Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 February 1995 — Page 2
PAGE A2
THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER
SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 11,1995
A POMS
EDITORUIS
Educators guilty of educational malpractice One of the most telling statistics concerning IPS test scores is the drop in Indiana State Test of Educational Progress scores from the second-grade level to the eighth-grade. There is nearly a 12 percentage point drop during this period. This means that children are apparently being “de-educated” in the process of going to school. To us, that would be like putting a car on the assembly line and having it less completed at the end of the line than when we started. General Motors would be mystified if this occurred. Yet, it occurs with IPS students. In a related problem, author James E. Blackwell has found, “...Black students are significantly more likely to be placed in classes labeled ‘educably mentally retarded’ in schools located Alabama, Arkansas, the Carolinas, Mississippi...and Indiana,” among others. Based on informal surveys and anecdotal information, we at the Recorder are led to believe that a significant number of African-American parents of school-age children feel distressed about their children’s treatment in schools. Public school educators in general seem to be less interested in the best interests of African-American children than they do the interests of others. . And while the performance slide in ISTEP scores in IPS is one indicator of this, the township schools also present problems for concerned African-American parents. There are exceptions, but the rule seems to be African-American parents have to browbeat some educators into taking the education of their children seriously. If parents are unable or unwilling to constantly monitor what teachers and administrators are doing, on an almost daily basis, then most African-American children are allowed to slip into mediocrity no matter the aptitude of the child. We believe that the decline in ISTEP scores from second grade to eighth grade is one direct manifestation of what we feel is educational malpractice. Public education needs an altitudinal revolution as well as other types of reform. Our children are being expected to do less than they are capable of and they are being mislabeled by uncaring educators, many of whom are virtually encouraged to be mediocre in spite of high aptitude and high motivation. As difficult as it may be to seek education reform in terms of fiscal issues and quality control, it is just as important to seek altitudinal reforms which will raise the levels of teachers’ expectations of all children, especially African-American children. If life were fair, this would occur in the normal course of events. But, currently, too many parents have to fight educators to get them to expect more and demand more from their children. We are already fighting drugs, crime and joblessness. We shouldn’t have to fight to give children the chance to work for a decent future. Our community is paying its share of hundreds of millions of dollars for decent education. We are being robbed. This sort of educational neglect and malpractice is stealing more than any criminal could take. This practice is stealing hope from babies.
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I recently attended a play titled “I Am a Man” at the Karamu Theater
in Cleveland.
It was the story of the union organizer who worked with the sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn. during their strike in 1968. This was the strike which brought Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis and to the Lorraine Motel where he
was assassinated.
Today, the Lorraine Motel houses one of the nation’s finest museums which chronicles the civil rights movement, particularly that of the 1950s and 1960s. The National Civil Rights
Museum houses 10,000 square feet of exhibitions, an auditorium, a courtyard, a gallery, a museum gift shop and administrative offices. The exhibits of the National Civil Rights Museum make African-American
history come alive, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Freedom Rides, the March on Washington, student sit-ins and the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike.
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A 10-minute introductory audiovisual program focuses on the Constitutional rights we all have as U.S. citizens. Other audiovisuals place the viewer in the Birmingham, Ala. jail cell where King wrote his famous letter and allowed the viewer to hear the stories of the Little Rock Nine, who integrated schools in Arkansas. Rooms 306 and 307, which King occupied on that fateful day in April, 1968, form an emotional focus of the museum and are the collective historical climax of the exhibits. These rooms have been recreated as they were when King was there. Another treasure chest of African-American history is the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio. Located on the campus of Wilberforce University, a historically Black university, it includes a permanent exhibit which chronicles the period in American history from 1945 to 1965. This exhibit has cars, barber chairs, straightening combs and even a reproduction of a church from those days. It looks at the migration of millions of Blacks from the South to the North and at African-American family, work, community and religious life. In addition to these permanent exhibits, the National Afro-American Museum has changing art and photography exhibits, Black dolls and special exhibits for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Black History Month and Kwanzaa. The 35,000-square-foot building, which opened in 1988, also includes a gift shop, an audiovisual presentation on Black music and a collection of manuscripts and library materials. For our children to really know and appreciate African-American history, we must find all kinds of ways to make history come alive. Plays like “I Am a Man” or museums like the National Civil Rights Museum and the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center are critical to telling our stories. African-American history is important for all Americans all year long. As you plan trips for your family, include these museums on your itinerary. As you try »o tell your children about African-American heroes, include Black theater productions and Black art exhibits in your plans. Let’s make African-American history come alive for our children. It’s not for the sake of our past, but for the sake of our future.
A resolution to rekindle the freedom struggle
Africans in America should be imminently aware that we are just five years away from the dawning of a new century and a new millennium. The plight of our people in this country and in the world is perilous. As W.E.B. DuBois correctly prophesied, the problem of the 20th century has indeed been the color line. The domination of Africans and the Pan-African world on the basis of racial oppression and economic exploitation has been a devastating fact of life throughout this century. Nonetheless, African people have made some progress. As the old folks would put it, “We sure ain’t what we want to be.” The crises which afflict the masses of African people, however, continue to be lorrendpus. Thus, if we are serious about being what “we’re ^onna be,” then it is imperative that we rekindle the Black reedom struggle. Yes, we need to rekindle the Hack Freedom Struggle. Despite the “gains” of African people, the African masses are not free from individual and institutional racism. The masses of African people are not free from chronic unemployment, underemployment, poverty, poor icalth, inadequate housing, inferior education and toxic environments. Even those among us who lave benefited handsomely from the civil rights movements and the Black Power movement are still looked upon as “niggers” in America, an unpleasant inconvenience to be tolerated, at best. Middle-class or upper-class standing should not blind any of us to the reality that until all African people are free, no African person is immune to the indignities of racism, racial oppression and economic exploitation. As African people, we need to collectively resolve that the 21st century will be the century of African redemption. For that resolution to be meaningful, however, each and every future
status of the race must make an individual resolution/ commitment to contribute to the Black Freedom Struggle. Each African person must recognize that the liberation of African people is in their hands and act accordingly. One of the greatest impediments to achieving liberation is the apathy, indifference and lack of involvement of Black people in the process of breaking the shackles that bind us. Far too many Black people do not take the time or make the time to participate in the organizations, agencies and movements that are engaged in the struggle for social justice and social change. The Black Freedom Struggle not only requires time, there is always a need for money. You cannot run an organization or agency or build and sustain a movement without money. If we rely on people and forces external to the Black community to finance the Black Freedom Struggle, then they will control the direction of our movement. This year, you need to resolve, in the interest of rekindling the Black Freedom Struggle, that you will take the time to
participate in and support at least one organization that is fighting for the uplift and betterment of Black people. Resolve to get involved. If you do not like any of the organizations you see working in the community, then get together with like-minded Black people and form your own organization, civic group or association. Finally, resolve to use a portion of your financial resources, your money, to aid and assist the Black Freedom Struggle. Our failure to invest in our own liberation borders on the pathetic. Virtually every one of our major civil rights organizations is financed by people and forces external to our community. It is a disgrace to have billions of dollars in Black national income annually and still depend
on people outside of the Black community to finance our organizations. This is a dependency, an unhealthy and dysfunctional dependency, which is rooted in our refusal to embrace ourselves and do for ourselves. We must resolve to finance our own organizations and agencies consciously and purposely set aside a portion of our incomes to contribute to Black organizations. Black agencies and Black causes. Throughout the 20th century our great African leaders — Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ella Baker, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer — have admonished us to give generously of our time and resources in order to secure our freedom. As we enter a new year and prepare for the dawning of a new century and a new millennium, Africans in America need to heed the voices of our ancestors and make a firm resolution that we will take the time and invest the resources necessary to build a movement that will redeem the race.
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