Ridding our Community of the Culture of Ignorance
by
Frank A. Jones
In Oakland, the local church establishment encouraged vigilance about the high crime of the city. That is the solution they offer for the madness that is going on in some parts of the city. There is another component to this problem that can be addressed immediately in the church pews, yet most churches are not looking at that component. That is the culture of ignorance many churches and parts of our community are cultivating as a method of holding sway over their congregations and as a way of feeling some self-esteem.
A
friend called about a matter that was personal to
him, and as we talked, I became sad. That sadness was for that 27-30%
of our community still afflicted with an old affliction that many will
not allow to die: The Culture of Ignorance.
Within
some portions of the Black community there is the appeal, indeed, the
preaching and propagation of this culture of ignorance. It was started
during slavery, and it has been preached as godliness by some of our churches,
and propagated as a norm by an antithetical media and some social institutions.
The end result is that possibly as high a number as 25% of the Black community
still clings to it and passes it on to their children. Such a culture
retards and even kills a people--the 25% who practice it affects the whole
of society in direct and indirect ways.
The
belief that one does not have to educate himself or his children highly
and that God will provide for His own, with or without an education, is
also merged with the idea that the highly educated are somehow immoral
or amoral, conceited, detached, ungodly, self-absorbed, and irreverent.
Therefore, education should be downplayed, demeaned, and Black people
should only involve themselves with it in a minimal way. I have chosen
to call this mindset The Culture of Ignorance because it is practiced
and passed down to too many Black children.
American
slavery literature vividly depicts the conditions of slaves and slave
owners. The conditions that are appropriate to this discussion are these:
slavery caused a destruction of families and family values, there were
strict prohibitions against slaves learning to read, and there was the use
of religion and religious leaders to teach the slaves aspects of the
Christian faith that related to slaves’ oppression—“Servants, be
obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh….”
Those leaders were expressly prohibited from reading beyond that Pauline
Epistle, and were even prohibited from reading on in that same chapter. (1)
The slaves were prohibited from learning letters, as education was called, and those who did learn did so secretly and had to avoid any appearance of having the ability to read, lest harsh reprisals were taken against them. This was the peculiarity of the American institution of slavery. [See Learning to Reading And Write, by Frederick Douglass]
After
slavery was abolished, there was a debate between Booker T. Washington
and W.E.B. DuBois about the education of the newly freed slaves. The issue
was not whether to educate—that was a given. The issue was how best to
educate them. DuBois argued that Blacks should be educated in the liberal
arts and that social change could be accomplished by developing a small
group of college-educated Blacks he called, "The Talented Tenth."
Washington
argued that the newly freed slaves should be educated in the
skills area; he was a much more patient man, saying that Blacks should
receive education in the crafts, industrial and farming skills, and that
they should cultivate the virtues of patience, enterprise, and thrift.
The
media, along with some institutions in this society, have aligned themselves
with and popularized the culture of ignorance for the Black community.
They have taken buffoonery and offered it as a Black typecast so much
that many newcomers to America actually think that Jamie Foxx and Martin
Lawrence character types constitute an accurate depiction of Black American
life and mindsets. But even more damaging than the flawed perceptions
of newcomers, is the problem that many in our Black underclass and a few
members of our middle and upper classes also think this caricature of
the underclass, from where American media takes its popularized image
of Black life, represents who the majority of Black Americans are.
This
diet of Jamie Foxx, Steve Harvey, and Martin Lawrence types is only relieved
by the substitution of images of Michael Jordan and other embodiments of
Black athletic or sexual prowess. And when these new images displace the old
ones, they only highlight one other aspect of our community; this
displacement distorts us also.
Further,
when a president looks out over a nation of some 37-40 million Black Americans
and fails to select from among our Black brilliance, instead, he selects
Clarence Thomas, a lawyer whom most Americans know is of modest legal
and intellectual means, because he has conservative political views and
those views are draped in a black face, to place on the US Supreme Court
(a position where the best minds should exhibit the brilliance of the
society they represent) the tentacles of the culture of ignorance
are broadened by such an affront. Such a selection, with all its unsavory
adjuncts, makes a very definite statement to our young Black people and
the world; our young see themselves intellectually reduced and compromised. And so does the world.
This
was what the push for Black History studies was about—to allow young Black
people to see themselves correctly, not through the eyes of a distorted
history or through a distorted media and other American institutions. The
push was to let the truth be told because no people can ever be a great
people without seeing truth. Indeed, only knowledge of the truth can make us
great.
The
culture of ignorance is a relic of past American dishonors, and we
are dishonored by it now. While all America is affected by this culture, the
African American community is most dishonored and harmed by it. That is
why we must rid ourselves of it.
The ridding of this culture from our community must take root in
our churches, since a vast part of the Black community is church-led. Many
of our greatest leaders have come from the church, and most Black Americans
go to church on a regular basis and give most of their philanthropic gifts
to the church. Second, we must rid the young of our underclass from this
culture, since they are the ones most acutely affected and harmed by it.
In
many of our churches, the religious slave minister mentality still exists.
There is a demeaning of Black intellectual exploits and a near vaunting of
ignorance as godliness. This anomaly is an anomaly because of two factors:
the Christian Scripture is totally against ignorance or foolishness; it
expressly exhorts intelligence. Indeed, from the Old Testament to the New
Testament, the teaching is that God will reject and even kill the fool and
the ignorant; He despises the fool. The greatest scholar of New Testament
writings, the Apostle Paul, repeatedly says in his writings, “I would
not that you be ignorant, brethren.” And in spite of these stern
admonitions to obtain knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and not to be
ignorant, too many Black ministers still preach a type of ignorance as
godliness gospel, they will demean the need to get a strong education,
or demean and fail to value properly those who are educated and only temporarily
present in their congregations.
The
second reason this anomaly is an anomaly is because the same education that
threatens so many of the ministers fascinates them at the same time. The Old
Testament has an expression that says, Iron sharpens iron, which
Gibbs uses to explain its occasional sharp views and its solicitation of
better-reasoned points in response to those sharp views. This very truth of
Scripture, however, frightens many who still hold the slave minister’s
perception of a culture of ignorance. In
short, an enlightened congregation threatens these ministers as it also
threatened the position of the slave masters. This is because an enlightened
congregation is iron that will sharpen iron or will break that which is
less strong. Strangely, while some ministers hold their congregations
hostage to their fears, they have so strong a fascination with and personal
desire for education (while at the same time maintaining an unwillingness to
burden themselves with the real work of its acquisition), that many are
awarding themselves degrees that have no merit in standard academic
settings. And, although they pen these meaningless degrees behind or in
front of their names, when they speak, all will perceive their merit.
Our
young people see these self-degreed ministers, hear their words, and then
measure the degrees’ worth by the value of their messages. And these
ministers, like Clarence Thomas, do not acquit themselves among the council
of men whom they are supposedly peered. This behavior also propagates the
culture of ignorance.
Most of our 27-30% underclass are regular church members; they have
to fight societal characterizations that promote this culture of ignorance
for them, and when they go to a church—a body that historically led Black
America out of slavery and second-class citizenship—many are ensnared
by this culture. (2)
A year ago Gibbs conducted an interview with Gregory Hodge, a young
Black attorney who was campaigning for the Oakland Unified School District
Board. He responded to the
question of why he wanted to be on the school board by saying, “I
want to be a member because many poor people have only our school system in
which to educate their children. They cannot do it themselves. They are
depending on us. Your children and my children, of course, are going to
excel. We have the education and drive to make sure of that. They don’t
have that, so we need to help them.”
(I have written about the obligation of those of light–those who are
enhanced with greater education, finances, positions, sight, etc., that they
have an obligation to those who are not so enhanced.
—(3))
The educated class will ensure their children’s education because
they know that education is the best hope of Black people or any people
in elevating their status and living conditions in a society—any society.
Dr. Edward J. Valeau
argues that no other single act can function to elevate a people, as
does education. Yet, because the culture of ignorance has been handed
down from one generation to the next and propagated over a number of our
pulpits, many of our most at-risk communities are prey to those who would
do them harm.
In our school system, young Black children crippled by this
ignorance try to make other Black youths who are excelling toe the line of
ignorance by mocking their achievements with the expression, “You just
tryin ta be White.” This statement unwittingly proclaims that the
culture of ignorance has been transmitted to these mockers, and they have
accepted it as taught.
“You just tryin to be White.” is a statement that is so
self-hating that it is the equivalent of profanity and obscenity. It is so
devoid of knowledge of Black history that it brings both tears and anger to
the informed observer, and it elevates Whites to a position yet unearned. It
is a derisive catchphrase that some children of our underclass spout without
a thought of what they are saying and with a total lack of footing for their
reproachful words.
This is what family, society, and some churches have done to those
poor children. And as it is seen in our young, its equivalence is reflected
in their parents in other ways. This attitude is antithetical to the
informed and enlightened.
A real estate agent told me of repeated experiences she had with
some Black homebuyers. She said that in California, some Blacks deliberately
pass her by to get to White agents, as if she was less knowledgeable than
they. This California phenomenon supposes that inequality and discrimination
do not exist here; it is also heavily influenced by a Ward Connerly
mentality, which rationalizes that affirmative action for ethnic minorities
is harmful to them and society, while leaving in tact affirmative action for
Whites, because it has always existed, hence, it is privileged normality.
Not understanding what affirmative action is, the uninformed rush to Whites
instead of patronizing Black workers already abused by the majority society.
But in the South, Blacks have always felt that if a Black person is in a
position usually reserved for Whites, he or she had to be twice as smart
and/or efficient as the White to dislodge him. There are no pretentious
ideas about equality and the harm of affirmative action there. Many young
Black Californians are of another mentality—a self-demeaning and
self-deceiving mentality.
Years ago, I was told, “Whites think better than Blacks; their
minds are different from ours.” This absurdity did not come from a
David Duke, but from no less a person than a bishop of a fundamentalist
church. Such ignorance does not dignify the shroud of godliness his title
placed on him. Jesus responded to Nicodemus with a sense of disbelief,
as He realized Nicodemus’s failure of understanding, He said, “Are
you a ruler of the Jews and know not these things?” Nicodemus’s position,
coupled with his ignorance, astonished Jesus just as this bishop’s ignorance
and self-hatred, coupled with his position of leadership, astonished me.
These behaviors are comparable to the young Black youth who
reproachfully tells another Black youth that he/she is trying to be White
because he/she achieves academic success. This tragic concept arises from an
old and still distorted notion that “White is somehow right.”
Such an idea should not breathe the air of a clear day because it comes from
self-hatred and a pathology that lingers beyond its slavery origin.
Ridding our communities of this pathology will not be accomplished
quickly, but it must be done. The best way to start is to first
acknowledge its existence, then to individually rid ourselves and our
families of it and to expose this culture of ignorance in our churches,
in our schools, in families, among our young, and in the media messages
that are channeled to our children; to talk and write about it at community
gatherings, to debate the issue intellectually, to study it openly and
frankly; and to infuse our young, and our old, with the knowledge
that no mind is superior to another, except the mind that has valued
learning, that has spent the time and endured the pain of study to attain
it.
This must be done by precept, concept, and example. For when our young see their old discipline themselves in study and value learning and those who have it, the young will crave learning and pay the price to acquire it that they too may be valued.
[Continue this discussion; read Dislodging a Culture of Ignorance]
____________________
- Ephesians 6: 5
- Please read discerningly; this is not a bashing of churches
generally, but it is a focus on specific types of churches and
ministers; it is to call them and their behavior into question in the
light of the Scriptures and the history of the Black church in America.
- See The Obligation
of Light and A Loss of Historical
Memory
Republished 11/28/05
