| "He was truly a genealogical isolate. Formally isolated in his social relations with those who lived, he was also culturally isolated from the social heritage of his ancestors. He had a past to be sure. But a past is not a heritage." I quote a fellow Black woman cultural critic who quotes another about the enslaved population of Blacks -- back in the day? Forgive the "he" for the time being. The enslaved, men and women, "were not allowed freely to integrate the experience of their ancestors into their lives, to inform their understanding of social reality with the inherited meanings of their natural forebears, or to anchor the living present in any conscious community memory," writes Sharon P. Holland. I feel like a Baptist preacher setting up a Biblical text at her Sunday morning service. I want to share this with you today because ... the words above sound like a description of what is happening to the Black community today -- some 140 years since the end of slavery in the U.S. Kidnapped from various tribes and cultures, the enslaved were able to make something "new" of the collective and common experiences of slavery in this country. Despite the near absence of their particular heritage, men and women created new ways of being, new ways of remaining human under the most inhumane conditions. I will hold off on the sermon, but here is my question: Are we regressing to a period prior to Martin Luther King's emergence as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement? Would King, Ella Baker, Kwame Ture, James Meredith, Fannie Lou Hamer -- all those everyday ancestors who managed to survive and create a Black community in this country -- would they find our current condition tolerable? Even more important, should we? Under No Child Left Behind, our children study for texts. In New York's Public Schools, for example, one of the most segregated but unequal (still), Black students have the highest rate for failure. Surprise! Only 44% graduate high school in four years, according to the Black Commentator, April, 2005. Then, encouraged by the media to see themselves as criminals, outfitted in prison wear produced and sold to them by large consumer corporations and independent merchants, our children are "educated" by multiple forces to internalize failure. Do our children have the skills to survive and to create a space for themselves in the present with knowledge of how their enslaved ancestors managed against social and cultural isolation? Do they have more than a superficial knowledge of their heritage? They have heard of King, for example, and may have written a book report or two on him. For a man who suffered bouts of depression in his later years, magically, he now offers comfort to many! Our students are not asked to question why exhaustion and frustration characterized King's lived-experience as a civil rights activist. Presented with a static caricature of Sojourner Truth, students are not asked to see her baring her breast to White men who heckled her and questioned her womanhood. They are asked to regurgitate the "comfortable" and the "static." Imparted "knowledge" comes down in fragmented and disconnected sound bites. This event happened in this year ... Is this the kind of "knowledge" and its transmission expected to empower Black children in the ways in which they can become active citizens with hope rather than passive recipients of despair? For our generation, we are witnessing the theft of our ancestors, the theft of her heritage. He or she was truly a genealogical isolate, someone might write some years from now about our young. Just think -- what would happen if Black children were allowed to freely "integrate the experience of their ancestors into their lives, to inform their understanding of social reality with the inherited meanings of their natural forebears, or to anchor the living present in any conscious community memory"? One thing, prisons would not serve as "home" for Black men who would be gainfully employed because they would demand meaningful employment. Grades would improve with an inclusive and a hopeful purpose for learning ... Our children would learn that we have a heritage of values and beliefs -- not just a few holidays. Song and dance was the magic we entertained ourselves with in the midst of a harsh and uncertain reality. But there was much more! Maybe our children would understand that disrespecting Black women and worse -- allowing this disrespect to be packaged as a "cultural" product, tramples on graves and on memories, ensures an era of genealogical isolation for the whole race. Just think -- if our children could know who they are and, armed with this knowledge rather than guns, they actively reject definitions of themselves, definitions meant to return us all to a state of "enslavement." Clocks generally move forward. It is 2006 now. |
| Voices/ Dr. Jean Daniels Regression |
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