~Intellectual Misfit~

- G.O.M.D by J. Cole

Let’s promote black intelligence in media. Not just black media, but in general media. 

No, I’m serious. 

I, personally, am black, and I love science. Engineering. I could sit and watch computer-simulated locomotion skills for bipedal animals, or the newest findings in the search for dark matter for hours.

But when I look in the media of science and engineering, where are all my black biochemists, my black astrophysicists, my black engineers, making discoveries that blow the mind of all children of all races alike, revolutionizing the world?  And, on the flip side, where are they represented in the black media as much as music? We are just as capable as any other race, so where is it? Where is the representation for our children, showing our children it is okay and more than possible to strive to be as good as or even better than their brothers and sisters of other races in STEM subjects? When I look into the STEM field, I see amazing, innovative people; I see Carl Sagan, whom I love dearly, I see Stephen Hawking, Marie Curie, just to name some of the more obvious ones. And they’re all amazing people. I’m not perpetuating the idea that a black child cannot look up to these wonderful people of Caucasian background; however, I do state the obvious: everyone needs a hero a lot like them. And I, as a child, often found myself thinking, “these white people are amazing; I wish I could be white and like them.” Obviously, this is a simple-minded way of looking at it – narrow, even. But are children not simple-minded creatures? Am I wrong, that they will not think this way? When Asian children want to think of amazing people in the STEM field like them, it is easy to find and think of Michio Kaku, whom I love, and Ken Jeong. For Caucasian children; why, everyone knows Albert Einstein! But who do I, and, for the future, our black children look up to?

Do not be mistaken, I am not disregarding George Washington Carver, Katherine Johnson, or Neil deGrasse Tyson. The list goes on. But what I am pointing out, as aforementioned in J. Cole’s wondrous song, oftentimes we allow the artistic side of black culture to so greatly outshine the STEM side that it is impossible to look through it. From this, we allow our children to forget that fame is not the only call to prosperity for a black person in America. We allow them to think that education is not important. That science is not possible for them. That the field of technology is not possible for them. That engineering and mathematics is not possible for them. 

Fame is not the only way to prosper as a black person in America. You can be a black biochemist. You can be a black astrophysicist, a engineer, a great mathematician. You can graduate from an Ivy League college, you can be a surgeon who makes money I can’t even fathom, you can be Dr. Blablablah, PhD.

Let your children know. Let your children know. Make sure that you know.

Strive for knowledge. Work hard for knowledge. Collect knowledge. Apply knowledge. Knowledge is, has been, and will always be the ultimate weapon of power. Equip yourself and your children alike. Start them out from a young age. Stay in school and don’t mess around, and if you are, stop. Do the work. Let’s advance together.

(Disclaimer before someone cusses me out: This is in no way a criticism of any other race, and if you saw it that way, I don’t really know how. I’m just making a correlation and using comparison.