March 6, 2012

Mid-Term Essay Blog

                African Americans parents raising children in today’s society, have a tremendous amount of obstacles to overcome.  As parent’s we have to collectively integrate ideas on how to raise our children to become successful African American so that we can as supportive of each other and raise above what had been placed upon us. As history will show that African Americans have been, oppress and manipulated for decades and stripped of all that we could be proud of, so that others can prosper and continue to strive forward while our people fall backwards in society.

                During slavery the family unit was ripped apart and made to feel non-existence, it then left the struggle to survive upon the women who were left behind to breed more children for the benefit of the slave owners for profit.  During slavery and even more so now, women had to become the head the household because their husbands were either sold to other owners or killed.  As parents raising children we have to get back what had been ripped from our souls and physical bodies to build back on the strong unity of the African American that once lived decades ago and in some areas in today’s society.  In the “The Nguzo Saba and the Black family” it spoke of finding the resources collectively and learning what it will take to be the best of being an African American and the human in the fullest sense.

                When raising the children we have to become so familiar with the history of our people and to past those thoughts, feelings and facts down to our children, so that they can appreciate why it is so important to live in the richness in spirituality, union of family and the union of positive relationships rather heterosexual or same sex marriages. The guest speakers were well aware of whom they are and how much more the community needs to understand about whom they are and how they feel. They are comfortable in opening up about their spirituality and relationships within the family and the community. That is why it is so important to raise our children to be strong with whom they are and to love and appreciate the differences in people as they are. In the “Strange bedfellows against gay marriage” When there is a strong bond in loving relationships, the strong bond of family shall follow.  In the empowerment theory, it speaks of independence and self-determination as the forces in changing people’s lives and doing as collectively as a union. Using this theory to teach our children they have the power to lead and to effect changes within the family, community and the oppressed society. The teaching that power comes in a unity of a strong culture, a culture that has the power to overcome the oppression of the white privileged society, which still today controls the members of our society and has distorted our African American culture. In the Africentric Theory, it explains that it is important to change behavior and promoting human transformation through spiritual, moral and humanistic ends and this can begin and end with the raising of the children. The children can be the end of what society calls an oppressed culture of people, the African American people. The raising of our children needs to be composed of those set of beliefs, values that African Americans need to rebuild our communities worldwide.

                In the article African American Women’s spiritual beliefs, it touches on many qualities that involve the family union and roles of raising our children in today’s society and starting from scratch. Spirituality was one of the important unions that kept the family together; it was one of the things that could not be stripped from the African American culture before, during and after slavery. Spirituality was the one component that we can instill in our children, so that it can strengthen our values and beliefs system. The strengths that African American women possess are the importance of spirituality that bonds that family unity and as it was mentioned in the article serves as a resource and coping mechanisms.  In another article its speaks about our emotional inheritance, freeing yourself of negative beliefs and to have faith and that change can help us to heal from the past. Those changes that we pass down to our children can help them to live healthy lives and that lasting love is important to the survival of our culture of people.

                The raising of our children should be the most important privilege known to humankind, because these are the people that will continue to change the face of oppression and that will end the inequalities that still exist in our societies. As African Americans, we have to educate our children from birth and throughout their adult hood. When there is a disservice in one place, there is a disservice all over the world. Raising the children to be comfortable in their own skin, to build and maintain that community they call their own and to lift up their brother and sisters left behind, will help the entire African American culture.