The Radical Academic Embraces Black Wisdom- Will you?
We exist in a system in the U.S. suffocated by the belief in a hierarchy of human value based on race where associations are made between inferiority and phenotypical characteristics around darker skin, and expressions of Blackness. It is the heaviness of suffocation that allows many of us in the U.S. to breathe in high concentrations the words of a former president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, who is quoted as saying, “the Blacks… are inferior to the Whites in the endowments both of body and mind.” Despite this centuries-old quote, our lungs remain restricted, and bronchioles swelled from symbols, messages, and beliefs of Blackness that harm and dehumanize darker-skinned people. Simultaneously, the tight grip on our collective psyche continues to deplete any elevation of Black brilliance and genius that may exist outside the institutions of whiteness and standards often created by white-bodied people.
In the U.S., the purveyors of knowledge are more often affiliated with institutions with a long history of Black-bodied exploitation and those with deep roots planted in the enslavement of African people and displacement and menticide of Indigenous people. These institutions include Harvard University, Yale University, Duke University, and others. I worked at one of them, so I know what happens when a Black-bodied person claims to be affiliated with these institutions. We are elevated in the eyes of others, do not deny it.
Institutions create standards of education, counseling, medical practice, and even research with a white-bodied majority, with a few Black-bodied or brown people to meet diversity quotients. Our ability to breathe properly without being suffocated by this belief in a hierarchy of human value based on race, also known as racism, seems impossible as we see those in these institutions of whiteness and white-bodied standards as legitimate and knowledge certifiers only to handicap our perceptions of Blackness. Many of us witness or repeat patterns of interrogating, questioning, or erasing Black wisdom and thought.
When was the last time we asked a Black momma how we should educate, treat, or serve Black children? When was the last time I trusted my wisdom as a Black momma and told the teacher, doctor, and another service provider how you respond to my child and meet their needs?
For us to listen and for anyone to listen, the Black momma had to come up with white-bodied credentials or degrees obtained from white institutions. This Black momma needed to be seen through the lens of Black exceptionalism and under the false belief that some Black people are exceptions to the rules of racism, and they overcome, climb out through grit, and escape its suffocating claws. God forbid if this Black momma stumbled into our halls from the hood or some back-road rural town or any of those engineered spaces where Black-bodied folks lack access to high-quality food and health or sit in proximity to the bowels of pollution, the trash dumpsite, dirty rivers, and power plants that emit smoke into their airways. We would not be able to associate Black brilliance and genius with this momma because schematic rules, racial tropes, and stereotypes will see her Black-bodied self as intellectually inferior, ignorant, and a welfare mother or shiftless negress. We will pretend we don’t see this, but we know deep down inside we believe it.
Suppose she did not come through the ivory towers of the academy, those institutions that gobble up and exploit concepts of intelligence, brilliance, and genius by exerting themselves as purveyors of knowledge generation and credentialing bodies of knowledge. We can pretend otherwise, but we all know the truth in the common associations we make when we hear words like intelligent, brilliant, and genius. Some of us work hard and press our psyches and imaginations to see Black-bodied people and Blackness underneath these words despite the suffocating grip of racism.
The academicians, Black-bodied faculty will traverse the academy and often-exploitive tenure and promotion track to write on Blackness in its wholeness and fullness. Some of us will work tirelessly to construct narratives and write on Blackness from the space of freedom. And, it is here in the academy where Black thought can permeate pejorative white-bodied thought. Yet, the academy steals Black wisdom and ideas, repackages them under a white-bodied gaze, and publishes this wisdom and thoughts in high-impact journals Black mommas probably won’t read. Thus, the pathway that places Black wisdom back into the hands of Black-bodied people in the hood or back-road rural town remains blocked.
If knowledge is power, creating and legitimizing knowledge grants people more power. Are we willing to disrupt the schematic associations and make new ones? Are we willing to redistribute power? Are we willing to embrace Black wisdom, and thought and see Blackness in its brilliance and genius?
Let us do something radical to shock the brain and its schemas into a different reality. Let us go back to the Black momma, the Black daddy, the pop-pops, and the nannas and learn from them. Tell the academy and others who extract knowledge, exploit Black-bodied knowledge and brilliance, and have participated in suffocating Blackness to pay Black mommas and Black families and redistribute funds and resources to redress the ills of racism. Let us embrace new belief structures that see Blackness elevated and valued. Let us rip the suffocating hold of racism from our psyche and bodies and create a treatment plan that cleanses the air, and the lungs and allows us to breathe more fully. Let us start by bringing Black wisdom and Black parent wisdom into all attempts to design, create or provide any intervention, program, or treatment to Black children. Let us invite Black wisdom into the academy, our instruction, and our classrooms.
It is Black parent wisdom, the wisdom of Black-bodied people in the form of nonbiological kinfolk and grandparents, aunties, and uncles, who have equipped Black children with the emotional acuity, self-pride, and confidence needed to survive the suffocating tentacles of racism in the U.S. We do not want our Black children to survive we want them to thrive. For them to thrive, we need to center and elevate Black wisdom, brilliance, and thought as a solution. Will we be radicals and shift power in institutions and will you?
