The Womack Report
Volume I. Issue II. What’s Happening With Us?
Dec. 30, 2005
The Value Placed on Words:
What is the only animal that walks on four in the morning, two in the afternoon,
and three in the evening? Father time stops for know individual, except Lazarus,
smile. We will all follow these steps if we live long enough. Man is the answer.
As a college student, I was asked the riddle of the sphinx. I had no idea what
my fraternity brothers were talking about. I didn’t want to put too much
time into the question, because I thought that no animal on earth followed the
steps listed above.
As a college freshman, I was asked to name a disabling disease or illness that
affects people of your culture or race. I responded “ Sugar”. My
professor dismissed the comment and stated there was no disabling disease called
sugar, but he did speak of a disease called Diabetes. I dismissed his comment
and stated that sugar and diabetes are not the same thing.
I argued with my professor for about twenty minutes on the validity of Sugar
and he argued just as hard and firm on his position for diabetes. I stated,
“ My uncle Tommy has sugar and lost his foot, my aunt has sugar and has
lost her sight, my grandmother has sugar and has to take a shot, and if you
keep trying to make me say they have diabetes I will bring them in so they can
tell you they have sugar!”
“Just because you have a doctorate in front of your name does not mean
you have a monopoly on knowledge Dr. Turnquist.” I called my Granny after
the debate and asked her to get Uncle Tommy ready for a visit to Mt. Union.
Granny replied, “ Sandy it’s called Sugar diabetes.”
I mention this point because my grandmother passed on Saturday, December 17,
2005. We had her funeral on Thursday December 22, 2005. I miss her already!
There will never be another to replace her and that is okay. She lived threw
all the stages of man listed above. She crawled as a baby, lived life as an
adult, and as she became a senior citizen was forced to use a walker due to
her cancer.
Our community has to be bi-lingual as well as tri-lingual. We wear the mask
of assimilation or accommodation. Frantz Fanon was an advocate for Blacks. He
spoke of the problems of assimilation versus accommodation. We live in two worlds.
In many cases separate and unequal. I here they are teaching Spanish now in
many schools across the country. This is excellent. Me hablo espanol un pocito.
Estudio espanol dos anos.
Why was sugar looked to as an unacceptable answer? Was my grandmother wrong
for teaching me only one way to say diabetes? Did the professor know sugar as
a term used for the disease diabetes in the black community? Was he out of touch
with our-(black folk) vocabulary or was my vocabulary that unacceptable? Why
aren’t they teaching e-bonics? We have been the largest minority here
for over 300 years? Things that make you go hum? Zora Neale Hurston used black
vernacular to write.
I mention the above situations and statements for a few very personal reasons.
Reason number one: African Americans have a graduation rate across this country
that is below 60%. In the state of Ohio, according to the CJ Prentiss Closing
the Achievement Gap Report 2004. The graduation rate for African Americans here
is 59.8%. In many urban areas like the Big Eight ( Akron, Canton, Cleveland,
Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Youngstown, Toledo) The average graduation
rate for African American males is below 50% in some cities like Cleveland the
rate is below 25% for black males.
Black people and people of color: Wake Up! We are the fathers of medicine, the
365 day calendar, the first successful open heart surgery, the first successful
electric light bulb, gas mask, traffic light, cellular phone, elevator, refrigerator,
air conditioner.
We have been mayor of New York City, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Cleveland,
Atlanta, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans. Governor of Virginia, by the
way what happened to Wilder? What happened to Ron Brown the Director of Commerce
who brought us out of the horrible deficient George Bush the father left us?
( helicopter crash) things that make you go hum!
As a race of people when given ample opportunity we excel. We set the standard,
all across the country students of all races and socio-economic status want
to emulate our songs, our lyrics, our style, our clothes, our hip-hop culture
and they glamorize and glorify the Projects as if it will give them some street
credibility. They associate it with being and acting black. (We know that it
isn’t but our children believe it is ) Lest we forget we are still teaching
His- Story. Which only shows us as slaves and fighting to be integrated into
white society. This curriculum is tested and taught throughout the country.
The other kids speak two or three languages. As such we find our students taking
tests on aptitude and cognitive ability that really are suited for people that
speak a standard English. We speak several dialects and we must be able to do
so to survive in various areas and circumstances. I would have no credibility
in the Projects asking a neighbor to borrow a carbonated beverage or to utilize
their place of residents. “ Can I get a pop, can I use your crib.”
Educators, Business people, Inventors, Community Activist, Colleagues many of
us are in the walking stage of life. We have a chance to make a difference for
those of our race and culture who are still crawling. We were once 19 and thought
we knew it all too. We recognize that as a people we are judged by the way we
read, write, and speak.
Many students are being labeled as uneducated or unable because of their lack
of vocabulary and aptitude about things that they have not been exposed too.
It is very difficult to take a test and the question asks about the carbonated
beverage dispenser, or the residents of the constituents, and you grow up calling
it the pop machine or your partners crib.
We must never forget that please, thank you, yes sir, no sir, no ma’am,
yes ma’am, I apologize, excuse me and pardon me are acceptable all over
the world and they will open up more doors than the quality of your education.
Are you teaching these phrases to your children, grandchildren, and practicing
them yourselves?
We may never be able to change the standardized tests that our students take
across this country. We may never be able to insure that Lewis Latimer, Alexander
Dumas, Langston Hughes or even Fannie Lou Hamer are included on aptitude tests,
but we can insure we teach our children to be bi-lingual. We can insure that
they know their his-story and not just His-story. We can insure that regardless
of the situation, God is still in control.
My pastor had a sermon about faith. He spoke about Peter getting out of the
boat and beginning to sink, as he walked toward Jesus on the water. Oh yeah
of little faith. The pastor’s point was not that Peter had little faith.
His point was he had enough faith to get out of the boat and try.
Do you have enough faith to try and make an impact on our community? Or do you
believe what the statistics say i.e. that we as a people can only graduate about
60 % of our children because they can’t pass standardized tests. Ladies
and Gentlemen the tests are designed for them to fail! Undesirable Circumstances
are not an excuse for unacceptable graduation rates.
Our schools have paid millions and millions of dollars to test administrators
and professional developers to help them get students to pass tests. I work
in the schools and I see daily that the problem will not be fixed with money,
the problem will only be fixed when we don’t put down different languages
or cultures but find similarities and ways to make the material relevant to
our students.
In marketing the first thing businesses do is a needs assessment for the market.
They then market to their customer. In inner cities your customers are predominately
minority and predominately poor. Why are we spending millions of dollars on
people and companies to train our teachers how to teach our kids and they don’t
even know what Sugar is?
By the way have you heard the value of words from our countries leaders regarding
African Americans recently, If not here are a few to think about:
William Bennet, former Drug Czar for Reagan and Secretary of Education
for Bush, stated, “ If you want to decrease crime abort all the black
babies being born”
Mrs. Barbara Bush, former first lady and presidents mother,” Many of the
Katrina victims should be pleased to stay in the Astrodome, It is in many cases
better than their former living situations.”
As a man once said, “You can always add a word but you can never take
back what has been said”. It is far better to be thought a fool
than to open up your mouth and be found out.
In a World of Fools there are even rules that make the dumbest men seem wise,
You’d be the fool not to learn these rules and also rise. SDW Jr.
Malcolm X’s Three Step Program for Black Self-Renewal (Malcolm X the autobiography,
New York Random House, author Haley, A., 1964)
1 Wake Up and Develop Your Mind.
2 Clean Up! Your conduct, speech, diet, clothing and body
3 Stand Up! Get Involved
Martin L. King’s stance, Undeniable Faith in God:
Taken from funeral in Birmingham after the funeral for three of the four little
girls killed in the bombing on 16th Street Baptist Church in Alabama. (A Call
to Conscience, Warner Books 2001, Heirs to the estate of Dr. Martin L.
King Jr.)
“ Death is not a period that ends the great sentence of life, but
a comma that punctuates it to more lofty significance. Death is a blind alley
that leads the human race into a state of nothingness, but an open door which
leads man into life eternal. Let this daring faith, this great invincible surmise,
be your sustaining power during these trying days.”
I miss you Granny and I’m still using sugar just now to get me some kisses
from my daughters. The Value of Words!