Comments on: Closing The Academic Achievement “Gap” Between African American and White Students: An Historical Perspective (Part 3)

By: michael smith

michael smith — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:00:41 +0000

Since I said this thing about the term Holocaust, if I were going to write something about it to be made public, I’d refer to it as: “the African Holocaust: under the chains of cost cutting.” My reason is that whatever you want to say about racism, the psychology of racism, the system of oppression: the whole way through the bottom line of it all is “the bottom line” (to quote a cultural slogan). I think of Robert Johnson: “If you live by the nickle, you’ll die by the dime” and Big Bil Broonzy: “I owe my soul to the company store” and tons of other references by blues artists to labor in the post-Civil War South. Richard Wright and Malcolm X describe people in non-South urban settings suffering under the same spell, only it’s not as easy to define without raw Jim Crow segregation. So that’s my answer to my question, for what it’s worth. Nothing new but perhaps some words that help give clarity to the “peculiar institution” (another old national slogan).

By: Leslie Werner

Leslie Werner — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:58:17 +0000

I just want to say I wish there were a nation wide activist group against racism. People that aren’t racist really need to step up and stand up for equal rights especially with racists using the economy’s down fall as a chance to exploit racism. Everyone needs to stick together through these tough times not be torn apart. There really should be more unity in our country but for some reason everyone seems to be out for themselves these days. There needs to be a change. I’m actually a white girl, I have a white husband, and a white child but I have grown up with people from all walks of life. I’ve never looked at the color of someone’s skin and thought that defined them as a person. Every human being is an individual. I wish racism wasn’t an issue. I don’t know why other people’s existence would bother someone else it doesn’t make sense.

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:23:19 +0000

I agree with the facts and the reasoning in this writing. My only reservation (I won’t say objection) is the use of the word “Holocaust.” I get the idea, and it is not innacurate, but the word entails a system of destruction that was in its manifest form different. My suggestion is that we find another, perhaps even more compelling, title to the dynamics you describe regarding Africans and their decendents. Since you mention “Holocaust,” as a history student myself, I ought to tell you that Hitler (the actual Hitler) in devising methods to eradicate the Jews looked to the USA and marveled at how we exterminated the Indians, and I am sure that he consciously emulated many USA practices. I only say this to reinforce what you suggest, and that is to remain true to what has happened in the past and to actual survivors and family of the Jewish Holocaust you discuss. I would think that “Holocaust” is ok for now, but a word or phrase that somehow depicts the scope, breadth, and length of oppression of Africans and African Americans would be best.