Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

olled . At this time, over 400 students
were involved in the curriculum
. . .
The question, now, is that a
strong demand has come forth to
attempt to broaden the scope of the
services that the Communiversity
offers and to develop a structure
that will envision and encompass
the totality of the black community
-thereby, unifying all parts-as
only an educative process can.
All education-oriented organizations
or groups are being called
upon to assist in the structuring of
a more comprehensive educational
system . Toward this end, a weekend
conference has been planned
for July 3, 4, andS in Chicago. The
location will be announced later.
T is our intention to review briefly some alternatives to the
present systems of education that have been set-up for us
by suggesting a separate and independent system of education
for colonized Blacks in America .
WHITE PEOPLE HAVE INSTITUTIONS WHILE
BLACK PEOPLE HAVE INSTITUTIONALIZED LEADERS. (This
paper could have been called : An alternative to Black Charismatic
Leaders) . You can kill a Black Charismatic leader, but how do you
destroy the white institutions which produce Black Charismatic leaders?
AN ALTERNATIVE IS TO BUILD OUR OWN INSTITUTIONS .
Institutions are created to perpetuate the system that sets them up .
Therefore, if a racist system creates institutions, the institutions must
reflect racism . Understanding this one concept makes it very clear that
all schools attended by Black people are doing exactly what they are
supposed to do-perpetuate the idea of white superiority and Black
inferiority . Even when some Blacks are led to believe they have reached
Europeanization, they are rejected, because rejection devices for all nonwhites
are built into the institutions . Two of the most important things
about institutions are : 1) they are self-perpetuating, and ; 2) they never
produce an alternative for outsiders .
Today, Black schools are structured so as to be both reactionary and
repressive-to both Black teachers and Black students . Our new school
system must serve as the instrument for Black resistance to white domfinance,
and as this immovable force propel Black people toward selfunderstanding
and clear directions of goals . Our new schools must
provide us with alternative solutions for arriving at our newly defined
and newly-accepted goals-for our students and our teachers are our
future!
It is within our new system of education that our children may receive
26 March 1970 NEGRO DIGEST