One of the things that I think about deeply and constantly is the plight of Black education in America. Very little is taught to Black children of themselves beyond minute blurbs in the history of books of slavery and what knowledge can be crammed into them during Black History Month. We are inundated with "the first Black" this and "the first Black" that as though we would have no true worth or value in our own right without being measured by the Eurocentric barometer of knowledge. I personally do not subscribe to that frame of thought. I have done a considerable amount of research over the years and I have come to the conclusion that the most advanced and wise civilizations were those dominated by the darker peoples of the earth. From the tribes of West Africa to the noble civilizations of Egypt in Northern Africa to the peoples of Ethiopia in East Africa, much knowledge had been obtained and disseminated throughout the world taken and changed by other peoples and used ultimately against its original progenitors.
Why am I on this particular tangent today? Carter Woodson wrote in The Miseducation of the Negro:
"In education itself the situation is the same. Neither Columbia nor Chicago can give an advanced course in Negro rural education, for their work in education is based primarily upon what they know of the educational needs of the whites. Such work for Negroes must be done under the direction of the trail blazers who are building school houses and reconstructing the educational program of those in the backwoods. Leaders of this type can supply the foundation upon which a university of realistic education may be established.
We offer no argument here against earning advanced degrees, but these should come as honors conferred for training crowned with scholastic distinction, not to enable a man to increase his salary or find a better paying position. The schools which are now directing attention exclusively to these external marks of learning will not contribute much to the uplift of the Negro."
Somehow Dr. Woodson's intent for Black History Month had become misconstrued over the years. Growing up I was always taught to get an education to get a good job. Never was the insistence to grow and uplift myself as a Black person and become a living breathing example of a conduit galvanizer with the intent of exalting my forebears and my community. These things were not stressed as being important. Being "Black and Proud" meant essentially being a financial and economic success while truly being black meant being a lowly pariah, a slave, worthless, trash.
It took me longer than it should have to realize that I didn't need higher education. Somehow I already innately knew. I was always encouraged to do "great things." Those great things were usually along the lines of being a doctor, lawyer, engineer, president, or some other great title that people can dote upon and brag about. By the time I became a senior in high school I found myself not really knowing what to do. I sat down one day and thought long and hard about it. My future choices would have to be contingent on what I wanted/needed to do and not what others desired for me. I made the conscious decision to pursue my talents as a visual artist. This was of course met with dismay and contempt. "How are you going to get a job with that?" Well I knew enough to know that you could have a degree in dirt and still be able to get a job. The way I figured if I was going to go through all of that schooling it was going to be doing something that I liked and had an innate desire to do.
I wanted to originally be an art conservator. You don't need higher education for that. All you really had to do was apprentice with a current art conservator for 7 to 9 years and that alone would give you your credentials. Also there were very few programs that offered anything remotely resembling art conservation in colleges in the United States. Wales and other places in Europe were the market for that. Well those dreams were dashed my sophomore year when I found out I was pregnant with my son and could not start my apprenticeship with a local area art conservator. My backup plan, which was to save money while in college, buy a van and travel to various tourist spots plying my artistic abilities with life-drawing was also dashed. I continued with school.
One day it hit me. I was sitting in the USC law library with my son on my lap. I was doing research for a paper I was writing for government. By this time I had gotten tired of people saying that my art degree would be worthless and picked up Public Affairs (pre-law) as a double major. As I sat there bouncing my son and reading through a brief a thought hit me. I was in the process of writing a 12 page paper and yet what was I being taught in the classroom? Everything that I was really garnering from this class and all of my other classes I was obtaining pretty much on my own. I didn't need the walls of schools to do what I could go to the library and do for free as I was doing at that time. "What in the world am I doing here?" I remember asking myself. I finished the paper but after my epiphany I lost interest in school and pursuing higher education. It was becoming increasingly difficult to do so as a single mother with a baby and I no longer saw the value in it. Anything I wanted to do or obtain I could do so without college validation. When I ended up having to leave school the start of my senior year I had no regrets.
It is interesting that I came to that conclusion on my own. I went back several years later to finish but it wasn't for the sake of having the degree. I don't even use it. It was because I always stress to my children that it is important to finish what you start and having the unfinished business of college behind me would make me essentially a hypocrite to my own admonishings. I finished with ease...college was much more difficult it seems, when I was younger. I spoke at length about this with one of my art professors. She pointed out that with experience I had gained more practical understanding that I didn't have as a young 20-something that I possessed as a late-20 something. I didn't learn a single new thing aside from some new ways to apply and teach mathematics. Everything else was "old hat" so to speak. I didn't need this education. My knowledge had come from the school of life and living, obtained from the wisdom of those who came before and that was all I ever truly needed.
An experience I had during my second go around in college made some things that Dr. Woodson wrote about in The Miseducation really hit home. I was taking a class on multicultural literature with on of the very few (there were about 3 total) Black professors on the campus. She was "new" in that she wasn't there when I was a student previously. She, being a professor, had obtained her PH.d. She was hard on me but subsequently lightened up when she realized I could bust out relatively good papers despite having five children at home and working full time as I was attending her class on my lunch break. She wrote on a paper I had written on Mama Day (Gloria Naylor) that my writing was very eloquent and I could be a poet, I had such a lyrical sense and use of language. However, I disregarded certain elements of grammar and while the usage was acceptable in some circles, I was not a professional so I had to follow the proper rules as everyone else (read students). I was floored when I read it. I had no intention of doing what I considered to be "dumbing myself down" to make her or anyone else feel comfortable. I found it to be an insult. At the end of the year I expounded more on Mama Day for my final paper. She had mostly good things to say and stated that I could afford to clean up some of my grammatical issues; however, since I was not an English major it wasn't something I should worry about anyway. I took this as an insult also. How did she rationalize that writing properly was the domain of only English majors? People do have the common misconception that artists aren't that bright for whatever reason, but this was beyond comprehension to me that this woman, this Black woman, didn't feel that a younger, clearly talented by her own words, Black woman wasn't worth the extra time and effort towards academic improvement. I don't really know what was going through her mind, I can only speculate. Her attitude was mostly neutral but her vibe was very negative. I'm used to it to a degree because throughout my life when Black people realize I can do more than what they think I can their general affection and support usually dwindles and eventually turns negative if I'm exposed to it for too long. I take it as nature's way of telling me not to deal with them so my feelings aren't generally hurt. I want to help people. I can't help the things that I can do and they can't help the things that they can do that do not come easily or readily to me. I love to sing. I can sing but I am not a singer in the same way that people can create art but aren't really artists. I do have an ear for music and it translates into picking up and learning to play instruments without prior practice or knowledge. Given enough time (and sufficient interest) I can play anything without knowing how to read notes. I would rather be a better singer but you take your talents and abilities as they come. I like to write and I am generally good at it. I like poetry but I'm not really inclined towards it in regards to writing it. I've written poems and got more feedback on my write up about the poem than I have on the poems themselves. As one of my art professors likes to say, "Work to your strengths technically." I take this approach when dealing with any and everyone. We all possess different gifts as individuals and different gifts as so-called races (for lack of a better word). It is a matter of respecting and acknowledging those differences and that's where people tend to run into trouble.
By nature I am a very lateral thinker. I tend to look beyond what is given in any situation for a deeper meaning. I thought as a child this was the proper way to be. Growing up I have found that people just don't want to think that hard about much of anything. "Why can't you just accept things the way that they are?" was a common question I have heard from childhood through adulthood. Just because someone says something is one way doesn't mean I have to believe it. I take this approach for everything from religion to education. Clear cut, step-by-step logic doesn't work all the time and in every instance. Situations with similar circumstances cannot always be handled the same due to finite differences that entities such as the law and such do not tend to take into account. I am an enigma within a society that I mostly do not ascribe to. My take on education is very similar to my general free-thinking and contemplative thought processes. Generally Black children are naturally inquisitive and possess essential common sense. What happens over time? Their family makeup and the mentality of those closest to them is a factor. Education (or miseducation rather) is another factor that denigrates a Black child's natural creativity and ability. Society is another factor that I think overshadows even their family advisement. I have heard stories of countless tales of teenagers that have gone astray who were raised in relatively stable environments by generally positive parents and other supporters. Naturally we hope that a solid foundation that is laid out for the children would ground them enough but at times this is not enough. Self-knowledge is most important and yet is what is most lacking within the world we live in today.
A sufficient program for the cultivating of the young black mind would encompass a solid foundation of Black history. True Black history. Not "the first" anything but what it truly is. Our history did not begin with slavery. Slavery is only a chapter in the book of our lives as a people. African history, African philosophy, the psychology of the Afrocentric mind, and the lateral ability to apply said knowledge are lifelong aspirations that should be pursued early and taken as readily as we consume food and water. Black people currently do this with Eurocentric history, philosophy and psychology to the point that most lose sight of who they are and their own true purpose. Does getting a good job and making a bunch of money make things better for the future of all of Black people or just for you as an individual? How long can your personal aspirations withstand? Will your generations be rich and well to do? Will they even know who you are? There's this ancestry.com commercial that is out there that features a Black man. He was telling about how he hesitated looking up his family history because he knew where it may lead. So he found out his great-grandfather was born a slave (he says with disappointment) and dies a businessman (he says with pride). This is all fine and dandy but what became of the business? Why didn't he know about it? Why didn't he have this information still as obviously his great-grandfather lived past the Emancipation (born slave died free + businessman)? Were there not family records from the late 1800s or even stories that could have been relayed to future generations about him? What became of the money that he made? How long reaching are a person's individual accomplishments and achievements if they do not serve the purpose of uplifting those outside of him or herself?
In closing, my primary concern is the placement of the Black community's overall efforts in regards to the proper education and application of values in the grand scheme of life and living. I am not saying that education in its proper perspective isn't good. I'm not even saying it isn't necessary in some cases. The thing is keeping track and sight of who we are as individuals and as members of the Black community as opposed to citizens within the society that encompasses us.
These are some of my favorite quotes from The Miseducation of the Negro:
"The differentness of races, moreover, is no evidence of superiority or of inferiority. This merely indicates that each race has certain gifts which the others do not possess. it is by the development of these gifts that every race must justify its right to exist."
"Real education means to inspire people to live more abundantly, to learn to begin with life as they find it and make it better, but the instruction so far given Negroes in colleges and universities has worked to the contrary."
"If you can control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his action. 'When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one."
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