ON THE WHIPPING OF OUR CHILDREN . . .

Some time ago, we abandoned the systematic passing-on of our collective humanity. We abandoned the teaching of our own HISTORY in any way which might tell us who we really are, whence we have come, and the magnitude of the struggle in which we, as aspiring people of color, are all inevitably engaged, to better ourselves and our generations, in a world which cares little for our well-being.

We also abandoned the meaningful teaching of our LITERATURE . . . the greatest value of which might be to acquaint us with our souls, our inner landscapes, the full spectrum of our human emotion—beyond anger, greed, contempt, selfishness—toward nobility, compassion, love, heroism, courage, empathy, and the twin joys of endeavor and achievement.

We have since also abandoned the teaching of that kind of GEOGRAPHY . . , which alone situates us as participants in the complex affairs of a world in which we stand, fully comprehending the roads already trod, and those we must still travel, if we are to remain standing tall, at the nexus of nations, overcoming the irrelevance of size, understanding the importance of ambition, and the magnificent audacity of situating our proud young nation at the center of our own remarkable universe. We have moreover forsaken the teaching of that LANGUAGE without which we are all idiots, screaming at each other and at the world, understanding nothing, sharing nothing, building nothing but inescapable prisons of verbal and emotional isolation.

And so, having abandoned these sources and uses of understanding and expression, we have also abandoned CULTURE and the ARTS . . . those temples of identity and relevance where the human spirit passes through its own portals of exploration, self-discovery, understanding, affirmation, and validation. As for CIVICS and ETHICS . . . these too we have sacrificed on the altar of DEVELOPMENT, so that we now
think of ourselves and our children as irrelevant, casually and carelessly conceived, dispensable, little more than mouths to feed, feet to be shod, bodies to scantily clothe as we cast them before the great EMPLOYMENT machine.

So, what else should we expect to see on the screens of our miniature existences, but the merciless flagellation of the child by the parent, the aunt, the elder.

We have abandoned our HUMANITY in the glorious pursuit of PROGRESS . . . discarding the very mores that make us whole and wholesome.
So now we rise, eager to whip that inevitable contempt out of our own children, because there they stand before us, in their self-effacing school uniforms purchased with the wages of our prostitution, shamelessly mirroring our barren, uninspired selves.

ANGER AND VIOLENCE are therefore our most instinctive responses whenever faced with crisis, for there is little else left to draw on. Except, perhaps, for whipping that recurring self-loathing from our very selves.