Ignorance is NOT Bliss

I don’t remember when I heard it first, but the saying, “Ignorance is bliss,” rings loudly in my head from time to time. “He doesn’t need to know his boy/girlfriend is cheating, she doesn’t need to know her boyfriend slept with her best friend, your mother doesn’t need to know your gay or your supervisor doesn’t need to know you are looking for a new job,” are just a few phrases that bought out the fog horn with the chant of “Ignorance is bliss.” But is it really? I pondered this question as I thought about my people/family, have we taken this phrase to the next level and distorted its true meaning?

At one point, Africans were celebrated for their advances in education, math, language, farming and architecture. Now, we are marveled by how we tear ourselves down and how we as a people celebrate our own failures. Growing up, I was picked on because I received good grades in school. It wasn’t because I was smart, it was simply because I actually applied myself. I wanted to be more than the drug dealers and car thieves I passed on the corner where they were permanently planted. Had dreams of becoming the second African-American Supreme Court Justice (this was before Mr. Clarence Thomas. I might have been one of the few African-Americans who didn’t want him to become our second Supreme Court Justice, this would crush my hopes of following directly behind my ideal Thurgood Marshall.), but this was not the dream of my people. Education was not the dream of my people, quick and easy money was. I was labeled a geek, fag (ok I know what some of you were thinking, but I’m pretty sure this had less to do with my sexual orientation than you think) and a teacher’s pet. As I grew older and more aware of my surroundings, I realized that educated African-Americans, those who spoke correct English, those who reframe from using the “N” word, were looked at as Uncle Tom’s. When did education and being an African-American become separate like oil and water? We run away from education and shun those who wish to better themselves. We celebrate the drug money that buys the new car or home. Education is not a primary focus of our people or my family, but an after thought. If we can get an education, fine, but if not, that’s ok also as long as the money is trickled in somehow.

Our acceptance of our own ignorance as the norm has filtered into our language. Putting aside our usage of the “N” word for a second, this notion of Ebonics has been weighing on me. Instead of learning correct English, we have given up and labeled our poor grasp of the language of our land. Just because we have put a label on this broken English doesn’t mean its right. We have just empowered our children with another accuse to under achieve and accept the ignorance of their community. Now we don’t require our children to learn correct English but they can settle for the comfort and neglect of Ebonics.

Now the story of the “N” word. Once they (White America) accepted the fact we were human, they put a label on us that was equally degrading to a people as calling them monkeys. This word was/is nigger. The word that means ignorant in the Webster Dictionary was used to describe my people. And now, we change one letter and claim ownership of a word that was used to belittle our forefathers. Well, in using the word niggar to greet one another and to describe our relationship with our peers, we have owned our ignorance. To further of ignorance, we can actually justify this ownership. “By using the word and not making it acceptable for others to use it, we are taking the power out of the word and empowering ourselves.” What kind of bullshit is that? I thought it was just the ignorance of an adolescent male whose mind had been filled with the self-destructive rap lyrics that his generation engulfs themselves in, but when one of my peers uttered the same phrase I realized that this was not the utterance of a child, but the stupidity of my people. Have we finally accepted the fact that we are niggers and to further prove it, we misspell the word to show we can’t spell?

Ignorance is not bliss. It is not the cool empowering thing that we should accept. Education is bliss and the key to happiness. Denouncing degradation is empowering, not misspelling words used to degrade our forefathers. As a people we need to encourage, no, demand higher education of our children, nephews, nieces, cousins and friends. The use of the “N” word should be taboo to EVERYONE. The age of basking in ignorance needs to come to an end and the age of enlightenment needs to rain upon us.