by Solomon ComissiongLast week, Barack Obama once again “felt the need to lecture black people about what they can and cannot complain about.” No excuses, no excuses, the president hectored – as if to delegitimize Black struggles for redress of real grievances. “On the one hand he knows not to upset white folks by pointing to America’s legacy as a bastion of racism and white supremacy. And on the other hand he knows there are virtually no restrictions on how often he can castigate, vilify, and reprimand the black community.”
Public Education in America: A Pillar of Institutional Racism
by Solomon Comissiong
“In President Obama’s book of fairy tales, institutional racism is merely an 'excuse.'”
When discussing public education in America it is quite difficult to find a starting point from which to address the deepening gully of racially based inequities. The US has painstakingly woven racism and white supremacy into the very fabric of the educational experience – the purported “keys” to our children's future. The legacies of American institutional racism and white supremacy are embedded within the public educational system. Racism in the public school system is, at times, conspicuously inconspicuous. As a matter of fact, racism in present day America is conspicuously inconspicuous. It is much like the silent killer that carbon monoxide is; before you know it you're “dead” not knowing what the hell hit you. Institutional racism kills physically as in the case of police brutality, and also kills cognitively through the public educational system: “Cognitive Decapitation,” as author and educational activist, Jonathan Kozol, calls it.
Even with the “victory” of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case, there are still two sets of educational standards. After all, has desegregation cleansed the black community of the infestation of American racism and white supremacy? Integration only truly works when the integratee is allowed the same rights, respect, and overall privileges as the integrator. More than 50 years after Brown desegregation simply means that black and brown youth have to adopt the Eurocentric mores and values of white America. And half a century later we see virtually the same racially segregated schools as we did in the 1960s.
“Integration only truly works when the integratee is allowed the same rights, respect, and overall privileges as the integrator.”
Disparate educational standards are the rule in present day America, broken down by way of race and income. These inequities are more race-based than they are class-based. For example, even so-called “well to do American-born Africans” that reside within predominately white suburban communities, are strongly persuaded to worship white supremacists, slaveholders, and murderers like George Washington (owned over 300 African slaves), Andrew Jackson (murdered countless of Seminoles) and Christopher Columbus (murdered tens of thousands of indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere). These students must learn to accept and admire repugnant white historical figures, regardless of the pain and damage they inflicted upon enslaved Africans and indigenous people. This is nothing short of white supremacy in the raw.
Even these “well to do” American born African youth are taught that in order to succeed in America they must embrace the very system that continues to oppress millions of fellow blacks from stolen coast to stolen coast. The public “educational” system’s history books are riddled with unsavory and oppressive historical figures. It is a direct affront to force any student of color - or any decent human being! - to endure studying these characters in a positive light, as if they should be exalted.
The racial double standard requires black students to work two and three times as hard as their white counterparts simply to get the same opportunities. But just because it is true does not mean it is something that we should accept.
“Obama felt the need to lecture black people about what they can and cannot complain about.”
Can you imagine the white community allowing themselves to be lectured to, as we are, that it is impermissible to take into consideration real facts of the past and present, when evaluating the performance of various white demographic groups? Of course not. Yet it seems that America’s racially challenged but phenotypically black president does not understand the complexity of the nation's problem. Last week he, once again, felt the need to lecture black people about what they can and cannot complain about. In President Obama’s book of fairy tales, institutional racism is merely an “excuse.” At the 100th anniversary celebration of the NAACP Obama declared:
“We've got to say to our children, yes, if you're African American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that somebody in a wealthy suburb does not have to face. But that's not a reason to get bad grades -- that's not a reason to cut class -- that's not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school. No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands -- you cannot forget that. That's what we have to teach all of our children. No excuses. No excuses. You get that education; all those hardships will just make you stronger, better able to compete. Yes we can.”
“It is a system so nefarious that several states base the building of juvenile detention centers and prisons on deficiencies in first grade reading scores”
I guess “complaining” and refusing to accept institutional racism in America’s public school system is just an indicator of black people making excuses. I guess black people from inner cities should simply accept lack of educational funding for their schools get predicated on the inadequacy of property taxes. I guess black parents should accept the streamlining of their children into sewing classes instead of AP (advanced placement) courses. I presume that black parents should accept the very real “school to prison pipeline” that has been created for black youth. It is a system so nefarious that several states base the building of juvenile detention centers and prisons on deficiencies in first grade reading scores. This means that instead of using state and federal money to invest in programs that bring grade school kids up to par in reading they use the money to build prisons for them knowing that illiteracy is a major indicator of someone’s future in “crime.”
I also guess that black parents should not complain, worry about, or fight against the fact that school administrators throughout this country are allowing their schools to be privatized or controlled by the military. President Obama’s secretary of education, Arne Duncan, has a history of turning predominately black and brown schools into military schools. I presume that this works out well, in the long run, for President Obama given that he just as much a war monger as his speech impaired predecessor, George Bush. He is also requesting and spending more money, militarily, than Curious George (Bush) ever did. Such facts may be a shock to members of the “change you can believe in” cult, but they are facts nonetheless.
I wonder what President Obama meant when he said, “No one has written your destiny for you… No excuses. No excuses.”He would never try to feed that kind of crap to the white community. Obama knows his limits on both sides of the racial spectrum. On the one hand he knows not to upset white folks by pointing to America’s legacy as a bastion of racism and white supremacy. And on the other hand he knows there are virtually no restrictions on how often he can castigate, vilify, and reprimand the black community - as if African Americans are a group of children that need to know and accept their proper place in society. When he said, “You get that education; all those hardships will just make you stronger, better able to compete. Yes we can,” he was pretty much telling the black community that we need to sit down, shut the hell up, and accept the institutionally racist and white supremacist country we live in. When he proclaims that our hardships make us stronger he is demanding that we acclimate ourselves to occupying an unnatural position at the bottom of society. American-born Africans have always overcome tremendous odds in Amerikkka, but that does not mean that we should stop fighting, organizing, and protesting until we are given the same human rights that whites have in this country.
“He would never try to feed that kind of crap to the white community.
Obama is placating white America each time he scolds black America for being the victims of the American nightmare. He is quite comfortable with blaming the victims and not the institution. He speaks in masterful code much like the Joint Chiefs of Staffs to whom he is beholden. So when he said, ”No one has written your destiny for you”, he ignores the fact that masses of black and brown skinned youth are presently having their destinies shaped for them from one institutionally racist classroom to the next. For each black child that works three times as hard as some privileged white kid in the suburb in order to “succeed,” there are scores of black youth who are devoured by an institutionally white supremacist system.
If there is one thing we know it is that institutional racism cannot be fought with passivity. We cannot go the way Obama and his white handlers want us to go. We must organize. We must protest. We must never be silent. And we must never capitulate until every institutionally racist fiber of this system is shredded. Mr. Obama, save your damn patronizing speeches for the Wall Street bankers you bailed out, the Israel lobby that you genuflect to and the institutionally racist segments of America you accommodate! You will hear from Black America until we have equality!
Solomon Comissiong is an educator, community activist, author, public speaker and the host of the Your World News radio program (www.blogtalkradio.com/Your-World-News). He may be reached at: sunderland77@hotmail.com.
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education in America
Really discussing public education in America it is difficult to find a starting point from which to address the deepening gully of racially based inequities.
Part of the problem is that there is no concrete curriculum that teachers must follow even as schools are largely required to teach to the annual Regents Exams. What this means is instead of offering students a quality education that will prepare them to participate in the sciences, arts and industry, students are simply prepared to pass a series of exams intended to prove that the public school system has taught them the bare minimum. But bare minimum as defined by the Board of Education is quite obviously not the minimum one needs to thrive and contribute in America. Since the effectiveness of a school is largely determined by the statistics associated with these tests, students are subjected to a no frills education designed to prevent anything (including advanced learning) from interfering with a teacher’s obligation to teach to the exam and get the highest pass rate possible for the school.
Instead of using state and federal reserves or get a payday loan to invest in programs that bring grade school kids up to par in reading they use the money to build prisons for them knowing that illiteracy is a major indicator of someone’s crime future. It's very important financial question on what we should pay a lot of attantion.
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Even with the
Even with the “victory” of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case, there are still two sets of educational standards.
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"change we can believe in"
Malcolm X said that when whites start telling you how great some black candidate is, its someone they control. I'm sure when the "bosses" recruited Obama, they made clear the acceptable parameters; he's not allowed to say or do anything that makes whites feel uncomfortable. Its ok to lecture blacks in america & africa, with lots of "tough love" media coverage. And Obama knows there will be minimal oriticism from the black community; he's taking us for granted. In hindsight, i'm glad I didn't vote for Obama ,yet i'm even astounded at what has transpired in six months. Obama is no friend of working class people black or white. Isn't this "change we can believe in" great?
Education, pillar of institutional racism,
very well done, what can I say, right on, right on, right on
peace
re: Public Education in America: A Pillar of Institutional Racis
As educators and legislators continue to believe in the power of change through education reform, dollars will be spent on one innovative idea after another to improve academic performance, efficiency, or other structural characteristics of the schools. American public education has, since 1980, endured reform after reform, with few reforms sustained over the long-term, and little to show for the effort except frustration and lack of clarity in the mission of the reforms. Instructional reforms (e.g., whole language vs. phonics instruction in reading), pedagogical reforms (e.g., constructivist vs. direct instruction), and management reforms (e.g., centralized decision making vs. site-based control) create a reform buildup in schools and districts. Even after years of reforms, some assert that classroom practices have changed very little. Yet, states, districts, schools, and classrooms have periodically seen positive outcomes from their reforms. This often results in countless efforts to replicate success stories when the context may not be conducive to the same effects. Research shows that effective reforms are gradual and incremental, suggesting that change and reform is a step toward progress, not progress itself. Educators and reformers are then charged with the task of asking the public to be patient in seeing results. Too often, this reform build-up creates doubt and mistrust among those inside and outside of the system. Because eduacation is very important in everybody, more important than that of personal loans, that's why it is common for criticism.
Others Obama could scold ...
Why doesn't Obama chastise Barbara Bush for bringing up son George W. to be a mass murderer? I know, I know: "Kill one person, that's murder; kill thousands, that's foreign policy."
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Bro Solomon,
The way Bro Solomon breaks this down, you can't can any more revealing that this. I might add though, that Dr Gates case isn't the most telling. Its easy for Obama to remark on that one. But on things like Oscar Grant he has to play like the three monkey's, seeing, hearing and speaking no evil. While Dr. Gates was unreasonably arrested in his own home, young Brother Oscar Grant...and Shawn Bell, and many more have beeb blatantly mudered in cold blood by police and in the public view.
Bro Solomon, illustrated this point with no stone unturned and no logic omitted.
Thank you! I am sick of
Thank you!
I am sick of Obama lecturing Black parents.
Why doesn't he lecture white parents on how to raise their children to not grow up to be murderers and racists?
Why not lecture white parents to raise their children so they don't grow up to be adults who bar Black and Latino children from a camp, thus potentially scarring them for life?
Why not lecture white parents to raise their children not to grow up and become racist cops who handcuff an internationally regarded Black scholar?