Unearthing the Sacred

There are moments in your life, hopefully, that make you sit up and go “WTF?!” Today, was one of those moments for me.

It came to my knowledge in my early 20’s that my education was questionable. It all started with Rosa Parks. In my so called education on the bus protests, it was taught to me that the protests began when Rosa Parks sat down at the front of the bus because she was “too tired.” Seriously. Little things have added up over the years that clarify the racial, as well as cultural, bias of our “educational” system but when the most horrific event that has ever occurred in post-slavery America is not even alluded to you in 12 years of public schooling, clarification of that racial bias is put into sharp contrast.  Tulsa Massacre? What the hell is the Tulsa Massacre?

As much as I am angered right now, it is not anger that I wish to convey. It is the lack of critical thinking that is missing within American society. We are taught to memorize what our Caucasian-run society desires, knows, or is biased to without being given the tools to question and to truly learn any wisdom. The emphasis that has been placed on the idea of what are “facts” in the last 2 years, I think, has been an imperative clarification to the American public. What are “facts” when they are given with bias motives or “knowledge?” How do we change our own understanding of the world when we are taught to trust biased authority when even they have never questioned what they were taught?

Some of the most fundamental classes that teach creative and critical thinking are not being taught or are being continuously downgraded within the American educational system such as art, philosophy, American history, cultural history, creative writing, and music. Instead the emphasis is being placed on math and science where even there we have a white washing emphasis where we don’t learn what other cultures and races have contributed, which is considerable beyond our comprehension.

Think by questioning, everything. Knowledge is only successful and beneficial when understanding of any given topic has been researched from every perspective. The more knowledge we take in, the more wisdom we gain and a better understanding of racial, cultural, gender, and religious biases will be revealed. For without a thorough comprehension, we truly know nothing.

This is why we march…

This is why we protest…

This is why we fight…

…for community, for others, for ourselves, and for the rights of the oppressed to be able to live a life worth living.