The other day I was
listening to the artist KRS-One, a prolific and political rapper. In his song,
“You Must Learn“ he goes on to educate his fans about innovative African-American
leaders like Benjamin
Banneker (almanac), Granville T. Woods (inventor), Eli Whitney
(inventor), Lewis H. Latimer (inventor), Charles
Troupe (performer) Garrett Morgan (inventor), Harriett Tubman (Abolitionist),
etc. In another song called, “What is That,” he begins to rant about how
African-American kids are only taught to “read, write and act,” where he compares
this limited approach to “teaching white kids how to black.” Then he begins his case in explaining
our black genealogy in the following lyrics.
Genesis chapter eleven verse ten:
explains
the genealogy of Shem.
Shem was a black man in Africa
. If you repeat this
fact they can't laugh at ya
.
Genesis fourteen verse thirteen:
Abraham
steps on the scene.
Being a descendant of Shem which is a fact
means Abraham
too was black
. Abraham born in the city of a black man
Called Nimrod,
grandson of Kam.
Kam had four sons, one was named Canaan
. Here, let me do
some explaining
.
Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac
was the father of Jacob
. Jacob had twelve sons for real
and these were the
children of Israel
. According to Genesis chapter ten:
Egyptians descended
from Ham.
Six hundred years later my brother read up
. Moses was born in
Egypt
In this era black Egyptians weren't
right
. They enslaved black Israelites.
Moses had to be of the black race.
Because
he spent forty years in Pharaoh's place.
He passed as the Pharaoh's grandson. So he had to look just like him
. Yes, my brothers and sisters take this here
song
. Yo, correct the wrong.
These songs got me
thinking…what would the world look today if things were reversed and ruled
by blacks and how would I feel?
Since I’m a white, Latina
female who grew up in an urban environment in Rochester, NY, I’d think I would
be Ok with it. My mom worked for the Rochester City School District and as a family
we attended lots of educational activities with other urban city kids. Puerto
Ricans, African-Americans, arroz con gandules and soul music consistently
surrounded me. This was the norm
for me in the mid 70’s. There was the Puerto Rican Day Parade, us kids doing
the “mathematical bump” and parties with inter-racial couples with PhD’s.
I attended “The World of
Inquiry,” a fully integrated, multicultural school; one of the best
expeditionary learning schools in the country. However, at 10 we left the city;
moved to the burbs and into a predominantly all white school. I still remember
feeling out of place there, like I didn’t belong. It was exceedingly quiet,
reserved and conservative. I was in culture shock and I while I adapted, I
never forgot my urban roots and culture.
Back to the question….How would it be living in a world that disliked me because of my skin color?How would I overcome such obstacles and hostility at work and within society? The thought of all these feelings overwhelm me and place me back in time when we first moved to “white” suburbia.
Over the weekend I
attended a graduation ceremony for the same suburban town I was
relocated too. In a crowd of 1,500 people, I was amazed to see things had not
changed very much and the lack of diversity was quite stunning. So while Adele Bovard, Superintendent
of Schools (Webster, NY) bragged and stated all kinds of exemplary statistics
about Thomas’ academic student achievement, I realized the glorification stems
from a predominantly white student body whose parents have higher educational
attainment levels. In that precise moment, I thought how this amazing high
school could benefit the many minority students who continue to face
under-achievement in the Rochester City School district. An
environment with teachers who care and where students excel in a competitive
environment; where safety is
an every day occurrence and aspirations dictate the future; this environment
and its conditions could reap high rewards for any student regardless of race
or socio-economic status. The question that lingers for me is, can forced
integration improve educational attainment levels for the students of the City
of Rochester & elsewhere? A city that continues to be one of the most
segregated in America.
My hope is that if we
can put ourselves in another person’s shoes for a meaningful moment, we can
develop a spirit of compassion, understanding and tolerance to build communities
where race doesn’t matter and where opportunity for advancement exists for all.
