“My People are destroyed for the Lack of Knowledge”

***Please Note: The next part of this posting will be up sometime during the day on Thursday, so I will not add any other posting until then. I want this posting to carry over to tomorrow because this is one of those subjects of great importance and I want to make sure that everyone has a chance to read and comment before I post the next part of this discussion. As always, please add your comments below. Thanks!

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If you are familiar with the Old Testament, you will read about the never-ending cycle of the Israelites making a covenant with God, and years later forgetting that a covenant even existed. The big reason behind this was because the parents did not teach the young about the wonders of the Lord. Today, the African-American community has been making the same mistake for the past few generations.

Ask the typical Black student in one of our public schools anything about Black history beyond Martin Luther King Jr., and all you will get in most cases is just a black stare. We live in a time now that unless Hollywood produces a film on a significant Black person in history, our children will never know about that person as well as the impact they made on history. The days of slavery is the mental picture that most blacks have of their history past the 1950’s. Isn’t it something that if you look at most films that feature Blacks in a historical setting, they all center around the days of slavery? Further proof that the textbook of today’s black youth is the theater screen.

Some time ago, I mentioned the recent study on reading conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts entitled “Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America“. Here are the conclusions of that study:

Reading at Risk presents a distressing but objective overview of national trends. The accelerating declines in literary reading among all demographic groups of American adults indicate an imminent cultural crisis. The trends among younger adults warrant special concern, suggesting that – unless some effective solution is found – literary culture, and literacy in general, will continue to worsen. Indeed, at the current rate of loss, literary reading as a leisure activity will virtually disappear in half a century.

And of course, Black folk came out near the bottom again. Below, I have included some graphics of this study:

This first chart reveals that out of all the Blacks included in this study, only 37.1% have actually taken the time for a literary reading within a 12-month period. Twelve (12) months! This chart also shows a significant decline between the years of 1982, 1992, and 2002.

This chart breaks down the 37.1% in further detail for us. Here you can see that out of that 37.1%, only 29.8% of Black males did any kind of significant reading within the same 12-month period. If our kings are not reading, then how in the world can they lead?

In black barbershops and beauty shops across America, you will not see books in the reading rack. Instead you will see mostly pop culture magazines that are filled with mostly pictures. I think it is safe to say that most people are drawn to magazines because of the pictures and not the words behind them.

During this election, when the candidates wanted to appeal to the Black community, they always had to go to the Black leaders. This was due to the fact that we are known as a people that are still in search of a spokesman (someone that is supposedly familiar with the facts). People that have a habit of reading and finding out the facts for themselves do not need a spokesman. When was the last time you heard the American press use the phrase “Grecian leaders”, “Japanese leaders”, or “Italian leaders”?

The church (in the Black community), on the other hand, historically encourages its parishioners to read. However, does this help the situation in any way? I will talk about that tomorrow.