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Self Respect

“The shaft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle's own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction.”

--Aesop--

“Respect yourself and others will respect you.”

--Confucius--

A long time ago, when I was a little kid there was a local phrase that went “quit drinking someone else’s Kool Aid.” It meant to stop buying someone else’s propaganda that they were better than you. Well, maybe it is time someone said that to the African-American community because we have been “drinking someone else’s Kool Aid” for far too long.

What am I talking (well writing) about? I am talking about how we give our power away everyday because we have been so brainwashed into believing in fairy tales, fiction, and propaganda. We must start exercising more independent thought and we must be willing to challenge old, popular, and convenient notions. I will give an example.

Over a year ago I wrote an article about how the University of Notre Dame insulted the African-American community by treating the only African-American Head Football Coach in their long and illustrious history differently than any other coach in the past several decades. Notre Dame fired Coach Willingham before he finished his first contract, even though the university had allowed the coach before Willingham, who had about the same record, to finish his contract before they fired him. As I mentioned in my previous article, it was an insult to the African-American community because it appears that Willingham received the quick hook because of the color of his skin.

Yet, after the firing we remained silent. Our community and our leaders remained silent. We remained silent as the new coach of Notre Dame came to our community without being required to explain the university’s actions. We remained silent as the university recruited several young brothers from our community without any repercussions. We remained silent as the media hyped the new coach to near mythical levels even though the new coach did not have a better record than Willingham in his first two seasons. We remained silent as the new coach of Notre Dame received a contract extension even though he had not delivered a bowl victory or a better season than Willingham. And we are silent still even though the media has started to finally shed some light on Notre Dame’s actions.

The worst part of this sad example is all we needed to have done was to have a little respect for ourselves and to have acted like it. This is an example where we did not have to hold large public protests or any protests. We did not need our “anointed” leaders to make a public stink over Willingham’s firing. We just needed to send a firm clear message by sending our football talent else where. If the big name recruits as well as the “little name” recruits from our community made it clear that Notre Dame was persona non grata then the message would have been sent loud and clear. Instead, we sent a message that our community can be insulted indirectly and we will not do anything without one of our “anointed” leaders or the media telling “us” to be outraged.

I want to be very clear. The Willingham firing by Notre Dame was not about one brother’s job. It was about opportunity. It was about fairness. It was about respect. If he was treated differently because of the color of his skin then it was a direct insult and challenge to all of “us” and it was and still is in the individual self interest of all of “us” to address this wrong. Would any school publicly announce that black folks are only good enough to help their football team win games as athletes but they are not good enough to be the team’s head coach? How was the Willingham situation that different? Yes it may have been a little more subtle but I think the message was the same.

I also want to point out that I am in no way suggesting that all people or even most people from Notre Dame are racists or feel that way. If most people from Notre Dame are like the people I know from Notre Dame, I am certain they are not racists. However, they are not the people that needed to have been sent a message. The people that influenced the Willingham firings should have and still need to be sent a message. It is called R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

The situation at Notre Dame was only one of many examples of how our actions or lack there of actually help our oppressors to continue to oppress “us.” How can we ever expect to build power if we allow others to do whatever they want to us and not only do we allow it we even help them? How can we ever expect respect from others when clearly we do not respect ourselves? The truth is we can not and we should not.

We must respect ourselves. We must start to define ourselves. We must start to think for ourselves. And we must start drinking our own Kool Aid.

Welcome Back

“You don't need fancy highbrow traditions or money to really learn. You just need people with the desire to better themselves.”

--Adam Cooper and Bill Collage--

“It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated.”

--Alec Bourne--

“The strength of the United States is not the gold at Fort Knox or the weapons of mass destruction that we have, but the sum total of the education and the character of our people.”

--Claiborne Pell--

Yesterday was the first day of school for students in the Chicago Public School System. Thousands of children and their parents went up to school with great expectations for this school year. Some students and parents this year are expecting high marks and others are just looking to make it to the next grade. However, I must take this opportunity to drum a familiar beat. Education is a tool to where a person wants to go in life. It is not an entitlement or a warranty and it is not just a feeder ramp to a job.

When most people talk about getting an education they are really referring to a diploma, degree, or certificate. They are not really referring to the process of learning, which should be a life long process. There is nothing wrong with wanting a diploma, degree, or certificate. There is nothing wrong with wanting a good paying job that can come from having a diploma, degree, or certificate. But, there is something wrong with brainwashing ourselves and our children into believing that getting a diploma, degree, or certificate some how guaranties a person a “good” paying job and/or a lucrative career. The truth is that it does not.

There are dozens of “well educated” unemployed or under employed people in this world. That is a reality that will never disappear but can be reduced. One way of doing that is by challenging ourselves and our children to get away from tailoring our and their education to chase a job. We must instead tailor our and their education to provide critical thinking and problem solving skills so we can meet the ever changing challenges that life provides.

The first step our children must take in tailoring their education is to determine what they want from their education. No goals. No future. No dreams. No greatness. No desires. No chance to shape their lives into what they want it to be because they do not know what they want. That is where “us” grown folks come in. We must be ready to challenge our children, our nieces, our nephews, our little cousins, our god children, and our grand children. We must challenge them to dream. We must challenge them to want more out of life than we did. We must challenge them to think about who they are, what they want out of life, and then how they can make it happen. Then we can begin to should them how an education can be the bridge to their dreams. They will start to understand what tool they will need because they will start to look beyond just going to school to get a job as opposed to going to school to prepare themselves to be in a position to provide to the world their own unique gift that no one else can give.

The truth is as long as we and our children know how to be creative, critical, problem solving thinkers we will always be valuable to employers, ourselves, our community, our nation, and the world.