Up From Slavery with Bill Cosby: Everything has a back story

In my book, I write that everything has a backstory. And I make "Back Story" one word. To me "BackStory" is one word because it is one thing. If other people can form compound words, why can't I? That's something I told my AP English teacher when she would giggle about my creation of new words. Well heck...if Miriam Webster can give things meanings...what is there to stop me from doing so? Absolutely NOTHING.

Some people have found my "I do what I want" attitude offensive. I don't see the point in backing down unless not doing so will be futile. I have never felt inferior to anyone...no matter his or her position or station in life. (I once had a senior lawyer try to punk me after I did something she did not like...and  trust and believe it did not go how she felt it would go.) Inferiority is taught.  My folks taught  me to never  be or feel inferior, either passively or forthrightly. (Someone somewhere is teaching a child he or she has to be someone other than who God made in order to survive...that breaks my heart.)

I was a "precocious child" who could have conversations with adults without being disrespectful or feeling intimidated. I'm not saying any of this to toot my own horn...I'm just giving you an idea of who I am, so you'll understand where I'm coming from with this post. (People hate getting to know someone's perspective and seriously just want to judge them based off their own predilections...mmmhmmm). In kindergarten I stood up to my teacher, Ms. Howington (Brenda Howington, I hope someone somewhere knows you and shows you this post...yes, I'm a Capricorn...and I have a long memory LOL) when she made a classmate cry due to his physical challenges. I literally stood up and went off on her in the middle of story time.

Ms. Howington had this passive aggressive way of belittling some children in our class. I picked up on it even as a five-year-old. She treated us with a weird mix of disdain, warmth, and pity (in my view). She once talked about my hair and my mama, publicly shamed a couple of students who had challenges (one did not yet have potty trained capabilities and was hearing impaired, another had bowed legs which made sitting with his legs crossed impossible), and was just not the warm and fuzzy kindergarten teacher to us, that she may have been to other students.

Now that is Ms. Howington's foundation with these impressionable students. I knew it was wrong even as a five-year-old. But, someone had taught me that (the opposite of how Ms. Howington behaved) before Ms. Howington ever got her hands on my impressionable brain.

If all I knew about myself, and others who were not perceived to be good enough by Ms. Howington, was what Ms. Howington taught me, I would have some serious issues, emotionally and psychologically. Those emotional and psychological issues would permeate my soul and probably change my baseline behavior...thus leading me on a path of self-destruction.

Where the video above comes in: A lot of parents tell their children "you go to school to learn". But no one ever questions what these children are being taught about themselves. Any Black child who has gone to a regular school in the US has been taught that he or she is the descendant of slaves who were once inhabitants of an uncivilized continent. That's baseline. PERIOD. These history lessons are mandatory.

I remember a classmate of mine (who happens to be a good friend) started a petition to get a Black History elective course...and it flopped. (Shout out to you for trying O.P.)

We were not taught that we came from artists and artisans. That we created things and built civilizations. The history exists, but we were not taught that at all as the foundation of our education within the bounds of a school building. Teachers cannot teach what they don't know themselves...

EVERY SINGLE PERSON who did something amazing (besides fight to be treated as human or win at sports) in our history books looked like the White kids who we were competing against for grades, scholarships, and jobs. That's our foundation...we were taught from US education that we were less than,  excluded and not part of the plan...the American Dream built by the White students' ancestors.

If you want to know why there is an achievement gap based on race...this is why! The education system's foundation is set on principles of inferiority. If you keep telling Black kids that who they are is inferior to the people who created this nation in the history books (books that are cultivated like a cult's doctrinal lessons) and that in order to even be looked upon as human their ancestors had to fight, scrape, cry, and die...you give them a foundation of inferiority.

You do not go to school to learn. You go to school to move to the next level. You go to school to learn how to learn about The Systems and navigate these systems. That's it. True learning happens inside and outside of a school building. What you are learning is extremely important.



Follow @YBBG_Blog on Twitter and use hashtag #YBBGTopic for more interesting discussions. 
Check out YBBG on Facebook.