LETTER TO THE EDITOR

“Faithful Reader” Says Real Education Must Come From Outside Education System
I read and enjoyed and learned much from each of the issues of your   excellent newspaper. The issue of a couple of years back on the history of education in New York State, was/is so invaluable that it should be reprinted every September, just as the new school year is starting, just to put that puzzle in perspective,
Should not an education provide a sense of identity as one of its primary goals?  I am calling the so-called educational system a puzzle.   The question is, how can one have a sense of identity without knowing one’s history?
For those who go thru the maze of the educational process’ slight of hand, enter without an identity and exit no more sure of who they are than when one entered. Is the question, “Is some miseducation better than none at all?”
And then again, the education system is doing as it was intended to do: confuse, mislead, under and miseducate, a certain population, of a certain  complexion.
Why would a system  that is an integral part of a larger system that  has mostly been antagonistic to the black constituency, provide the tools to slaves to liberate themselves and thereby weaken its own position. Not today or any other. That education for identity, education for liberation, must come from outside the  miseducation system.
Is the question of identity  even worthy of discussion? Are you, are we satisfied and content with the cooperation between individuals in our neighborhoods where we shoot and kill, maime and rob one and the other?  Where is the outcry?  Who is enraged enough to make the effort to contribute in resolving this emergency? Where is the rescue squad from within? Where are the ambulances?
Where are the lawyers? Where are the leaders as they call themselves? Where are the politicians? Are they standing at the edge of a cliff safely while directing the rest of us to the jump, saying don’t look, just jump to the rocks below?  Don’t mess with the status quo, bro.   What is that classic line elected officials utter after each outrage is committed against us, is it stay calm or don’t get mad, or peace brothers?  Are these folks holding us back from true progress? I am thinking of the soldiers of Zimbabwe who could not wait for the government to get them some land, what they do? Solve their own problems? Is our definitive leadership obscure and only observed by a few?
The different groups within the Diaspora, what about them?
Are we truly maximizing our efforts  for unity? Our enemies have some problems between them but they are as tight as a balled fist when it gets to what to do about you, black man and woman, think not?    
The brainwashing role as exemplified by mass media has convinced the populace that nigger, nigga, and bitches and hoes are acceptable terms.  These disrespectful terms will have a life of their own until an equally, persistent effort is made to eradicate their usage replaced by… My mother is not a ho and I am not a nigger, you dig.  Still, I am not happy with others having no respect for self or others.
What next?  The level of self -hatred as exemplified in the music and  usage of negative terms in the streets to describe one another as niggers, for example, is at unprecedented levels in our communities.
 I can only support that statement by saying I hear the “n” word being said now at this time more than at any other.
One remedy is a steady dose of the works and concepts of Amos Wilson, of Malcolm X, of Elijah Muhammad, of a Carter G. Woodson, of Anta Diop. Of course, my role is to teach history and discourage the usage of these terms as much as possible, as often as possible.
The history of education in New York State as outlined in your periodical once a year would do its part also, I would think, I would believe; would certainly play its role as it has, as it does with each issue, each month in helping clarify who we are and more importantly, who we should be, and be about as  individuals and community.
Please continue  the excellence of your publication, every one of your writers is truly an expert in her or his field.  I have learned much from each of them, and your paper in general.  Only one of your faithful readers.
Ken Hutson, Brooklyn, NY