Misconceptions Of African American Life Essays -

Misconceptions Of African American Life When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his proper place and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary. This quote, spoken true by a prominent African American scholar of the 20th century, Carson Woodson, is aimed at shedding light on the inherent miseducation of African Americans. His beliefs that controlling ones thinking with such a powerful grasp that allows little or no movement will lead to that individual behaving as he is expected is a very justifiable point. If time and time again, one is told to do certain things or believe certain things as right, then with constant repetition and enforcement, widespread belief and acceptance of this idea or practice will become the norm. A people that is consistently taught or treated a certain way may at some point begin to accept it right. However, in many cases what may be deemed right by some is not necessarily the right thing to do. This theory can not be any more prominent than in the case of African Americans, who have long endured hundreds of years of discriminatory practices based solely upon their race and origins. Dating back to the days of slavery, these are a people that out of prejudice, out of expectations, out of fear, have often come to view the white mans way as the right way either by choice or by having no other choice. In the process, however, their very own culture, beauty, beliefs, traditions, etc., often get trampled upon or even forgotten as they either struggle to keep up or struggle to stay up. More then not, though, this brainwashing of sorts results in a miseducation of the African-American people that often leads to widespread misunderstandings about them. These misunderstandings can then lead to various forms of stereotypes aimed against African-Americans by whites or other non African Americans picked up along the way due to incomplete knowledge about their history which inherently also hurt those making these false assumptions. Times are changing, however, and with these evolutionary years comes a greater sense of struggle to understand. This struggle comes both from within the African -American community to find out more about themselves sans Caucasian undertones, and also from groups such as whites to attempt to designate stereotypes from truths. The vast majority of aids in this process, however, come from African American scholars, writers, poets, film-makers, etc., who have set out to expose the miseducation of the Negro into believing and acting upon forced actions or opinions and to learn the truths behind their actual heritage. Four works that susinctly bring the miseducation about African American history into the spotlight of the national public are Claude McKays The Lynching, Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of A Slavegirl, Gordon Parks Washington D.C. Charwoman, and Spike Lees School Daze. All four works illustrate a common thread of the misconception of African-American life by blacks themselves, as well as Caucasians around them, that has been carried intact through many a generations in the history of the United States. The earliest example that I would like to call attention to is Claude McKays poem entitled The Lynching. In my opinion, this poem addresses the commonly held misconceptions of both blacks and whites against African Americans during the period of slavery in the U.S. In terms of the miseducation of African Americans, the author uses the line of The awful sin remained still unforgiven to insinuate that being born black was considered by him and other African Americans at that time to be a sin or something to be ashamed of. He blames this African American mans death on Fates wild whim and never once blames the racist white males who most likely lynched him for no good reason, nor does he seem to express anger towards them. This poem shows the miseducation of the Negro in that