Hello friends,
Last week I spent my Saturday helping a friend grade papers for a class of elementary students. The papers were a series of questions that accompanied a reading selection. The questions and the readings are part of a study that seeks to improve literacy.
As I began to go through the finished papers, I noticed that many of the questions were misleading. I also found that I was being required to grade these papers with the strictest scrutiny. Furthermore, the children's responses were steeped in grammatical errors, misspelled words and incomplete sentences.
I am not suggesting or even implying that the entity conducting this study is not sincere in its efforts to improve literacy. But in that moment while grading those papers I was faced with another well-known W.E.B. DuBois' theory, two-ness. Being Black and Being American. I was frustrated that these test were subjective and misleading. But I was also frustrated with the level of literacy these children exhibited. I knew that their understanding, or lack of, had nothing to do with their abilities, but it had everything to do with their exposure and cultivation. The same study is being conducted in a suburban community in a southern state. According to the scores, it looks like, on the surface, the children in the south are performing better than children who submitted the papers I graded. But anyone with an elementary understanding of sociology, politics or even history knows and understands that there is more at work than just one community outperforming the other.
The question is...what are we going to do about it?
What leader will take what end of this elephant. Be clear, there are two ends. The front of the elephant speaks to years of racism, oppression, agendas, exploitation, pathology, spirit and soul destruction, hate, primitive behavior etc. The other end holds resilience, fortitude, progression, self-advocacy, advancement, love, evolution, steadfastness etc. How do we reconcile these two ends. How do we say to the Institutions that qualify us by class to consider the effects of the front end? How to we say to the people who have been most injured by the front end to continue to employ the methods on the latter end. When will they be able to relax? It's either swim really really well or sink. There is no treading or floating. One would suspect that after a while, this tension would take a toll on the elephant, and divide those attempting to address or exploit the elephant. i.e. Cosby and Dyson
I feel the tug of the elephant when I need to divide my time between pulling and pushing. Pulling parents of color to stay aware, stay sharp, read more, visit your child's school, converse with your child and pushing the taste of racism back down the throats of institutional leaders who perpetuate the ideas of old.
Why the tension? Because mediocrity will never do for children of color. Not until the society we live in begins to have a more fair distribution of opportunities, conditioning and circumstances. Am I advocating for mediocrity? Of course not. I am advocating for a more equitable society. Until the playing field is fairly leveled, those who affect policy must consider the effects of racism and second class citizenship.
In the meantime, I will continue to compel parents to read a little more, work a little harder, spend a little more time preparing our children. I know they are overworked and stretched to their limits. But until we can achieve equity, we must fully embrace education as a tool and we must behave as if we are in the fight of our lives. Yes I understand and believe that parents of every color want their children to succeed. But Parents of children of color need to be more diligent because they must use one lifetime to combat, accomplish, and achieve from a disadvantaged position.
I thought of this when several friends emailed me about Michael Richards' recent antics. Most of them were shocked and appalled but I found his antics refreshing. It's easier to address an enemy in the light than in the dark. People who express ignorance like Richards don't keep me up at night. It's a society that continues to tell children of color that they have to be better, faster and smarter than their counterparts in order to achieve and when they aren't, they have failed. It's a subtle unspoken effect of racism that keeps me up at night.© 2006 All Rights Reserved
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