatherless Black families. Undeniably, some of us
have accepted gutter-low expectations. We found a way and cut a new
21st-century back door for ourselves.
Still
today, in 2022, Black kids who care
about
their grades, go to class, and
participate are
still today defined by the unenlightened rank & file as
goody-two-shoes
who’re
“acting white.”
Tell
me, why is it the black “underclass” demands they define,
and be depicted as the face of “who and what” Black
America is? Why not DuBois’s talented tenth or Booker T.’s
professionals and craftspeople?
Well,
let’s look back to Dr. Woodson, “Blacks
are the only group of people who take their most precious
possessions, their children, and ask their oppressors to educate
them, mold and shape their minds….”
I’ve
got a plan, not an answer nor cure, but I’ve got a plan to
circumvent the miseducation and marginalized education most Black
folks receive across the nation.
Black
America needs at least three (3) basic organizations to address our
internal ills n’ woes, our “issues” -
1.)
a well-organized and funded national coast-to-coast Girl/Boy
Scouts
organization. Why? Because “women are born, ladies are made”...
“men are born, gentlemen are made.”
2.)
a strong local/national Parent
Teacher Association, for all the obvious reasons - our kids are years
behind Whites and Asians and that's not acceptable, and
3.)
Saturday Schools to teach us what our former oppressor and exploiters
don’t want us to know: “who” and “what”
we are, and
“where” we are... and “who” they really are
and what they’ve really done to people., not their
“whitewashed”
version of events riddled with
“little white lies.”
The
dream - an online coast-to-coast national high school for African
American students, utilizing local private and municipal buildings
for actual physical courses and meetings, but vastly online and
orchestrated by some of the best Black intellectuals and academicians
in the land, which will prepare African American students to thrive,
not merely survive in the United States of America.
