Nowadays, many Canadians have come to the realization of the fact that they no longer live in a country ruled by reason, but rather in the modern equivalent of Alice’s wonderland, where the rules of logic do not apply. The validity of this statement is best illustrated by a decision of the Toronto District School Board to allow the opening of the Canadian first “afro-centric” public school in the center of Toronto during the course of this year, which took place in January 30, 2008. Such decision, of course, can hardly be thought of as being dictated by purely academic considerations, but rather as such that is meant to prove Ontario bureaucracy’s allegiance to the dogma of multiculturalism, at the expense of advocates of “interracial harmony” continuing to draw racial lines between Toronto’s residents. Therefore, it is not a pure accident that this Toronto District School Board’s decision was being met with strong criticism, on the part of just about all those city’s residents, who despite being subjected to neo-Liberal brainwashing, over the course of decades, were nevertheless able to retain their ability to think logically. The editorial “Choice in Education”, found in Maclean’s Magazine from February 18, 2008, states: “The notion of a school focused especially on the needs of black students has struck some as a harbinger of segregation. Toronto’s diverse daily print media – National Post, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and Toronto Sun – universally condemned the idea in editorials ranging from Black Schools Wrong Answer to Why it is a Bad Idea” (Maclean’s 2008).
The proponents of opening “afro-centric” school in Toronto, justify their adherence to this idea by implying that, while being segregated within the racially exclusive school, Black students would reconsider their attitude towards education: “Black students in Toronto have a dropout rate of 40 per cent. It’s time to change that” (Maclean’s 2008). The sheer absurdity of such an idea is visible even to a naked eye because the neo-Liberal assumption that it is solemnly the “social environment” that defines students’ chances of succeeding in academia had been proven as utterly fallacious a long time ago. In his article “Government, Neo-liberal Media, and Education in Canada”, Charles Ungerleider makes a perfectly good point when he suggests: “A substantial number of Canadians subscribe to neoliberal values, at least in the abstract. Commercial media are themselves beneficiaries of neo-liberal messages. However, in the field of education, neo-liberal values appear to have a counter-productive effect on the effectiveness of studying process” (Ungerleider 70). The reason for this is simple – governmental officials, associated with promoting neo-Liberal agenda, strive to adjust the objective reality to the set of their obscure beliefs, and not the other way around. It is not by pure accident that no research has been conducted on the probable effects of having an “afro-centric” school established in Toronto, before its actual opening. Basically, Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne, whose preoccupation with “celebration of diversity” had assumed pathological properties long ago, do not simply base their policy-making decisions on their wishful thinking, but they also appear as being totally unaware as to what the concept of governmental accountability stands for. Their idea that opening an “afro-centric” school in Canada’s biggest city would benefit Black students is nothing but an irrational assumption, which is not being backed up by any rational considerations whatsoever. Moreover, their idea is socially dangerous. What if representatives of other Canadian racial minorities will demand opening their own “Third World – centered” schools? After all, while living in a multicultural country, they should be allowed to “explore their ethnic uniqueness” at the expense of taxpayers, in the same manner, African-Canadians do.
Even a brief review of academic literature that discusses the concept of “afro-centrism” in terms of spirituality vs. materialism (euro-centrism), leaves no doubts as to the fact that promotion of “afro-centric” cultural values in the academic curriculum would only strengthen racial antagonisms within Canadian society, which proudly refers to itself as multicultural. In his article “Afrocentricity: Implications for Higher Education”, Jerome H. Schiele clearly suggests that African cultural values are superior to European cultural values, because they are deeply “spiritual”, as opposed to European “materialistic” and “intolerant” values: “A fundamental difference in the conception of human beings between the Afrocentric and Eurocentric philosophical models is that whereas there is a considerable emphasis on harmony and collectivity within the Afrocentric perspective, considerable emphasis is placed on domination, conflict, and fragmentation within the Eurocentric perspective” (Schiele 154). One does not have to hold a Ph.D. in Sociology, to recognize the sheer inappropriateness of such suggestions. The ideological aspects of “Afro-centrism”, make this pseudo-scientific concept (upon which the educational process in Toronto’s “Africanized” school will be based) socially dangerous. In his book “Afro-centrism: Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes”, Stephen Howe rightly suggests that: “Afro-centrism is accompanied by a mass or invented traditions, by a mythical vision of the past, and by a body of racial pseudoscience. From all this follows an extreme intellectual and cultural separatism, involving belief in fundamentally distinct and internally homogeneous “African” ways of knowing or feeling about the world, ways which only members of the group can possibly understand” (Howe 2). We can only agree with the author – whereas, in Toronto’s conventional public schools, Black students are being forced to at least try to adjust their behavior to commonly accepted norms, in “afro-centric” school, there are going to be absolutely no mechanisms of exercising an academic control over such students since according to proponents of “afro-centrism”, the very concept of discipline is “fascist”. We can only imagine, what will come as a result: First of all, IQ testing will be banned as “racist”. During the course of history lessons, teachers will be telling students about the “great Black” civilizations of Egypt, Rome, and Greece. Second of all, it is most likely that students would not even be required to study “euro-centric” empirical disciplines, such as chemistry, geometry, or physics, due to the virtual absence of Black teachers with diplomas in these sciences. But the worst thing of all – students will be continuously instilled with the idea that it is namely their racial affiliation, which defines who they are, that White people should be thought of as enemies and that all their life problems should be blamed on “racism”. As result, the graduates of “Africanized” Toronto’s school would be even more likely to indulge in anti-social activities, during the course of their time in school, and less likely to proceed with their studies in universities and colleges, as compared to those Black students who had obtained their high school diplomas, while studying together with Whites. Moreover, there can be no doubt that graduates of “Africanized” schools will have a particularly hard time, while looking for employment, because no employer would be willing to hire a person who thinks that the Black color of his skin automatically makes him a better person (more “spiritual”), thus qualifying him for special rights and privileges.
Given the fact that objective realities point out to promoters of hyper-multiculturalism in education as those who actually facilitate racial tensions in Canada, it appears as something utterly illogical that these people continue to proceed with their agenda as if they were blind or affected by mental illness. However, the answer to this question fits well within the boundaries of logic – the only way for the neo-Liberal hawks of political correctness to retain their governmental offices is to continuously undermine Canada’s national integrity, by deliberately drawing racial and cultural lines between citizens while referring to this practice as “promotion of multiculturalism”. The establishing “afro-centric” school in the center of Toronto is simply going to account for another item on the long list of neo-Liberal failed social experiments. And as always, no one will be held accountable for wasting taxpayers’ money.
The self-appointed “experts on tolerance” in this country simply will not admit one simple thing – the apparent failure of Black students in Canadian academia (just as it is the case about anywhere else in the world) is not environmentally but biologically predetermined. In their groundbreaking book “IQ and the Wealth of Nations”, Professors Tatu Vanhanen and Richard Lynn had proven the apparent link between people’s racial affiliation and their ability to operate with highly abstract terms (which defines their ability to learn). Therefore, it does not really matter how strongly a particular individual appreciates his ethnic roots – he will never be able to attain social prominence through education, for as long as the level of his IQ remains well below 80. The opening of “afro-centric” school in Toronto, while expecting its students to become dedicated to studying, as the result of them being surrounded by a racially exclusive social environment, is the same as submerging a piece of iron into a sulfur acid, while expecting it to turn into gold, as result (alchemist practice). Today, the apparent pseudo-scientific essence of alchemistry is being officially recognized, simply because alchemist formulas do not work. The same can be said about neo-Liberal concepts of social-engineering and education – they do not work; yet, the advocates of these concepts continue to enjoy legitimacy.
Thus, it will only be logical, on our part, to conclude that the idea that Canadian taxpayers’ money should be wasted on instilling Black Canadians with the sense of self-respect, by the mean of telling them fables about imaginary “great Black civilizations” in a racially exclusive school, is not only utterly inappropriate – it is criminally insane. If Canadian Blacks are being so proud of their cultural heritage, they should be allowed to explore this heritage in Africa, during the course of field trips to the Black continent. However, it is very doubtful that, after having spent a few days in Africa, while being required to eat cockroaches for breakfast, to drink water out of rain paddles, and to socialize with their racial brethren, they would still be willing to refer to themselves as African-Canadians, instead of simply Canadians, upon their return back to this country.
Bibliography
Choice in Education (2008). Maclean’s, 121(6), 4.
Howe, S. (1999). “Afrocentrism: Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes”. NY: Verso.
Schiele, J. (1994). Afrocentricity: Implications for Higher Education. Journal of Black Studies, 25(2), 150-169.
Vanhanen, T. and Lynn, R. (2002) “IQ and the Wealth of Nations”. London: Praeger Publishers.
Ungerleider, C. (2006). Government, Neo–liberal Media, and Education in Canada. Canadian Journal of Education, 29 (1), 70-90.