The Poisoned Negro

African Americans have been schooled and not educated which is a major problem in society. Idolatry of the oppressor has continuously taken place in America for decades. African Americans are unknowingly diminishing themselves from the world they live in. European cosmology is a dangerous poison, existing in those persons who are part of the African Diaspora. The problem is that Negroes devalue themselves. They have been schooled not educated, and that is why they are uneducated. The school systems today only teach learners what they want them to know. Most of what they educate African Americans about is not African history or culture. The oppressor wants Negroes to believe that the study of their history is not essential because, ‘’His race has done nothing significant since the beginning of time, and that there is no evidence that he will ever achieve anything great.’’ (The Study of the Negro, page 6) That belief is completely mistaken, Negroes have contributed just as much as any other race, if not more, to the development of the world. Misleading the Negro is simply another tactic to control the mind of an African American. ‘’Lead the Negro to the detest the man of African blood—to hate himself.’’(The Study of the Negro, page 6) European colonization has been a disservice to African Americans. African Americans are led to hate themselves and to love their oppressor. Self-depreciation is among most many Negroes. Objectifying the oppressor is similar to belittling one’s self. African Americans are uneducated therefore they avoid identifying that their fetishizing the oppressor by wearing hair weaves and blue contact lenses. Even though an African American created the permanent relaxer, straightening one’s hair is an act of self-hatred. Relaxing one’s hair is the only permanent way to take out the kinks and make one’s hair unnaturally straight, resembling the oppressor. This further exposes the fact that African Americans devalue themselves. In the present day, a major percentage of African American women choose to flatten their hair with relaxers of certain kinds, either heat or chemically based. This is done regardless of the fact that continued use of such chemicals or heat, can result in over treating, damage and weakening of the hair. Although there has been a comeback in the fame of natural Afro-textured hair, it is still widely observed by African-American women that straight hair is viewed more professional in the United States work place and is highly accepted/required in society. On Wednesday, April 4, 2007 radio talk-show host Don Imus referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team playing in the Women's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship game as a group of "nappy-headed hos" during his Imus in the Morning show, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) radio later canceled his show (mediamatters.org). Studies show that one in three black men can anticipate going to jail in their lifespans. Among men, blacks (28.5%) are about twice as likely as Hispanics (16.0%) and six times more likely than whites (four point four percent) to be admitted to prison throughout their life (washingtonpost.com). Among women, three point six percent of blacks, one point five percent of Hispanics, and zero point five percent of whites will enter prison at least one time (DeMossNews.com). The African-American teen birth rate is at 85.3 births per 1,000 women, practically double the rate for Caucasian teens of 45.4 births per 1,000 women (www.idph.state.il.us). Statistics show that 63 % of African American children are raised at home by a single parent. That is 25 more times than Hispanic children and 40 times more than white children. (datacenter.kidscount.org). This is a problem that should be confronted. The dropout rates in 2009 for African Americans are four point one times greater than Caucasians (nces.ed.gov/fastfacts).Nationwide, the black college student graduation rates remain at a miserably low 42 percent. Black women are also far more likely to complete college than black men. At Clark Atlanta University there are over 1,000 freshmen females and only 63 freshmen males. These censors show how the African Americans’ are completely threatened of teen pregnancy, fatherlessness, conviction, and the greatest one of all being uneducated. The American Negro has been clearly stripped from his past and of his education. ‘’One cannot blame the Negro for not desiring to be reminded of being the sort of creature that the oppressor has represented the Negro to be; but this very attitude show ignorance of the past and a slavish dependence upon the enemy to serve those whom he would destroy.’’(The Study of the Negro, page 7) With so many Negros downgrading themselves, how can one become liberated? ‘’The Negro must learn from others how to take care of himself in this trying ordeal. He must not remain content with taking over what others set aside for him and then come in the guise of friends to subject even that limited information to further misinterpretation.’’(The Study of the Negro, page 8) The Study of the Negro is so essential to the African American community. Without it, the Negro will be misled and lost in society. Instead of criticizing African Americans’ the world should embrace them. Teach them the truth about who they really are. Do no school them, educate them. Teach them not only what you want them to learn but everything that there is to acquire. Accept their different taste in music and their different foods that some don’t eat. Embrace their kinky hair and dark skin that has been kissed by the sun, instead of analyzing them and driving them to use skin lighting cream and hot combs. The problem is that most African Americans are taught from a European world view which obviously is leaving the Negro blind to his own culture. It is causing the Negro to depreciate himself, feeling as though his history does not matter. It’s causing Negro woman to transform themselves into Barbie dolls, unnaturally changing the texture of their hair with harmful chemicals because they wish not to be looked at by society as a Negro. The problem is that the Negro is taught to hate himself. African Americans can ameliorate this problem, but it will be everything but simple. The Negro needs to exercise foresight rather than hindsight. Negros could prevent a lot of things such as (teen pregnancy, single mothers, imprisonment, and dropout rates) if they act proactively instead of in retrospect letting things uninterruptedly past by.