I believe that OUR Black children are dying. (Now that I have your attention, I want you to start following this blog right now… Continue.)
When God blesses us with the gift of our children, God also passes the responsibility of educating those children into our care.
But they are dying Mentally, Spiritually and Physically.
Their minds and spirits are being systematically murdered and it is inevitably leading to the physical death of our children. When our children die, our generations are assaulted, denigrated and further subjugated. It’s as simple as that and as Black Canadian people, we should take major issue with this phenomenon. We are not helpless. We must not continue to stand so placidly by. We can do something.
As parents and as responsible community members, we must put an end to the destruction of the minds of our Black children.
The purpose of this forum is not to debate the goings on of the past nor to discuss things for which we have no control over however, putting an end to the systematic mis-education of our children, our most valuable commodities, I believe is of the utmost importance.
I do believe that it is our God-given onus to educate and thus save our children. I believe that if our children are going to stand a chance at becoming adequately prepared to hold complete free agency over their own destinies and not merely prepared to be employees and the unremarkable hired help; We must take up the torch.
First and foremost, I think that it’s time we rewrite the definition of education for Black people.
I quote Dr. Umar Johnson, “Education for Black children should be the art of teaching our children to acquire, protect and maintain power.” I concur. We must consistently work to see the shift from working for to dominating. It’s happened across the spectrum from sport to sport and in the entertainment industry so why not in the classroom and then on to the boardroom?
Why are we allowing our children to be taught to work for XYZ company instead of arming and equipping them with the knowledge and power to create, build and control businesses that compete with XYZ company?
We need to build a new educational environment for our children. Remember those Cultural Comfort Zones I wrote about creating a few weeks back? This is what I was getting at people!!! I have long believed that education should be a function of the community and it’s members and therefore, as parents we need to be talking about taking education reform into our own capable hands and building our own schools.
When I say this, I’m speaking metaphorically, somewhat anyway. Schools, learning, teaching and ultimately EDUCATING can happen in a variety of places. But, in order to teach our children what we believe they need to be learning, it’s time we took matters into our own hands and revolutionize something that has simply never worked for us and that is putting the responsibility of our education into the hands of those who have an alternate agenda.
As a Black parent of Black children, I feel that I am qualified to hold an opinion on this crisis and I invite You dear reader to mount up and fight the good fight with me.
We simply need to stand in the gap for our children.
In my upcoming articles, I will be revealing plans for a pilot program in the fall introducing our kids to some important Black Literature standards and getting the wheels turning for some grass-roots learning right here in Brampton Ontario! I’m very excited about this private venture into Black education.
I’m interested to know what you think about these ideas and your input is welcomed, valued and appreciated.
As always, light reflected is enlightenment infinite.
~Rachelle About Me
BlackLit101 