Thanks for taking the time out to view my blogspot. I wrote this note on..hold on let me get the date right...August 30, 2010. I was listening to the BEST album of all time-The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (of course) and I was inspired to write...well type this. I'm just inviting you all inside my heart and mind. Well..I hope you come back! =) With love.
What is Mis-Education?
According to the American Heritage of the English Language, miseducation is merely defined as to miseducate, to educate improperly.
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill:
Lauryn Hill released this album in 1998 and changed my world. This album has been my ultimate favorite because it moves me through the depths of my own passion, lyrically. This album is also my inspiration behind writing this note. It almost felt as if I was compelled to do it. I cannot tell you when the last time I just sat down and physically, freely, wrote, well typed, what is on my mind and in my heart. This album explains what I am trying to convey, more so what I am to be, and that is an African American woman with a VOICE. This album covers different aspects and areas that affect the African American female: God, love, trust, motherhood, pain, obstacles, and life. In the length of sixteen tracks, Lauryn Hill implicitly explained through her own voice, what it is to be an African American woman, learning things merely through her own experiences and observations. Often times it take us our entire lives to accept our strengths, our weaknesses, and to set ourselves aside from the stereotypes that have been embedded in society as a means of killing ourselves, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. I acknowledge and reject our stereotypes because I know that they are inferior to the woman that I am destined to be. Our collective identity grants me empowerment, because I know that we are women of courage and amazing strength.
Sometimes people mistaken miseducation for being uneducated. No. Miseducation simply means, in my own terms, teaching ourselves what is being taught or more so in an alternate way that best applies to us. As African American females we are at double odds against achieving our own goals but doesn’t that make it worth so much more? No one can say we are incapable of having successful lives. Our ancestral background is concrete evidence that we endure the worst of pain and obstacles, what makes success any different? I remember reading bits and pieces from Carter G. Woodson’s The Mis-Education of the Negro. It was written in 1933 and explicated in great lengths about the education system’s failure to relate, teach us about our history, our struggles, and our accomplishments. It amazes me when I look back on our history and how far we have come; our own miseducation shaped us, not to be uneducated but to be SELF-educated.
Hip Hop:
In 1979, The Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” gave light to the brewing birth of Hip Hop. Finally, we were able to have a voice. Not a voice to degrade or make our African American community feel inferior, but a voice to liberate and to empower. I must have been in love with Hip Hop since I was in my mother’s womb. I love listening to great emcees like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, KRS-One, Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, Tupac, Biggie, and later emcees like Eminem, T.I., and Lil Wayne. I enjoyed the female emcees such as MC Lyte, Queen Latifah and Missy Elliot, who gave a positive voice to the African American woman rather than exploiting us. Nowadays, Hip Hop that I fell in love with is digressing. When Hip Hop hit the mainstream, it became corrupted and people began to forget the initial purpose of Hip-Hop, the voice it had in our community. Misogyny and materialism is overwhelmed in so-called Hip Hop lyrics of today. The African American woman’s voice is muted because up and coming African American girls are accepting the misogyny in these Hip Hop lyrics. They think that it is okay to be referred to as a bitch, hoe, or gold digger. It is a sad truth. I could go on for days about my love and disgust for Hip Hop and its impact on our African American females but just as KRS-One, MC Lyte, and etc. summarily described in “Self-Destruction” we are headed there if we continue to degrade and disgrace our community. Where has our voice gone?
The Mis-Education:
Earlier this year I read, Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary by Jasmine Guy. I knew details of Afeni’s life, being that I am a Hip Hop fanatic, of course I would find out about Tupac and where his strong and controversial lyrics derived from. The book saddened me and marveled me, simultaneously. What amazing strength Afeni has! I swear that woman has been through hell and high waters. Afeni Shakur was a high school drop out, Black Panther, she was pregnant with Tupac when she was awaiting a trial dealing with the historical Black Panther movement, a single mother, and former crack addict. The book is so powerful and so deep. Afeni was misguided and misunderstood but her miseducation and her tremendous strength is embedded in our history, with her association with the Black Panthers and her being the mother who raised Tupac. A very powerful book and I suggest every African American female should read it!
Okay, so I must have gone off on several tangents. I guess I just get so passionate about our community and our music. I think Dr. Asa Hilliard explained it best in his book, SBA: The Reawakening of the African Mind. We have the vision, we just lack the focus. Our miseducation is our strength, we are able to deal, handle, and teach ourselves in ways that others will never understand. Others may think of it as being educated improperly but I view it as our education empowerment. Much love and blessings my African American community.
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