Black Education

Black education easily can be taken for granted. Many of us do not feel the need to study black history and culture, perhaps because we live it every day. If we stop and think about it, we may see that Western education is the study of Europe and its effects on the rest of the world, past, present and future. These aspects must be studied every day at school and college. If Westerners place such a strong emphasis on studying themselves, then the study of oneself must be of great value. This is an example of Western culture that we may do well to emulate.

Need more convincing? Let's go back in time for a bit and try to see where we may have gotten off track.

Nearly 500 years ago, most European scholars were 100 percent certain that the earth was the center of the universe and that the sun revolved around the earth. Today, we know that this thinking was completely backwards, but this is only because something took place to change it. In 1514, Nicolaus Copernicus began circulating the theory that the earth was not the center of the universe and that the earth actually circulated around the sun. As shocking as this news was at that time, it eventually destroyed the old belief and created a new direction of thought, influencing the historical time line.

In 1609, Galileo Galilei built a telescope powerful enough to see the Milky Way. In 1687, Isaac Newton provided his understanding of gravity. In the 1700s and 1800s, an Industrial Revolution emerged. In 1905, Albert Einstein gave us his understanding of relativity. And, in the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. started its space exploration program. Now, can you see how one event influenced others over a long period of time? Stick with me. Black education does fit in here.

Imagine that Copernicus' news had been crushed so that Europeans never knew the exact position of the earth. What sort of time line do you think would have emerged? Do you think European science would have gone very far? The Milky Way probably would not have been identified. The knowledge of gravity probably would have remained undiscovered. The knowledge of physics probably would have been lost. And, today, there probably would be no cars, computers, cell phones, nuclear missiles, and so forth. Without the knowledge that Copernicus provided, one might even say that Europeans, and therefore, Americans might never have developed beyond the horse and cart.

Now, unfortunately for black peoples, we have had some interference with our own time line and it has changed our development. Some crucial information has been deleted from our black education - information as crucial to us as understanding the correct positions of the sun and earth has been to modern science.