LEARNED BEHAVIOR

Textbook Case

In primary school, I learned so many things from our history book(s) that just weren’t true. I was “taught” to believe Columbus discovered America. I guess the old saying rings true: “he/ she who wins the war, writes the history.”

Black History

Black history month was an annual cycle of Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman. While we were learning about Martin Luther King, it would have been nice to know that his real name was Michael Luther King. Our history books never mentioned the breakfast program that the Black Panther Party implemented in underserved communities. While we are on the subject, art class never highlighted Emory Douglas’ contribution to revolutionize the art world through his activism (during black history month).

In the latest effort to evade reckoning with its past, American textbooks are now referring to slaves as “workers.” These same books still fail to mention Toussaint Louverture or the Gullah Warriors. I would have loved to learn about Tulsa’s Black Wall Street and Seneca Village, one of the first predominantly African American communities in New York, which was destroyed to create Central Park. Instead, we watched roots on the wheeled-in television attached to a VCR that we used to rewind the cassette-tape to the beginning of the movie (which took about 15 minutes of class time).

During these movie sessions, I would often think about how I would change my route walking home to avoid being killed by a member of one of the 3 different gang territories I’d have to pass through to get home. With gang culture on the rise in the 80’s and 90’s, it would have been nice to learn that CRIP was an acronym (Community Revolution in Progress) that described the initial intent of the group after the infiltration of The Black Panther Party. Similarly, I would have taken interest to learn the BLOOD gang’s acronym stood for Brotherly Love Overcomes Our Destruction. As a kid, I would have appreciated the effort and initiative instructors took to build rapport with us students.

Essentials

The schools I attended never taught us about stocks, options, real estate, venture capitalists, financial literacy, or entrepreneurialism. As a student, even a mandatory chess elective would have changed my paradigm to help enhance my problem solving and planning skills. However, as I became an adult, I realized that teachers didn’t teach us these things because THEY DIDN’T KNOW enough about these subjects to teach us about that world. My teachers were still trying to get their shit together too! My friend Sam and I always say: “Your dreams are only as healthy as your exposure.” If my teachers were never exposed to that side of life, how could they (with confidence) attempt to explain to me that there is another way to get out of the hood besides rapping and playing ball?