Myth-making and Mis-education
-A student Vents-

US history has always been a hard pill for me to swallow. That is because there are so many untruths in American history. But the truth that is told, it is hard to take because White America justifies and glorifies events that took place in their history.

The greatest tragedy that ever hit the US was not the event of September 11, 2001, but the captivity of the African people, forced into this land for slavery. The greatest trick ever played in America was having the Africans build America without any reparations. The greatest crime ever committed in America was the kidnappings, murders, tortures, rapes, molestations, and the destructive elimination of a culture, its language, religion, heritage, etc. The greatest myth of America is thinking it has taught us, when it is a fact that Africans may well have taught the American forefathers about agriculture, government, etc.

Making Black Americans believe they came from jungles and were uncivilized was a great myth made by America, but this technique was also used on Native Americans—they were called uncivilized. The historical rightness of the situation is that Africans were Kings and Queens, mathematicians, architects, artists, warriors, educators, etc., and had their own government, their own schools, and were rich in culture. They wore robes made of silk before Christ, and during that time, Europeans were also living in caves.

A crime that continues in the education system of this nation is that some teachers and historians glorify US history when telling of their destruction of Africans, Native Americans, Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Pacific Islanders. It is to them, as Kevin Phillips writes, the triumph of western civilization.

In many of my classes, I've noticed how American historians use demeaning tones and expressions when referring to other cultures, as they stress western cultural supremacy. To kill another people does not mean that one culture is superior to another, only more murderous than the other. These historians motivate me to study African American history more carefully than they offer it.

As a university student, I observe instructors stand and offer statistics on the number of children who attended school in the 1800's and 1900's then note that school was open to all; I am compelled to raise ask, "Are you sure you mean all children?"  Of course, I prick their consciousnesses to my Black reality, and cause modifications to broad statement: "Well, not including African Americans and immigrants."

These unchallenged assertions are the mis-education that often goes on in our school systems. At some point it has to stop. No university professor should have to have students prick his/her consciousness for the truth to be taught. What happens when there are no students who will challenge an instructor? Instead of truth being dispensed in school, the school becomes Hollywood and creates myths instead.

Recently, a history professor brought a video on the US Civil War; it started out with a narrator saying, imagine you lived in the south, and you lived on this plantation, and all of your slaves just ran off, I was amazed. I was the only African American student in that class, and after viewing of this video, I asked the instructor about the audience the video was made for--I could never imagine such a thing as this video urged us to imagine. He shunned that question.

He informed us with pride that his family’s line owned slaves, and he brought in documents signed by President Andrew Johnson. I can accept the truth, but that does not mean I like it. I can accept the truth, but the truth being presented does not mean that students have to be mis-educated.  Too often in school, instead of truth being taught, teachers create myths for any number of reasons--pride, to carry on a stereotype, or to create one that is pejorative to others and positive to themselves.

My point is this, if we have educators like this in college, imagine what our children are being taught in grade school. Believe me, superiority and inferiority are still being taught. That is why we need to spend time with our children; we need to teach them the truth, so they won't end us hating themselves and falling by the wayside as they are urged to believe white myths spun in some schools. []
11/12/01

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