Analysis of Mis-Education of the Negro The most important aspect for a teacher to understand is that every student that comes through their door has their own experiences, history, and point of view. Mis-Education of the Negro is about how the euro-centrism-based learning has, in one way or another, crippled the African-American community and their pursuit for an equal opportunity in our society. Written by Carter Godwin Woodson in 1933, this African-American studies book is written so that everyone can understand what society has done and what they can do to correct their wrongs.
Author
Carter Godwin Woodson dedicated his life to studying African-American history and fought so it can be taught in schools and studied by scholars. Born in
This devotion was paralleled in his book, Mis-Education of the Negro. Woodson, ultimately, wants to eliminate prejudice. “Stereotypes, omissions, and distortions all contribute to the development of prejudice” says Tatum (2013, pg. 65). He starts off talking about what happened with the period right after the Civil War. Even though the African-Americans were “free”, no one took responsibility to educate them formally. So naturally, they could only do one thing and that was to form their own schools, businesses, and churches. However, the only works and doctrines that were available were written by white people in the eurocentric view. Woodson (1933) claims, “The Negroes have been shoved out of the regular schools through the rear door into the obscurity of the backyard and told to imitate others whom they see from afar, or they have been permitted in some places to come into the public schools to see how others educate themselves”. This made the blacks adopt a sense of learned helplessness. Tatum (2013) stated, "The impact of racism begins early. Even in our preschool years, we are exposed to misinformation about people different from ourselves" (pg. 65). From an early age, professions were picked out for these African-American children. The materials that were used in black schools were different than those in white schools
The overall solution can be summarized into one phrase by Woodson (1933), “To educate the Negro, we must find out exactly what his background is, what he is today, what his possibilities are, and how to begin with him as he is and make him a better individual of the kind that he is”. This phrase is saying that in order for society to get rid of this broken system of the miseducation of an entire race, we must first learn about the race and how to better reach them. As Tatum (2013) says, “To say that it is not our fault does not relieve us of responsibility, however. We may not have polluted the air, but we need to take responsibility, along with others, for cleaning it up” (pg. 66). The eurocentrism and its effects on our educational system and influence of society is what is holding the African-American community back from their own
What is the point of educating the African Americans if all they will be is paid slaves anyhow?, “Lo! we are diseased and dying, cried the dark hosts; we cannot write, our voting is vain; what need of education, since we must always cook and serve?” (par. 11). Du Bois doesn’t understand the issue with African Americans living among, equal to, and determined with the Whites, “Will America be poorer if she replace her brutal dyspeptic blundering with light-hearted but determined Negro humility? or her coarse and cruel wit with loving jovial good-humor? or her vulgar music with the soul of the Sorrow Songs” (par. 12). Du Bois and the African American population are determined to change the mindset of the Whites and America as a whole to be more accepting of African Americans and ultimately
Tatum’s book “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” (1997) analyses the development of racial identity and the influence of racism in American’s culture. She emphasizes the Black-White interactions by comparing the terminology in which racism perceived based on David Wellman’s definition of racism. Tatum also believes racism is not one person in particular but is a cultural situation in which ethnicity assigns some groups significantly privileged compared to others. She illustrates how engaging children in terms of interracial understanding will empower them to respond to racial stereotypes and systems of discrimination.
It is impossible for anyone to survive a horrible event in their life without a relationship to have to keep them alive. The connection and emotional bond between the person suffering and the other is sometimes all they need to survive. On the other hand, not having anyone to believe in can make death appear easier than life allowing the person to give up instead of fighting for survival. In The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, Aminata Diallo survives her course through slavery by remembering her family and the friends that she makes. Aminata is taught by her mother, Sira to deliver babies in the villages of her homeland. This skill proves to be very valuable to Aminata as it helps her deliver her friends babies and create a source of income. Aminata’s father taught Aminata to write small words in the dirt when she was small. Throughout the rest of the novel, Aminata carries this love for learning new things to the places that she travels and it inspires her to accept the opportunities given to her to learn how to write, read maps, and perform accounting duties. Early in the novel Aminata meets Chekura and they establish a strong relationship. Eventually they get married but they are separated numerous times after. Aminata continuously remembers and holds onto her times with Chekura amidst all of her troubles. CHILDREN. The only reason why Aminata Diallo does not die during her journey into and out of slavery is because she believes strongly in her parents, husband and children; therefore proving that people survive hardships only when they have relationships in which to believe.
During the pre-Civil War America, the enslaved African American’s were not recommended to be taught any form of education such as reading or writing. Many of the white people believed that if the slaves were to learn how to read and write that they would then start to think for themselves and create plans of a rebellion. There was sure to be a rebellion if they were to be taught any form of education. To make sure that the African American slaves did not try to become educated they had harsh punishments for anyone that tried to learn how to read and to write. Education during the pre-African-American Civil Rights Movement was a lot different from how it was during pre-Civil War America. The African American’s had schools that they could attend, but they were separated from the white people. There schools were not located in spots as pleasant as the schools that the white people attended. The African American’s did not have the same quantity and quality supplies as the white schools. Examples of how the African American’s did not receive the same type of tools to help with their education was shown in A Lesson Before Dying. The African American’s had books that had pages missing and that were falling apart, limited amount of chalk, pencils, paper, and other learning utensils while the schools that the white people attended had more than enough supplies and new books
"My Children are black. They don't look like your children. They know that they are black, and we want it recognized. It's a positive difference, an interesting difference, and a comfortable natural difference. At least it could be so, if you teachers learned to value difference more. What you value, you talk about.'" p.12
Carter G. Woodson: Negro Orators ansd Their Orations (New York, NY, 1925) and The Mind of the Negro (Washington, DC., 1926).
It was with this in mind that the term “New Negro” was coined. “ The average white man of the present generation who sees the Negro daily, perhaps knows less of the Negro than did the similarly situated white man of any previous generation since the black race came to America. Pickens’s also cites this as the source of racial issues, “Furthermore and quite as important as anything there has been some change of attitude in the white people among whom the Negro lives: there is less acquaintanceship, less sympathy and toleration than formerly “. This is in concert with Locke’s belief, as he states, “if the Negro were better known, he would be better liked or better treated.” William Pickens also discusses education as a means of diversifying and uplifting the Negro community.
...uls of Black Folk, the readers in the Twentieth-Century America can draw direct parallels to events, stories, and the morays of those in the past to today. The chapter "Of the Coming Of John" helps us interpret the present inequities in educational opportunities. There is also resentment for affirmative action that has been spoken by the dominant white male that reflects the court decision on affirmative action of modern time. The reader can contemplate the passage of Du Bois' essay to substitute the words "colored" and "Negro" with African-America, Nigger, illegal alien, Mexican, inner-city dwellers, and other meanings that articulate people that are not listed as a majority. Du Bois' essay is considered a classic because its' words can easily reflect to the modern day.
The American society, more so, the victims and the government have assumed that racism in education is an obvious issue and no lasting solution that can curb the habit. On the contrary, this is a matter of concern in the modern era that attracts the concern of the government and the victims of African-Americans. Considering that all humans deserve the right to equal education. Again, the point here that there is racial discrimination in education in Baltimore, and it should interest those affected such as the African Americans as well as the interested bodies responsible for the delivery of equitable education, as well as the government. Beyond this limited audience, on the other hand, the argument should address any individual in the society concerned about racism in education in Baltimore and the American Society in
Even today, African American authors write about the prejudice that still happens, like Ta-Nehisi Coates. In his essay Acting French, Coates recalls when he studied the French language at Middlebury College. Despite all his efforts to integrate with his fellow students into French culture, yet another barrier reveals itself. “And so a white family born into the lower middle class can expect to live around a critical mass of people who are more affluent or worldly and thus see other things, be exposed to other practices and other cultures. A black family with a middle class salary can expect to live around a critical mass of poor people, and mostly see the same things they (and the poor people around them) are working hard to escape. This too compounds.” Because of the lack of black people available to look up to in scholastics, it makes it hard for black students to find the motivation to pursue interests in English or other
In his book, The Miseducation of the Negro, Carter G. Woodson addresses many issues that have been and are still prevalent in the African American community. Woodson believed that in the midst of receiving education, blacks lost sight of their original reasons for becoming educated. He believed that many blacks became educated only to assimilate to white culture and attempt to become successful under white standards, instead of investing in their communities and applying their knowledge to help other blacks.
“How Desegregation Changed Us: The Effects of Racially Mixed Schools on Students and Society” focuses on public schools being desegregated in the late 1970’s and how the students felt when they went into school. For most of the students, this was the first time that they had gone to school with minorities. Racism was not openly discussed in the classroom as to help everyone to get along without issues. Specifically, the class of 1980 has led lives away from the diversity of their youth. Instead, as the article states, “Virtually all of them attend one-race churches or temples and share their closest friends' ethnic or racial backgrounds.” (Wells) Most of the graduates live without any sort of racial diversity, working in environments where minorities are typically not found. Instead, there’s a great deal of staying within a comfortable environment for them. For some, it isn’t intentional to try and keep away from minorities, but rather, there’s several variables that must be taken into consideration. Some feel that it is more important to have better education than to be diverse while others simply don’t get an opportunity to experience change within their community. Nonetheless, it seems as if these citizens want for a diverse society and feel that desegregation was necessary for
Carter G. Woodson was his mother’s favorite of nine. Carter G. Woodson worked as a sharecropper when he was young, which was a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on the land. He worked a lot of hours trying to help provide money for his family and it did not leave much time for school. He and his brothers and sisters went to school as often as they could but Carter G. Woodson wished he could go to school more often.
The article I chose was The Miseducation of the Negro. In this article, the author stated that Negroes are being denied everything relating to black culture in public schools. That they are taught everything from Hebrew to Latin but denied the rest.
Although the author provides many personal accounts of success among the black race, the macro view of the Southern perception of blacks are not examined in his work. However, the work provides an excellent source of reference to one of the two sides of the black education discussion during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The author in his work, Up from Slavery, successfully conveys his beliefs that blacks should prepare themselves for the real-world experiences they would face through an industrial education.