I have an FBI wanted poster in my room for Dr. Angela Davis. Framing it are three quotes and a Boondocks strip (Huey doing Thanksgiving grace). The quotes are by F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function,” Chip Butters, “We have no tangible boundaries of what is ultimate,” and Loa-Tzu, “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” (A bad translation, but the point is the same.) It drew my attention, because I am at school, putting my room together and I looked into Dr. Davis’s face as I put it up and realized that what she told me all those years ago still rings true today. In my early days of Race education, I wanted desperately to be part of the Panther movement; I wanted to be on the front lines of Justice. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t be a part of her movement. It wasn’t until last year that it finally crystallized for me. I was working with a brilliant woman from the Chickasaw Nation and I asked, “What part of your story do you want me to make sure I get across to my students?” She smiled and said clearly, “I don’t want YOU to tell any of my story.” Bam, a crystal bullet right between the eyes. It isn’t my job to speak for others. I can teach how to listen better. But the story, to be real, has to come from the source. I can’t be a Panther, nothing I do will make up for the murder of Fred Hampton. Nothing I teach will take away the cultural scar of the Boarding Schools. My position isn’t on the front line. It is support. For a control freak like me, that is hard to accept. But it is the truth. It is for me to listen to Natasha and Delma Thomas-Jackson and simply say, amen. I can translate sometimes for the culturally impaired, but it isn’t my fight to lead. It is my fight, make no mistake about it, but it isn’t mine to lead. Looking forward to another school year, sending more to the front lines. May God bless this adventure.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 17:50:24 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015