When you take a nearly 90% African American student population and you willfully ignore their culture while subjecting them to a European-American educational setting you set them up for psychological enslavement. The African student population is not permitted to engage in the process of knowing themselves, the story of their people on the map of human history, and their responsibility to their community. Instead, they are conditioned to embrace the perspective and heroes of another people’s story.
I still remember sitting in social studies classes of my youth and learning about Christopher Columbus – the “discoverer” of America, George Washington who “never told a lie”, Thomas Jefferson with his Declaration of Independence which conveniently excluded Africans from its purview, and Abraham Lincoln who “freed” the slaves because of his “commitment to social equity”.
The heroes of European Americans are being introduced to African American youth as standard knowledge for academic advancement. Conversely, the enemies of European Americans are cast in notorious light or altogether ignored. African students learn little to nothing about Gabriel Prosser, Nat Turner, David Walker, Touissant L’ouverture, Prince Hall, Queen Mother Moore, The Honorable Marcus Garvey, Ella Baker, Steve Biko, Assata Shakur, and so many more! Those Afrikan Ancestors that our children are introduced to (i.e. Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, etc.) are made into harmless caricatures whose words and actions are reduced to decontextualized soundbytes that don’t threaten existing popular sensibilities or power structures.
The seeds of self-hate are planted in the minds of African American youth as they sit in the European-American classroom. The overriding message of this indoctrination is that everyone great, remarkable, and worthy to be remembered is “White”. People of Color are at best footnotes who only have made marginal imprint on the pages of human history. Is it any wonder that many African American youth choose to “check out” of this system in various ways? While they may not be able to articulate it, many of them instinctively know that they are being exposed to a system that has the goal of miseducating them. For at least 12 years they are sitting under the tutelage of a foreign education system that left unchallenged will keep them psychologically, spiritually, and academically enslaved for their entire lives. Those who do not “check out” of this alien system can go on to gain “good grades,” but they’ll graduate with greater allegiance to the core beliefs, goals, and activities of the European-American community over anything that they might feel toward their own community.
African Americans in Baltimore (and many other cities around this country) surrender our greatest gift – our children – to a system that wasn’t designed for them and to people – many of them – who only view the students as a means to their next paycheck.
We send them off to the schoolhouse and leave it to chance that they’ll make it out alright.
With many other communities; they don’t take a chance when it comes to their children. It’s probably a negligible number of Jewish students in the Baltimore City Public School System (BCPS). Why? Because they know that the BCPS won’t shape their students into persons who possess confident knowledge of self and allegiance to their community standards and goals.
Take for instance Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School which runs from pre-school to 12th grade. This school proudly states that “its responsibility to the Jewish community is to educate generations of American Jews who are committed to Jewish practices and beliefs, knowledgeable about their heritage, and devoted to the Jewish community and the State of Israel.”
(Do me a favor. Read the above mission statement again, but this time where it says “Jewish” or “Jews” change the word to “African American” and where it says “State of Israel” change that to “the continent of Africa”.)
Or you can look at another school for 16-18 year old Jewish boys called Lev Shlomo. The school is for Jewish boys who have had difficulty in traditional school settings. It’s stated mission is to “assist teenagers to become productive, healthy, balanced, successful members of the Jewish community and society.”
Another example is the Shoshana S. Cardin High School. This independent high school describes its academic character by saying, “the overarching vision of The Cardin School is clearly unique for we enable our students to gain an integrated perspective between the traditional disciplines, and especially between Jewish Studies and General Studies. In many ways, this means learning to see the world through educated Jewish eyes“. It goes on to say, “we foster not only a broad intellectual perspective, but a deep and lasting sense of identity“.
And that is what is lacking in the Baltimore City Public School System – an educational setting that is both academically rigorous and equally concerned with instilling a sense of identity within the more than 70,000 African American students who are enrolled. This is why Black People should control the city school system…but not just any kind of “Black People” for the truth be told we have Black people on the City School Board and in City Hall, but many of those Black People are the kind that have already ingratiated themselves to Baltimore’s White Power Structure and have gone to great lengths to prove to the Power Structure that they will never say what need be said or do what need be done to stand in solidarity with their own community. They are appreciative puppets who’ve “gone along to get along” and feel they have too much to lose now by rocking the boat.
The Jews have their own schools in Baltimore to teach their children how to be good Jews. The Catholics have their own schools in Baltimore to teach their students how to be good Catholics. The Quakers have their own schools in Baltimore to instill in their students the values of Quakers.
WHERE ARE THE SCHOOLS IN BALTIMORE CONTROLLED BY BLACK PEOPLE THAT TEACH BLACK CHILDREN HOW TO BE HONORABLE AFRICANS?!
In a city that is nearly 65% African American and a school system that is nearly 90% African American:
Baltimore’s African American community and true allies need to read, study, organize, and execute an educational agenda that is worthy of our children.
The Great Ancestors and Elders of our community have already laid the groundwork. We just must familiarize ourselves with their analysis, critique, and contextualize for our times. Black People should control the Baltimore City Public School System. To suggest any other arrangement is to suggest that White People and their Power Structure know best as it relates to educating Black Children.
Black People who are unapologetically Black with a profound sense of self, have a demonstrated commitment to Black Children, an allegiance to the uplift of the Black Community, a global understanding of our place in the world as Africans, and possessive of communal credibility should control the school system that currently just warehouses Black bodies prepping them for prison, uninspired living, or an early grave.
This should not be an optional goal for our community. It is a fixture for every self-respecting group of people and we – people of African descent in Baltimore – should be no different in embracing the education of our children as one of our highest aims.
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I think the article has many valid points…but do not forget that the Catholic and Jewish schools referred to are private, for-pay institutions. Not tax-payer funded, public schools. HOWVER, within a public school system, PARENTS can and SHOULD have a say in curriculum choices, in options for "extra curricular" studies, etc. The community I live in has a strong African American culture – and it is driven by parents and their involvement in the schools.
The boys and girls we "lose" tend to be lost to the drug culture and to pop culture – we unfortunately, have several generations of drug-abuse in many of our cities…children abandoned to the crack pipe, children who's parents are busy smoking weed and listening to music that glorifies drugs, sex. abusing women, and violence… realistically, the best school teacher in the WORLD cannot compete with mommy high and daddy gone…
RAcism is still so strong in this country. Even after we have a competent BLACK PRESIDENT proving to the world the strength and capabilities of the black race a fool like you choose to give such shallow comment to a well written article.