Decolonizing the Mind & Miseducation
Carter G. Woodson warned us. How do we unlearn a miseducation designed to make us doubt ourselves?
Carter G. Woodson wrote that if you control a person's thinking, you need not worry about their actions — they will find their 'proper place' and stay there without being told. Our schooling too often erased African civilization, glorified our oppressors, and taught us to see ourselves as beginning in bondage. Decolonizing the mind means seeking the fuller truth and teaching it to our young. What book, teacher, or moment first cracked open your miseducation? What are you doing to re-educate yourself and your family?
2 Voices in the Circle
Woodson's 'Mis-Education' cracked me open at 40. I realized my entire self-image began in chains because that's where the textbooks started us. Now I teach my kids we were kings, scientists and astronomers first, enslaved second.
I'm a public school teacher slipping real African history into my lessons wherever the curriculum lets me. Van Sertima, Diop, Hansberry. The kids' posture literally changes when they learn who they come from.