The Miseducation of the Negro

When reading the first chapter of the mis-education of the Negro book, the two most interesting items that I found was how it explained about blacks being hopeless, “to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless...". To me this first point meant how the teachings towards blacks is as if blacks were a curse and not meant to move forward because of their struggles and being black. The second point that interests me is the part when a student was in a Negro summer school with a white instructor who used such a textbook that states white people are superior to blacks. And the student said why and the instructor said he wanted the students to get that point of view.

Richard did not understand until later that the black community discouraged his rebellious ways because following the expectations of whites was a way to ensure survival of the community. A rebellious act of one black not only put his or her life in danger, but also his or her family and the entire black community. Richard’s need to conform to the rules of the white society for survival and his need to rebel in order to achieve his humanity and individuality was a tension that infested him daily.

Racism is an issue that blacks face, and have faced throughout history directly and indirectly. Ralph Ellison has done a great job in demonstrating the effects of racism on individual identity through a black narrator. Throughout the story, Ellison provides several examples of what the narrator faced in trying to make his-self visible and acceptable in the white culture. Ellison engages the reader so deeply in the occurrences through the narrator’s agony, confusion, and ambiguity. In order to understand the narrators plight, and to see things through his eyes, it is important to understand that main characters of the story which contributes to his plight as well as the era in which the story takes place.

In his book, The Miseducation of the Negro, Carter G. Woodson addresses many issues that have been and are still prevalent in the African American community. Woodson believed that in the midst of receiving education, blacks lost sight of their original reasons for becoming educated. He believed that many blacks became educated only to assimilate to white culture and attempt to become successful under white standards, instead of investing in their communities and applying their knowledge to help other blacks.

Growing up Du Bois often played with the white kids in school, and he strived to be recognized for being more knowledgeable in all aspects than they were, however, he came to realize that it would never be possible. Through interactions with other black boys Du Bois was made aware of his limitations, nevertheless, he, like many black people fought to be optimistic in finding ways to take these opportunities that were so rightfully theirs. However, the question emerged of how could a person strive to be prosperous and have everything that the race he so greatly detest has, without being considered dishonorable by his own people? Many African Americans are brainwashed and fall under the misconception that having an education, a career, or even speaking proper, falls into the category of acting white. This ideology places a lot of stress on many successful black people, who growing up faced bullying and were described as a disgrace to their own race.

Imagine a person being labeled as inferior because of a complexion they cannot control. African Americans have been treated unfairly solely because of the color of their skin throughout history. The idea behind this is what is defined as colorism, which is the prejudice or discrimination against individual with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic group (Oxford Dictionary). Colorism has been prominent throughout history, allowing discrimination and hatred towards people with darker skin, more specifically African Americans. In a world filled with racism, prejudice, discrimination, colorism is another factor that has similar effects when it comes to the treatment of African Americans. Martin Luther Kings Jr.’s, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man both connect to the role that colorism plays in the lives of African Americans. Martin Luther King’s letter explicitly explains how society influences colorism and how it creates injustices. Ellison’s novel gives further insight on the more psychological and personal affect colorism has on Black people by using lots of symbolism in the novel throughout the novel to portray it. Constantly being put down because of how dark someone is will eventually lower an individual’s confidence, knowing that they will miss out on opportunities simply because they have darker skin. Colorism negatively affects how people treat African Americans and also how African Americans feel about themselves.

The life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination… the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land (qtd. in W.T.L. 235).

Even though they are mixed, they do not united as one, each of them have their owned destiny that they wanted to fulfill. Among the three races the two most misfortunate were the Negro and the Indian, these two races have nothing alike, except that they were both treated by the whites or European like a lower animals, who view themselves as a superiors in intelligence, and in power. And those who are inferior rank in the country have to obey and suffer from their tyranny. Negro have been brought from African by the European as slaves to help their master in plantation and agriculture, but he makes them subservient to his use, if they cannot subdue, they will get server punishment or even put to death. Even though they are descendants of the Africans, Negro of the United States had lost their connection with their own country, losing their custom and languages that their forefathers once speak. Losing themselves to the European, they are stuck between the two communities’ one who sold them, and the other who repulsed them. Without a place for them to be, or a place to them to call home, except a place that they know which is their master home. Once the Negro became slaves his lost all his right as a human, he is now a property

It is impossible for anyone to survive a horrible event in their life without a relationship to have to keep them alive. The connection and emotional bond between the person suffering and the other is sometimes all they need to survive. On the other hand, not having anyone to believe in can make death appear easier than life allowing the person to give up instead of fighting for survival. In The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, Aminata Diallo survives her course through slavery by remembering her family and the friends that she makes. Aminata is taught by her mother, Sira to deliver babies in the villages of her homeland. This skill proves to be very valuable to Aminata as it helps her deliver her friends babies and create a source of

“The Negro, too, for his part, has idols of the tribe to smash. If on the one hand the white man has erred in making the Negro appear to be that which would excuse or extenuate his treatment of him, the Negro, in turn, has too often unnecessarily excused himself because of the way he has been treated. The

Tocqueville anticipated the future these three races. For the Native Americans, Tocqueville anticipated that they were bound to vanish. With a specific end goal to survive, they should be acculturated or begun a fight were one of the two races could vanish. What 's more, Tocqueville anticipated that they will be secluded by the whites. For the Negros, he anticipated the racial blend will extend Negros race everywhere throughout the country. Additionally, they will be more acknowledgeable of their rights and battles will occur between those two races. Moreover, the bondage will be passed from one era to the next residual disgrace and disrespect to the Black race and hate to the white. At long last, Tocqueville proposed that intermix of

Historically black colleges and universities, otherwise known as HBCUs, have played an integral role in advancing the education of underprivileged black teenagers since their inception after the American Civil War. They have had students extremely well known in their fields today, such as billionaire entertainer Oprah Winfrey, the first African American Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. Though their graduation rates tend to be around 1 in 3, they have produced a majority of successful African American professionals. For the continued advancement of African Americans, HBCUs are necessary for offering educational opportunities that their students had been historically denied and presently out of financial reach, while promoting strong family values and equality that may be lacking at traditional schools and displaying positive African American role models in their alumni and staff.

Many Americans point to the suffering of the African American experience from the internal problems in African Americans communities; however, they neglect the external social constraints that African Americans have faces in America. African Americans have suffered oppression through social institution through factors such as Segregation, Racial Crimination, and Mass incarnation. The constraint of segregation was a way of social, political, and economical control over African Americans. African Americans are usually a racial group that is associate with crime. Research and statistics has shown that African Americans are those that are majority incarnated in the United states. Many white Americans kept

Woodson observation is about the history and Negro culture, and the issue of miseducated the negro that is reverent in today’s. There is another article support Woodson view from different angle, “Thomas I,.Dabney which offer course in Negro history and literature for both colleges and pr-college. And he explain the purpose and progress of Negro history. Another respected education: Dr. Horace Mann Bond, was strongly aware of the substantive character of Dr. Woodson’s charges of Miseducation, particularly with regard to the curriculum under which the southern Negro child studied”. There are important issue that Negro history and their culture out of the curriculum. In spite of their achievement and their progress in the nation life.The

In the beginning Locke tells us about “the tide of Negro migration”. During this time in a movement known as the Great Migration, thousand of African Americans also known as Negros left their homes in the South and moved North toward the beach line of big cities in search of employment and a new beginning. They left the South because of racial violence such as the Ku Klux Klan and economic discrimination not able to obtain work. Their migration was an expression of their changing attitudes toward themselves as Locke said best From The New Negro, and has been described as "something like a spiritual emancipation." Many African Americans moved to Harlem, a neighborhood located in