The miseducation of the Negro

¶ … Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson. Specifically it will include a detailed summary of the book, the significance of the work, and a critique of the work. Woodson's work, initially published in 1933, is a look at education of the time and how it shortchanged the Negro and the white. Woodson's work is a classic in educational and black studies, and it continues to make some important social and cultural points today.

The author's main thesis in this book is that an oppressor cannot teach the oppressed, because in the end, the oppressed will come under the control of their teachers, and give up their own ideas, their own morals, and their own culture. In his Introduction, Woodson writes, "When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions" (Woodson 7). Thus, he believes the white control of education naturally helps keep black people oppressed, subjugated, and on a lesser level than whites, and educated blacks take on the traits of whites, and so forget their own culture and belief systems. In a sense, the white educational system is just creating a series of black-white people who are educated but no longer represent their own race. Woodson goes on to prove his thesis by noting, "As a rule, therefore, the 'educated Negro' prefers to buy his food from a white grocer because he has been taught that the Negro is not clean" (Woodson 8). This is Woodson's main thesis throughout this work, but he also makes several other major points that indicate his views on American education in general and specifically how it relates to the American Negro.

Another one of Woodson's important themes or views in this work is that the Negro is taught to despise his own race in the white man's schools, and that the white man is little interested in Negro history or culture. The author states that when this book was written, there were only eighteen Negro high schools in the U.S. offering any kind of black history, and few of the Negro colleges and universities offered courses in black history or culture, either (Woodson 9). In fact, Woodson believes this form of education is worse than lynching. He writes, "to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching (Woodson 10). Thus, Woodson lays the groundwork for his thesis early in the book, and then builds on it as he continues.

Woodson continually notes what is wrong with American education in regard to the Negro, and how it affects the Negro, but he also has ideas on how to improve it, so his book is more than a simple diatribe against American education. In several chapters he gives brief ideas on what Negroes can do to improve their education and get out from under the white man's control. Woodson urges Negro writers to write of bondage, slavery, and black history. He advocates developing a "different educational system" (Woodson 119), that is not about control but rather about history, culture, and a building up of the Negro race. He believes that for Negroes to be fully successful they must admit their oppression; learn from it, and more on to better and bigger things. He also believes that the Negroes have to do it themselves, rather than relying on leaders who will do things "for" them. He has suggestions for both educators and religious leaders, and so, he gives concrete examples to readers to help them create better lives for all Negroes, rather than simply complaining about the situation without offering any solution.

Woodson also looks at the history of Negro education and how it evolved into modern (1933) educational systems, and shows how since Emancipation, Negroes have nearly always lived in the "lowest order of society, nominally free but economically enslaved" (Woodson 16). He talks about industrial schools developed for Negroes, and how few Negroes benefited from this early education. This history of Negroes filling the lowest order of society continues today, and helps prove the Weber sociological conflict theory. Since they received their freedom, blacks in America have risen in some areas of society, but they still predominately fill one of the lowest orders, so their progress had been quite limited. Woodson also blames Negro spiritual leaders for helping to keep their people downtrodden and perpetuating the lack of educational opportunities open to Negroes. He notes, "It is very clear, then, that if Negroes got their conception of religion from slaveholders, libertines, and murderers, there may be something wrong about it, and it would not hurt to investigate it" (Woodson 63). He maintains many black ministers are simply preaching white gospel, and those that are not are preaching "Hell and damnation" rather than concrete ideas that will help the Negroes better themselves (Woodson 57-59). Woodson does not blame all the Negro's ills on educators and religious leaders. He also blames some of the society's ills on the "educated" Negroes themselves, who tend to turn away from what is important - those high ideals that would push them to help their fellows. He writes, "The author has known numerous cases of Negro lawyers, physicians, and business men who, while attending local Sunday schools, churches, and lodges, have fallen out about trifles like a resolution or the chairmanship of a committee" (Woodson 91). Thus, these educated Negroes are their own races' worst enemies, because they no longer concern themselves with important issues, but only "trifles." Because of this, they no longer are a help to their people and to their cause for advancement.

The theoretical significance of Woodson's work is incredibly important, because it clearly shows just how little progress American Negroes made after the Civil War. They gained their freedom, but they were still subjugated in just about every aspect of their lives. They received inferior educations, they were segregated from whites, they served in the lowliest jobs, and because of many "Jim Crow" laws they could not even enjoy the rights that were lawfully theirs. The plight of the Negro in American history clearly illustrates Max Weber's Conflict Theory. This theory is the idea that a conflict perspective is essential to the development of an objective, or scientific, sociology. Conflict theory is one of the main theories in sociology and is still one of the most valid. Weber believed people were caught in a social "iron cage" that few of them could break through, and so, there was a social order that did not often change in society. Weber felt most of society could never break out of this iron cage and move from one level of society to another. Weber felt capitalism was an iron cage, too, and that these elements combine to keep society layered, with the lowest social orders unable to reach higher levels no matter what they did. This social order or strata clearly has a long history in Negro culture, and still exists today. Many of the most successful blacks adopt a "white" attitude in business and in their personal lives to attain their high social and professional levels. If they manage to break out of their iron cage, they do it by taking on the trappings of white society, from religion to housing and education. They live in white neighborhoods, educate their children in white schools, and do business with white professionals. The lower classes of black society, who live in the ghettos, have a much different experience.

These lower strata of society have fewer educational opportunities, live in poverty, cannot find employment that will pay them enough to move away from their neighborhoods, and generally live inside the iron cage Weber defined. They, for a variety of social and economic reasons, are unable to reach even the next layer of society, because society conspires to keep them at their level. This is also what Woodson discusses in his book, the white educators conspire to keep Negroes at a certain level, and if they become "educated," they are no longer truly Negroes, but instead represent the white strata of society, rather than their own strata.

Woodson's work seems dated at times, because it was written over 70 years ago. Some of the writing seems a bit out-of-date and formal, but sadly, many of his theories do not seem that outmoded even today. There are still huge gaps between blacks and whites in this country - in education, in employment, and in living conditions. It seems that even though blacks have made great strides since Woodson wrote this book, and since the civil rights movements of the 1960s, they still lag behind other races in America, just as Weber's iron cage theory indicates.