I will begin this by taking a moment to acknowledge the fact that this particular article will be highly opinionated and personal in nature. The perspectives I will be speaking of are brought forth from my own consciousness and experience. I will begin with some background knowledge regarding my upbringing and character.
I am a young, black (African American) woman living in the United States. You can tell that I am mixed (bi-racial) due to my physical appearance, but by society’s standards, I will always be viewed as black. My mother is white (Caucasian) and my father is black, and I was raised solely by the former. At eighteen years of age, I wholeheartedly believe that my mother filled my childhood and adolescent years with many core values; basic knowledge/common sense (“street smarts”); and financial, social, and household skills that I will use throughout the rest of my life. But in any case, a parent’s love and educational offerings focus on raising a child to lead a successful life in respect to making informed decisions to survive and reach their highest potentials, whatever those may concern. I do not think that the average home is directly teaching the children of the household how to formulate opinions, the importance of keeping up to date with current events, or that the vast amounts of knowledge that life has to offer are not restricted to the classroom.
Upon my completion of high school, I have taken it upon myself to become more involved and aware of social issues regarding police brutality, race relations, and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. When it comes to historical and political content, I firmly believe that controversial topics (such as the ones listed, and in general) are glossed over and/or over-generalized at that the lower levels of education (K-12, elementary-high school), especially students’ freshman-senior years (grades 9-12). This form of teaching makes sense when used in alignment with the thought that everyone should gain so-called “basic knowledge” about every discipline offered at the given high school, and then apply their new-found “basic understanding” to their endeavors of furthering their education. This can be seen as a systematic effort to layout a framework for students to make a more informed, concrete decision on what they would want to pursue learning later in life.
I am currently a full-time college student and my interests of study revolve around psychology and writing practices. Upon starting my first semester of higher level education, I felt capable of going in-depth with new and familiar topics my “basic knowledge and understanding” from high school prepared me with. However, outside of the classroom learning environment, I came to the realization that I did not understand my culture whatsoever. I was black without the black experience. And when I use the terminology and phrasing of the word “I”, I am directly speaking about myself as a black person in America. With that being said, I propose two questions: was this so-called “basic understanding” only applicable to textbook knowledge, and if so, where was I supposed to gain preparation for the sociocultural aspects I would be faced with in life? A textbook is not our society and our society is not a textbook; there was a definite disconnect here.
Of course I learned about black history in K-12. I know there were slaves, Jim Crow laws, Black Panthers, race riots, and hundreds of years of oppression inflicted on my ancestors. And of course I know that we have been fighting against such atrocities all this time. But when was I shown a black role model in the classroom (not the teacher, but as an example given)? When was I shown what the day in the life of your average African American looks like? When was I shown an equal representation of my people doing something of significance in this day and age? Never. Not once was I exposed to this knowledge throughout the years of my lower level education (and I am strictly talking about in the classroom). And if I was not exposed, that means that none of my peers were exposed either. We were fed facts, with an expectation that we as students would remember them, and be able to spit them back out the same way they went in. This goes for all subjects. The “basic knowledge and understanding” turned out to be knowing and understanding how to pass a test. We were never really given the why’s and the how’s, rarely were we asked anything that provoked our own thought on the matter. The focus was so heavily involved with factual remembrance that there was not much reason to inquire further into any topic; that thought process would not have benefited the student during these school years.
High school’s rigid structure and systematic format of teaching are not even remotely comparable or applicable to thought processes needed to function as a knowledgeable member of society. One must be able to expand their thoughts freely in accordance to whatever they are exposed to. Now the classroom environment I previously described does not account for exposure to what is considered “black culture” through social interaction. Luckily enough I live in a very diverse area, filled with people from all walks of life. Ethnic and cultural backgrounds differ from person to person in various ways. So in no way am I saying that I was ever isolated from black people, but let us recall the fact that I was raised in a white household. I am the first generation of melanin on my mother’s side. And no, I am not trying to lead you to believe that my mother’s side of the family is racist, that my mother herself upholds the endeavors of white supremacy, or that I lived the stereotypical “white” way. But I cannot say that I had a “black” upbringing, because I was in no way raised by black people. Here lies the social issue. Just as I said before, if you encountered me on the street, you would immediately identify me as a woman of color (a black woman) even though I look mixed. However, as a stranger, you would have no evidence or reason to believe, think, or know my family background is the way that it is. You would not know that family-wise, I had no exposure to black culture.
But where else would I gain this information? If my school is not relaying it in the way I need it, and my family situation cannot provide it either, the media is the only place one can turn to (media being in the form social networking sites/blogs, newspaper/magazine publications, popular culture, television/movies and news coverage).
Unfortunately us black people, do not have equal representation when it comes to how we are showcased in the world. This inequality takes form in two major ways: in the literal sense, that people of color are in reality shown less, and in the sense that we are shown in a negative light more often than we are in a positive one. If I had the opportunity to see a black girl in action, leading a successful life as a person of color, my mind would have been opened up to a whole new world of thought at a much younger age. For that matter, if any and all black people could see a public figure that resembled them, we would all feel like we are capable of accomplishing more. Reaching goals, making strides. Living lives that had much more to offer than what we had been taught. It is unfair that we as a people are usually shown with a negative filter, alongside the negative connotations and stereotypes that have already been tied to our skin color from hundreds of years of systematic oppression. People find it easy to victim-blame in this society, “black people are violent because it is in their nature” and “black people are the cause of their poverty and misfortune”. When the only accounts of our actions are projected as uncivilized, brute, and inexcusable, where can we go to see the light? What makes the difference for the individual is seeing someone acting and succeeding outside the misleading views society uses to say what we are and are not capable of. We need to see how they got there, that they came from our background. We need to know that at one point, they never thought they were going to be good enough because society told them so, but they found a way out of the negative cycle. Black excellence is derived from the successes and triumphs our people have gone through for generations; it is seen through the fact that each and every day there are people fighting to make our lives better and viewed as equal. But if we are never exposed to such happenings, it becomes harder and harder to believe that we can and will overcome.
I am proud of my skin tone, ethnicity, and racial background because they all mean something. Anything and everything that exudes black culture makes me proud. I support every movement, protest, and effort that is put forth to better our lives. “Black” is good, “African American” is good, and “of color” is good. I love protective styling and the wearing of natural hair, because they both derive from historical content and cultural background. Black people come in all different body types, genders, sexual orientations, hair textures, personalities and upbringings, but we are all one people who all face similar oppression. I would say that the development of my pro-black attitude involved conscious decision. No, I was not originally someone with an “anti-black” attitude. But one must open their mind to the fact that blackness needs promotion. One must learn that seeking out information not provided in the classroom is enlightening. One must tear away from the thought that it is wrong to be proud of your pigmentation. One must realize that society will try to view them in a certain way, but that perspective does not define them. I did not choose to be pro-black, I always was. However I did make the conscious decision to learn how and why I need to showcase the love I have for and the pride I have in my people. Not just African Americans, but all people of African descent. I did so at the age of eighteen, a turning point in which I realized what it meant to strive to be a strong, independent, black woman. A point in which I realized the importance of black men and women as role models. To lead a life of excellence, to turn heads and change opinions of the masses. Black is beautiful, black is strong, black is powerful. And a black life, will forever be a life that matters.
About Author
