-THE COMMUNITY EDUCATOR-
Ronald A. Allen
THE BOOKS OF INFLUENCE
Opinions are formed by the information one receives. If you want to know the books that I've read that have formulated my opinions..... CHECK'EM OUT
Black Boy
Richard Wright
This autobiographical fiction read in ninth grade is a powerful look into the mind of a coming of age black male adolescent in mid-20th century America. Learning of the travails of Blacks settling into the tenements of the North after leaving the apartheid of the South, Black Boy gave me my first look at the universality of white racism as America transitions into the post-WWII superpower. Still a seminal work in black male development, I recommend this book to anyone wishing to research beyond the newspapers and mainstream media to gain an understanding of what it means to be develop within a nation that exploits your image, your employment and every other aspect of your being. Although the work is fictional, it corroborates essential themes on the nature of American racism and its impact on the personal relationships of Black Americans.
Jesus and the Disinherited
Howard Thurman
In this classic theological treatise, the acclaimed theologian and Morehouse College graduate demonstrates how the gospel may be read as a manual of resistance for the poor and disenfranchised. Thurman poignantly illustrates how Jesus is a partner in the pain of the oppressed and the example of His life offers a solution to ending the descent into moral nihilism. Hatred does not empower--it decays. Only through self-love and love of one another can God's justice prevail. Read doing my college years, it planted the seed that faith in Jesus was not the passive, get your head beat-in religion for blacks as is often portrayed. Although Black believers are susceptible to the charge that they peddle "the white man's religion" to our brothers and sisters most in need of power, Thurman's interpretation of Christ belies any effort to render blacks weak, isolated and/or dependent.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Paulo Freire
Pedagogy of the Oppressed, written by educator Paulo Freire, proposes an active and purposeful education, with a new relationship between teacher, student, and society. It was first published in Portuguese in 1968, and was translated by Myra Ramos into English and published in 1970. The book is considered one of the essential texts of critical pedagogy. Dedicated to what is called "the oppressed" and based on his own experience helping Brazilian adults to read and write, Freire includes a detailed Marxist class analysis in his exploration of the relationship between what he calls "the colonizer" and "the colonized". In the book, Freire calls traditional pedagogy the "banking model" because it treats the student as an empty vessel to be filled with knowledge, like a piggy bank. However, Freire debunks Western pedagogy, asserting that instructors must view the pupil as a co-creator of knowledge and the vital participant in the student-teacher relationship. Read during my transition into becoming a Community Educator, Freire's analysis redefined my relationship to teaching. Most accurately, I discontinued the view that I was the most important person in the room. I could no longer believe that knowledge flowed from me and into my students. Rather, we all contributed to the learning process through interdependent sharing and detailing of ideas. From there, not only was I unafraid to solicit ideas on how to teach my students, the classroom then became an environment where students began to teach themselves and their adult staff.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
As Told To Alex Haley
The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965, the result of a collaboration between human rights activist Malcolm X and journalist Alex Haley. Haley co-authored the autobiography based on a series of in-depth interviews he conducted with Malcolm between 1963 and 1965. The Autobiography is a spiritual conversion narrative that outlines Malcolm X's philosophy of black pride, black nationalism, and pan-Africanism. After the leader was killed, Haley wrote the book's epilogue. He described their collaborative process and the events at the end of Malcolm X's life. It is difficult for me to overestimate the impact of the life and the words contained in this book. More than anything else, Malcolm X's religious piety compelled me to accept that Blacks must employ a religious solution to solve the ills of white American racism. More so than economics or politics, the souls of Black Americans have been so polluted by white racism that Blacks must look to God for direction and unity. Only from a renewed sense of life and purpose can our economics and politics begin to serve our community. Upon completion of the book, I immediately prayed that I may discipline myself and become a vessel of liberation. This book baptized me with Black pride anointed Black nationalism as the only gospel of salvation to preach to marginalized and exploited Black Americans.