Monday, August 18, 1997
EDUCATION:
Ignorance due to limited focus of history spawns racism Victor
Patton
Adolescence was not an easy time of my life. Growing from a
child into a young man was an initiation process that was at times
subtle, but at other times very brutal. The experience can light an
unextinguishable fire in some or start the demise of others. My own
initiation was not unique; it is one that thousands have gone
through. It was similar to most initiations of children of African
Heritage into American society, because it started with the letters
N.I.G.G.E.R.
At the age of 10, I was colorblind like most children are. It
didn’t matter if you were white, black, red, yellow, green,
whatever … just as long as you could fire spitballs, throw a
football, climb trees, or do most things that kids do at that age.
In addition, having a father of French and African background, and
a mother of Native American and African background, anyone with two
eyes would have difficulty putting me into any one cultural
grouping.
One of my young associates was a blond-haired, blue-eyed tomboy
named Stacy. At 11 years old we shared an innocent friendship.
However, on picture day I made the grave mistake of exchanging
wallet-sized photographs with Stacy. When she went home to show mom
and dad the picture of me, her parents were flabbergasted that
Stacy had expanded her multi-cultural friend network. In fact
Stacy’s father decided to pay an immediate visit to the school to
"seek out" this young friend of hers.
Running around on the kickball court with my little black afro
in a school that was 99.9 percent white made me relatively easy to
find for Stacy’s father. In front of all of the other children, he
snatched me up by the throat with his callused hands, carried me
over to a park bench, and dropped me like a sack of potatoes.
He squinted down at me with angry, bitter eyes red with hatred,
and extended a long, fat finger at me. He said, "Look son, even
though you’re a good-looking nigger, you’re still a nigger.
Wherever you go, whatever you do, you’re always going to be a
nigger. With that in mind, stay the hell away from my daughter,
because you’re never going to be good enough for her, you fucking
nigger." With one final shove down to the ground, Stacy’s father
left. Stacy would never speak to me again.
I never told anyone, not even my parents about that day. What
made the situation even worse was that as a child, I did not blame
that over-40-year-old man for his ignorance. I blamed myself for
the color of my skin. The humiliation I felt was unreal.
As an adult, I can only speculate why Stacy’s father decided to
verbally attack me. In a rage of ignorance, that man was only
projecting whatever personal problems he had in his own life upon
me and my culture. Calling me a nigger gave him a fleeting sense of
white superiority, a surge of power which may have been uncommon to
the banality of his blue-collar reality. (I think the paint-stained
Lynrd Skynrd T-shirt and his Snap-On Tools mesh-baseball cap gave
him away on that one!)
The word "nigger" alone was a hurtful term to hear because of
the word’s historical link to slavery. Even more devastating to my
impressionable young mind was the fact that the sentiments of
Stacy’s father were seemingly echoed in the pages of my history
textbooks.
The American educational system attempted to reinforce the idea
that I was a nigger. While my teachers extolled the so-called great
accomplishments of European civilization, African Americans were
known by only one name: slave. Not Harriet Tubman, not Frederick
Douglas, nor Sojournor Truth, but slave.
Every time a discussion of history would occur, the class would
only discuss the accomplishments of Caucasians in history; events
such as the Crusades, King Henry VIII and all of the wives he
beheaded and, of course, the triumph over English imperialism in
the "New World."
But what about my history? Slavery was only briefly mentioned,
and when it was, one visualized African slaves as being passive
individuals. How could I ever understand my own identity by looking
at myself through the white man’s lens?
I realized at an early age that in order for the American power
structure of white supremacy to remain intact, it was necessary to
attempt to classify me as a non-entity. A system was established
which socialized all Americans into divisive modes of thought. One
America has been socialized to believe in its inherent superiority
over people of African descent and indigenous peoples (the real
Americans), while the other America has been socialized to believe
in its own inferiority to white America.
In order to maintain this power structure, American historians,
with sanction from the government, tend to leave two important
concepts out of their textbooks. The first is the truth about the
origins of the land and labor which were a part of the building of
the United States of America.
Without land and labor, no country can come into existence. The
United States of America was provided with land stolen from the
indigenous peoples of North America, and the labor was provided by
African and Native Americans. My question is, if the two basic
elements of nationhood were provided in America by people of
non-European decent, why does the overwhelming level of credit in
the creation of this nation go to the Europeans? If I move all of
my belongings into someone else’s house, on someone else’s land,
and kick the tenants out of their own house, on their own land, why
should I take the overwhelming credit for building the house?
In addition, African Americans have been denied access to
information in textbooks documenting the worldwide struggle against
slavery and European supremacy. Whenever a violent slave revolt
occurred during the 18th and 19th centuries, slave masters were
quick to quash any news in order to keep other slaves from getting
ideas to rebel. In the same way, information on hundreds of slave
rebellions has been omitted from world and American history books
in order to keep children of color from challenging the status quo
of white supremacy.
Unless there is an acknowledgment of our blood-stained history,
the educational system will continue to socialize Americans of all
colors into divisive modes of thought. We currently live in a
country where racism is sanctioned in American history textbooks,
and teachers are, for the most part, unprepared to provide children
of color the self-confidence and self-esteem that is necessary to
compete in America’s racially-charged environment.
A solution for problems of American mis-education starts at the
grass-roots level. Luckily for me, further on down the line in my
education I have become exposed to positive black role models who
are able to help me develop a strong knowledge of self and pride in
being an African American child.
Many African, Latino and Native American communities are
instituting free history programs at community centers across the
country. In these classes, youth work one on one with volunteer
history instructors who teach them the truth about America’s past.
These types of classes are especially necessary in low-income
communities, where juvenile crime is often the result of a lack of
self-knowledge.
The old generation style of
Christopher-Columbus-discovering-the-New-World history must become
a relic of the past. In its place, progressive individuals must
seek out the truth. The time has come to move history out of Europe
and place it in a truly global context, inclusive of the triumphs
of people of color around the world. Only then will we truly begin
the movement towards a society of mutual appreciation which
celebrates diversity.