Black Education / Schools : What black h.s. graduates NEED to hear

[Kadijah]

This is the most dynamic, REAL world advice to our kids I have ever read, practically in my life. No hype. TRUTH!

Graduation speakers often opt for tough love. Here's what they should say instead.


http://www.theroot.com/views/what-black-high-school-grads-need-hear

An excerpt (just one of many):

Black Graduates Need to Understand Their Greatness
Recently I asked a group of teachers and school administrators if their black students would be more inclined to revere Gen. Andrew Jackson or Gen. Garson. Most of them had not heard of Garson. Garson was a free black man who was the commander of a British outpost known as the "Negro Fort" on Prospect Bluff in Spanish Florida in 1814. After the War of 1812, British troops left the fort to Garson and a militia of about 400 black militiamen.

From the outpost, Garson provided refuge to Africans who had escaped from plantations in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina. Eventually the militia organized attacks on plantations to rescue other Africans held in slavery. After much angst among Southern plantation owners, Jackson illegally sent troops into Spanish-occupied Florida to attack the fort, killing at least 200 free black men, including Garson, by firing squad.

One must acknowledge the humanity of black and Native people to understand that the battle between Garson and Jackson, along with the ensuing Seminole Wars, was a civil war, not unlike the War Between the States. This is only one among hundreds of lessons omitted from black students' curricula. True U.S. history involves black people making a material contribution to the development of this nation as well as to the liberation of black people, often through armed resistance and social diplomacy.

 

[Kadijah]

This section continues:

Contrarily, black students are constantly confronted with a cultural mythology in education that embraces historical figures who were complicit in victimizing their ancestors, against a faded backdrop of black victims, bystanders and a few isolated black protagonists. One of my students for life -- a gifted conscious hip-hop artist from Oklahoma named Marcel P. Black -- once told me that he left home to attend college at Southern University before he learned of his home state's legacy of "Black Wall Street."

He firmly believed that if he and his peers had learned their history in school, more of them would have aspired for greatness. Graduation speakers have the ability to help black students realize their prominence by revealing rich information about their legacy. If we want black students to be serious about education, we need to be serious about educating them about who they are.

 

[Kadijah]

I was hoping to get a bit of feedback on the article, which I consider to be kryptonite to racist propaganda. (lol)

The author talks about his student from Oklahoma who had never heard of the famous Black Wall Street. This is a crime. And it's a crime on the level of black people who live one and two blocks from the Kentucky Derby who have NO idea that ALL the first jockeys to run AND WIN the Kentucky Derby were black!

At some point, we have to educate our children. And I'm not talking about Home Schooling (although if that's your thing AND you're 1) "qualified" to teach them, and 2) are a stay-at-home parent, fine). I'm talking about in just everyday conversation to mention such things from black history that you know of. You'd be surprised at the results. For instance, I know many children of parents who marched with Dr. King and were active during the Civil Rights Movement. These (now adult) children are sooooo proud of their parents, most of whom gave them oral histories of the movement. Or they listened in while their parents reminisced with others who had been activists in the 60s and 70s.

Letting our children know what WE know (positive!) is (one of ) the greatest gifts we can give them since the old saw is true: Nothing succeeds like success. That their parents even made it through that era is a success unto itself, and they are aware of it. Surely there are others each of us knows of, and that they DON'T teach in school, that we can relate.

 

[Queenie]

I was hoping to get a bit of feedback on the article, which I consider to be kryptonite to racist propaganda. (lol)

The author talks about his student from Oklahoma who had never heard of the famous Black Wall Street. This is a crime. And it's a crime on the level of black people who live one and two blocks from the Kentucky Derby who have NO idea that ALL the first jockeys to run AND WIN the Kentucky Derby were black!

At some point, we have to educate our children. And I'm not talking about Home Schooling (although if that's your thing AND you're 1) "qualified" to teach them, and 2) are a stay-at-home parent, fine). I'm talking about in just everyday conversation to mention such things from black history that you know of. You'd be surprised at the results. For instance, I know many children of parents who marched with Dr. King and were active during the Civil Rights Movement. These (now adult) children are sooooo proud of their parents, most of whom gave them oral histories of the movement. Or they listened in while their parents reminisced with others who had been activists in the 60s and 70s.

Letting our children know what WE know (positive!) is (one of ) the greatest gifts we can give them since the old saw is true: Nothing succeeds like success. That their parents even made it through that era is a success unto itself, and they are aware of it. Surely there are others each of us knows of, and that they DON'T teach in school, that we can relate.

Sis. Kadijah,

I don't disagree with anything you have said above and in fact, I think somewhere here, I've pretty much said the same in other threads.

Educating our children about their history is extremely important. Little did I realize when a child growing up in the south, that this opinion would galvanize in me so powerfully as an adult. I lived in a household where parents, family members, neighbors discussed Black issues and our history. We witnessed Jim Crow, experienced the difference between white people and Black people and ACCESS and PRIVILEGE because of the color of their skin. I was paying attention and forming my independent opinions about such things at a very young age.

By the time I had my child, I was deeply rooted to the value of educating our children about who they are and where they came from.

The public school system taught their history and I taught mine every night in my home--to the tune of de-brainwashing my child. I taught her to question and to freely express her opinions and that she did, much to the frustration of white teachers and school administrators. When they tried to use their systems to challenge her and silence her, I backed her up which increased her confidence and let her see firsthand how an oppressive system works to control Black people's minds and their behavior.

I have a grandchild now who is being home schooled and guess what? The legacy continues. Oral history. I believe we have an obligation to speak our truth to our children. When my mother--who I am extremely proud of--laid on her death bed, I felt compelled to tell her story of struggle and accomplishments as a Black woman who lived and died battling against oppression. I began to talk about her to everyone in the room so that she could hear how proud I was of who she was and honored to have received the gift of her legacy.

I don't disagree, dear sister. This is what I live and breathe!

Queenie

 

[chuck]

I was hoping to get a bit of feedback on the article, which I consider to be kryptonite to racist propaganda. (lol)

The author talks about his student from Oklahoma who had never heard of the famous Black Wall Street. This is a crime. And it's a crime on the level of black people who live one and two blocks from the Kentucky Derby who have NO idea that ALL the first jockeys to run AND WIN the Kentucky Derby were black!

At some point, we have to educate our children. And I'm not talking about Home Schooling (although if that's your thing AND you're 1) "qualified" to teach them, and 2) are a stay-at-home parent, fine). I'm talking about in just everyday conversation to mention such things from black history that you know of. You'd be surprised at the results. For instance, I know many children of parents who marched with Dr. King and were active during the Civil Rights Movement. These (now adult) children are sooooo proud of their parents, most of whom gave them oral histories of the movement. Or they listened in while their parents reminisced with others who had been activists in the 60s and 70s.

Letting our children know what WE know (positive!) is (one of ) the greatest gifts we can give them since the old saw is true: Nothing succeeds like success. That their parents even made it through that era is a success unto itself, and they are aware of it. Surely there are others each of us knows of, and that they DON'T teach in school, that we can relate.

There is no 'crime', since there are other things which matter, i. e., when it comes to one's very survival, in times like these, and no time to dwell on the light stuff (social history) as contrasted with our own young people not winding up like another Trayvon Martin and/ or a victim of a gang war etc.

One thing for past victims of domestic terrorism (and backed by elected white politicians ad nauseum) to receive compensation for (and the remaining white victimizers jail time etc), quite another to even imply or suggest a black capitalist is all that different from a white one, as though a Black Wallstreet didn't also hype the means to the ends of another ethnic/racial group's dreams/schemes/etc. of getting rich too?

What matters to me: Today's black young folk also realize it's a part of their rite of passage to help make their communities a better place than they found them...

Otherwise it was and is their right to pursue their dreams etc. as a given...