CHAPTER 6 CONTINUED. . .

Implications

There are four major implication for this community-based enculturation program. (1.) The African American community needs to investigate how its members are socialized to believe racist assumptions about themselves. (2.) Social changes in the community have signaled a major need for African Americans to intervene in the education of their youths and the school policies which affect their lives. (3.) An examination of the social construction of African American life by the media is warranted. (4.) These discussion groups provided a means for the community to interpret its cosmology to its youths and promote the salience of their place in the city.

When African American children openly express pejorative terms about Africans and blacks it seems apparent that the community needs to examine how the ideas and self concepts of African American children are shaped. The words of the younger students sounded as if they were spoken by some nineteenth century scientists justifying the inferiority of Africans and Blacks. Instead these ideas were mouthed by children who had only been on this planet little more than a decade. Why have these thoughts rolled so comfortably and confidently from the tongues of these youths?

When a subordinate population, in this case African American youths believe that they and their culture are inferior, deculturation has occurred (Baker 1983:37). Their identity then becomes firmly rooted in the social order which has been ascribed to them (Magubane 1987:15). This phenomenon was clearly seen among the younger group members. The placement of two of the students in special education classes for the emotionally handicapped, perhaps, reinforced their belief in the inferiority of blacks.

These children linked their concepts of blackness and Africanness to the television news. Would it be possible for an external force to have such influence over the minds of these children if their community affirmed a more positive message concerning Africans and blacks? Research (Magubane 1987:15; Baker 1983:37; Fanon 1970:137) suggests that minority groups assist in perpetuating their inferiority once they have accepted a subordinate status.

The church is, perhaps unconsciously, complicitous in perpetuating negative images of African peoples. James Cone (1963:121) a theological scholar, argues that "the black church identifies 'white words' with God's Word and convinces its people that by obeying the 'great white father' they would surely enter into the 'pearly gates'." No doubt such message is not explicitly expressed. A portrayal of Christ as "white" rather than Semitic conveys to African Americans that God is white. Such image of Jesus fosters the culture hegemony of whites. Racially inspired images convey a strong message of the subordination of African Americans.

A critical assessment by African Americans of their culture and how children are socialized into various roles is crucial to their survival. Answers to these questions will offer insight into the role African Americans play to prepare their children for the future. How successful can a child be in a society where he or she feels inferior? Why did the younger students have negative attitudes toward being African and black? Were these concepts prevalent earlier in the older students but changed by time? What roles have schools and parents played in shaping the impressions of African American youth? Which messages do the social institutions convey to children? Are children socialized to assimilate? Did the events that occurred during their birth era make a difference? How can the community support students who seek greater awareness of themselves as cultural beings. How have Black culture clubs enhanced the achievement of African American students? The documentation of the social history of African Americans in St. Petersburg allows African Americans to examine historical patterns of socialization and their implications in assisting African American children in reaching their full potential. However, further exploration of these issues are needed.

When investigating these questions, one must consider that the students who participated in this project were self-selected. However, a consideration of the sample leads one to speculate about those students who were not interested in engaging in such a program. Are they in worse condition than those who attended?

If so, what can the community do to educate those who may be a very serious threat to themselves and their community. Alexander Leighton (1959) proposes that a sense of alienation and displacement lead to alcoholism, drug addiction, and other problems. The National Urban League has concluded that a low self-valuation has contributed to the escalating violence among young African American males ( Bell and Jenkins 1990).

Derrick Bell (1991:9) speaking of African Americans' quest for racial justice writes:

We have attained all the rights we sought in law and gained none of the resources we need in life. Like the crusaders of old, we sought the holy grail of 'equal opportunity' and, having gained it in court decisions and civil right statutes, find it transformed from the long-sought guarantee of racial equality into one more device the society can use to perpetuate the racial status-quo.

This analysis describes the paradox of education in the African American community. African Americans believed that the desegregation of schools would improve their condition. Instead they found the integrity of their culture threatened and the status of their children and community weakened, because the school was no longer the core of the community. Although many of the facilities were still located in their neighborhoods, their children felt like intruders (Hacker 1992). Their power to use school as a medium to transmit African American cultural values was significantly reduced. The community now is dependent on the actions of individual concerned teachers. Discontinuity between the cultures of school, home, and community has seriously jeopardized the academic achievement of many African American children. This historical watershed in the history of St. Petersburg, twenty years later would create a complex dilemma for African Americans. The issue is whether to pursue the current path of desegregation or return to a separate and "equal" system.

In retrospect, it appears that African American leaders did not understand the mainstream role of schools. One of the major goals of schools has been to rid ethnic groups of their ethnic characteristics and reinforce Anglo-Saxon values and behaviors as the standard (Banks 1984:71). Ellwood Patterson Cubberly concluded that the task of the schoolv was to break up immigrant groups and their settlements, to assimilate or amalgamate them as part of the American race and to implant in their children as far as can be done, the Anglo-Saxon concept of righteousness, law, order, and popular government, and to awaken in them reverence for democratic institutions and for those things which we as a people hold to be of abiding worth (Banks 1984:474).

Hence, as a social institution, school constitutes machinery that helps to maintain the social structure and its continuity.

The issues that African American communities face concerning their children are dictated by power. The power to interpret the epistemologies of knowledge within the schools does not lie in the hands of African Americans. That power originates with the school board and superintendent of schools in Pinellas county. These policy making bodies have yet to include an African American or any other minority group member. Therefore, a rearrangement of the student population may not produce significant results, if the role of the school is defined by members of one cultural group. Working to diversify the voices that govern the educational system is a path that will allow greater respect for African American epistemologies which govern the lives of African American students.

However, this study has shown that there are avenues which the African American community can use to educate its children. The Black culture club provides a mean of educating African American children concerning their heritage. Judging the caliber of the students who were members of the Black culture club, it appears that they were self-assured and better prepared to critically examine their world. Clubs could be organized by neighborhoods to address historical and contemporary conditions which shape African American cosmologies. Such organizations could reduce the effect of assimilation because students are enabled to differentiate their world view from other without devaluing either and feeling compromised.

"Television is a powerful medium without the necessity of any enhancement" (Robinson 1990:170). Robinson (1990:170) examined the impact of television and television advertising on African American youths. He argued that a new reality was created as many African Americans moved farther away from those values that sustained them historically. Television became the predominant socializer of this generation. However, he suggested that the media primarily relied on stereotypical images to portray African Americans and framed them often as members of the "black underclass". Bill Cosby and Michael Jackson became the exceptions to the rule. Hence, the major role of television in reshaping the cultural views of African Americans youths led the younger ones to conclude that television is a medium which one can believe.

This project placed the elders as the shapers of the students world. Their words were portrayed as valid affirmation of the African-American way of life in St. Petersburg. This point of reference is rather important for many youths who have disregarded their grandparents' ideas as old fashioned. These oral histories hence, helped to re-position the role of one of the traditional socializers. It is of paramount importance that the voices of the elders be heard if African Americans are going to sustain the continuity of their culture.

Although, the effectiveness of the program requires a longitudinal assessment, one may conclude that students were sensitized to the realities of their lives. The ethnic history of African Americans in St. Petersburg has played a cogent role in informing students about their culture and the cultural assumptions of others about their culture. Group interactions with these youths have been supported by the assumption that their lives naturally intersect with many events in their neighborhoods. Many times these incidents are dialectical and threaten the existence of African Americans. An examination of the complex structures of exclusion and racism permits the students to understand that the pressure to assume the cultural characteristics held by others about themselves may be subtle perpetuated either through television, religious images, a dialogue with a teacher or the absence of information. Students were also provided an opportunity to see and hear how a city's political agenda toward development and modernization destroyed African American neighborhoods and affected the financial and emotional security of those who remained. The reconstruction of their community's history has taught students about the realities that shape their lives and the salience of their ethnicity when interacting with other groups.

Perhaps more importantly, these students were trained to question how realities are created and to understand when societal structures undermine their communities simply by being anchored in their own world view. Freire (1970:71) posits that this type of problem-solving education challenges students to "perceive the way they exist in the world in which they find themselves." People who understand who they are become fully actualized (Banks 1981:27).

1. One consequence of racial identity for oppressed people is that they internalize negative attitudes of their oppressors. Donald Baker (1983:37) in Race' Ethnicity and Power, argues that in racial relationships, the cultural identity of subordinate groups is destroyed and an inferiority complex is instilled.

2. Pseudonyms are used for all of the pupils.