Book Title: The Mis Education Of The Negro
Author: Carter G. Woodson
Pages: 215
Genre: Non-fiction, History, Race
Published: First published 1933
Review: 4.8/5
Main Points Of The Book:
1- History shows that it does not matter who is in power or what revolutionary forces take over the government, those who have not learned to do for themselves and have to depend solely on others never obtain any more rights or privileges in the end than they had in the beginning
2- When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his ‘proper place’ and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary
3- The “educated Negroes” have the attitude of contempt toward their own people because in their own as well as in their mixed schools Negroes are taught to admire the Hebrew, the Greek, the Latin and the Teuton and to despise the African. Of the hundreds of Negro high schools recently examined by an expert in the United States Bureau of Education only eighteen offer a course taking up the history of the Negro
4-The differentness of races, moreover, is no evidence of superiority or of inferiority. This merely indicates that each race has certain gifts which the others do not possess. It is by the development of these gifts that every race must justify its right to exist
5- The education of the Negroes, then, the most important thing in the uplift of the Negroes, is almost entirely in the hands of those who have enslaved them and now segregate them
Introduction:
This book is written by Carter Godwin Woodson, who was an African-American historian, author, journalist, and founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. He was one of the first scholars to study African-American history. He is the founder of The Journal of Negro History in 1915. Woodson has been cited as the father of black history. This book is an eye-opener and informative for nearly every person. Even after 87 years, this book remains accurate from many perspectives. It is a great historical document related to racial injustice. Woodson has outlined what he sees as the repercussions of an ineffective Negro educational system.
Summary:
The Mis-Education of the Negro gives insight into the state of the Negro in the Early 20th Century. The Negroes in the schools are taught to become convinced of their inferiority. Woodson shared that the educational system taught the Negroes that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless. Woodrow says that the language, mathematics, and science may have served a good purpose in the universities, but much of what they have taught as economics, history, literature, religion, and philosophy is propaganda and has misdirected the Negroes. Woodson has explained and discussed in each chapter that how the miseducation process has impacted the life of a Negro in the church, politics, business sector, vision, and leadership.
Woodson encourages his fellow Black people and intellectuals to do all they can to uplift their race. This book addresses the role of education in the development of our minds, lives, and experiences. Woodson has discussed the idea of elevating people through the education process. In the educational institutions, almost in every subject the negroes were made convinced that they are inferior. In geography poet of distinction was selected to illustrate the physical features of the white race, a prince the yellow, the Negro stood at the foot of the social ladder.
From the teaching of science, the Negro was eliminated. They mentioned only the achievements of whites at the beginning of science in various parts of the world. But the African’s early advancement in this field was omitted. Students were not told that ancient Africans of the interior knew sufficient science to concoct poisons for arrowheads, to mix durable colors for paintings, to extract metals from nature, and refine them for development in the industrial arts. The Negro law students were told that they belonged to the most criminal element in the country. In medical schools, the Negroes were likewise convinced of their inferiority in being reminded of their role as germ carriers. These examples prove how negroes were made confirmed about their inferiority. This book explains how an improper education can make people unsuccessful and backward and how a proper education can lead to freedom, success, and prosperity. The schools in the U.S have totally neglected and ignored the authentic African history and their achievements. This form of mis education led to a brain-washed acceptance of the inferior role assigned to black people by the oppressor.
Conclusion:
This book is an excellent and a must-read for every person of color. This book helps us understand the internalized racism that African-Americans had suffered. This book educates about the history of Black people, their past and current situation, and solutions to how they can get out of the oppression.
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