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TODAY'S TOPIC:
Behind the Times
by
Natalia J. Garland
Print Version
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Reverend Jeremiah Wright, in a speech delivered on 04/27/08 to the
Detroit Branch of the N.A.A.C.P., praised that organization for
advancing civil rights in America. However, Wright's speech seemed
more fitting for the 20th century in tone and focus. He repeatedly
said that "a change is going to come," apparently not
noticing the self-contradiction regarding his opening remarks:
significant changes have already occurred, in part due to the efforts
of the N.A.A.C.P. Wright wants us to change how we perceive and treat
others who are different from us. Listening to him was like stepping
back in time.
Wright's theme was that
racial and cultural differences do not mean that any group of people is
comparatively deficient. He drew from biological, psychological, and
educational concepts to prove his point. However, his proofs might not
be correct in substance and are definitely outdated in application. It
is now common knowledge that some cultural differences, especially in
art, music, and literature, are to be appreciated as a personal choice
and to be evaluated within the context of the genre. There is nothing
new about that. Whether you read Shakespeare or Stephen King, listen
to Patsy Cline or Ella Fitzgerald: each has its own unique merit.*
But Wright went on to
talk about the differences between the left and right hemispheres of
the brain. "African-American children," he said, are
right-brained, and "European-American children" are
left-brained. This is how Wright described their differences in
learning styles.
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Left brain is
logical and analytical. Object oriented means the student learns
from an object. From the solitude of the cradle with objects being
hung over his or her head to help them determine colors and shape
to the solitude in a carol in a Ph.D. program stuffed off somewhere
in a corner in absolute quietness to absorb from the object. From a
block to a book, an object. That is one way of learning, but it is
only one way of learning.
African
and African-American children have a different way of
learning.
They
are right brained, subject oriented in their learning style. Right
brain, that means creative and intuitive. Subject oriented means
they learn from a subject, not an object. They learn from a person.
Some of you are old enough, I see your hair color, to remember when
the N.A.A.C.P. won that tremendous desegregation case back in 1954
and when the schools were desegregated. They were never integrated.
When they were desegregated in Philadelphia, several of the white
teachers in my school freaked out. Why? Because black kids wouldn't
stay in their place. Over there behind the desk, black kids climbed
up all on them.
[End of quote.]
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Is Wright correct? Here
is another definition of the brain which includes the right, left,
front, and rear portions.
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Put simply, we have a
left side of the brain which likes to deal with results, logic and is
linear in it's approach to the world. We have a right side of the brain
which deals with patterns, feelings and "togetherness." In
addition the front part of the brain deals with abstraction and
concepts while the old brain--at the rear in the brainstem is all
about instinctive behaviour. (From the How to Do Business
website.)
[End of quote.]
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It would seem more
likely that people use all portions of the brain (go to illustrations). People may
be naturally disposed to prefer one portion of the brain over the
others, but all portions can be utilized to some extent. It is
questionable whether all blacks and all whites can be neatly
categorized into left or right usage patterns. If Wright has two
Master's degrees, then he must have used the left portion of his brain.
He must have absorbed from objects--books.
In tone, Wright seems to
depict the white student as a pathetic loner, as though academic
pursuit through books excludes the other experiences of higher
education: listening to lectures, engaging in classroom discussion, and
perhaps studying together with friends. In tone (you know what I mean
if you had a chance to watch him on T.V. and to hear the response of
the audience), he seemed to depict the black child as active and
adorable as he climbs on desks and exasperates the white teacher. That
remark should be heard as an insult by black parents. Black children
are capable of showing courteous behavior toward adults and respecting
school property. If climbing on desks results from a black preference
for the right brain, then how do we account for white children who
climb on desks?
Then, Wright connects the
right side of the brain to black oral traditions: "....they come
from a right-brained creative oral culture like the (greos) in Africa
who can go for two or three days as oral repositories of a people's
history...." According to the illustrations provided with today's
essay, written and spoken language skills are a left-brain function,
while creativity is a right-brain function. That is why we have great
black writers like Phillis Wheatley, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou,
Alice Walker, and great black speakers like Martin Luther King, Jr.
They were using both the left and right portions of their brains. How
do we account for the black American scientist, George Washington
Carver? He must have used the left portion of his brain.
Next, Wright said that
black children have been criticized for using "bad English,"
while whites have been permitted to speak in a variety of regional
dialects. He used John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson as examples of
differences in spoken English. This is probably the most accurate
statement made by Wright, but it still needs clarification. Black
English involves differences in the rules of grammar as well as in
pronunciation. There has been controversy over whether black English
(Ebonics) is a dialect of English or a separate language. All white
people could understand Lyndon B. Johnson's accent, but many whites
could not clearly understand the English spoken by some blacks.
Here is the way a
teacher, Anthony Cody, describes black English.
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Black English is a
pattern of speech with its own deep grammatical structures, not merely
a different vocabulary. From the point of view of most linguists, there
is nothing inherently superior about one set of grammatical rules over
another. The point of language is communication, after all, and the
grammar of Black English is perfectly serviceable. Black English is
despised because of who it is who speaks it; African Americans, and
poor ones at that.
[End of quote.]
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But again, this is old
news. Nobody nowadays disputes the acceptability of language dialects.
Wright calls for changes which have already happened. Wright did not
simply review the accomplishments of the N.A.A.C.P., but discussed
certain racial, cultural, and educational issues as though these were
still huge deficiencies and, therefore, "a change is going to
come." Perhaps it is not America, but Reverend Wright that needs
to change. His grievances are not based on the current reality of
American life, but seem driven from what is perhaps is his own wish for
relevance and recognition: not among the poor ones, but among the great
ones.
(Written 04/28/08: bibliography available.)
[*ADDED NOTE: As a
matter of clarification, I regard Shakespeare as superior to Stephen
King. High school students should be taught Shakespeare because of his
language usage, thematic constructions, and historical content. My
point is that authors such as Stephen King (and if he is not to
your taste, then perhaps Tony Hillerman, Rosamund Pilcher, or
Barbara Wood) do not belong in the same categories with Shakespeare,
Dickens, or Faulkner. Within the genre of the horror novel,
howwever, Stephen King has to be given credit as an original
story-teller. If someone prefers Stephen King over Shakespeare,
that is a matter of personal taste. I do not regard Shakespeare
and Stephen King as interchangeable in greatness, but I think each
can be appreciated within the standards of the type of writing.]
(Written 07/03/08)
Until we meet
again....... .......stay sane.
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