This section was created after reading The Mis-Education of the Negro.
Originally released in 1933, The Mis-Education of the Negro by Dr. Carter G. Woodson continues to resonate well into the 21st century. Woodson explores the effects of slavery on the Black psyche and raises questions about the U.S. education system, such as what and who African Americans are educated for, the difference between education and training, and which of these African Americans are receiving.
Dr. Woodson’s believed that African-Americans are not being educated, but are being culturally indoctrinated, in American schools. This conditioning, he claims, causes African American to become dependent and to seek out inferior places in the greater society of which they are a part. He challenges his readers to become autodidacts and to “Do for themselves”, regardless of what they were taught:
Woodson believed that while the U.S. education system may inspire and stimulate white kids, it simultaneously indoctrinates African-American children to dismiss their own culture and strive to imitate the life of an Americanized white person, which is a disillusionment they will realize that they can never fully attain.
For example, educating African-American children in school named after a Confederate general, which is not uncommon in this country, may or may not inspire and stimulate white kids educationally, but it probably won’t and shouldn’t inspire African-American children. It may also unconsciously teach the white children that they are superior to the children who don’t look like them. Because, for instance, how many white children attend a school named after former President Barack Obama or former civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Furthermore, how many white parents would allow their white children to attend such a named school.