From: ronaldd@cbnewse.cb.att.com (ronald.h.davis)
Subject: Re: Malcom X Academy in Detroit, MI
Organization: AT&T
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 19:36:43 GMT

In article <19oqm3INNr35@bigboote.WPI.EDU> bugsy@lektroid.WPI.EDU (Christopher Sean Moran) writes:
>
>
>
>school).
>
>     As for my views... I don't believe a public school is the
>place for one cultures teaching.  Sure, the children will learn
>about their past, but what about the rest of the worlds past.
>A single culture (in my opinion) is not as important as a worlds
>culture.  I am not saying just Europe either... Eastern, Western,
>African, Australian, Indian, EVERYONE is important.  We have made
>some awful mistakes in the past and the children need to know
>about ALL of them, if they are to change the future (or even have one)
>
i got news for you chris; schools [public as well as catholic (i
whould know because i went to an all black one)] already teach one
culture: eurpoean oriented.  and one can not dismiss this as
being a matter of parents playing a few tunes for their children.
the education which is heavily oriented toward the view that white
people are responsible for most of the stuff that built this country
while all other ethnic groups went along for the ride has *profound*
impact upon our society because it (implicitly) supports the notion
of white supremacy.  if you believe that white people created the
greatest nation on earth it become real easy to believe that, and to
see other groups as threats and leeches upon the "presumed" toils of
white people.  is it no surprise that 'recognized' historical scholars
such as harvard's arthur schlessinger are so adamantly proposed to
historical revisionism that takes note of non-white viewpoints, decrying
such moves as "socially devicive"?  if you challenge the [totally
bogus, in fact] notion of white accomplishment, if you question george
washington's "i cannot tell a lie" lie, if you question the contention
that america has been a democracy for over 200 even though human
beings were denied even the most basic human rights for much of that
time, if you contend that racism was a social structure introduced to
make the enslavement of some human beings by other human beings and
that it was the [largely unrewarded] efforts of those suffering people
whose blood and sweat and toils created the infrastructure to make
this nation what it is today, THEN you start to shake the foundations
of the naive assumptions that white people hold dominant roles in this
society because they are the "most qualified".

if our tax dollars [white and non-white people] go towards teaching
the "one culture" that is being taught today why shouldn't that money
be used to teach views counter to accepted canon?  now you might
argue, what about other [than af-am] cultures?  to me this seems
rather lame to imply that we should do nothing until all cultures
can be represented.  does that mean that you would favor a cessation
of teaching the current cultural orientation until then [that is to
say teach nothing in the interim]?  surely not...

what i think is missed here is that *all* people need to know about
the contributions of af-am's to our society because it is important
to our *entire* society.  i personally believe the fault lies with
many of the white parents like those in detroit who view black
history as being for black people only [i.e. not something that
they want to deal with].  i outlined reasons why white people would
not want to know about black history above.

another arguement is; why should there be a separate history.  well,
current historical canon is, imho, little more than racist propaganda
to maintain the current social order.  those responsible for the
current historical rendition are not going to want to see it changed
for obvious reasons so the integratation of various cultures into a
"unified" history is not going to happen smoothly...or soon.  thus,
until we can do better we must begin the dialog today.
 
>     If I had not been so interested in the world, and my parents
>had not taught me that all people are equal I would have some 
>drastically different views, I'm sure.  As a matter of fact I believe
>my parents had more to do with my views than any other thing.  If you
>don't agree with me, say so.  If you do, fine.  I don't see it in my 
>lifetime, probably not in my childrens lifetime either, but someday
>I hope people will live as one, work as one, play as one, and put their 
>damn differences aside. 
>
>
>Teach your children well, Peace
>
in a utopian world, all this sounds good [just like the economic
notion of a "free market"], but our society is something much larger
than the environment that parents can create for their children.
and when they grow up and have to face the world on their own, they
will be confronted by it.  i agree with much of what you say in the
above paragraph, but there are larger social agendas that one's
parents alone cannot address.

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