OPINION: Contemporary manifestations of the mis-education of African Americans

It has been nearly 100 years since Carter G. Woodson published his seminal book, THE MIS-EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO. Despite the progress we feel that we have made, however, there remain many examples of how Black people have been and still are being mis-educated. Below we point to several of those ways, realizing there are others that can be identified as well by other people.

1. There is the continuing mental separation of Africa from the African people of the diaspora. Much of the culture underlying the lifestyles of working-class African people and many of the contributions of Africa are omitted from the curricula of schools and colleges. Instead are images of Africa as a savage place rife with ignorance and helplessness. There is also little effort to show the connection between the Atlantic Slave Trade, European colonialization, contemporary imperialism, and the current state of affairs in Africa. We are simply left in the dark or mis-educated.

2. Closely related to the distorted images of Africa is the myth that people of African descent are intellectually inferior to people of European descent. Many of us were given that impression during the days of Jim Crow segregation. It is continued today through low public school ratings that do not account for things like the amount of funding received, teacher selection and assignments, workloads, and resource availability. At the college level, the impression is created by the same culprits, and even ignored are many top-flight Black teachers are lured to white institutions by better compensation and often Black scholarship on many white campuses is expropriated by white scholars.

3. Over the years what is true and what is authentic, whether it is in law or politics, economics or education, religion or language, is believed to have been created or held by white people or white society. What is generated or held primarily by Black people is often seen as just gossip, second-hand knowledge or mere imitations of the white version.

4. It is also unfortunate that mis-education has often caused many African Americans to adopt European aesthetical standards, referring to things such as “good hair” and “bad hair” and people with “fair skin.” Many prefer partners and even family and friends based upon such biases. This is obviously mis-education run-amuck, but describes true situations nonetheless.

5. Many have noted there are Black people who would prefer to purchase goods and services from white companies because they feel what the white entrepreneur has to sell is superior or more authentic. Such results stem from myths of white superiority hammered home in this society.

6. As strange as it may seem, some years ago a student expressed a preference not to live in a city or state that was predominately Black and run by Black officials for fear of crime and safety. The truth, however, is when one considers the thousands of Black lynchings, the hundreds of anti-Black race riots, and the innumerable Black deaths at the hands of white law-enforcement officers, living in a white society is steeped in danger and violence when it comes to Black people, showing that mis-education has invaded the area of crime and violence. Furthermore, when such matters are discussed, one often forgets or overlooks the major role of white individuals when it comes to supplying communities with drugs and weapons, which escalates crime and violence. It is also members of white society who, through credit, banking, housing, employment, and other institutional practices, put Black people in predicaments that make crime an option. All of this is in addition to the fraud and mismanagement that reduces the money and wherewithal available to the rest of society, including Black people.

7. Because of how they have been treated from slavery to this day, many Black people have come to believe they are relatively powerless. Too many feel at the mercy of white society; too many wait and take their clues from white society as to how best to improve or advance their society. Mis-education continues to rob them of initiative and the ability to act independently.

8. As a part of the program of mis-education, Black people have often been told taking a stand that is pro-Black means one is anti-white. The truth, however, is that such a stance merely represents a fuller development of Black consciousness and maturity towards independence rather than dependency. Progressive and well-intentioned white people understand and applaud it as do Black people who have triumphed over that phase of their mis-education. 

Yes, the mis-education of African Americans has been massive, involving not just the education systems. It has involved the media, religious institutions, and government propaganda, and virtually all other sources of socialization or orientation. Because it helps maintain white supremacy, the campaign has necessarily mis-educated the white and other populations as well, given that they all share this country and culture.