Kwame Speaks: The Evasion of Work

"We sin because in our befuddled brains we have linked money and education inextricably. We assume that only the wealthy have a real right to education when, in fact, being born is being given the right to college training…We bury genius; we send it to jail; we ridicule and mock it, while we send mediocrity and idiocy to college, gilded and crowned."

When W.E.B. Dubois wrote these words in 1920 he captured, in a snap shot, the disproportionate nature of America education, particularly with regards to race. The sentiment expressed by Dubois still reigns true today. However, focusing more narrowly on class distinctions within race, this quote from Dubois takes on a somewhat different meaning.

After the desegregation period, precipitated by Brown V. Board of Education, Black students began to gain access to White schools. The Black schools that these children attended prior to the desegregation period were inadequately funded but they were Black nonetheless, which, I would argue, made them better institutions for Black children intellectually, socially and culturally.

Integration still occurred, to the detriment of Black people, and to this day, we still see and feel the putrid effects of this act. Fast-forward almost 60 years later and the effect of desegregation, still remaining, has taken a slightly different countenance.

Many black scholars are now being reared in predominantly White institutions (PWI) from K-12. Then they either opt to attend a Black college more so for the "Black" experience, and not so much the education, or choose to attend PWI's for their college education. Blacks who have taken this path will defend their choice of predominantly White institutions because the school is stronger academically.

For example, a predominantly white high school may average a score of 500 or better on the SAT or GRE while the predominantly non-white school may average a score of 400 or lower. Coming from a non-White school, one may be left with the impression that Blacks educated in predominantly white institutions are better equipped to do intellectual work. However, based on my observations at Howard alone this is not always the case.

In fact, it appears that Blacks trained at predominantly white institutions are better at evading work rather than actually doing the work. Conversely, it appears that those educated at predominantly non-White institutions, although not always adequately prepared, tend to have stronger work ethic, which allows them to do the work rather than evade it.

I could certainly ramble on about the inadequacies of Blacks in White schools but, in a nutshell, the evasion of work seems to plague those trained at the "better" schools. The sad reality is that some Blacks trained at White institutions have been socialized to operate not only against themselves but against their people as well.

In the future, those who have the training to do intellectual work should use their skills to do the hard work that must be done instead of taking the easy road and evading work. In other words, Pick up a book and READ IT BOURGOISIE!

*This piece was written by Mike Leak. It was mistakenly attributed to Damarius Johnson.

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Mike Leak
(Published 2-1-11)