The other day I asked one of my kids when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, one replied "1992," the other in disgust of the answer confidently exclaimed "No, stupid. It was 1792."
I asked them if they knew 1992 was only 17 years ago, and if they thought MLK died while I was alive. In shame, they replied "No." I also asked if they knew slavery was still in place in 1792, and if they thought MLK had been a slave. They replied, "Yes."Daily I, You, We, the educated have to combat what these children have to see and hear daily. I try to keep my little sisters from being "Block Girls," who are fast and date everyone, and who get their hearts broken, but it's hard. I try to keep my little brothers from sagging their jeans, fighting, playing with girls' emotions and from idolizing those who aren't worthy of being idols, but it's hard.
Everything that I say or do has to be done with 100 times more force daily in order to even attempt to combat what they learn in their homes, their neighborhoods and on t.v.
Obama's the president, but as the bible says, "My people perish for the lack of knowledge..." My people are still perishing, so, yes Obama's African American, but my kids here in the South Bronx, who are taught everyone is connected aren't feeling any tinge of patriotic pull from D.C and surely no surge of educational prowess as they're losing in this academic fight.
By the way, for those of you who didn't know, Dr. King was assassinated in 1968.
Son, I had to comment on this one cuz I think about it everyday... The information age that we're in is making the next generation dumber than ever!! That might sound like a contradiction but think about how much information is available at our fingertips today... It don't matter what you know anymore, it's about how well you can look it up. Compound that with the countless messages kids receive from the media everyday telling them how they should look, think, act, etc. and top it off with online "social" networking that allows them to portray themselves in whatever way they want and we got a recipe for stupidity (as in an ENTIRE generation). Luckily, there are still people like you that realize the drastic changes taking place and are trying to do something to counter the oncoming disaster. At the end of the day, it's up to us to make things right.
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