The parallels are stunning, and every researcher who has looked at this issue will tell you that the vast majority of young African American men in prison are also high school dropouts. When they drop out of school, they virtually drop out of any opportunity to make it in America.
I have been to meetings where we have grilled the school board, any number of superintendents and even teachers about how badly African American students are doing. But I have never been to a meeting in the African American community where we have taken a good look at how we have contributed to this problem.
I understand racism. I have spent a lifetime fighting it, but I also understand that racism is like a fungus: if you give it a warm, moist place to grow, it will. We have given the racists that warm, moist place when it comes to education and the prison industrial complex.
For the most part, the problems that African Americans face are in those areas where they have failed to act. In 2019, we will face the 400th anniversary of the beginning of formal slavery in America. It will be the first time that we will be able to look at this date without being in slavery or a semi-slavery of Jim Crow. It will be the first time that we can openly address the realities of slavery, and it will be the first time that we can present ourselves as the people we really are, or who we are trying to become.
Who we are trying to become begins with the knowledge we put in our heads. Therefore, no one should be more adamant about quality education for our children than we should.
For 350 years African Americans were not allowed to read books, and every trick and threat was used to make sure that they knew as little as possible about the world they lived in. So reading and comprehension is not a trait passed down from generation to generation in the African American community. There are still thousands of families who, just recently, got the first high school graduate in their family tree. There are still thousands who have yet to have one.
That's why we cannot approach our problems the way other people have. We must approach them like a military campaign and be willing to put everything we have in the battles we choose. Right now the battle is education, and it is time for us to put together the Campaign for Educational Excellence.
This is a campaign aimed directly at the African American community. We must set educational standards for our children that we can help them achieve and standards that the educational system is aware of.
The average African American student, locally and nationally, has a grade point average of 2.1 or lower. There are exceptions, students with a GPA of 3.5 or better, but they represent the minority. Our goal is to get the average African American student to a minimal GPA of 2.7, and we hope that everyone who gets to 2.7 sees this as just the beginning.
That is why the campaign's slogan is, "2.7 plus is a must for African American students."
For the first time the Seattle Urban League, The Black Clergy and others have made a commitment to getting this job done.
We are still working on the fine details of the campaign. A series of meetings will take place soon to work out these issues, but the campaign can begin in the homes of everyone who reads this right now.
Make the commitment that your child will be a 2.7-plus student and let them know what your expectations are. This is roughly a B minus or C plus, and it's a GPA that puts them right on the cusp of educational success.
This campaign will take money and dedication to make happen so look for a phone call or a visit from others, or me, in the weeks to come. If you would like to get involved, please feel free to write to or call this newspaper and they will hook us up.
It's time for us to stop being the reluctant Americans. Create a plan for success and execute it because we are not likely to be going anywhere.
Those who enslaved us will keep winning, if we don't take control of our present and our future. It starts with education and making a commitment to educational excellence.
It starts right now.
Let's make Martin Luther King County the epicenter for a positive educational movement that can sweep this entire nation. I don't want 2019 to only be a poor-me conversation about how slavery destroyed African people. We must address slavery, but that does not define who we are now and who we will be in the future.
It's our job to figure out what we want to be and to create a plan to get there. When we transform ourselves, we transform America and reshape the world.
Central Area writer and community activist Charlie James may be reached via editor@sdistrictjournal.com.[[In-content Ad]]