Galileo once wrote “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” Carter G. Woodson understood this and may have had this in mind when he stated “If you can control a man’s thinking, you don’t have to worry about his actions.”
In our age both are prophetic, particularly when we examine the condition we African Americans have put ourselves in. We complain about the educational system and say it is underfunded, when around the globe people have greater skill sets and have passed our great nation all while spending billions less than we do. We send our kids to school to be educated, and if they are not, we blame the schools as if it is their job and it is the only place where education should occur, when, in fact, the responsibility is ours.
Several simple contrived questions can get to this point. For example, how many dudes do we know who say they can rhyme but cannot do a square root by hand, or how many folk do we know who can recite a Drake or Jay-Z song but can’t solve a simple equation? I do not know the answer but for a people whose descendants invented math, it is strange that the average African American can barely perform math on a sixth grade level. Even more concerning is that a recent report under the guidance of famed educator Geoffrey Canada revealed that more than half African American children entering the first grade do not know the standard 250 Sight Words they should.
We have a serious problem in our community. Our focus is on things like celebrity or Nicki Minaj’s breast, and things that do not actually impact our lives has replaced attending to things that do. I will not attack rappers, but I will bring to light that what they talk about in their music is complete nonsense and ignorance that a large segment of our populous say sounds good. Since when did getting money become more important than education? Our ancestors knew the value of education. Even slaves recognized the importance of an education and risked learning to read even in the face of mutilation and death.
Now we live as slaves, for we do not speak out about issues that really matter. As Martin Luther said, we “are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what [we] do not say.”
People, when you are fed garbage, whether mentally or physically, garbage is what will be excreted until we take responsibility. We will continue to be second-class citizens who are unaware of their second-class status. Yes, I like the music of several rappers, but what they consider fire, I consider garbage, ignorance and nonsense. –torrance stephens ph.d.
