“Moral theories have long been resorted to by us, as a means of effecting the redemption of our brethren in bonds, and the elevation of the free colored people in this country.
Experience has taught us that speculations are not enough; that the practical application of principles adduced, the thing carried out, is the only true and proper course to pursue.”
History has not been kind to the Black American with a lineage to chattel slavery. The battle for the Black mind rages on as we fight for equal representation in access to high quality instruction and investment that centers the narrative of the Black American. The consummate wave of disinformation that created a lack of understanding, respect, and appreciation for the contributions of Black Americans who are descendants of former slaves, now threatens to rewrite history without them in their rightful place as victims of chattel slavery. Givens offers a characterization from Woodson which says that “before emancipation, the enslaved had to gain their education by “snatching learning, in forbidden fields.” Acquiring knowledge was a criminal act.” Drawn from deep wells of hope, Black Americans with a lineage to American chattel slavery have fought to gain personhood through the right to quality education. Black people’s disallowance from the realms of educational opportunity antecedent the birth of the nation… Antiliteracy laws and the intellectual surveillance that accompanied them left great marks on the politics of Black education. They enforced the idea that Blacks were outside the social contract of American society– inconceivable as fully human, citizen, or student.
Where does morality begin for the Black American? Should we see ourselves as the permanent underclass that is incapable of transcending our past and present circumstance into a plane of existence where hope of quality education is not lost in the moral degeneration of society but is offered because of it? The nation has “speculated and moralised much about equality– claiming to be as good as our neighbors, and everybody else,” yet has remained unable to understand the damage it has wrought on Black Americans through a lack of access to quality education, instruction, and of overall investment. “Society regulates itself– being governed by mind, which like water, finds its own level.” The truth of American exceptionalism is contrasted against the treatment of its body politic, the least of us, which in the hegemonic order of America has been and continues to be, the Black American with a lineage to American chattel slavery.
Mine eyes have seen the glory
of the coming of the Lord,
He has trampled all adversaries
With his mighty sword-
No longer bound by the lies
That kept us from being free
My eyes blinded by the glory
That it sees
“What is necessary to be done, in order to attain an equality, is to change the condition, and the person is at one changed. History has not been kind to the Black American with a lineage to American chattel slavery. Education being the attainable resource is also its most important, when cultivating and perpetuating the idea of the cleansed self concept. It allows us to develop a counternarrative and language that expresses the depths and reality of a Black lived experience that is not limited by, and within the confines of Eurocentric ideology, language, and epistemology. It produces a more exclusive theme of self determination as an expression of vindicationism, a core component of Black racial consciousness.
Through positive racial and cultural socialization, students can develop the ability to fill in the gaps of understanding that were left over from centuries of indoctrination. It allows them the opportunity to build positive identities even though society has demonized and otherized them. The learning aesthetic is an important component of educating the Black child. Givens writes that, “The learning aesthetic is entangled with a more expansive visual politics in Black education. It produces an intellectual anchor in the midst of overt (and subtle) racism, legal segregation, and the attendant myths of white supremacy.”
The Black learning aesthetic demonstrates to the Black child that there are examples of Black American excellence that can be emulated and/or built upon. It is the constant reminder of their ability to grow beyond the limited dimensions they are kept within as students. It “supports students as they become consciously aware of their subjugated position in society.”
The battle for the Black mind is the silent war that we are drafted into. It is the war that has claimed so many lives. We come to the question that asks, where does morality begin for the Black American with a lineage to American chattel slavery? Should we see ourselves as the permanent underclass that is incapable of transcending our past and present circumstance into a plane of existence where hope of quality education is not lost in the moral degeneration of society but is offered because of it?
In the shadows of greatness
We lift all of our voices and sing
So that earth and heaven can ring,
With the harmonies of liberty-
As our rejoicings rise
Into the listening skies,
We no longer hide
The abundance of pride
That came from overcoming
The hate that tried to assure our demise,
In the shadows of greatness
Givens, J. R. (2021). Fugitive pedagogy. In Harvard University Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1h9dg3p
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