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CHILDREN'S BLACK LITERATURE               YOUNG

and inadequate health care are undoubtedly responsible. Typical conditions under which ghetto dwellers live are where flies and maggots breed, where plumbing is stopped up and unrepaired, and where rats bite helpless infants, all conditions not much different from those experienced by early Africans in America.

In viewing the physical environment one can gain insight into psychological influences on the personality and self-image of black people. Damage often occurs to the personality in the loss of self-esteem and a negative self-image through self-hatred. One begins to see himself and his culture as inferior; his family as less than adequate; and his race as something to be denied or disguised. As a result, talent and manpower are wasted.

The shaping of self-image is of course not inborn, but learned. Outside the family group, the black individual acquires additional clues to his self-worth. Interaction with teachers, policemen, and storekeepers, directly and indirectly, has some significance on the black person's picture of "who" and "what" he is.

Education has also had a significant effect on the shaping of the black self-image. The assignment of school personnel works in a subtle way to explain to the black child "who" and "what" he is. If the adminstrators and teachers in his school are white, and the handymen, the cleaners, and the sweepers are mainly black, then the child will have an indelible negative view of himself. He will begin to believe that skin color is the determinant of status. This will be reinforced because the child will be unable to find many black individuals in occupations of status and prestige. One begins to gain more insight by the response of a six year old black child when he says,"Not me!" to the statement, "Maybe you'll be a doctor?"

In looking at the curriculum of American schools, one begins to see that pervasive racist attitudes are taught to American children. If one examines the presentation of American history, it can be seen to be taught and interpreted according to white values and standards. In the process, contributions of black people are ignored and distorted. The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron is exemplary of this type of historical evaluation and interpretation.

Another aspect of racism in the classroom, is in the area of textbooks. Numerous studies of textbooks have shown them to be totally white-oriented, both in verbal and pictorial content.

Harold Isaacs, in studying the content of history and geography books from 1860 up to 1947, found that in many instances black people were included, but in an extremely distorted and grotesque

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