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FREEDOMWAYS     FOURTH QUARTER 1968

white America in check, then, Black nations around the world can counter their local oppressors without having to depend compliantly on America's foreign economic enslavement program. America's aid to Black nations has had the effect of replacing political independence from European nations with American economic dependence. The point here is that education is increasingly being viewed as a nation-building tool; not as a back-to-Africa move, but as a means to help Black Americans to achieve a medium through which to join with their African brethren in the struggle for liberation. 

The resistance movement began at Harlen's I.S. 201, where Black parents decided once and for all to take a stand to prevent the planned miseducation of their children and to modify their roles in the socio-educational development of their children. What has happened is that the parent/community leaders have become "educators" themselves—selecting principals who have a built-in need to unleash the learning potential of Black youth; subordinating the role of the gate-keepers to that of the rights of the consumers; creating a climate in which Black students are induced to participate in educating themselves; whittling away the irrelevant power of a distant Board of Education, and introducing curriculum concretely directed to Black students without doing it "illegally," as occurs in most white-controlled school systems. The I.S. 201 struggle has proclaimed the right of Black youth to be successful on their own terms, even within a racist society. 

The agenda has changed at I.S. 201 essentially because of the assertion of the right of Black and Puerto Rican parent/community leaders to be themselves. The welfare system, poor housing, debilitating police "protection," poor sanitary services, non-recreational parks, admission criteria and the skeletons in the closet of the Board of Education have all become the subject of discussion and action; not evasion and inaction. There is much more discussion of students' rights and needs than there is of teachers' salaries and union rhetoric. There is much more discussion of student achievement than there is of student handicaps. There is much more of a desire to win than there is to "play the game." Handicaps are viewed as a factor of white racism as well as individual characteristics. In the past, handicaps were viewed solely as a factor of the individual's peculiarity as a Negro. The point of it all is that the students are being viewed as people who are Black; as being culturally different, not culturally deprived. One goal is to enable them to become "equal to the occasion"—not just "equal to whites."

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