The Mis-Education of a Negro: Chapter 1-5 Outline
In chapter one Carter G. Woodson says that educated Negros have contempt for their uneducated brethren because they are taught, in Black schools as well as white, to honor the Greek, Hebrew, and other white groups and at the same time to despise the African. Once educated, Woodson questions the role to be played be these Negros. He says that their opportunity is limited. To earn a living many come back to the Black community to teach what they have been taught. Since they have already been taught to despise everything African, their role becomes suspect. It is "the worst kind of lynching," Woodson says, to teach a student that that his Blackness is a curse. He is handicapped and is given over to vagabondage and crime. Society becomes justified in its exploitation and abuse of Black people. "Why not exploit, enslave, or exterminate a class that everybody is taught to regard as inferior. In every type of school from science to theology Black people are being taught in terms of white peoples development and are not being taught the things that they need to know in order to develope their own communities. In other words education is almost criminally eurocentric. In schools of business, Woodson says t
Negroes were excluded from the subjects that they were taught. Negroes were given no credit for scientific acheivement. There were selections of literature selected from negro sources. In law schools Negroes were the criminals. In medical schools they were considered the germ carriers. In history the negro was said to have had no history that predates his coming into contact with the European. African contributions even if known to the teachers would not seem important to teach the negro since the focus was on transformation and not development. Woodson suggest that Blacks in other countries, Pushkin, Gomez, Dumas, and others, have reached higher hieghts because they were far removed from the influence of slavery and segregation. The suggestion here is that until our education deals truthfully with these issues and there effects we will not produce large numbers of the type of educated Negro that we need to improve our conditions. hat "Negroes are trained exclusively in the psychology and economics of Wall Street and are, therefore, made to despise the opportunities to run ice wagons, push banana cart, and sell peanuts among their own people. Foreigners, who have not studies economics but have studies Negroes, take up this business and grow rich." Although Carter G. Woodson didn't think that it was impossible for white teachers to teach Black students under ideal conditions, he did beleive that most whites who teach blacks have little if any understanding of their students. He suggested that tradition and race hatred make it almost impossible. Woodson recognised the need to have qualified white teachers teach Black children while there is a shortage of qualified Black teachers.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Carter Woodson, Opponets Woodson's, Wall Street, Greek Hebrew, Woodson Negro, Civil War, City Negro, European African, War Classical, Gomez Dumas, carter woodson, educated negro, teachers teach, white people, teachers teach black, white teachers, taught despise, transformation development, black community, gifts race, teach black, prior civil war, white teachers teach, highly educated negro,
Approximate Word count = 1395
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
|