Culturally Centered Education
When thinking about the educational system in America, from middle school through high school, even in college depending upon programs, white/European culture has been the focus of the system. It is within this system, that whiteness is embedded at the top of an oppressive racist hierarchy. Everything else deemed as other, is at the bottom and is treated as inferior. This is problematic, because although Europeans today can learn their own history which centers them to view themselves as human and important, forcing that history (often whitewashed) onto oppressed groups doesn’t serve the betterment of those people. Teaching people a history and education, which erases their ancestor’s contributions to society as …show more content…
By first realizing the importance of history and how much that happened in the past, still lingers on today. Okur mentions the history of white supremacy (in order to uphold such supremacy by molding its superiority on being above Blackness and creating race/a racial hierarchy that exploits, dismisses and belittles all “others”), and how it has erased contributions to civilization that came before it, even as evidence shows that Greek philosophers went to Africa, particularly ancient Kemet, as students to learn much about life. By sharing such knowledge that the world’s first mathematicians, philosophers etc were in Africa, highlights that education today (which doesn’t acknowledge such contributors to all human civilization and if it does, it is in fragments) needs to be changed. As a solution to such miseducation many receive in their teenage years, embedding African history in educational structures without a whitewashed lens is one way to progress in an inclusive non-oppressive …show more content…
Mirroring back on history classes in my high school, none were based on African American history, even with titles on history books for different class sections labeled “World History” and “American History”. Curriculum focused on Black history would have been extremely useful and is useful today, because it’s odd to not have that as a class/requirement in schools, where the majority student population is Black people. If Black people aren’t being taught about themselves, what could they be learning that is useful? The education was not culturally centered towards uplifting nor acknowledging contributions to society made by Africana people prior to enslavement. We may have been told about the peanut guy, and the civil rights era/Martin Luther King and now it jumps from that to President Barack Obama. However, although those events and people are important and symbolic to Black people, it isn’t enough. I didn’t learn about the Black Power movement in high school, I didn’t learn about those who fought back in chattel slavery days, I wasn’t taught that Africa had civilization prior to white people creating things and that many fought against invaders as well. Whitewashed
When thinking about the educational system in America, from middle school through high school, even in college depending upon programs, white/European culture has been the focus of the system. It is within this system, that whiteness is embedded at the top of an oppressive racist hierarchy. Everything else deemed as other, is at the bottom and is treated as inferior. This is problematic, because although Europeans today can learn their own history which centers them to view themselves as human and important, forcing that history (often whitewashed) onto oppressed groups doesn’t serve the betterment of those people. Teaching people a history and education, which erases their ancestor’s contributions to society as …show more content…
By first realizing the importance of history and how much that happened in the past, still lingers on today. Okur mentions the history of white supremacy (in order to uphold such supremacy by molding its superiority on being above Blackness and creating race/a racial hierarchy that exploits, dismisses and belittles all “others”), and how it has erased contributions to civilization that came before it, even as evidence shows that Greek philosophers went to Africa, particularly ancient Kemet, as students to learn much about life. By sharing such knowledge that the world’s first mathematicians, philosophers etc were in Africa, highlights that education today (which doesn’t acknowledge such contributors to all human civilization and if it does, it is in fragments) needs to be changed. As a solution to such miseducation many receive in their teenage years, embedding African history in educational structures without a whitewashed lens is one way to progress in an inclusive non-oppressive …show more content…
Mirroring back on history classes in my high school, none were based on African American history, even with titles on history books for different class sections labeled “World History” and “American History”. Curriculum focused on Black history would have been extremely useful and is useful today, because it’s odd to not have that as a class/requirement in schools, where the majority student population is Black people. If Black people aren’t being taught about themselves, what could they be learning that is useful? The education was not culturally centered towards uplifting nor acknowledging contributions to society made by Africana people prior to enslavement. We may have been told about the peanut guy, and the civil rights era/Martin Luther King and now it jumps from that to President Barack Obama. However, although those events and people are important and symbolic to Black people, it isn’t enough. I didn’t learn about the Black Power movement in high school, I didn’t learn about those who fought back in chattel slavery days, I wasn’t taught that Africa had civilization prior to white people creating things and that many fought against invaders as well. Whitewashed