Woodson looks deeper into a "Black" education controlled by white administrators. One can only imagine how that started and can see with one's own eyes how it turned out.
"....but if the Negro is to be forced to live in the ghetto he can more easily develop out of it under his own leadership than under that which is super-imposed"
If it is white supremacists who forced Black people to live in ghettos, then of course they are not going to help them out. It can only be done by self-motivated, determined Black people. Besides, I think we all know the relieved feeling we get when our teacher is one of us (and knows it).
"The Negro will never be able to show all of his originality as long as his efforts are directed from without by those who socially proscribe him. Such 'friends' will unconsciously keep him in the ghetto"
Black people can never reach their highest potential if they are led by those who socially, economically, and politically berate and suppress them.
"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"
This is definitely what a "true" education is all about. And remember this book was first published in 1933....what has really changed?
He further proves this point:
"The education of any people should begin with the people themselves, but Negroes thus trained have been dreaming about the ancients of Europe and about those who have tried to imitate them.
Carter Woodson had a different idea for what types of things students should be studying in school. He tells of a Black student who is working on his dissertation, under a white professor.
"For his dissertation this Negro is collecting the sayings of his people in everyday life--their morning greetings, their comments on things which happen around them, their reactions to things which strike them as unusual, and their efforts to interpret life as the panorama passes before them....they will serve the Negro much better than those who are trying to find out whether Henry VIII lusted more after Anne Boleyn than after Catherin of Aragon..."
(More beneficial to learn about everyday Black people than the likes of...them) 
If our education is to elevate us it must start WITH us....that includes the things we might deem unimportant such as our sayings and mannerisms we use daily. It really does start with the little things, because they always add up to the bigger things. And these little things are far much more important than........Henry VIII and his sick little love triangle he had going on.
No comments:
Post a Comment