Sitting under a natural awning of deep green leaves and swaying lichen, I’m at peace in the neighborhood park. Looking in front of me, about a yard away, I see passerby’s, trudging along the footpath.
One kind-looking fellow pumps the pedals on his bicycle, taking a small, uphill journey at a leisurely pace. The sanctimonious marriage of synchronous footsteps are taken by a young couple for the second lap on the trail. A child of maybe two years, laughs uncontrollably at a mother’s insistence for her to stay under her cautious gaze; there is a large body of unbarricaded water nearby. But the child is happy, unaware of any silly perception of danger. She is in nature, and even at the age of three, perhaps no older than four, she is enjoying this.
So I want to call out and ask the mother, “how old is your daughter? She has a lively way about her.” And I want to motion for the gentleman to draw nearer so that I may observe the build of his bicycle. I would even like to give the smallest gesture of recognition to the couple I see now on their third lap, coming closer just from around the bend.
But woe upon one small trifle: this seemingly unintentional park bench. How I wish it were intentional! So set on being a small beacon of solitude under the awning of this tall tree with deep green leaves and swaying lichen. So unabashedly humble in its invitation to mere strangers, yet so wallflower-like in its reclined position and distance.
Were it but one yard closer to the winding footpath, I might have the personal pleasure of indulging in meaningful stares of knowing eyes, and awkward glances with raised eyebrows alike! I would wave hello to my heart’s content and my smile would most assuredly be seen!
My thoughts are cut short by a young child fast approaching. His bright red shirt glares past me as he roars ahead on his scooter. I smile big at him as he draws near. He pauses from a short distance and waves.
“Hi there!” I wave back. He stops by me for a curious moment. I ask him how he’s doing today. “GOOD!” He shrieks as he gets in position on his scooter. “Watch this!” he instructs me. At this moment, there is no time for conversations, questions or any other words. He whooshes by again, a blur of red courage, almost toppling over, making my heart commit a free-fall.
But he’s fine. And he’s enjoying himself at the park. He feels emboldened by the open space, the vastness of the area, and the attention of a crowd of one: me. I cheer him on under the awning of this great tree, with deep green leaves and swaying lichen.
As the sun has almost set, I realize that the sides of my face hurt. And it is because I just now realized…I have been smiling this whole time.
All pleasantries aside, this book blew me away. Honest and stark,The Mis-education of the Negroshould be read by the ones who value education, societal progress and the intricacies of a well-fashioned sense of humanity.
This book review will take on a different tone. Divided into three parts, I want to provide snapshots of what exactly Woodson identifies as the Mis-education and his inspiringQuotes. I have included a number of Woodson’s applicable Takeawaysthat may be applied today and to all based on their universality. Finally, a comprehensive Glossarysection that may be updated or expanded upon at later dates.
In other words, I am not going to tell you what I thought. I am going to show you what I read.
The Mis-education.
The results of an education of an individual aligns strongly with how he functions in society, and what he aspires to be and do. Woodson does not focus narrowly on grades and academic degrees, because he just as fervently dismisses many educated African-Americans as attaining these degrees and being the worst off from receiving them. If community uplift and outreach is not labored for, the education received by African-Americans has been earned in vain.
Educating freed slaves and their descendants after the Civil war was embedded in philanthropy, which focused on encouraging Black people to live a life in society that abolitionists hoped to make it, but not how it was. The later generations of Black men and women were not taught how to function in society nor were they convinced that their humanity could be recognized and valued. As a result, a back-to-Africa approach was adopted by many.
The overall mission was to transform Blacks, and not develop them. Condemnation and pity surfaced aplenty. Woodson sharply asserts, “…bear in mind that the Negro has never been educated.”
A warped slant was used to educate Blacks in the academic areas needed for their progress: i.e., from literature, the works of Africans were excluded, law students were taught they belonged to the most criminal segment of the country, in medicine, Blacks were informed of their inferiority when studied as germ carriers, in history, Blacks were only taught of their subjugation, etc.
Black students were not permitted to learn of the Declaration of Independence, nor the Constitution of the United States in schools.
African-Americans learned by way of their oppressors that there were certain professional spheres they would not be able to enter or thrive in. Some professional schools were then closed down in Black institutions. An immensely woeful action, Woodson calls this “a striking demonstration of the mis-education of the race.”
Paying careful attention to the centrality of the Black church, Woodson credits ministers as co-creators of the old educational system. He therefore maintains that the church, “in many cases…made it possible for Negro professional men to exist.” The antiquated Black church supplies the greatest illustration of the educated African-American becoming estranged from his community, and failing to carry out a program of progress for that community.
Quotes.
“But can you expect teachers to revolutionize the social order for the good of the community? Indeed we must expect this very thing. The educational system of a country is worthless unless it accomplishes this task.”
-Carter G. Woodson, excerpt from “The Mis-education of the Negro.”
“In the schools of business administration Negroes are trained exclusively in the psychology of economics of Wall Street and are, therefore, made to despise the opportunities to run ice wagons, push banana carts, and sell peanuts among their own people. Foreigners, who have not studied economics but have studied Negroes, take up this business and grow rich.”
“When a Negro has finished his education in our schools, then, he has been equipped to begin the life of an Americanized or Europeanized white man, but before he steps from the threshold of his alma mater he is told by his teachers that he must go back to his own people from whom he has been estranged…”
“The servant of the people is down among them, living as they live, doing what they do and enjoying what they enjoy. He may be a little better informed than some other members of the group; it may be that he has had some experience that they have not had, but in spite of this advantage he should have more humility than those whom he serves, for we are told that, ‘whosoever is greatest among you, let him be your servant.’”
“As to whether or not a white man should be leader of the Negroes may be dismissed as a silly question. What has the color to do with it? Such a worker may be white, brown, yellow, or red, if he is heart and soul with the people whom he would serve.”
“Every man has two educations: that which is given to him, and the other that which he gives himself. Of the two kinds the latter is by far the more desirable. Indeed all that is most worthy in man he must work out and conquer for himself. It is that which constitutes our real and best nourishment. What we are merely taught seldom nourishes the mind like that which we teach ourselves.”
Takeaways.
To become a purposeful educator, you must identify yourself as a connected part of the group you are serving.
A teaching style of memorizing facts and abandoning the understanding of humanity is disastrous.
Woodson strongly believes that religious schools must teach the people it serves “how to tolerate differences of opinion and to cooperate for the common good.”
Service rather than leadership. Focus on an individual approach to understanding the larger/mass problems form a smaller perspective.
Step away from duplication and toward partnership and merging.
Engagement in politics is vital.
Be innovators, not imitators. Black Americans must find the unique offerings they can contribute in the area of academics. There is a need of ‘new vision’ to African-American education, with a special need for more Black historians, economists, artists and philosophers.
Glossary.
Teuton: a native of Germany or a person of German origin.
Nonentity: a person or thing of no importance.
The Black Belt
Espouse
Peon
Vitiated
Grafter
Libertine
Apropos
Wardheeler: a minor politician who canvasses voters and does other chores for a political machine or party boss.
Polemic
Traducer
Puerile
Attrition
Despot
*From this book review and forward, I will strive to cut back a bit out of my book reviews for the purpose of brevity. But if you ever want my full notes on a book, please do not hesitate to email me and I will send you the original Word document (Adjoasutota@gmail.com).
A modern-day bedtime tale for our children and a history-making performance is currently being written and illustrated by the passionate life of Majora Carter.
“The 20 Most Influential Women in Green” from Eco-Salon
The Knowledge of Good and Evil
A powerful story begins in the perceivably unlikeliest of places, at least where strength is concerned. In the state of New York, a South Bronx neighborhood known as Hunts Point was first in line for the placement of a new waste treatment facility. The South Bronx in general was looked down upon as a hostile place to live, and the perceptions associated with it were increasingly precarious. Hunts Point itself was a neighborhood that experienced a dramatic decline in its population due to ‘white flight’ to the more affluent New York suburbs. With the advent of that demographic shift, light manufacturing jobs were also removed, along with proper government funding for education, health and employment. In the place of prosperous investments, Hunts Point was saddled with toxic waste. People continued to become sick as a result of the air they breathed. Statistics of crime and incarceration remained disproportionate to favorable education systems and career opportunities there. In addition to this, an even more devaluing measure such as a municipal waste plant was considered a fair exchange for the people of Hunts Point and the land they lived on.
The South Bronx as a whole had suffered the brunt of segregation and mounting disinterest, so what would it matter to the Hunts Point residents to establish yet another waste facility near their homes and where the children played? Now the interesting part of this true story is what the state government not only overlooked, but failed tremendously to anticipate in the year of 1998.
Hunts Point, South Bronx. Image via Majora Carter Group
Surely no one living there would notice the obvious imbalance of trees per acre to municipal treatments sites, brown-fields and razed buildings on nearly every block. More importantly, it was presumed that even if the residents of Hunts Point were unhappy about this decision, no one had the guts, or even the strength to stand up to this challenge. They simply would have no knowledge of the good that could come from their neighborhood rather than the impending evil an additional toxic dump would have on their quality of life. But little did big government know that a visionary resided in that neighborhood. And she was a quiet storm.
Meanwhile, as plans became perfected to place this waste system in the neighborhood, the environmental advocate woke up each morning in the South Bronx and laid her head to rest there each night. When the state government finally unveiled the plans for the strategic location of the waste site, something out of the ordinary happened. At the mention of this planned waste facility, the ears of the visionary heard. A seemingly lone soul that retained the knowledge of good and evil in this scenario had decided that Hunts Point had experienced enough divestment. The individual knew that Hunts Point did not have to get worse.
Fortunately, the circumstances that in a real sense, forced her to move back home with her parents, a move she imagined as a small defeat, was a move that equally put her in harm’s way and in a historic position. And so she began to create her very own strategy for diverting the new waste facility. Harnessing the knowledge of evil that the plant would wield on her neighborhood’s already economically degraded community and impoverished landscapes, she put her knowledge of the salubrious good that the natural environment has on people’s minds and hearts, plus the benefits to a local economy, to use. The knowledge of good she possessed was leveraged mightily in the form of a community-based campaign to strike down that detrimental decision made for people where she lived: her neighbors, her friends and family; herself. In the end of the first chapter of the passionate life of Majora Carter, the audacity of harm was trumped by the peculiar audacity of hope.
The Miseducation of Majora Carter
Before the first pages were written of the heroic actions she was destined to fulfill in the South Bronx, education was how Majora Carter planned her getaway. Promising herself she would not return, Majora attained a higher education she deemed would free her from the possibility of living in a place like the old Hunts Point. But the very thing that allowed her to escape, forced her to return. The series of unfortunate events surrounding Majora’s community, the story of her family and finally the realization that she had to come to terms with it all again, turned out instead to yield a greater fortune than she could have ever imagined. The miseducation she had once received of the lack of opportunities in the South Bronx was auspiciously overshadowed by an overwhelming sense of urgency to realize potential in the face of adversity.
Majora reminds us through this story of the miseducation of ourselves and our miseducation of how we perceive others and our own communities. On a personal level, our knowledge of good and evil is informed through how we observe our surroundings, and through understanding that those who have greatest influence on our lives and destinies are in fact, ourselves.
Majora’s example shed light on the possibility of a better ending. Once deemed as faceless, voiceless, and unknown characters in a tragic tale, when the smoke cleared, the silhouettes were striking against a once forlorn backdrop. A retrofitted picture was then painted with Majora the protagonist, holding the brush, adding brightly intense colors to green the ghetto, and still incorporating dynamic illustrations of faces, of distinct communities with their own chapters to be added to a story that has not yet reached its conclusion.
A Rose in a Concrete World
Hunts Point Riverside Park, the first park along the waterfront in the Bronx in 60 years. The founding of Sustainable South Bronx, a non-profit that equips local residents with communal incentives. The development and implementation of BEST, a green-collar training and job placement program; think landscaping, green roof installation, Brownfield remediation. The founding of the for-profit consulting agency and planning firm, the Majora Carter Group, LLC. National public radio host for the Peabody Award winning program, the Promised Land. A speaker for the world-renowned TED conferences. The recipient of a MacArthur ‘Genius’ grant in 2005.
Hunts Point Riverside Park. Image via The New York Times
All of these accomplishments? Majora has done them. The Wesleyan University graduate who continued on to earn a Masters degree in Fine Arts from NYU creates daily works of breathing, living and growing art. Whether it be a singular installment such as a green roof, or a tapestry of neighborhood connections through bike and pedestrian trails, a masterpiece of healthy local communities rooted in economic vitality is the artistry of Majora Carter. But the vivacity and energy she possesses allows her to do more.
Next on her itinerary islaunching a nationally recognized brand that relates to the consumer the guarantee they are buying the most freshest of local food. Majora recognizes that, “by establishing a nationally recognized brand platform that immediately signifies local economic prosperity and high quality, we can drive more investment into local food systems. That means building more indoor, year-round hydroponic growing space, which in turn reduces blight, draws people back into declining urban areas, and inspires hope for those who have very little now.”
Still, the accolades that have been attributed to Majora cannot begin to describe what she has achieved for others on a psychological level. In addition, what they themselves have achieved in their own lives on a spiritually edifying level because of the passionate life she lives, could not be immediately determined.
Because how do you accurately categorize the accomplishment of helping one man never again return to prison when he was, by popular opinion, supposed to? How can one place a value on the experience of a child who will not suffer from asthma or diabetes? How does one gauge a new interest in ecological preservation from those who were never afforded the chance to witness firsthand the complex beauty of nature? And what about the countless individuals who have become the supporting force of her vision? A generational legacy in the making is hers to claim.
One Sun Gives Life to All
Heat, energy, light and life in general: like the sun that sustains every aspect of our existence and comfort, so are other essential and natural things, ours to have and share. Like clean air. The health and safety of our own children in our neighborhoods and in the place we call home. Majora reminds us that we are supposed to have these things, and in abundance. It is not only for the wealthy or the privileged, but for each income bracket.
There is no skin-color requirement, nor socioeconomic pre-requisites or standardized tests you have to pass to be afforded what you rightfully deserve: atmospheric natural beauty to envelope you, the access to healthy food, unpolluted air, and a neighborhood that you can feel proud to call home. This in essence, is environmental equality, Majora’s greatest mission and aim:
“No community should have to face more environmental burdens than any other. Period. We have to strive for equality in all aspects of life, but the environment is chief because it affects everything—how we breathe, what we eat and how we move through our communities and our lives.”
An excerpt from the interview with Majora Carter titled, With Liberty and Environmental Justice For All by Natural Home and Garden
Through the campaign that brought down the municipal waste plant that was planned for the South Bronx, Majora teaches us that if we do not understand the enormous value of our own lives, our own health and our own happiness, we become steady targets for harmful decisions carried out time and again by lawmakers. So like Majora, we work to become informed of decisions made for where we live, educate ourselves on our basic human rights and work smarter against measures that aim to deplete and devalue our living environments. Her actions have spoken just as loud as her words through her ability to use activism as a genuine tool for social, environmental and economic progress.
Nothing, If Not Authentic
Activism. What comes to mind when I hear that word? Cut-off jeans with frayed edges. Ivory skin. Picket lines formed by participants waving signs smeared with deep red ink. You know, the stereotypical tried and true, all-American red, white and blue. None of these things are wrong, and equally important, they do exist in the realm of activism.
But what Majora has done with the word [activism] is nothing short of awe-inspiring. She has reenergized it and skillfully injected within its definition, the artful beauty of knowledge-based regenerative problem-solving. Undoubtedly, she is one of activisms’ authenticator’s.
Through the magnificent accomplishments she has swiftly pioneered, Majora shows us that activism must be purposeful and directed; it must be a catalyst of fresh innovation and ever expanding and blossoming ideas bridled with the renewable energy of informative strength. Kaleidoscopic at best, Majora illustrates that the greatest results come from demonstrations of activism with the community at its helm. She shows us that a community that is informed and educated and skilled in not simply higher education, but also trade skills, common knowledge and with avenues open for ongoing training is where real solutions are found. Her activism seeks out preventative measures before a new crisis erupts. Her activism is academic and artful, it is grass root and top-down, and it is ongoing and ever-improving the lives and economic vitality of the communities she serves. Real activism is pressing towards a just cause & utilizing all resources vital to that cause: the people, the planet and even the profit. For Majora, activism is nothing, if not authentic.
Majora Carter Group image via Allblackwoman.com
Reconsider Your Position
After engaging in conversation in a coffee shop one morning with a young man I am forever indebted to, he mentioned he learned of a unique woman, a Black urban planner by way of a TEDTalks clip on YouTube. I was caught off guard at the mention of these simple descriptors: black, female, urban planning, TEDTalks. She must have done something really cool, I imagined happily. After rummaging through his web history, he finally pulled up a link with her name for me: Majora Carter. I scribbled it down on the back of used receipt paper. Days later, I could say I had learned a great deal about the inspiring life of Majora Carter.
She is an environmental justice advocate and activist. She strongly believes in the power of education to change all things, from how we see ourselves to how we see the natural environment we all share. Because she believes in the pride one feels when they can work with their hands and hearts to create something good for their local area, she puts her money where her mouth is when it comes to neighborhood revitalization, and encourages all stakeholders to do the same. She and I share the perspective that a higher GDP does not have to include a degraded environment and population. With her first organization SSBx, her activism did not settle on only reacting to problems, but also included taking existing problems and creating solutions that are innovative and designed in order to be flexible for future benefit.
But the single greatest lesson I’ve learned and grasped and now hold tightly to from Majora Carter, is to reconsider your position: where do you live and what is bringing down the quality of life there? Utilize the resources you have in your midst and expand on them: the families in your apartment complex or residential street. The public library. The people in your school. The place of worship you visit. The local, national and global news stories. The social and educational events that are free to the public that take place in a number of areas inside and outside of your immediate community. Your own imagination.
These, Majora shows me, are all resources. I have learned the greatest lesson from Majora is to be the change you want to see. It is to look closely at your city and your neighborhood, shoot even your block, examine the problems there, and then re-imagine it all. Begin to teach yourself and others around you and start on the extraordinary quest of turning it all into something beautiful, healthful and stronger than it was before. Because Majora believes…“You don’t have to move out of your neighborhood to live in a better one.”
“Helping people and groups understand that when we value all people, the value of all people rises. Environmental problems may seem impossible to solve, but when we accept the challenges of equality, economic opportunity and the environment, we uncover the keys to more powerful solutions for all of our issues. When we can do that, we will experience real peace with ourselves and our planet.”
An excerpt from the interview with Majora Carter titled, With Liberty and Environmental Justice For All by Natural Home and Garden
