The importance of education I think everyone on here can agree is fundamental to progress and social mobility. Without education especially at the tertiary level, one is limited to what he can achieve and where he can go. One only has to look at many council estates and its inhabitants to notice this. From my experience this narrow and constrainedview of life isnot onlygeographical in terms of where they live throughout their lives but also mental in terms of aims in life and what they want to achieve. These 'localized' attitudes I feel is responsible for many of the problems we see in poor communities. I'm not just limiting it to the black community but also Whites and other ethnic groups. This cannot be seen as just a racial problem butas a result of the gap between rich andthe poor.The unfortunate reality is that black people in this countrysuffer from this more than most becauseblacks generally are poorer.The cultural attitudes of many of these communities I think we all can agree is unfavourable to development and progress of the individual.When reading topics oncultural attitudes Iread people saying " its up to the parents to teach their kids the right way". This is obviously true but it is an idealistic way to look at the world because these parents are products of these communities and generally are not going to all of a sudden change their thought composition and become enlightened. It is also unrealistic to think that a mother/father of 2 who work late nights etc however hard they may try can implant their ideals firmly inside the minds of their children. Children learn alot from their mates and the street and are likely to shape their views on the world by this.

Solution

Ive been thinking hard about what needs to bedone to correct thisdisease. Obviously education is the most crucial thing, as they say knowledge sets you free.The education I am proposing though is not the versionwe get now in most state schools. I feel subjects such as History, English etc should have a black focus. In terms of learning about black culture and history. I study History and Economics at SOAS and it has been a joy to learn these subjects applied to regions other then europe. I feel my peers also have benefited. I mean how many young boys know that a black man is a Noble Lauerate or the names Marcus Garvey, Du Bois, Senghor, Nkrumah etc. I also feel their needs to be classes on current affairs etc that broadens horizons and let them know that they CAN influence the world an participate in it at different levels. The only way to achieve that is establishing a school which emodies these ideals. I dont think its possibleor advisableto introduce seperate black classes in mixed schools.

Coming to Uni has been an eye opening experiene in terms of the people I meet, the conversations I have with them, thier viewpoints etcis a world away from most of the friends and schoolmates in South London.

I may sound idyllic but I firmly believe in what I am saying.Obviously now the hardest thing is putting these ideas into action and building a coherant ideology to follow this through.This is where a unity in theblack community is needed.Black People in the music industryetc are obviously key to creating populism and all that.There is nodoubt in my mindthataunified movement can generate pressure to force the establishment to consider establishing autonomous independent black schools.

whatdo you guys think?

Alsocould anyone tell me about any significant black organisations in london, I would like to check them out.

Econ Course



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SJ,
I think that the problem with some of us is that we have let our generational problems such as racism get the best of us and we passed those unfortunate traits to our children. I know with my sis's brother, he carries a defeated mentality and say that the White man caused him and many of us to be the way we are. In one way he may have, but just because of what took place with our ancestors, doesn't mean that we have to carry this trait with us. If we look back at those times until more recent times, even in those times African-Americans still tried to make a difference in the lives and in their families lives. Even in those awful times, they made attempted to make sure that their kid learned how to read/write if they had access to it. If they we're able to go to college , they went. Back then African-Americans, even the slaves thought that education was important and no matter what happened to them, they didn't let the horrible daysstop them from dreaming from wanting to be the best.Now you look around and nod your head and ask yourself with all of this technology around, why arent we taking advandtage of it more. The doors are more opened to young people more than ever, but you will hear so many of them speak with pessimism and wanting the easy way out of life.

When my brother keep making the " The White man" excuses, I'm like " Uh yuh," I'm African-American been there . I hate that because some of them don't realize when you continue have that kind of thinking, then they " White" man already has won: defeated, pitiful and stuck. I also hate it when people call me naive for it. because I'm not. The diference between them and me is that I don't try to let societal ills get me down. I've been the victim of racism and will continue to be for the rest of my life,statistics say that the White man and even White women will outdo me in the econonic department. Somebody will discriminate against me because fo the color of my skin. What should I do, crawl under my rock , stay there and and cry about what the White man did to me? or should I accept reality and move on with my life and have some sort of peace on my mind? I chose " B" because I do want to move on with my life MY way , not the White man's way, not the Black man's way or Jewish man's way MY way! I will never be able to experience the truth or to handle the problems fo life if I carry that mentality with me.

I remembered when my nephews were born I had a plan for them: they were going to be better than what my siblings were when we went to school. I started by reading to them as babies and continue reading/educating them until the age of 18 and I will in my own right continue doing it and so you know what, while I cannot sepak for everybody, I know that when you don't make up excuses, they will not either. Even one of my nephews suffer from ADHD( and has never been in a special edcaution class) he has been on the principal list for the last three years of his young life along with his other two brothers and was told that he has a high IQ of a 7th grader, as ADHD isn't a slow learner problem. They dream of doing various things with their lives and I along with his family don't tell them" You know that the White man will keep you down so forget it"Even in their young lives, they know who they are and their position in life( Though they have never been victims of racial discrimination, though we tell them it's coming and learn how to deal with it) and with the on with the ADHD, he dreams of being a graphic artist and wanting to go toschool in Japan. We don't tell him " You know you have ADHD, it may be a hinderance for you" I feel that if he feels that he can do it do it."Everytime that me and my siblings come to school for their well being or to their awards program, it makes us feel proud and their teachers always talk about how smart they are and think that they are born that way. To me, nobody is born intelligent, it's something that comes from their upbrining and what he/she was nurtured with. Some people may think badly about themselves because of negativity, but with my nephews, while I cannot tell them what they will be years later, I can say that we did our best in shaping them, by training them to not to let their race/disabilty hinder them from being the best in life and to rise up from the ashes of negativity and to defy it and not fall into societal traps because there are people in this world who expect for them to fall. If my ancestors could do in those torrid days, certainly we can.

“There is no doubt in my mind that a unified movement can generate pressure to force the establishment to consider establishing autonomous independent black schools.”

SJ – I applaud that fact that you are at least looking for solutions, however there are a few problems with your solution. Firstly, you are assuming that Whites WANT Blacks to know their history, that would be sociological suicide and they are well aware of it. Europe as it exists today, is entirely the product of what was taken from Blacks. First the cultural and technological mechanics in Europe, then the land – look up the “Sea People” in your web browser.


After Southern Europe was taken, it was necessary to take lands to the south and east, to supply materials to keep it going. As I’m sure you know, every city in Europe was built on the backs of people from somewhere else. Now that it is no longer possible to maintain this “inflow” with military might, it must now be maintained with diplomacy. What you have, and are allowed to have, is an effort to maintain this status quo. Allowing you to know the truth would hardly be in keeping with this goal, paying for it is totally out of the question. (The rest of what you said is quite true in my opinion).

A note of caution SJ: Should you decide to go ahead and research the Sea People, it will no doubt lead to your investigating other related things. When you return to university in the fall, please do not use this new-found knowledge to cause disruption in class – remember your purpose for being there, if you must, make your points and leave it at that, you can teach others later.

CeeCee – you have found the answer – please don’t keep it to yourself.

Saw an interview with Toyin of Ligali where he was saying we are scared when there is no reason to be, we all play playstations and watch dvd's and listen to hip hop. This reminds me of my muslim friend who married a girl from Turkey but she had to convert before they could become husband and wife. She was petrified and asked him does she have to wear one of those things which covers her face.

As westernised sambo's we are scared of the African culture and African values needed to form any kind of united advance. Our idea of advance is doing what our host nation does and all that does is advance the individual but ultimately the host nation.

We want to be free like pagans yet haven't earned that right so jump on the pagan wagon all call ourselves liberated. We are wotliss - when it comes to advancement, the most 'we' will ever achieve is gaining knowledge of that reality.

...the most 'we' will ever achieve is gaining knowledge of that reality - but that's still a lesser evil than going grey

One mans advancement is another mans sellout. History will be forever repeating itself and we will forever be here chatting sh!t pi$$ing in the wind.

Once the brain is washed one or two might free themselves but the majority will be lobotomized. The whole point of dividing and conquering is once divided you are conquered....there is no coming back. We are simply living the realities of this.

The great and mighty FredB said words to this effect - when something has to be done, people with culture just do it - we on the other hand have to have big debates with question and answer sessions.

For all our efforts, some quotes from the film Scarface come to mind:-

From the perspective of the white powers that be, our 'militia' are seen as nothing more than a "bunch of whacked out Columbians."

From the perspective of those of us who love it down in babylon - "you need people like the 'militia' so you can point your f**king fingers and say that's the bad guy!"

To capture the brains of the masses, we need a dictatorship, and even this will only work if the dictator is white.

There is a a comment that Robert Kiyosaki makes in Rich Dad, Poor Dad that is very telling. He says that most kids develop their life strategies by age 14. What ideas get into a childs mid are very important.

I don't recommend Sci-Fi by people like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke just for the science and technology. These are not your average White guys. They write books where the character bring up ideas and perspectives that most people don't run across until they get to college. If anything sci-fi has gotten kind of dumbed down since Star Wars. Too many writers that don't know science or have a scientific attitude trying to claim what they write is science fiction. Nothing but adventure stories with an SF veneer.

This was written b4 Star Wars.

Joanna Russ- Towards an Aesthetic of Science Fiction

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