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Written
4/2/2000
All
Rights Reserved
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TEACHING OPPRESSION
FROM
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
For
millions of youngsters in America, schools are places where nightmares
become bitter realities, and where the stuff taught and promoted
by teachers might as well be the utterings of aliens.
For
poor and alienated youth, the lives they lead are frighteningly
different from the so-called "normal" lives portrayed in school
books. In essence, schools teach many things, perhaps most of
which is not on its formal curriculum. It teaches the young how
they are perceived in the larger world, what their place in it
is, and instills in them a sense of worth. For the poor, such
schools teach the exact opposite. They teach them that there is
no place in this world for them, and that they are of little or
no real worth.
The
late professor Murray Levin did something remarkable several years
ago when, retiring, he opted to spend a few semesters in one of
the poorest schools in the Boston area, and tried to teach history,
and political science. Levin used the widely acclaimed work of
Boston University's Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United
States, but the students, many of whom read with great difficulty,
remained unmoved by this work. Levin, angry and irritated at their
rejection of his attempts, later came to the conclusion that it
was he who had to learn from them, and he began by the simple
act of listening. The result was a remarkable book, Teach Me!
Kids will Learn When Oppression is the Lesson (New York: Monthly
Review Press, 1998), which featured transcripts garnered by hours
of recordings with students, who either ignored his presence,
or spoke truths that they wanted him to know. In any case, their
words are the highlight of the work, for it reveals the brilliance
of youth, who are on the margins of a commercial society, where
their futures are grimly marked in stone. Here are some excerpts
from Levin's text:
People
are what they know. That's who you are, all you've learned. Well,
we've learned sh-t, and it's not all our fault. The schools, white
teachers, you know, Irish and Italian, they hate us. Don't teach
us. Don't help us. It is planned. It is on purpose to keep us
stupid and weak. We know where things are going. We know what
the cops have in mind. They would like to destroy us and so would
Washington, then they don't got this problem in mind, no ghetto,
no crime, no drugs.... They don't want to help. They can't fix
it up, too expensive. So they don't tell us the truth about our
history. They purposely teach us wrong, and it's all in preparation
to get rid of us. It's the best solution for them. [pp.20-21]
Have
you ever read any words uttered by youth that are more an expression
of pure alienation? Throughout his book, Levin intersperses his
observations with such acidic comments from young people, who
see themselves as outsiders from the larger world. Nor are teachers
the sole targets of their enmity, as this excerpt reveals. The
President is the cause of these crimes. He and the IRS mastermind
the plot against the minorities, which is executed by Congress,
mayors, and the police. Not educating minorities is the first
part of a preparation plan to destroy black and Hispanic culture.
Congress, for example, oversees school education and approves
the books and curriculum that distorts black history. [p.21]
Teaching
at the Egleston Square high school in Boston, Levin found kids
who were presumably stupid, but really quite intuitive, and insightful.
His fellow teachers thought of these children as largely apolitical,
as they rarely expressed any interest in electoral politics. Levin
found they were in fact, intensely political, in that they saw
their whole world circumscribed by political forces that were
hostile to them. The Willie Horton case, raised by the Republican
presidential contender, George Bush, against then-Massachusetts
governor, and Democratic contender Michael Dukakis, brought out
interesting insights. A boy named Robert (a pseudonym) analyzed
the political advertisements and consultant's comments thusly:
Bush is trying to make whites anxious about blacks and Dukakis,
and he is using this very big emotion, this very big fear, to
get votes. This is about black men frightening white men. This
is about getting people to change by making them frightened. This
is about using racism for politics. [136]
How
could anyone who made remarks of this type be seen as apolitical?
This youngster was usually one who sat silently in class, and
rarely discussed things that were percolating in his mind. Once
asked, he revealed insight and brilliance. Another student, named
"Shavon," made a similar observation about the nature of politics
in America: This whole business is based on fear, fear of a big
giant black man, fear of his sexual might. Murray, this man understands
that fear and love rule the world, and if you can't love, you'll
get fear. I think people don't think so good when they are afraid
[p.136].
"Out
of the mouth of babes..." It is impossible that this kind of depth,
or this clarity of insight, is to be found solely at Egleston,
and at no other school around the nation. The youth are alienated
from their surrounding environment because that environment is
antagonistic to them, and has little regard for their lives or
worth. This is a national reality that must be transformed.
İMAJ
2024
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