Brains Trump Everything

By Taylor's Mommy

I saw some wretchedness at the KC Zoo this past weekend that rises to the level of child-abuse, in my opinion; a mother with her 6-year old daughter in tow wearing a full-head of weave. It was half-way down her tiny back, shiny, and super black. The sun was beaming, and the temperature was 80-degrees. It may even have been a lace front -weave, but the po' child had it in her face and was struggling with it while I watched. All I could do to remain cool was to pin up my own shoulder-length hair. If this is what you are putting ON their heads, what the devil are you putting IN their heads!

This is wrong on so many levels. In the iconic words of Marvin Gaye, “What is Going On?” The black community is suffering more than ever with the senseless death of Trayvon Martin as proof of what ails us. Obesity hampers us and our babies, diabetes is killing us quietly, and public education is an instrument devised AGAINST not FOR our children, and yet some of us are wasting hours and money required to weave a child’s head instead of spending that precious childhood time and resources to educate our babies. We should not devote the time it takes to put Indian-hair in our babies’ heads, when we should be imparting reading, writing, and arithmetic. A nappy-head filled with knowledge, is a head that can go anywhere and create ANYTHING.

I was appalled, and really saddened, the first time one of my daughter’s three-year old playmates showed up with long, fake hair extensions weighing down her thin, delicate “baby hair.” The extensions, with beads, were just tearing at her tender scalp. Her young mother is a hair braider that never misses the opportunity to inflict pain on her daughter weekly with an elaborate hairstyle. The baby never enjoys the relief of “natural” on her head. It has to hurt. But some might say she’s cute and that’s what matters. This same child’s father said no when I suggested joining my daughter at the Nelson Art Gallery summer program at no cost in order to engage in his multi-level marketing business. He said he would be too busy. The opportunity is FREE, and still out of reach of this black child. This is also the parent of an estranged teenage son. The dad remarked recently, to check on the welfare of his son he turns on the local news. If he’s not a victim of homicide or the perpetrator he’s a relieved parent.

ATTENTION BLACK COMMUNITY: It’s not Zimmerman, it’s us. Responsibility lies with us, at home. Our power cannot be subverted by the "bogey man" if we stand our ground. If colored folk on the flip-side of US Slavery had left the monumental responsibility of self-esteem, education, and the development of our community to this government, or outsiders, we would not have come as far as we have today.

The parents of old required excellence, nothing less. My parents were born and raised in segregated Mississippi, and their people required the best out of them despite what awaited them in the world. They were required to be appropriately dressed and pressed despite what was in their pockets. They were taught to address elders respectfully. They held their head high because their people told them they mattered. And they did.

If I were an alien from another planet, and observing black folk today, compared to having seen them in the distant past, I would believe the community had regressed instead of progressed. I would see little black girls in fake hair, young black men with sagging pants, and I would hear poor grammar and desecrated English flowing from teenagers’ mouths. Then I would know. I would know that the plan to keep these people down had worked. They would appear to have given up the fight of those freedom fighters of the past.

I would think that these people had never even read their OWN history. I would be saddened and moved to tears because James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner would have died in vain. I would believe that they’d never heard of Martin Luther King, Jr., female pilot Bessie Coleman, or Garrett Morgan. I would believe that someone had just made up that American History stuff about black folks inventing revolutionary things still used worldwide today. Naw, these could NOT be descendants of those men and women who valued education, and died for the privilege to read a book. Couldn’t be.

It is all very simple to me. We have to educate our babies, no matter what. We have to place brains over beauty. Like Oprah has said, “I was never pretty, but I had brains!” We have to reject the sub-standards put in place by school systems that pander to the lowest denominator. Instead, we must go above and beyond and be our children’s toughest educators. If the assignment is to read two books, our kids must read six. If the science project requires just the minimum to compete with classmates, our babies need to reach for MIT-caliber projects for kids. If normal homework takes 2 hours a night, our homework must require twice that. EXCELLENCE is the goal. Nothing less! Educating our kids is our responsibility, not to be left to chance. Just being mediocre is never enough. It was never enough for our fore parents and should never be acceptable today. Brains over beauty every day of the week.