Saturday, November 26, 2016
Considering a Memphis Need. Is W.E.B.'s work still compelling?
In past seminars with Dr. McKinney and other Rhodes professors, I have been challenged to think critically as well as feed my appetite for reading. This surely comes to no surprise of any reader of this past, these are but two cornerstones on which a liberal arts education stands. As we have begun to research and reflect on different goals the city and its citizens might set to follow a blueprint for liberation, I am certainly influenced by W.E.B. Dubois's call for an education rooted in the liberal arts. James Weldon Johnson in the 1930s, was influenced by Dubois, and offered the notion that the black race holds within
itself an inherent power to turn away from oppression in utilizing external
forces to labor for equal opportunities, ultimately which will not surface
until Jim Crow is forcefully and permanently vanquished. This power is any
individual’s capacity to comprehend their own self-awareness and harness it for
the greater good of their society. Johnson was speaking to a marginalized group of black society. Thus I think it crucial to develop as robust as possible an empathy for Memphis's marginalized groups, in desperate need of service and attention from those who have been given much and not once suffered a debilitating trickle down drip of Jim Crow. Therefore, I have begun to realize a need to free Memphis men and women whom have come into contact with the criminal justice system for minor offenses, and from a generally agreed but subjective standpoint, are not considered to be a danger to the city. However this population receives a less bountiful hand due to minor offenses when it comes to job opportunity and upward mobility. I do believe that this particular population could serve as major, positive infleuncers on the city if freed up to pursue an education which would in turn allow them access to upward climb in society. Organizations such as "Just City" are working hard to help citizens with minor offenses be cleared of criminal records. I would like to see such a non-profit receive city-wide empowerment from external forces. However, is there an opinion you would like to extend in order to engage with this population in Memphis? Perhaps a different route to empowerment or upward mobility for the welfare of the city?
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David, I am glad you pointed out DuBois' desire for a liberal arts education in terms of the ways in which education plays a key role in black liberation. I certainly agree that this is a tactic that could benefit not only Memphis but cities and towns across the Nation-- empowerment through education. I have seen this does specifically in the Mississippi Delta where I taught school this summer, in federally funded programs created and designed by local teachers, aided by the Delta Health Alliance. These summer programs were an extension of the larger programs that included every single student in school in the town of Indianola. Each child has been followed since the program began, which means that some have been with the program since birth. To say this quickly, they essentially aid the mothers by offering free books to expecting mothers, and then in the school system they are tested yearly and have superseded expectations in many areas. It is an incredible program that certainly helps with the school education, but also taking the step to work with mothers provides lessons in itself. So, I really like what you're onto here. But, where education may work in some areas, with some generations perhaps, it may also be important to look at teaching in ways that could more quickly tear at the legacy of segregation and inequality that creates mindsets and attitudes. Perhaps one leads to another inevitably.
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