Black Children and Identity –
Readers: This is a reprint of an article that I found here.
African American Children and Identity
By Christine Longmore
Raising Black children with a positive sense of identity is no easy job. But when the necessary thought and effort is put into the job as a parent, the result is the difference between creating civilization and just increasing the population. Teaching children to view their place in the world positively becomes especially challenging when they begin to put pieces of history together. While I have control over what I teach my children about the world at home, their experience in the world to some extent is out of my control.
The day my daughter first learned about slavery is a day I will not soon forget. She was only 7. She had been watching “Reading Rainbow” and the story was about slavery. We discussed it for a while and I found myself wanting to keep it as simple as possible considering her age. When she asked me “Why?” I was stumped. She wanted to know why. She said, ” How could anyone think they had the right to do that !?” She wanted to know. I tried to offer a logical explanation, you know, happy endings and all that.
I stumbled. I stumbled over her innocence and the need to preserve it. After explaining the logistics of how it happened, she still wasn’t satisfied The best I could come up with was this. I told her that there are good and bad people in the world and as long as she tries to be a good person and do the right thing she’ll be all right.
For my daughter, attending school in an all white environment at times seemed to only intensify the difficulty in developing an understanding of our history. She often expressed her discomfort and feelings of isolation when it was time for her to participate in discussions about slavery. For this reason, she preferred to discuss the history of Africans in America at home. These discussions lead to many important questions. One that stands out in my mind is, – could it ever happen again? Of course I assured her that it wouldn’t. In the back of my mind I wondered. Can anyone really say it couldn’t happen again? I’m sure the first captured Africans never imagined the possibility of being enslaved or the horror that awaited them overseas. I decided not to tell her that slavery and other forms of oppression still exist and have since the beginning of time.
I guess as parents we all instinctively try to protect our children from any kind of pain or suffering when we can. I also think that we have to look at those feelings of sadness, anger, fear, etc. as natural reactions to a terrible thing. It is extremely important that we learn for ourselves and pass on history that reflects our strength – like the many slave rebellions that most of us know little or nothing about, and the many inventions that African Americans are responsible for. Our history is incredible and really unlike many other groups of people.
It seems that historically, Black people have often been the underdogs but we always seem to rise. There are so many great Africans of both continents. Kings and Queens, doctors and spiritual leaders of the past and present – inventors, musicians, artists, writers, scientists, athletes, entertainers, the list goes on. You name any field of accomplishment and we have someone that is great at it. It occurred to me one day that the only Black heroes I really knew anything about as a child were Martin Luther King, and Muhammad Ali. Of course they were great heroes to have but today my children see Black heroes everywhere and I’m thankful for that. We also have countless numbers of “unsung heroes” – from the late Mother Hale who established the Hale House in New York City for drug addicted and otherwise struggling babies to the neighborhood dad/friend/coach who always has time for the kids.
Hopefully, this new generation of Africans in America will find more opportunities for learning about the greatness of our history to balance out the negative. If that happens, our children’s perspective on our history will be a strength in their efforts to develop strong and healthy identities.
from http://www.gibbsmagazine.com/african_american_children_and_id.htm
This post has one comment
June 30th, 2008
Greetings Christine:
thank you for your article and for addressing this very important topic. I learned about it from a few sisterfriends who are very interested in the topic as I am.
As a mother of five and an educator of over 15 years, I too am deeply aware of the importance of positive identity development among our children–especially in a wider culture that generally fails to support and acknowledge their worthiness, giftedness, and intrinsic value.
But your article hightlights a critical solution as well as our responsibility as parents, that of course being to educate and imbue our children with knowledge and respect for self and one’s culture. A huge part of this is teaching them the truth about history and being accurate and factual in our accounts. Our children will not get this in public or private schools. We have to teach them and in the process, educate ourselves.
My father (who is now 71 years old) began to teach me history I had never learned before at the age of 18 after coming into the wealth of knowledge that Black and other historians pushed forward in the early 80’s and 90’s. He was on fire to share it with me as in his days of schooling in the 40’s and 50’s, this information was non-existent and/or discouraged. He, like most of our parents and grandparents, was fed a steady diet of education and history that relegated Blacks to a place of inferiority and insignificance. Things changed a bit in our generation, but not much. Needless to say, I am grateful to him and grateful for the scholars who spoke/are speaking despite efforts to discredit their work.
I am now passing this knowlegde on to my children, according to their age, and with my own caveats as I see fit.
Our history in fact pre-dates the history of all other cultures as we were the first humans to walk the earth. Scientists of all backgrounds have confirmed the origin of life and cilvilization in Africa–and our children deserve access to this information which is their legacy–and the world’s legacy.
Be clear that our history does not begin with slavery or with America. This is a tiny fraction of our history—and we need not and should not start there when instructing our children. We need to go back to the beginning, literally and figuratively and put slavery and our current experiences in proper context.
I recommend a few books for you that will unlock our history as you continue to provide an excellent education for your daughter. This is only a tiny bit of what’s out there, and you will know how to break it down to an age appropriate level:
1.) The MisEducation of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson
2.) They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America by Ivan Van Sertima (and his other books)
3.) The African Origin of Civilization by Cheikh Anta Diop (and his other books)
4.) Before the Mayflower by Lerone Bennett
5.) African Presence in Early Asia by Runoko Rashidi
6.) Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams
7). any and all books by Jawanza Kunjufu (he really addresses the issue from an educational standpoint–must read his books)!
8.) any and all books by Naim Akbar–start with Know Thy Self; and Chains & Images of Psychological Slavery
9.) CHILD FRIENDLY BOOKS WRITTEN BY A FRIEND, CHIKE AKUA: See Chike Akua’s books and teaching materials at the following web site. I use these in my homeschool…my sons enjoy them:
http://imanienterprises.org/
10.) A great web resource that I am using with my sons:
The Genographic Project
https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html
Happy reading and best wishes!
Lisa Peyton-Caire
SisterSpeak Online Magazine
http://www.sisterspeakonline.com