Let's Focus On A 'Untied Future' – From My Vault

My following syndicated commentary was originally published February 17, 2004. It is as true

February is Black History Month. But instead of black children learning the truth of American history, they are taught revisions and misrepresentations.

Instead of white children being taught the truth of said history, they are imbibed with guilt, shame and the burden of past ills under the guise of truth. In many instances, those teaching are unforgivably ignorant of the truth and /or purposely distort the truth.

My grandmother used to say “You are what you think.” Allowing for even a modicum of truth in her saying, can there be any wonder as to the disassociative, belligerent, self-destructive behavior of many black youths? Of many youths in general, but I digress from my point.

Black inner-city children view life through a different prism (albeit not an all exclusive one) than most of America. They view it through a lens of frustration, anger and malaise. They view the outside world through a prism of shame and inferiority.

They view it that way because those whom they are instructed to look up to feed them a steady diet of the same. And at no time is that diet filled with more bitterness and resentment than during Black History Month. But I get ahead of myself.

In their neighborhoods – and in their social groups – it is a common, everyday, birth-to-death occurrence to hear “that ol’ white man,” “whitey this” or “whitey that” and many other shameful epithets. While at a service station, a black gentleman commenting to me, referred to a college-student customer as “That ol’ stupid white boy.” When I inquired why he said that, I was told emphatically, “Because he is.”

From the church pulpit to the corner store – with radio and television in between – black children hear condescending and racist remarks about “whitey,” and it isn’t just in the “hood.” It is in black homes across the social and economic divide. It’s just that in the “hood” the opportunity to mingle with those outside one’s race is limited.

Black children today claim to be ashamed and embarrassed by books like “Tom Sawyer,”
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