First things first. I hate to say this, but I’m over 40 and I finally had the opportunity to read this highly critical piece of work by the great Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson. Thus is the life of an immigrant. Let’s just say my hardworking parents didn’t have much time (nor the energy) to build up a sizable home library. Having said that, I have a hunch that The Miseducation of the Negro and many other books like it aren’t exactly titles you are likely to randomly discover hidden away on bookshelves inside homes of average middle class Americans.
In reviewing my reading notes for this review, I see that I found the book to be a worthwhile read for any minority community trying to successfully get their voice heard in America. Woodson didn’t hold back in his blunt diagnosis of the problems ailing the African-American community nor did he hold back in posing (long-term) potential solutions to those long-time problems. Sadly, a large number of those problems still exist nearly 100 years since the original publishing, albeit, in their more modern incarnations, and to Woodson’s credit, the solutions he proposed nearly 100 years ago are still making their way through the American system.
It’s definitely a piece of work that goes to the heart of the systemic problems ailing minority communities, and obviously, in particularly, the African-American community. Woodson’s central solutions hinge on increased control. In other words, these communities must serve themselves to a certain extent as opposed to leaning too heavily on the system at large to help them. To paraphrase Woodson central premise, it was the policies of the system at large that put certain minority communities in their current (dire) situation, so an over-dependence on the same system to help put things right isn’t exactly a wise solution, to put it lightly.
If you haven’t already, please add this to your 2021 reading list. I’m not sure how many of you will venture outside of your respective comfort zones to read this work, but in all honesty, it probably won’t take you more than a couple hours (or a weekend, if you’re someone like me who is a little slow and likes to spend some time chewing on words before swallowing). With that said, to the few of you have reached this far, I will leave you with a couple golden nuggets directly from the man himself.
On page 16, Woodson writes:
No systemic effort toward change has been possible, for, taught the same economics, histry philsophy, literature and religion which have established the present code of morals, the Negro’s mind has been brought under the control of his oppressor. The problem of holding the Negro down, therefore, is easily solved. When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his “proper place” and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.
On page 83, Woodson shows that he was pretty good at making long-term predictions:
If we had a few thinkers we could expect great achievements on tomorrow. Some Negro with unusual insight would write an epic of bondage and freedom which would take its place with those of Homer and Virgil. Some Negro with esthetic appreciation would construct from collected fragments of Negro music a grand opera that would move humanity to repentance. Some Negro of philophic penetration would find a solace for the modern world in the soul of the Negro, and then when would be men because they are men.
On page 84, Woodson begins to detail his “New Program” for the African-American community:
We have very few teachers because most of those with whom we are afflicted know nothing about the children whom they teach or about their parents who influence the pupils more than the teachers themselves. When a boy comes to school without knowing his lesson he should be studied instead of being punished. The boy who does well in the beginning of the year and lags behind near the end of the term should not always be censured or ridiculed. As a rule, such children are not responsible for their failures. Their parents and their social status account mainly for these shortcomings. The Negro teacher, then, must treat the dease rather than its symptoms.”
And finally, in the appendix, there’s an essay titled “Much Ado about a Name,” which is also excellent. His intro sentence hints at Woodson’s somewhat cynical perspective.
A participant who recently attended an historical meeting desired to take up the questions as to what the race shjould be called. Africans, Negroes, colored people, or what? this is a matter of much concern to him because he hopes thereby to solve the race problem. If others will agree to call Negroes Nordics, he thinks, he will reach the desired end by taking a short cut. Page 110
Further down the page, Woodson’s proposed solution seems fairly straightforward:
It does not matter so much what the thing is called as what the thing is. The negro would not cease to be what he is by calling him something else; but, if he will struggle and make something of himself and contribute to modern culture, the world will learn to look upon him as an American rather than as one of an undeveloped element of the population. Page 110
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