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Race-Conscious Public Schools: A Reality for Blacks, A Dream for Whites
Report; Posted on: 2005-04-17 10:31:22 [ Printer friendly / Instant flyer ]
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White tax-payers support Afrocentric public schools, but are denied the same reality for their children.
by Jay White
If you visited the link to the WBNS TV news story regarding the outrage that was committed against a disabled girl at Mifflin High School in Ohio, you may have noticed the headline “OHSAA Strips Africentric Of Title” posted here.
That report is about a Black basketball team, the Columbus Africentric High Nubians, which was recently stripped of its state title. However, the most interesting aspect of the story is not the sports scandal, but rather that it shows the there are taxpayer-funded public schools in Ohio that are organized around an explicitly race-conscious and racially preferential philosophy. This would be akin to reading a sports story about the Green Bay Eurocentric High Aryans competing in the state championships tournament.
To answer the question of what exactly this “Africentricity” is that Black public school students in Ohio are being taught, the school’s own web site posted an informational piece that explains, "Africentricity puts Africa at the center of your self-being and aligns your interpretation of the world from an African historical perspective. It is necessary to place Africa at the center of our reality, else we will remain detached, isolated, and a spiritually lonely people in societies which constantly expose us to anti-African rhetoric and symbols.”
A Black author by the name of Kariamu Welsh is quoted in the piece as teaching that "Africentricity is African genius and African values created, reconstructed, and derived from our history and experiences in our best interests."
The article goes on to declare that education doesn’t have anything to do with preparing students for the demands of the ever-changing job market, and those who expect students to be able to pass proficiency tests have a false set of priorities. Dr. Amos Wilson is cited to delineate the philosophy of Africentric schools:
"'Schools...are [a] cultural product and are established to maintain and advance a cultural way of life...' Thus Columbus Africentric exists to help ensure that the Black race and Black culture(s) not merely continue to exist but that they flourish and evolve. As one Dr. John Henrik Clarke elaborates in the piece, 'We MUST reclaim the minds of our children… When other people control what we think about ourselves, they will also control what we do about ourselves...'"
A bibliography of recommended titles is also provided for Black parents who would like to join their children in their public school journey, “reclaiming” their minds from the White oppressor. Titles include:
Survival Strategies for Africans in AmericaDe-colonizing the African MindAfrican World Revolution: at the CrossroadThe African Origin of CivilizationThe Maroon Within UsUnderstanding an Afrocentric World ViewThe Developmental Psychology of the Black ChildAwakening the Natural Genius of Black Children.
In expanding upon the school’s mission statement we see reference to a Black Nationalist as an authoritative guiding voice, Egyptian evocations, Kwanza-esque imagery, and fabricated naturalistic religious and pseudo-philosophical teachings that characterize much of Black supremacist ideology in America.
The school’s teachers are called “Nation Builders," and students address them as “Mama” and “Baba,” which certainly instills awareness in the Black student body that their race is one giant extended family. They are all brothers and sisters, and their teachers are mothers and fathers of their race.
And as the publicly funded Africentric Nubians gather (teachers and students alike), they express their racial unity and racial pride in the kind of school song that will not be sung by Eurocentric Aryan students anytime soon:
As I walk through the door I know that I have arrived.
Its rich, calming spirit gives me a sense of pride.
Its strength and its power gives me courage to succeed.
In the eyes of those before me, I see all that I can be.
Where else can I go, where my soul can really grow?
Where else can I go, where my love can truly flow?
Where else can I go, where traditions abound?
Where else can I go, where my culture is found?
It's the Africentric School, we're the brightest and the best!
It's the Africentric School, we honor elders with respect!
It's the Africentric School, where learning is the key!
It's the Africentric School, where learning is the key!
It's harmony and family, inside of me!
Tradition has taught me, that we come from Kings and Queens.
Tradition has taught me, we can realize our dreams.
Tradition has taught me, we have a rich legacy!
It's harmony and family inside of me!
It's the Africentric School, we're the brightest and the best!
It's the Africentric School, we honor elders with respect!
It's the Africentric School, where learning is the key!
It's the Africentric School, where learning is the key!
It's harmony and family, inside of me!
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