posted by Kelly Porter

on July 20, 2007

What would Dubois think, if he saw a 5 year old black girl on all 4 bouncing her backside up and down in here bathing suit, as if she were a 25 yo video girl? The other day I was on the bus and I saw this. My jaw dropped. They little girl and her friends were playing outside in some water shooting from a fire hydrant on a hot summer day. The thing that broke my heart wasn't so much the girl (who was just repeating what she saw on some video) but it was the adult around yelling, Go Ne-Ne! Go Ne Ne! As if this act was cute.

The other week, I received a post card from my mom. My aunts and herself had gone to Hawaii. I was showing my friends daughter the postcard. She asked a few question and then said, "I want to go to Hawaii, but I'm not flying, I'm scared of flying. I'm going to drive." I immediately went into my house, picked up my atlas, and asked her to find Hawaii on the map. After about 15 minutes she finally found it and realized unless she can tell her car, "Go! Go! Gadget Boat!", going to Hawaii by car isn't going to happen.

In the first case "the veil" that Dr. Dubois refers to has become so dark that it might as well be "the blindfold". Just as the adults around the child that sang couldn't see the error in there ways, many others can't as well. We have glamourized so many of the wrong things, beyond the child's act being demeaning to women and completely inappropriate. Doesn't that say something about how the child will grow up to view herself and other people? The little girl should grow up knowing that she is a descendant of the people that built the pyramids, she should know that she is a strong black women, and that the sky is the limit. She should know to help her fellow man. The fragmentation that has occurred through years of psychsocial abuse must come to an end. Let us not forget that the babies of today will be the presidents of tomorrow.

As for my friend's daughter. She can sing any song on the radio and not miss a single lyric, but she couldn't tell you that Hawaii is an island. Anomie is a condition is which there is no sense of normalcy or morals and what is thought to be wellness has been perverted to the point that it is unrecognizable. We have reached a point in which a child will know all of the dance moves to a music video but can't use a can opener nor tell you who the president is. Enough said....We have a lot of work to do, I blame it on the Mama then the Schools......! I will tell you why soon but remember, Dr. Dubois believed deeply in education whether it be formal or informal...................................