(ThyBlackMan.com) “If you can control a man’s thinking, you don’t have to worry about his actions. If you can determine what a man thinks you do not have worry about what he will do. If you can make a man believe that he is inferior, you don’t have to compel him to seek an inferior status, he will do so without being told and if you can make a man believe that he is justly an outcast, you don’t have to order him to the back door, he will go to the back door on his own and if there is no back door, the very nature of the man will demand that you build one.”
The above statement was written by Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Born of slaves in Virginia he was self-taught and eventually obtained his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in History from Harvard, becoming the second African-American to receive this degree. Although he is the person who established Africa American history as a monthly celebration, he is best known for his ground breaking tractate: The Mis-Education of the Negro. 
The book spoke of the American educational system, with special reference to its paralyzing impact on African Americans. Mis-education from his perspective was a tragedy, that relegated blacks to a brain-washed acceptance of the inferior role assigned to him whites. The book proffers a harsh critique on both criticizes the system, that eventually ends up with people and mis-educating others and even learning and spreading hate in terms of race by the miseducated.
W. E. B. Dubois would experience this and continue these sentiments in his book The Souls of Black Folk. Dubois saw race prejudice in the United States as a way for blacks to be “tolerated but they are not educated” For both this frequently ended up as becoming a deep-seated insecurity leading to, intra-racial strife between African Americans.
I wonder how these two great giants of pedagogy would describe Africa Americans today. Would they see how young African Americas, lacking a knowledge and understanding of their history are indoctrinated, lacking self-confidence, self-respect, and self-knowledge?
I think they would and would define the high levels of such as being factors why self-hate is increasing among our ranks daily. It is not hard to hypothesize such seeing that still today men and women speak of good hair and bad hair and often describe good looks and attractiveness with lighter over darker skin. Yes this too is racial hatred, because the sad reality is that many of us still look at ourselves through the eyes of people that hate us.
Staff Writer; Torrance Stephens
