Bashir Muhammad Ptah Akinyele
Community Activist,
ASCAC Member,
Africana Studies Teacher
Deconstructing Racism in the Classroom
Scientific evidence shows that Africa is the birthplace of humanity, the progenitor of civilization, and the root of the world's major religions (i.e., Judaism, Christianity, and Al-Islam). Many factual seeking historians and scientists argue that on the world stage of human progress, civilizations began in the Nile Valley region of North East Africa. In this part of Africa, there were many major civilizations such as Axum, Kush, Nubia, and Sudan. However, ancient Kemet (Egypt) evolved out of the Nile Valley to become the dominant society in that area of Africa. Classical Kemet reflected humanity's march toward creating the world's first highly advanced civilization in times of antiquity. As the time in the ancient world moved on, Kemet played a foundational role in the development of mathematics, philosophy, medicine, science, government, architecture, a written language, art, monotheism, education, ethics, morals, and religion. Many cultures and nations borrowed from the knowledge and wisdom of ancient Kemetic people to push their civilizations forward towards modern society. Unfortunately, white supremacy and Arab nationalism have fabricated a myth that Kemet was a European or Arab civilization. When in fact, Kemet began as a Black civilization. This is because racists cannot accept the genius of Black people coming through Kemet, the Nile Valley, Africa, America, democracy, or any of the world’s societies and cultures on the planet earth. Therefore, we must educate our students about the real facts of history. We must educate our students about the history of Black people before slavery, segregation, colonialism, and apartheid.
As educators (i.e., the math teachers, the science teachers, the social studies teachers, the english teachers, the school administrators, etc) we must all teach that Kemet is the cornerstone of classical and modern-day societies. And we as educators must also boldly teach these facts to our students about the contributions Kemet played in the development of contemporary human society. Equally important, we as educators must teach our students that the original Kemites in fact came from the Black experience. We must educate our students that Kemet means the land of the Blacks. We must teach our students that the word Kemet comes from the source of the Medu Neter (Europeans and Arabs called the Medu Neter the Hieroglyphics) which explains to the world its origin.
We must educate our students that Kemet had an original African name before the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Arabs invaded and destroyed her existence as a nation. However, we must educate our students that Kemet left wells of primary and secondary documents providing human beings with evidence of achievements in Africa and her impact globally.
We must educate our students on the arsenal of facts and knowledge on history, especially about African history and culture, written by noted history scholars to show the true events of the human experience.
For example, some of the bedrocks of history and Africana Studies (Black Studies) are the works of Dr. W. E. B. Dubois’ - The World and Africa; Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s-The Negro in History; Drusilla Dunjee Houston’s-Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire; Frank Snowden’s-Blacks in Antiquity; J.C. DeGraft-Johnson’s -African Glory; William Leo Hansberry’s-Pillars in Ethiopian History; Dr. John G. Jackson's books-Introduction to African Civilizations and Christianity Before Christ; Dr. George G. M. James’-Stolen Legacy; Okot P’Bitek’s-African Religions in European Scholarship; Dr. Chancellor Williams’-The Destruction of Black Civilization; Dr. Maulana Karenga’s-Introduction to Black Studies; Dr. Molefi Kete Asante’s-Afrocentricity; Dr. John Henrik Clarke's-African People in World History; Professor Anthony Browder's Nile Valley Contributions to Civilization, Dr. MArtin Bernal's Black Athena, and Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop's books-African Origins of Civilization: Myth or Reality and Civilization or Barbarism. Just to name a few in a long list of scholars and intellectuals that documented the facts of history and African history and culture.
Now this commentary is not devaluing educating the student about the horrors of slavery, segregation, colonialism, and apartheid. We must always educate our students about man’s inhumanity to man. This will help instill human agency in our students. With a knowledge of that history, they will become the necessary change agents in our societies to reconstruct a world free from the domination of one’s race over another race based upon a false racial ideological doctrine. However, our students must first see the world before racism in order to be the builders and maintainers of progressive institutions and nations. And that begins with ancient Africa and classical Kemet.
Unfortunately, because white supremacy and institutional racism have not been eradicated from the face of the planet earth, these racially oppressive systems continue to distort the factual contributions Black people made to human civilizations. Many racist lies about Black people are made into "truths" in the western world’s institutions of learning. For example, one racist teaching is that since the advent western societies in the world, White people have had the racial superiority to lead to the pathway of civilization in the non-European world (i.e., Black people, Indigenous people, Latino people, etc.).
Therefore, when we as human beings complete our matriculation through westernized educational institutions, many of us leave the classroom indoctrinated to believe that whiteness is subconsciously and consciously superior. But on the other side of humanity, blackness is inculcated as inferior in the world. Unfortunately, these racist lessons in whiteness have circulated in school systems for centuries making the lives of Black people not matter in the United States and in the world. And in many schools in America, the history of Europeans still exists as the only legitimate history in the millennium.
As we embark on another year in the classroom, we must be absolutely committed to deconstructing racism in the classroom. Unfortunately, most school educators do not know how to challenge white racial supremacy in the classroom. Therefore, as a long time history and Africana Studies (Black Studies) teacher in Newark, NJ, I am providing some resources to resist white racist domination in the classroom.
Dr. Molefi Kete Asante's classic speech at Howard University in the 1990s on the Afrocentric approaches to history is one of my inspirations that helped me fight racism in western education. It is still relevant today. On my list of resource links to help the educator deconstruct racism in the classroom, I have placed Dr. Asante's link first. Dr. Asante's presentation was captured on C-Span.
His analysis helps supply the educator with the liberating tools to free students imprisoned by white supremacist ideology being taught in schools in America and in the world, especially as it relates to the education of students of African descent. This historian begins his lecture with the facts of Africa being the birthplace of humanity, civilization, religion, science, philosophy, writing, ethics, morality, literature, art, architecture, mathematics, and government. Equally important in his presentation is his argument that Black people must be studied as subjects and not as objects. He methodically demonstrates that in every field of study Black people are at the center of its existence. Currently Dr. Asante is a professor of Africana Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
As educators, we must be inspired by scholars like Dr. Asante to boldly develop progressive, radical, and Afrocentric pedagogy to teach the facts to our students on history, particularly African history and culture. But we can not stop at a history class. Black history must be incorporated into every subject area (i.e., english, math, science, social studies, etc.) of the school. Therefore, within this commentary I have included some resources that we can use in schools to challenge racism in the classroom. The resources will help the teacher correct the miseducation of westernized education the student is subjected to on a daily basis:
https://patch.com/new-jersey/newarknj/newark-hs-teacher-reviews-radical-book-revolution-pedagogy
African Origins of Man (Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop translated)
(https://youtu.be/A4FnKG0UKg8)
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6288328?fbclid=IwAR1wwBuXhSPES24ECRwbgpxIOzmX_4XkSaR0a1Ew3rAzNV1
Hotep (An ancient African Kemetic / Egyptian Medu Neter written word for peace)!
Posted: Tue, Aug 27