Frankly Speaking
By W. Frank Wilson
As we celebrate in various ways the 100th anniversary of what began as Negro History week, I urge us to dress up our minds with knowledge with the same fervor that we adorn our bodies with African Attire.
During my tenure as Executive Director of the Albany Civil Rights Institute, an ASU professor gave an assignment to her students to take the tour report on it but get my signature as proof of the visit.
A young man came at 3:45 to take the tour and I told him he would need to come back because he would not be able to complete the tour in 15 minutes.
His reply still haunts me because that reply was “ I don’t want to know anything I just need your signature”
Are there others who are ok with wearing the attire with no interest in acquiring knowledge?
An Education Administrator picking up her child from a rehearsal said to me, “ I have been here before “!!
A parent said “ My child don’t need to know all these stuff”!
Are the three positions still among us?
Don’t wanna know, don’t need to know, never been here?
While some are busy dismissing dismantling and disregarding our culture and our history, we don’t have the luxury of being apathetic towards our history.
I don’t know what happened to that student, nor do I know if that parent changed her attitude. I do know that the Educator is still working with even more responsibility but I don’t know if she has educated herself regarding the history on display at ACRI.
Some years ago The Impressions recorded, Check Out Your Mind!
It’s amazing how we google for pleasure but not for Knowledge
I’m just saying what I’m saying!
