Pfunksfoolosophy

I’m not old enough to remember those students being escorted into Central  High School in Little Rock, AR.  As a matter of fact, I wasn’t even a gleam in my daddy’s eye. But you know something? I owe those courageous nine students who walked through those doors to jeers, spitting and very palpable hate.
You see, I didn’t have to wonder if I was going to survive the night, let alone the next day. I didn’t grow up in a world that tried to deny me a better education based on my ancestry. They were so strong, so valiant in the face of immense pressure coming from them all sides. They had to achieve higher standards simply because they were black. My mother went to high school during the fifties. She was in Kansas during the Brown v. The Board of Ed. days. My grandfather had his doctorate. He was a minister and he instilled the value of a good education. He also told us as we grew up that we had to achieve great things because people thought less of us because of our ancestry. I thought he was nuts, but I did my best, excelling in my studies…never once thinking about what those 9 students in Little Rock did for me. Today, Little Rock’s Central High School is still segregated and the black students are lax in their studies. I see this a great deal. Why is it that in some black families, education is secondary to the creature comforts? Why can a kid of 17 tell you all about the goings on of Diddy, 50 cent and quote Tupac easier than they can recall one line of poetry by Langston Hughes or Nikki Giovanni?
I DO blame the parents. I DO blame our school systems. We used to have teachers who wanted to teach…to help form the minds of our future leaders. Where are they? They couldn’t have all retired.

It saddens me to think that we’re losing ground. I wish I could do something. I pray that I will have some divine wisdom work through me because I cherish our youth. Man, I remember what it was like to be a kid in high school–just wanting to explore the world with an open heart and an open mind. Now  it seems as though kids just want an X box and some cash for a blunt. I see  them hanging around my building. Some of them have jobs, some of them don’t, but it’s clear to me that they’ll not see much more of the world beyond Harlem’s  borders.

Let’s get it together, folks. You can blame the Man but so much. What are we made of in the end? Our minds, our intellectual freedom…our spiritual strength can’t be stripped from us without us allowing it to happen.

A fire’s been lit under my complacent arse.

It’s time to shape up. London bridge is falling down, man. I’m gonna go out and find me some engineers in the making.
We’re all given wings; it’s our choice to have them clipped or not.

I intend to soar.