Education Should Not Be An Enslavement Tool For Black Minds

I had an interesting conversation with someone about education and it dawned on me that something as good as an education can also be used to enslave us from being free thinking humanbeings.

See? I am not an academic kinda guy. I will admit to that and concede that my views are largely motivated by that. I love learning but I hate studying. I consume information like crazy but it has to be on my terms.

It is not an ego thing but I know I am smarter than the average Joe, but I still am not into the classroom way of learning stuff... and I also have a rebellious streak about me — Always have to challenge the norm. 

Anyway, our culture, somewhat rightly so since education does make the road easier, perpetuates the myth that without degrees and all that academic stuff you can never be 'someone' or be thought worthy of success. 

Of course that is BS, since these days 17 year olds make more money than people who have worked their entire lives and have all the badges of education. 

I am all for one getting an education if he has the opportunity. BUT I also strongly believe that by us putting too much reverence on getting to wear that black gown we are systematically fostering a nation of perceived failures. 

We do not encourage personal ingenuity enough. We tend to look down on anyone who does not speak the Queen's language and gauge intelligence by those standards. Thus cultivating a culture of failure amongst our people for not having attained those standards. 

Not everyone will have access to education, even the basic one. Majority of black youth in this country will never get to go to a tertiary institution whether by choice or circumstances. That then begs the question; with our flawed standard of success are we just a doomed race? 

I do not subscribe to that notion. I believe greatness and success is not always borne from the classroom. Like every thing else in life, the system has its disadvantages and we need to acknowledge that. 

It is in that acknowledgement that we can begin to see our young black youth become entrepreneurs, innovators, creators, leaders, etc. When not having a degree is not a badge of failure we can then perhaps get to have our own Steve Jobs. 

Our realities demands that we look at the world differently. Rhodes has fallen but that will not change our standing as black people in this society if we do not look at our communities through the lens of our own circumstances. 

A black child needs to know that you can still be somebody even if you do not have access to our expensive academic education. 

Wear your academic accolades with honor and pride as that is an achievement that is not an easy one to attain, but let that gown not be a cloak of a new oppression that says you can not think outside the boundaries of that education or you look at your fellowmen with contempt and belittlement because of that gown.