| Black education can use the rich fertilizer of African | | | | mothers are dead, on drugs, or in jail. |
| proverbs. Here is one from the Mafa people of | | | | Great-grandfathers, grandfathers, and fathers |
| Cameroon, northern Nigeria, and southern Niger: | | | | statistically are just absent, mostly for similar reasons. |
| Nobody kills an ignorant person who begs for wisdom. | | | | The best source of this information is in a public school. |
| This comes from a culture where even accepting a | | | | Just teach at an inner city school for even a short |
| gift without first refusing it could be considered as | | | | while and you will see what our children are enduring |
| begging, and, therefore, disgraceful; yet, humbling | | | | far more so than those in other races. |
| yourself to learn something that you should have | | | | Many educated black people are oblivious to these |
| known in the first place is ranked above prideful | | | | problems or are more prone to blame those who are |
| ignorance. | | | | suffering for making bad choices, thanking God that |
| I've thought about this proverb a great deal, especially | | | | they are not like, "those people." |
| concerning those black people who hold the highest | | | | Westernized black education discounts the |
| academic degrees. It is a great achievement to go | | | | psychological effects of slavery and segregation and |
| through the rigors of Western education and excel. | | | | their legacies upon the black psyche today. For many |
| Thanks to integration, this leaves black people open to | | | | educated blacks, the extent of their compassion is to |
| participate in not only the Western economy and | | | | tell suffering blacks to "go get a job!" This discounts |
| political arenas, but also certain levels of the Western | | | | the 100 percent employment rate of slavery and the |
| social sphere. | | | | fact that it was illegal for black people to be |
| Still, I cannot help thinking about the Jews and how well | | | | unemployed during segregation. This dismissive attitude |
| integrated they were into German society before | | | | among many educated blacks also discounts the fact |
| World War II. Like African Americans, they were | | | | that during slavery, blacks were not the recipients of |
| judges, doctors, professors, artists, etc. Many of them | | | | the fruits of their labor and that most blacks during |
| had disassociated themselves from their cultural and | | | | segregation made only enough to keep them in a very |
| religious heritage just as Westernized black people are | | | | sick state of debt, not by choice as many educated |
| doing. Not believing themselves to be like other Jews | | | | blacks live today, but by necessity. |
| who had not risen to socially acceptable heights, the | | | | It seems highly likely that blacks educated only under |
| Westernized, assimilated Jews may have been more | | | | the Western educational system forget that having the |
| vulnerable to voting for the very laws that would later | | | | right to control their own money and participate in both |
| send them to the concentration camps. | | | | the economy and social spheres of this country are |
| Western education, the basis of black education, | | | | advents newly granted. Furthermore, these rights are |
| systematically teaches that white scholars were the | | | | subjected to the whims of American laws, which, for |
| first to discover the way the world and the universe | | | | the benefit of black people, have been extremely |
| works and that white people have made the greatest | | | | fickle. On average, we can expect a major change |
| contributions to society. This is systemic racism. | | | | about every 50 years or so and the tide is turning. |
| Why does this matter? Because you must first deny | | | | Although there was a slight decrease in prison rates |
| yourself in order to accept this premise. Look at the | | | | during 2008, statistics show that since the 1980s, prison |
| price the Jews paid for this self-denial. How many | | | | incarceration rates are growing exponentially. |
| ended up in concentration camps before they | | | | How does the above proverb fit into this? |
| rediscovered who they were? | | | | Does wisdom suggest that the date on a calendar |
| Today, out of all other countries in the world, the United | | | | heralds progress? |
| States has the largest percentage of its population in | | | | Does wisdom suggest that the ability to effectively |
| jail or tied up in its legal system. According to a Bureau | | | | participate in an economy which consumes the earth's |
| of Justice Statistics report, surveying prisons, at year | | | | resources to extinction at the price of human rights |
| end 2008, 7.3 million American adults were under | | | | demonstrates progress? |
| correctional supervision. China has only 1.5 million with | | | | Does wisdom suggest that abandoning your self-hood |
| four times the population of the U.S. and Russia has | | | | to gain acceptance in social spheres built upon a |
| less than one million. African Americans, who make up | | | | foundation that crushed the humanity of your |
| officially 13 percent of the U.S. population, make up | | | | ancestors verifies progress? |
| nearly one half of the U.S. prison population. | | | | Does the Westernized educational system promote |
| Even more about the state of blacks in America, by | | | | wisdom or "progress"? |
| far, black people (even educated blacks) die at higher | | | | If Western education does not promote wisdom, then |
| rates than others in the population from common | | | | might not Westernized, black education increase your |
| diseases such as cancer; black children seem destined | | | | ignorance? |
| to kill one another faster than they can replace | | | | Nobody kills an ignorant person who begs for wisdom. |
| themselves; and, great-grandmothers are raising their | | | | I hope that we African Americans discover that this |
| great-grandchildren because both grandmothers and | | | | African proverb is true. |