The Final Call

Farrakhan: We must create a new educational paradigm

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• As the school system disintegrates, educators advocates better choices (FCN, 09-11-2003)

CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition held its 34th Annual Conference June 11-16 here at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers, gathering together prominent luminaries from the Black community in the areas of business, law, entertainment, politics, spirituality and education.

In remarks during the June 16 Rainbow PUSH/Excel-sponsored educational forum, themed “Incarceration or Education: The Choice is Yours,” the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan pointed out that the western world’s educational system has actually produced mental incarceration of the minds of Blacks and others, including Whites, by teaching educational principles tainted with racism with the doctrine of White supremacy at the core.

“It’s natural that we would choose education over incarceration, but is the present form of education another form of incarceration?” the Muslim leader asked. “I submit to you that the founders of western education, the philosophy that under girds western education—Dewey, Kant and Hegel—were racists. They did not have a good view of Black people, so they promoted an educational system that incarcerated Whites in a sick philosophy, that if you are White, you are better.”

Minister Farrakhan then urged the students and educators present to step up to the responsibility and mission of this generation of Black intellectual achievers to create a new “educational paradigm” to replace the current educational system that has failed.

“Among us right now, there is educational scholarship that can develop a new educational philosophy that will free us and free them from the sickness of White supremacy that produced in its wake Black, Hispanic, Arab and Asian inferiority,” he added. “People need a chance to breathe free and they cannot breathe free incarcerated by a false educational paradigm.”

In comments preceding Minister Farrakhan’s, Judge Greg Mathis cited statistics clearly outlining funding disparities and misplaced priorities of the federal government. According to Judge Mathis, since 1980, the federal prison budget has increased by over 300 percent, while the budget for educational spending has barely kept up with the rate of inflation.

“We ask that you continue to support our fight against the increased investment in the incarceration of our youth at the expense of the education of our youth,” implored Judge Mathis, who is heavily involved in the PUSH/Excel educational component.

Using additional statistics to further illustrate the point, he said that Black and Latino school districts across the country are consistently suffering from underfunded schools, weak curricula, underperforming students and under-qualified teachers. The treatment and performance of the Bush administration’s “No Child Left Behind” was characterized by Judge Mathis as “shortsighted and callous.”

At the conclusion of the forum, $350,000 worth of scholarships were awarded to top high-school and college students. However, the students present received words of guidance more valuable than money.

“I really enjoyed all of the speaker’s comments,” said Rachel Moten, a scholarship recipient attending Loyola University in Chicago. “This was my first time ever hearing Minister Farrakhan, and he gave me a lot to think about,” she added.

“The future is in our hands. Let’s seize it and build a new educational philosophy that can free all of humanity from that ravages of racism, sexism and all the other ‘isms’ that have impeded human development,” concluded Minister Farrakhan.