Posted by
wayne on Thursday, July 27, 2006 6:12:52 AM
I like to watch educational TV. The history channel, Discovery, Science... you name it.
The other day, one of these channels ran a feature on the life of George Washington Carver, and it was fascinating.
As
I was driving this last Sunday night, thinking about the program and
the life of the man, I began to wonder about some things.
Where
is the so-called (and largely self-appointed) "Black Leadership" these
days? They should be holding him up as an example of what can be
accomplished by one man in America. I was certainly inspired by this
story of the boy born into slavery, who went on to become one of the
top twenty (if not one of the top ten!) greatest Americans of all time.
The only time I recall hearing about Carver in school was the first
grade, circa 1979, from a white teacher. At that time, I don't recall
there being a single black student in the class. (There was one, in
later years, and I believe a total of three in our whole school.)
Any
true "Leadership" would hold George Washington Carver up as the
ultimate success story for black Americans. Instead, these "Leaders"
rail on opression and blame, essentially telling the flock of sheep
they lead that they aren't good enough to do anything for themselves,
and it's up to other people to stop "opressing" them and "holding them
down."
I believe this "Leadership" is afraid of Carver. They
wish that he had never existed. If their flock ever pay attention to
this history, they will notice that even in an era when "He's black"
was the only excuse anyone ever needed to refuse admittance anywhere,
there was a boy who put himself through school, a man who put himself
through college, and he had the unmitigated gall to go on to
become a highly respected college professor and agricultural researcher
in the heart of Alabama, arguably the most bigoted state in all the
South.... Some sixty years before affirmative action! (And just
incidentally, saved much of the South from economic disaster which
would have resulted in famine, plague, and death for many thousands of
people, black and white.)
But these "Leaders" have little worry.
Any attempt by a teacher to inject any real substance, such as studying
this inspiring man's life, into the curriculum of a public school will
be met with protests and threats. They'd much rather the schools be
teaching kids about condoms.