The Miseducation of the Negro by Donna Hill
By APOOO • Jun 8th, 2008 • Category: Articles •
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The Miseducation of the Negro by Donna Hill
I recently had an interesting conversation with a fellow author who firmly believes that integration, touted as the road to equality for Blacks in America, has ultimately led to our downfall. Although the comment is shocking, I believe it and have professed it to those who would listen.
We have been so eager to have the ‘white American dream’ that we have forgotten or worst, no longer care about ‘the Black Dream.’ We are so eager to sit with them, eat with them, live next to them, shop with them that we have in effect left ‘us’ behind. Gone are the local black-owned mom and pop stores in our own communities, the banks and neighborhoods that showcased the richness of our culture. We have been so happy that we can shop in the same stores and ride on the front of the bus that we have forgotten what it took to get here. The foundation upon which our struggles were born has crumbled to make way for integration. Hmmm.
The generation of today was conceived into a life of privilege and rights built upon the backs of our ancestors ‘but they have no clue that’ the reason they can stand so tall. They believe they are entitled and struggle, unity and brotherhood are no more than antiquated euphemisms, which makes it easy to abandon our own businesses and neighborhoods to support others. Why? Because we can.
This author friend of mine said what I had believed for years. So maybe it was time to take the ish word out of the closet and show it for what it really is.
Yet, upon examining it and all its ramifications, I also had to examine how that belief of mine seemed to blatantly contradict my vehement feelings about the ghettoization of black books.
Yes, this is a topic that has been discussed ad nauseam, but it warrants all the hoopla it has dredged up.
If we as a people sit back and allow another group of people to dictate where we can sell, what we can write, who it can be marketed to and where it can be shelved, then everything that our ancestors fought and died for was a waste.
Where the problem of ghettoization has arisen is in the intentional mis-education of the Negro. We have been hoodwinked, tricked, bamboozled into believing that the segregation of Black books is a good thing. We have been conditioned to return to that place when all the good Negroes stayed in their place, were happy with the shack down the road from the big house and the leftovers tossed our way.
Because we have adapted to a society that sees us as inferior, it is simply easier to take what they give us and keep it moving. After all, if we really wanted to make a stink, somebody back then made it possible for us to do just that.
But we do not make a stink when it comes to our books. We have been appeased by white society with equal housing, jobs, education. We have been fed until our bellies are full of leftovers and when your belly is full you drift off.
That is what has been done with our literature, we have drifted off, so damned pleased that not only can we write and get published, we can write any piece of crap we want and it goes up on a shelf for sale. And while we were lulled by the fog of a full belly we got tricked into believing that life on the plantation is a good thing. ‘All you negras just stay ovah there, out da way.’
Yes, integration has been our downfall. With integration we were lulled into a sense of security and entitlement, believing that we no longer had a reason to fight, to struggle, to say we ain’t gon take this shit, cause hey, we done already reached the mountaintop–look at my Lexus!
But the root and foundation of every society throughout history can be found through their literature. They tried to bury our stories for centuries and they would have succeeded had it not been for the voices that would not be silenced.
And they are trying again, by giving us just enough of the American pie to appease us, while slowly and systematically continuing to relegate our stories to the shack, down the road and away from the big house. So that when company comes they will not notice. They will just trot out the chosen few negras to show them off.
But there are voices now that will not be silenced, that are speaking up for the cause, for the right to be treated equally–because we should be. The question then will become; if a culture is judged by its literature what will history have to say about ours?
Donna Hill is a multi-published author with more than 50 published titles to her credit. Three of her novels were adapted for television. She writes in multiple genres. Donna is head of Donna Hill Promotions, a publicity and marketing service for authors. She writes full-time and lives in Brooklyn, New York with her family.
Visit Donna Hill on the web at http://donnahill.com
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APOOO is a book club and an online author and reader community dedicated to advancing African American literature. Our mission is to expose readers of all ages to a good book in any genre; to support African American authors, books, literary events and bookclubs; to provide marketing resources, tools and tips to authors; and, to promote literacy within the African American community.
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