Malcolm X’s Prediction For The Year 2000 That Didn’t Come True

In his autobiography, Malcolm X recounts a conversation he had with a white reporter who he felt was honest and sincere. He didn’t reveal the name of the reporter because he wanted to protect his identity and spare him any possible backlash he could receive from expressing his admiration for Malcolm X.

Malcolm X said he had an extensive and pleasant conversation with the reporter about the Dead Sea Scrolls, history, archeology, and religion. He said that they discussed Jesus being a man of African descent. Malcolm X described the conclusion of their conversation by saying: “I remember we wound up agreeing that by the year 2000, every schoolchild will be taught the true color of great men of antiquity.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Plusone Linkedin Tumblr Email

Anecdote: How Much Damage Is The “Education” System Doing?

Squirrels Going To School“The animals got together in the forest one day and decided to start a school. There was a rabbit, a bird, a squirrel, a fish and an eel, and they formed a Board of Education. The rabbit insisted that running be in the curriculum. The bird insisted that flying be in the curriculum. The fish insisted that swimming be in the curriculum, and the squirrel insisted that perpendicular tree climbing be in the curriculum. They put all these things together and wrote a curriculum guide. Then they insisted that all of the animals take all of the subjects.

Although the rabbit was getting an A in running, perpendicular tree climbing was a real problem for him; he kept falling over backwards. Pretty soon he got to be sort of brain damaged, and he couldn’t run anymore. He found that instead of making an A in running, he was making a C and, of course, he always made an F in perpendicular climbing.

The bird was really beautiful at flying, but when it came to burrowing in the ground, he couldn’t do so well. He kept breaking his beak and wings. Pretty soon he was making a C in flying as well as an F in burrowing, and he had a hell of a time with perpendicular tree climbing.

The moral of the story is that the person who was valedictorian of the class was a mentally retarded eel who did everything in a halfway fashion. But the educators were all happy because everybody was taking all of the subjects, and it was called broad based education.” -Leo Buscaglia

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Plusone Linkedin Tumblr Email

Assata Shakur On Nat Turner

Nat Turner“It had never occurred to me that hundreds of Black people had got together to fight for their freedom. The day I found out about Nat Turner I was affected so strongly it was physical. I was so souped up on adrenaline I could barely contain myself. I tore through every book my mother had. Nowhere could I find the name Nat Turner.

I had ground up believing the slaves hadn’t fought back. I remember feeling ashamed when they talked about slavery in school. The teachers made it seem that Black people had nothing to do with the official ’emancipation’ from slavery. White people had freed us.

You couldn’t catch me without a book in my hand after that.” -Assata Shakur

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Plusone Linkedin Tumblr Email

Assata Shakur On Segregated Schools

Black Segregated School“Of course, our schools were segregated, but the teachers took ore of an interest in our lives because they lived in our world, in the same neighborhoods. They knew what we were up against and hat e would be facing as adults, and they tried to protect us as much as they could. More than once we were punished because some children had made fun of a student who was poor and badly dressed. I’m not saying that segregation was a good system. Our schools were inferior. The books were used and torn, handed down from white schools. We received only a fraction of the state money allotted to white schools, and the conditions under which many Black children received an education can only be described as horrible. But Black children encountered support and understanding and encouragement instead of the hostile indifference the often met in ‘integrated’ schools.” -Assata Shakur

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Plusone Linkedin Tumblr Email