Tues/Wed, Jan 25-26 Born a Crime chapter 5, the Second Girl

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The tangerine volkswagon  We were black people who could wake up and say, “Where do we choose to go today?”

Takeaways thoughts from chapter 5:

1.As modestly as we lived at home, I never felt poor because our lives were so rich with experience. We were always out doing something, going somewhere.

2. She refused to be bound by ridiculous ideas of what black people couldn’t or shouldn’t do.

3. We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited.

 4. “Because,” she would say, “even if he never leaves the ghetto, he will know that the ghetto is not the world. If that is all I accomplish, I’ve done enough.

vocabulary: 

gallivanting- (noun) to gallivant- to go from one place to another

charismatic- (adjective)-exercising a compelling charm, which inspires devotion in others. (sine qua non -latin meaning something essential)  A charismatic person has that sine qua non.

ostensibly (adverb-word that describes a verb)- supposedly

depleted (adjective) drained or exhausted; to deplete -to exhaust

menial-(adjective) -not requiring much skill and lacking prestige.

deprivations (noun)-the damaging lack of material benefits considered to be basic necessities in a society.

shebeens- (noun)--unlicensed places that sell alchohol (speakeasy)

pristine (adjective)-unspoiled

furtively- (adverb)-in a way that attempts to avoid notice or attention; secretively. furtive (adjective)The fertive fox snuck into the chicken coop.

to embark on-(verb)- to begin a new course of action

frugality (noun)- the quality of being economical with money or food; thriftiness.

to obliterate-(verb)-to destroy utterly or wipe out

chapter 5 page 47 to 56 The Second Girl   text

born a crime forward up to 2:58 continues to end of part one with "until she could make her own way in the world."

Chapter 5 part 2 11 minutes   begins with "My mother never sat me down and told me the whole story of her life in Transkei."

In class: We are listening to chapter 5. 

Homework/ Wednesday's asynchonous assignment.

The educational philosphy described in chapter 5s foreward was one that was echoed in the antebellum (time before the American Civil War and end of slavery). Reread and listen to this introduction. 

In a minimum of 200 words, describe the two educational types of schooling that were found in South Africa. Which one was better for the apartheid government and why? How might the other type of education be a problem for the apartheid govenment?   

This is due by 6 pm Wednesday.

Before apartheid, any black South African who received a formal education was likely taught by European missionaries, foreign enthusiasts eager to Christianize and Westernize the natives. In the mission schools, black people learned English, European literature, medicine, the law. It’s no coincidence that nearly every major black leader of the anti-apartheid movement, from Nelson Mandela to Steve Biko, was educated by the missionaries—a knowledgeable man is a free man, or at least a man who longs for freedom. 

The only way to make apartheid work, therefore, was to cripple the black mind. Under apartheid, the government built what became known as Bantu schools. Bantu schools taught no science, no history, no civics. They taught metrics and agriculture: how to count potatoes, how to pave roads, chop wood, till the soil. “It does not serve the Bantu to learn history and science because he is primitive,” the government said. “This will only mislead him, showing him pastures in which he is not allowed to graze.” To their credit, they were simply being honest. Why educate a slave? Why teach someone Latin when his only purpose is to dig holes in the ground?

 Mission schools were told to conform to the new curriculum or shut down. Most of them shut down, and black children were forced into crowded classrooms in dilapidated schools, often with teachers who were barely literate themselves. Our parents and grandparents were taught with little singsong lessons, the way you’d teach a preschooler shapes and colors. My grandfather used to sing the songs and laugh about how silly they were. Two times two is four. Three times two is six. La la la la la. We’re talking about fully grown teenagers being taught this way, for generations.

 What happened with education in South Africa, with the mission schools and the Bantu schools, offers a neat comparison of the two groups of whites who oppressed us, the British and the Afrikaners. The difference between British racism and Afrikaner racism was that at least the British gave the natives something to aspire to. If they could learn to speak correct English and dress in proper clothes, if they could Anglicize and civilize themselves, one day they might be welcome in society. The Afrikaners never gave us that option. British racism said, “If the monkey can walk like a man and talk like a man, then perhaps he is a man.” Afrikaner racism said, “Why give a book to a monkey?”