African American History
I remember being in high school, which was only a few years ago and learning basically nothing about my culture. Everything I ever learned about African Americans was basically watered down.(i.e Rosa Parks refused to give up here seat and it was a major change in the Civil Rights movement) Comments like that basically tell me nothing about Rosa Parks or who she was as a person. I basically learned that she was tired (WTH?) For a long time my focus was on African American lit. was reading a romance novel published by BET (Arabesque). Not to discredit BET or its authors, but I never really learned any history. Which saddened me. I wanted to learn but was never taught. So in the end, I am teaching myself. I went to the bookstore a few days ago and basically perched myself on the floor in front of the African American History section. People climbing over me and constantly saying excuse me but I wasn't moving. I was totally fascinated by the things that I didn't know and the people who I never heard of. There are so many people who contributed to the abolition of slavery, were involved in the Civil Rights movement and who just helped shaped America in general. I often wonder why schools never have a class totally focused on African American History. I took US History 1 and US History 2. There were only a few AA's mentioned in either course. Why? The school I attended was well over 60% black. So for us to not be taught anything about who we were and who got us to where we were was sad. I wanted to learn and I'm sure other's did too. There were some blacks in my history class. Most slept, others skipped (and I don't say this to make us sound bad or...) but the didn't find it interesting in the least. Which was understood. They couldn't relate to the people they were learning about in any way;race, actions, or struggle. And I honestly believe that if they had learned about people like them, alot of the sleeping and the skipping would have ceased.(IMO)
In the end, I bought a book. Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama. I just started it so i'm not quite sure as to how it is. But I'll be sure to post that. Next will be Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Which is an autobiography where Douglass describes himself as a man who became a slave and later, a slave who became a man. I'm getting there people...all in due time.
In the end, I bought a book. Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama. I just started it so i'm not quite sure as to how it is. But I'll be sure to post that. Next will be Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Which is an autobiography where Douglass describes himself as a man who became a slave and later, a slave who became a man. I'm getting there people...all in due time.
posted by Tiyatti Speight | 8/27/2006 07:56:00 PM
2 Comments:
Yeah! First! You're made a valid point, sista. Not much is convered on the history of AA in school. I realized this after the fact, when I started having discussions of this said topic in college. I realized while I'm an African American, I didn't know much about my people. While, I'm still non the wiser, your post makes me want to change that. I am familiar with the books you mentioned, though. Great post
There was a time, years ago, (before the marching, before the picketing, before the sit-ins, before the preaching, before the riots, before Jim Crow, before the struggle) when black folks may have had an excuse to be horrified by the conditions of the public school system as it relates to African-American history. I'm not so sure we have that excuse anymore. As a race, we have become almost impotent--we deal with issues facing our communities only after they have exploded in our faces. At some point we are no longer able to blame "the system." The most educated and successful within our race have become so consumed by the pursuit of the American Dream that they have left most of our brothers and sisters behind in an American Nightmare. We can only blame ourselves—majority of the sideline problems that directly affect our communities are self-inflicted. There is no excuse why public schools do not have thorough, integrated courses and classes exposing the rich culture and history of Africans and African Americans. It's time--I would even argue that it is past time--for our people to stop sitting underneath the shade tree of laziness, waiting on the system to help us. The idea that some other entity can care about us more than we care about ourselves should have permanently evaporated after hurricane Katrina.
Your voice, your passion, your natural curiosity is a powerful one, Tiyantti. I can only imagine how deep and influential your words will become as you continue on your journey into the history of our people. We need that voice—may it come bashing in the doors of our sleeping minds and shake us awake in the middle of the night soon.
Learn. Read. Write. Speak.
You may not know it yet, but a lot of us are listening.
Your friend--
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