An Apology to the African American People in Behalf of White America: Part V

An Apology to the African American People in Behalf of White America:  Part V


A Promise of Rectification Through Transformation of K-12 Education 


I apologize most of all for the terrible quality of the K-12 schools upon which your urban hopes depended but on which they have foundered.


In the spirit of addressing the substandard conditions of K-12 education, I offer the following poem as an indication of a way out and mutual ascent at last to a mountaintop of hope that would honor the life of Martin Luther King:


The Entreaty of Melissa McCoy


By Gary Marvin Davison


Note: Melissa McCoy is a composite, fictional character whose lament and entreaty is drawn from the experiences of the many young people with whom I have worked and whom I have loved in the course of a more than 40-year journey.


I’m just wantin’ y’all to know that I’m
hurtin’ so bad hurtin’ so bad
hurtin’ so bad
hurtin’ so bad
'cause I’m beginnin’ to understand
how long it’s been
long it’s been
long it’s been.
Four hunn’ed
years ago
years ago
years ago
you ripped my great-great-great-great granny
mine
mine
mine
my
my
my
great-great-great-great-granny
from the depths of the Bight of Benin.
You locked her in a cage
until the ship came and took her away
‘cross that long, lonely ocean
lonely ocean
lonely ocean
lonely ocean
and then
took joy that she survived the
sweat
stench
urine
feces
chains
fever
blood.
You took joy ‘cause you could set her on the block
and open her mouth to show that her teeth
had somehow not rotted.
You pointed to her skin and put her naked young body
on display in evidence that she likely could produce
more free labor to get your
cotton
tobacco
rice
whatever you needed
you needed
you needed
and ‘course you had no regard at all for
her needs
her needs
her needs.

And you kept her there and millions with her
millions with her
millions with her
unda the hot sun
hot sun
hot sun
but took care to place her in the evenin’
where she could have
mo’ babies
mo’ babies
mo’ babies and
give you pleasure
you pleasure
you pleasure
not her pleasure
not her pleasure
your pleasure
‘cause that’s all that ev’a matt’ed
was your pleasure
what you needed
you needed
you needed
that’s all that ev’a matt’ed to you.


And you kept us there until war broke out
for yo’ own purposes
own purposes
own purposes
but promisin’ us freedom that was supposed
to be as simple as 13, 14, 15.
But then you Compromised in 1877
And you gave us unequal equality in 1896
Till we scrambled Northward on an Migration
To freedom
But found none.
‘Cause y’all said,
“No, not here,
You can’t live
here
here
here
But you can live
there
there
there
'cause you got lots in common
with da Jews and Polacks and Wops and all.


So we
waited
waited
waited
and worked
hard
hard
hard
‘til just as things seemed to be gettin’
betta
betta
betta the many
still-frustrated
still-frustrated
still-frustrated
didn’t wanna wait no more wait no more
wait no mo’
no mo’
no mo’
no mo’.
So there went the stones bricks bats clubs
anything handy
and the glass cracked
and the store owners departed
and mostly just us
poorest
poorest
poorest
stayed behind.


So you put us here,
And we have stayed here
stayed here
stayed here
stayed here and
even though you never understood us
and never believed in us
you promised us an education that never came.
But the time has come,
Bernadeia Richard, Kim, Jenny, Rebecca,
Alberto, Tracine, Carla, Josh, Mohamud,
the time has come,
come,
come.
The time came a long time ago,
but the education didn’t,
so now is the time that it’s got to come.


‘cause you know that they still don’t care,
those folks who came up from the plantation
to live on Lowry Hill and Linden Hills
 ‘cause they got Blake and Breck and all those,
for what good they are, or aren’t,
but that’s where their kids go now
while we wait for ya’ll to do the right thing.


Bernadeia, I hear good things about you.
They say that we’re gonna learn new things about our
great-great-great-great-grannies and about
the Great Wall
Iroquois
Laws of Motion
Relativity
Operant conditioning
Cognitive dissonance
Id
Ego
Superego
Oedipus
Electra
Troy Maxson
Hamlet
Ma Rainey
King Lear
Joe Turner
Macbeth
Achilles
Hector
Beowolf
Caged birds
Dreams deferred.


So, please, Bernadeia, you gotta keep your word,
‘cause we want our dreams
deferred no more
deferred no more
deferred no more
no more
no more
no more,
deferred
no more,
no mo’,
no mo’
no mo’.


We want to know about
Hindus
Muslims
Black Muslims
Nation of Islam
Jains
Buddhists
Confucianists
Shintoists
Daoists
Animists


‘cause alla these is people,
All of these are people,
Alla these is people,
All of these are people,
and if we understood each other
maybe we wouldn’t kill each other,
maybe my little brotha wouldn’t a taken that bullet,
my big brotha wouldn’t be in prison, and
my big sista gotten pregnant with a baby
while she was still a baby,
and there wouldn’t be all that fightin’ any more---
no mo’
no mo’
no mo’.


We want to know all there is to know.
I gotta a mighty fine brain.
I’m ready for you to teach me.
So show me that you can.
Now.
This school year,
in 2014 and 2015, too.
Now.
We have waited a long time
for the education
that you promised and
we ain’t gonna wait no more.
We aren’t going to wait any more.
We ain’t gonna wait no mo’.
We aren’t going to wait any more.
We ain’t gonna wait no mo’.
We aren’t going to wait any more.


Give us our education,
so I can face my
Great-great-great-great-granny
and tell her what you would never tell her
what you won’t tell her:
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I am so, so, sorry.”


But now you and I both can sweep away all that
stench
urine
feces
chains
fever
blood.
‘Cause we gonna look at that hot sun
in a whole new way.


‘Cause my future is gonna be bright.
And I ain’t gonna be no baby havin’ a baby.
I’m waitin’ to be a woman with a family of my own,
and then my family will have that education,
just like I’m gonna have mine,
now,
now,
now.
‘Cause there’s so much I wanna know
want to know
wanna know
want to know,
and I will be
what I want to be
what I wanna be
what Melissa want to be
wanna be
want to be
and
will be
because at long last I will have my
Melissa will have
her
my
our


EDUCATION.


…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….


Sorry and full of contrition as I am on behalf of white American, I pledge to you that will work every day of my life for excellence in K-12 education for all of our precious children, doing this so that all of these treasured specimens of humanity will have lives of cultural enrichment, civic preparation, and professional satisfaction. If we serve the needs of African American people through better K-12 education, the very people whom we have mistreated throughout United States history will have once again pointed the way to a better life for us all. All of our children need better education, to have their heads rid of intellectual refuse and replaced with the best of the human inheritance in mathematics, natural science, language arts, history, and the fine arts.


In better serving the needs of so many African American children living at the urban core, we will find a way to the kind of strong liberal arts education that all of our children need.

So thank you, African America, for always pointing us toward a better way.


Thank you for Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. DuBois, Louis Armstrong, Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Scott Joplin, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Elijah McCoy, Charles Drew, A. Philip Randolph, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Tupac, Jay Z, Mos Def, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Shirley Chisolm, Jessie Jackson, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, Barbara Jordan, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, August Wilson, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Barack Obama.


Thank you for giving us so many major figures from the spheres of intellect and culture who have insisted that we be the democracy that we have claimed to be--- or who sang, danced, played musical instruments--- and who found a way to tell stories and express wisdom and laugh uproariously even in the direst of circumstances, when we were far from being republic of uniform justice.


………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….


Do accept my thanks for the manifold contributions of African American people to the United States.


But here, now, most of all, accept my apology in behalf of white America, in the hope that we can at last attain ablution and reconciliation, moving forward together toward a better nation, a better world.


To all of my African American sisters and brothers, I praise what you have contributed and accomplished, and I am sorry for what you endured.


Please accept this apology.