Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 4-18-17

Letter To The Editor
A Message Of Concern To The African-American Community
TAMPA – Histori- cally, education was a strong cultural norm in the African-American community.
For most of its his- tory, reading, writing and computation were against the law for this population. “...histori- ans of U. S. education have documented that after the Civil War. Blacks, on their own, with no assistance from the government, founded an unprece- dented number of schools, including over 1,500 Sabbath-day schools.” (Anderson, J. 1988, as cited in Harvat & O’Connor, et al, 2004, p. x).
From the signing of the Emancipation Pro- clamation in 1865 until the first decade of the 20th century, 50% of the African-American popu- lation attained literacy. This is evidence of a high regard for the value of education.
However, in the last 40 years, after desegre- gation, there has been an eroding of respect and appreciation for educa- tion and an amnesia for its saving value. Drug use, gang violence, disre- spect for women and a total disregard for au- thority are norms in the inner city. (ibid)
The perceived norm of criminal behavior as a value in the African- American community is directly related to low academic achievement and excellence.
An examination of the characteristics of incar- cerated boys and men re- veal that they have had problems with educa- tion, school discipline, and violence in their families and communi- ties.
In 2009 following three decades of rapidly escalating incarceration and increasingly puni- tive sentencing, the United States earned the dubious distinction of being the only nation that imprisons more than one percent of its population at any given
time. In poor, inner-city African-American neigh- borhoods, where the War on Drugs has been primarily fought, mass incarceration has be- come the norm.
While African-Ameri- can men represent only 6% of the US population, they account for more than 50% of the prison population. Our coun- try’s stunningly high overall incarceration rates have been driven by the far more concen- trated incarceration of African-American men.
For African-American communities where so many fathers and pri- mary breadwinners have been removed and incar- cerated, there is a rap- idly mounting body of research demonstrating that the overuse of mass incarceration has desta- bilized families, reduc- ing them to even more dire poverty, and left too many young men with- out appropriate role models and authority figures to guide and con- strain their behavior.
Approximately 90 percent of those who are incarcerated eventually return to the commu- nity. When they return – at a current rate of more than 600,000 annually – they bring the prison value system with them. The community itself has become an extension of the prison (snitches get stitches, gangsta rap, etc.).
We as a community of people have lost our moral compass and have abdicated responsibility of the high ethical code of respect for education and the energy needed to fight for internal excel- lence.
We have fought in every war our country has engaged, regardless to the overarching xeno- phobia we have been the victims of. The African- American community is traumatized and needs to take a sober look in- side itself. Charity begins at home and spreads abroad. Many of our children in these inner-
city schools need to un- derstand the great sacri- fice their foreparents and elders made for them to have an opportu- nity to raise the bar of excellence and human dignity for the entire so- ciety.
It is unacceptable for our children to be disre- spectful and uncoopera- tive to educators, who by the way, many are African-American and come from the same community in schools
named after an African- American. Where is our ethnic pride? A young principal should be pro- tected and nurtured first by her own community and its leadership.
A people’s history plus their culture equals their values. We must re- visit, re-energize and re- member the great legacy left by African-American educators who faced far more obstacles than per- ceived racist/educa- tional structures.
Education is the leader of any society, not any education, but one that responds to the needs of the people. All the peo- ple!
Upon my people you can accomplish what you will.
WALI SHABAZZ Southern Regional Director The National Trust for the Development of African-American Men wsshabazzl@aol.com
PAGE 4 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 2017