The Continuing Miseducation of African-Americans
By Lewis Brogdon
As we begin this three-year journey, I want to frame the focus of this year’s conference and also make some broader connections to themes we will discuss in 2018 and 2019. A good place to begin is with the theme of the 2017 Angela Project, “Public Policy and The Educational Crisis in Black America.” Why is education the first issue the Angela Project chose to address? The reason is that education, in some way or another, has been at the center of the history of slavery, segregation, racism and economic inequality. Education was chosen because in order to set a new 400-year trajectory in America, we must make changes in the educational system.
Miseducation: A New Word for Structural Racism
As we begin, I want to introduce my readers to an important term that will help us understand the history of racism and its intersection with education. That term is miseducation. In fact, miseducation is a word that we should add to our vocabularies of terms related to the study of racism. Other terms have included slavery, prejudice, systemic racism, double-consciousness, black codes, lynching, segregation, black power, redemptive suffering, womanism and nihilism, to name a few. Miseducation is a descriptive word for the intentional ways in which blacks are educated such it results in neither real change nor the “just” re-structuring of a society built upon centuries of slavery.
In my work as an African-American religious scholar, I have identified three constituent elements to the term miseducation: (1) the racist assumption that black Americans are not as intelligent as white Americans; (2) classroom spaces and curricula that are culturally incompatible and, more importantly, (3) centuries of depriving educational institutions, communities and families of the economic resources necessary to support their educational aspirations and potential. These elements were all referenced in the conference and identified as major issues to address. These three elements were built into the American educational system, a system that has both historically and disproportionately marginalized African-Americans and is exactly why many African-Americans today do not perform well in the classroom, why the curricula does not excite the masses of black students, and why black educational institutions continue to struggle.
The sad reality is that this miseducation was intentional, even during the decades when blacks attended segregated schools. In 1933, Carter G. Woodson wrote the classic, The Miseducation of the Negro, spelling out in great detail the ways African-Americans were not only grossly undereducated, but how even educated blacks were not receiving the kind of education that would advance their issues and communities in the difficult decades after slavery. Every advocate for social justice should read this text.
Early in his work, he concluded that “the so-called modern education, with all it defects, however, does others so much more good than it does the Negro, because it has been worked out in conformity to the needs of those who have enslaved and oppressed weaker peoples” (5).
Woodson’s classic identifies the fundamental problem with the U.S. educational system which is cultural incompatibility. The truth is the educational system was established for white not black Americans, which means two things: The problem was and is structural and to fix the problem will require structural solutions. Woodson explained in painful and rich detail three fundamental problems with the educational system: It is a system of racial control; it gives only a veneer of racial progress; and it leaves blacks in a dependent status.
Miseducation and Control
During the early years of the Reconstruction era, there was a debate about which model was best for freed blacks: The industrial educational model where blacks learned trades or the classical liberal arts educational model where blacks studied the arts and sciences. Regardless of which model was better for former enslaved Africans, Woodson maintained that both the industrial and classic educational models failed to educate the masses of blacks. For example, he found that industrially educated blacks possessed outdated skills and classically trained blacks had no real function in society. The educational system was the problem and blacks were forced early on to learn that the system was not really suited for their advancement.
Miseducation is about control and control is one of the hallmarks of a society built on the physical and psychological enslavement of people. The irony is that control does not stop with the end of legalized slavery. It only takes on a different form. Woodson gave two examples of this. He pointed out the fact that Negroes learned from their oppressors to say to their children that there were certain spheres into which they should not go because they would have no chance therein for development (54). Their choices were clearly limited by a system that controlled their access to knowledge and the ways it should be utilized. He also disclosed that certain subjects like government were off limits so as to conform to the policy of “keeping the Negro in his place” (59). Woodson pointed out that regardless of the educational model, blacks’ access to knowledge was governed by whites. White Americans with means decided which career fields blacks should occupy. They even controlled the knowledge flowing through black institutions and used societal resources to ensure educated blacks in other fields did not have opportunities to work so as to concretize their preference for certain fields of study. So, in the end, it did not really matter the model of education one pursued—industrial or classical—blacks were still “miseducated” because they lacked both agency as learners and control of how to use knowledge to their benefit. What Woodson did was expose the deeper structural problem with the educational system, a problem that would continue for years to come.
Miseducation and Pseudo-Progress
A second and very painful lesson that Woodson provided was that white educational institutions were more concerned with the veneer of progress than actually educating blacks. Woodson claimed that during the years of segregation, the primary goal of educational institutions was to transform blacks, not to develop them intellectually and socially. This sounds contradictory but he makes a keen observation here. Because the system was already inequitable and changing it was never a real question, educated blacks were left to serve as symbols and props of white educational and societal interests. This meant they were given a kind of education that primarily benefitted the white community. On the surface, white Americans would celebrate blacks who excel in educational institutions or applaud the fact that blacks have their own educational institutions. But in the end, these advancements are only a veneer for deeper problems. I call this pseudo-progress, (pseudo meaning false).
What do I mean by the statement “blacks were left to serve as symbols and props of white educational institutions”? The point is this: The educational system was meant to display the progress made by white Americans—as in “we’ve rid ourselves of the demons of slavery and racism”—and not black Americans—as in “we’ve acted justly toward the peoples enslaved for centuries.” This pseudo progress, detected early by Woodson and others, would dominate the landscape of education in the U.S.
Let me give two examples of how the system rests on persons used as props for the majority culture. First, the aim of the educational system was to produce blacks who were experts in white culture and knowledge, but completely ignorant about their own culture and especially their history before enslavement. Second, historically black institutions were governed and led by white presidents. I found this to be one of the most interesting facets of his work. The common practice of white presidents running black schools posed many problems for blacks and illustrates how the system gave a veneer of progress while leaving a deeply racist system firmly in place. Woodson rightly concluded that the Negro will never be able to show all of his originality as long as his efforts are directed from without by those who socially proscribe him (24). Even spaces dedicated to the education of blacks were not free from white influence, oversight and outright control and were conditioned to celebrate progress that benefitted only those who controlled them.
Miseducation and Dependent Blacks
Woodson takes readers deeper into problems with the U.S. education system of his day. He argued that blacks are educated but dependent on and more committed to white interests and institutions than their own. This is probably the most important lesson about miseducation. For Woodson, the greatest indictment of the American educational system during segregation was that African-Americans learned very little about what he called “making a living.” He does not mean they could not work a job, but rather their education did not result in masses of people with a knowledge to imagine and build an infrastructure upon which their own communities stand. They were not taught to imagine and create their own businesses, to understand and address their economic issues, and to build educational institutions. Woodson lamented that Negroes were unable to employ each other (31). Schools in his day did not educate African-Americans to build their own businesses and institutions. They were educated to serve the interests of white Americans and their institutions. This is all the product of miseducation. The educational system did not want blacks to receive the kind of education that leads to self-actualization and black communal uplift, but rather a kind of education that instills a sense of commitment to the perpetuation of white institutions.
In addition, miseducation means gradually experiencing both self and communal estrangement. He observed firsthand this striking feature of miseducation that leaves blacks estranged from their own people—“the very people whom they must eventually count for carrying out a program of progress” (39). A third layer to this is that even in rare cases where there are blacks who own businesses, these owners refuse to hire other blacks. He observed that “the Negro has not yet developed to the point that one is willing to take orders from another of his own race” (83).
Woodson’s The Miseducation of the Negro paints a poignant yet painful picture of an educational system that controls blacks and uses them as props for white institutions and interests, a system that alienates blacks from one another and, in the end, further disenfranchises them as a community. The term miseducation speaks to a system that instills built-in personal and social inhibitors that set blacks on a path to mediocrity, struggle and failure. His work is a critical part of the history of education in the U.S. because it sets the stage for the disastrous experiment of integrated schools. I say that because when predominantly white schools integrated with blacks, no attention was given to the myriad of ways the system itself was thoroughly racist and in need of significant change. It is this history that forms the backdrop against the system of education that the presenters sought to address at the Angela Conference this past September.
The Miseducation of African-Americans Continues
Educational systems must be built for all persons rather than a single group and, until a system is built that reflects a culturally pluralistic society, American schools will continue the practice of cultural imperialism with the support of too many churches. This was clearly one of the sub-themes from this year’s conference. The American educational system failed to integrate in ways that benefitted African-American communities. So, in a real sense, miseducation continued in the post-segregation era and, sadly, churches have not offered a critique of any kind. Yvette Carnell highlighted the mistaken approach undergirding integrated schools in her lecture. Instead of integrating only classrooms, we should have integrated school boards, principals, curriculum,and teachers. Instead, schools only forced black kids to attend predominantly white schools,which, in the long run, set them up to bear the weight of integration and the responsibility for this system’s epic failure. Instead, integration proceeded and for decades African-Americans lived in the shadows of a system that had miseducated them historically and would do so for years to come. Carnell really highlights the deeper issue with the education system in the United States—the issue of cultural incongruity. There is a cultural gap that is too broad in the school system and it affects how African-Americans perform in the classroom and how their education fails to serve the best interests of the broader black community. George Mason exposes the hypocrisy and racist underpinnings of the charter school and voucher program that seek to leave minorities in public schools system miseducated for another generation. Woodson also foreshadowed the continuing decline and early demise of African-American persons and institutions that we witness today. Decades of miseducation coupled with the post-Civil Rights era push to integrate will result in the crippling and destruction of black institutions, a theme that presenters like Antonio Moore and Jared Ball thoroughly addressed.
Another problem Woodson foreshadowed was a system with such a deep sense of cultural incongruity that it could not adequately educate black Americans. There is an axiom I learned in graduate school from Dr. Ruth Burgess that I believe applies here. “The greater the gap between the school's culture and that of the pupil the greater the likelihood for failure or low pupil achievement. But, on the other hand, the greater overlap or where there is a greater degree of cultural congruity, student achievement and success are improved.” Carnell pointed this out when mentioning how African-American students perform better in class and tests when they study from African-American teachers. This basic axiom, that was not a part of the philosophy of integration, is both significant and formative because it gives me a better understanding as to why some African-Americans struggle to achieve in the public education system as well as in college and graduate programs in universities. Statistical or achievement gaps between the predominantly white culture of the public education school and the higher education system from the marginal presence of African-Americans in administration, curricula, and teaching are all significant factors in the achievement gap that have been well-documented as evident by the following statements:
- In a national assessment of student reading ability, black children scored 16 percent lower than white children.
- Only 12 percent of African-American fourth-graders have reached proficient or advancement reading levels, while 61 percent have yet to reach the basic level.
- Many black 17-year-old students graduating high school have the math skills of white eighth-graders.
- In 2000, 31 percent of African-Americans ages 18 to 24 were enrolled in colleges and universities; nearly two-thirds of these students were female.
- According to the most recent statistics, the nationwide college graduation rate for enrolled black students is only 40 percent, compared to 61 percent of enrolled white students (Smiley 32-33).
Jill Bennet’s work gives an insightful and well-researched treatment of the disparities of the current educational system. So when thinking about issues like the achievement gap between black and white students, more attention needs to be given to the deeper issue of cultural incongruity rooted in an inequitable system. It will certainly be addressed in some way by all the presenters and imagining ways to overhaul this system should occupy the minds of Christian leaders for years to come.
But the truth is the educational system is only one part of a three-fold problem. Historic and systemic racism is a vast and complex network of persons, systems and policies woven into the fabric of this country. The only way to remedy the system is to do it on a systemic level, which means policy changes. Kelly Mikel Williams and Neal Turpin will make some policy suggestions that can provide helpful ways to begin making changes in America. Going forward, our attention will be on the remaining two major problems— economic inequality and poverty and the devastating effects of slavery and segregation on the direct descendants of enslaved Africans in America. Poverty and reparations will be the focus of the remaining two conferences in Philadelphia in 2018 and Birmingham in 2019. I invite you to join us on this journey of personal and social transformation.
Carter Woodson, The Miseducation of the Negro. Tribeca Books, 2011.
Smiley, Tavis. The Covenant with Black America. Third World Press, 2006.
Changing America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being by Race and Hispanic
Origin. Council of Economic Advisors for the President’s Initiative on Race, 1998.
