Guest columnist
Today, the Durham Board of Education is sponsoring another Kitchen Table meeting as they prepare to apply for a grant to help black male student achievement. Although the organizers should be applauded for their efforts, I am sure that many of Durham’s citizens will agree that we’ve heard this tune before.
Seems there are always meetings being held to save African-American males, yet, at the end of the meetings they still are experiencing the same problems. Unless we are suggesting that black males are incorrigible, the problem must lie in our methods of operation.
When will we admit that it is time for new tactics and new strategies?
Sure, having a nice quiet kitchen table discussion is cool once in a while, but there comes a time when you must leave the kitchen, go down to the cellar, lock the door and not come back up until the problem is solved.
Too many of our young men are going from school yards to prison yards for us to sit through another two-hour meeting without coming up with a workable plan before we head to the parking lot.
I’ve attended many such meetings over the years which usually consist of the same folks sitting at tables chewing the fat and writing down suggestions which wind up in the “suggestion Bermuda Triangle,” never to be heard again.
At this point, I don’t think that sitting at a table and writing suggestions is the answer, nor is throwing money at the problem.
If it goes the way of other Durham “save the youth” programs, the grant money will probably wind up going to some out-of-town hot shot “consultant” who will get paid big bucks to tell us what we already know — our children need help.
It is time for the Durham community to come up with new and innovative solutions to the issue of closing the achievement gap between black males and everyone else. In an era when resources are scarce we cannot afford to waste new wine by trying to pour it into old bottles.
We must start solving the problem by examining its genesis.
Historically speaking, the initial purpose of educating black folks was not to close the educational gap between the recently emancipated slaves and white Americans but to give them just enough education to make them productive in an economy that was changing from agricultural to industrial.
This is the same today — as one writer put it, many in the educational system favor giving black males just enough education to keep them out of jail; no more, no less.
In order to properly pursue a solution we must learn from those who have explored this problem in the past. As early as 1897 this issue was tackled by WEB Du Bois, and in 1930 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson.
Also, in the early 1990s, Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu released a series of books called “The Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys” in which he discussed the urgency to reach the youth during their elementary school years.
Perhaps the point that is most neglected when the issue of motivating black males to learn is discussed is the effect that popular culture has on the psyche of our children.
While hip hop was once used as a form of expression, for the past 15 years, the genre has been mostly known for its promotion of anti-intellectualism. If there is, as some have suggested, an effort on the part of the entertainment industry to “dumb down” our children, how can we not realize that the effects will bleed over into the school system?
My hope is that the next meeting will spark a larger, more inclusive conversation that will galvanize the entire community towards action. If there are grants available to close the achievement gap, hopefully, this information will be shared with Durham residents who are running successful youth intervention programs, as well.
Together, as a community, we can make this the last time that we have to gather to discuss the fate of African American males.
At the end of the day, the task before us is not to develop better workers or even better students.
As WEB Du Bois challenged more than a century ago, our task is to create better men.
Paul Scott is a Durham minister, lecturer and writer.
