When the boys are just chillin and colouring or doing some other kid-type stuff, a speech by Audre Lorde, or Amos Wilson, or Kwame Toure, or H. Rap Brown, or Assata Shakur, or Malcolm X invariably just happens to be playing on the computer. And positive, culturally-affirming music (Oliver Tukudzi, Peter Tosh, Fela Kuti, Judy Mowatt, Asa, Rokia Traore, etc., etc., etc.) is ALWAYS coming through the speakers. If I want to, for e.g., plant a seed about the devastating effects associated with the internalization, by Afrikan youth, of white supremacist understandings of The Beautiful, I YouTube Kiri Davis A Girl Like Me. Sometimes, they stop what they are doing to watch...sometimes, its as if they dont know that anything of significance is on. Inevitably, something captures their attention, which in turn opens the door to a reasoning that is initiated *by them*. I talk for about two minutes at the most, giving them an age-appropriate morsel to chew on in the here-and-now and something to revisit when they are older and have more context. Its not about preaching. Our children wont be brow-beaten, forum-ed or blah-blah-blah-ed into revolutionary, Afrocentric consciousness. In fact, theyll get bored as hell and tune out quickern you can say Don Lemon. Its about changing the water that they swim in, culturally-speaking. Its about making the development of critical awareness a seamless part of the days activities...so seamless, in fact, that they dont even know that that is whats being carefully and deliberately nurtured. I knew that the acquisition of an Afrikan-centered, critical lens was happening with Amari when he pointed out, without prompting, the negative ways that the colour black was used in The Rise of the Guardians and Sinbad. He also notices when Brown and Black people are NOT featured in graphic novels aimed at children. The first step is awareness. Fam, how are YOU deliberately nurturing awareness in your children?
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 00:56:34 +0000
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