by Alexander Cain
The book The Mis-education of the Negro was originally written as a dissertation by author Carter Godwin Woodson who wanted to investigate how efficient the current education structure was for African-Americans. Despite being written in 1933, some of the struggles facing African-Americans mentioned in the book still hold true today: African-Americans have the highest unemployment and poverty level percentages of all ethnic groups; African-Americans show the lowest percentages of being business owners, and despite facing lower barriers to college entry than in 1933 African-Americans still show the lowest college admittance and graduation rates of all ethnic groups. As Carter Woodson explains in the book there are a few misconceptions about the education of African-Americans that need to be corrected in order for blacks to thrive and be successful.
Education of any people should begin with the people themselves
As President Obama continues his term as the first black president in United States history, the documentation of African-Americans in history books remains insignificant at best. During 1933 when the book was written, African-Americans were only acknowledged as a supplement to the hard work and sacrifices of white Americans who helped to shape our country. This fact still remains African-Americans aren’t intertwined in the history of the U.S.. They are acknowledged as a supplement to the United States and aren’t given the same intellectual examination as White Americas. As Woodson discusses throughout the book, every ethnic group brought their own strengths and characteristics, which helped the United States propel itself to its superpower status. Woodson cites that African-Americans will never be able to build upon their strengths if they aren’t made aware of it through education and will be always a step behind as they react to confirm to the styles and strengths of their white counterparts.
We are instilled with a self-hatred through education
This idea is built upon the previous statement of having a lack of Black history in the classroom for African-Americans. Because we are taught early on to admire the likes of the Greeks, Romans, and the British, we have become conditioned to believe the works of blacks are of a lower quality or of a lower intellect. This mindset is a contributing factor as why black businesses aren’t able to grow and thrive. Black businesses aren’t usually openly received by the community it aims to serve. The book cites a study of black workers who questioned the authority of a black manager compared to their submissive attitudes towards a white manager. For many African-Americans, we need to have a refocus on empowering our own people, because usually African-Americans associate an inferior quality when it comes to the output of our own people compared to other ethnic groups.
We have relegated the majority of our education towards teaching and preaching
As shown through several recent studies, the educational divide between minorities and whites is growing especially in the subjects of math and science. Woodson argues African-Americans fall flat in math and science for two reasons: 1) the immediate family and community fail to put everyday relevance to math and science for many African-American children, 2) there seems to be a discouragement of professional education within African-American communities because of fear with education leading many African-Americans away from the masses. Woodson performed research evaluating the homes of different ethnic groups and concluded that African-Americans fail to use their education to solve their problems close to home. Education was focused more towards memorizing irrelevant facts than the ultimate goal of thinking. There needs to be more open discussion of how breakthroughs in the world of math and science have impacted homes and how it can be used for further development rather than merely accepting advances as they are.
Within many African-American communities today, many children are discouraged from pursuing professional education in fears of ‘becoming white’ or forgetting where they have come from. While education can sometimes lead to flight of a community, professional education should be encouraged as a means to help reinvest in the African-American community.
Too many educated black people leave the masses
The fear of educated black flight is based on many instances of African-Americans leaving their communities in search of education and disassociating from their community. Even when it comes to job opportunities, many African-Americans don’t look for immediate opportunities within their own community but would rather take unpaid internships for larger companies in the hopes of gaining “experience.”. It is due to this black migration of the ‘talented tenth’- a term coined by W.E.B. Dubois to describe the top ten percent of educated African-Americans who were supposed to lead to the empowerment of the whole community, that Black empowerment continue to falter. “While higher education does have a general trend with all people towards selfishness, but it works more disastrously among blacks than among the whites because the lower classes of the latter have had so much more opportunity,” said Woodson.
Political Education Neglected
While many African-Americans know of President Obama, too few know of local and state legislators. Many people grew up in an atmosphere where political knowledge wasn’t deemed relevant or only a few issues were relevant to the community. However this is not the case, people need to concern themselves with all elements of political matters because they have an impact on the daily lives of everyone. “Educated people don’t know politics either as dumb people follow suit”, as Woodson describes. While the 2008 presidential election saw an unprecedented turnout of African-Americans, many of the following state and local city proposal election votes were largely unattended by African Americans. African-Americans need to first build up a knowledge of the current political landscape and what are politicians’ stance on key issues.
Woodson also goes a step further by stating African-Americans need to have more peaceful negotiation when it comes to aligning with political parties. As he argued too many African-Americans get caught up in the alliance with a political party simply based on the history of the political party. This can be seen throughout history with African-Americans allegiance towards the Republican party in abolition times and the Democratic party today. We should no longer align with a party simply because of their historical merits but we should demand the politicians looking for our vote to hear our issues and be dynamic towards solving those problems. This is how we will continue to turn around the United States government, which at times have remained oblivious to the concerns of the African American community. It seems that Tavis Smiley and Cornel West would support this stance very proudly right now.
