The African American Today
Spirituality: Cornerstone of African American Education — Conclusion
The descendants of America’s slaves find themselves in a precarious situation today. On the one hand, they have a cultural tradition built upon faith in a Supreme Being and on the other, faith in the ability of man to achieve individual success without Divine intervention. The former was a faith that has been the underpinning of their existence for centuries both in America and in the Motherland and the latter is the spiritual void in which they find themselves today.
During the days of bondage and segregation, the Africans’ spirituality provided individuals strength to endure all types of human injustices and gave them the personal determination to maintain, as much as possible, a concern for their collective human dignity through family and community responsibility. In recent years, they have found themselves in educational settings that had very little regard for a supernatural spirituality. The individual is the primary focal perspective.
Without faith, the African has lost his personal strength, endurance and determination learned through the slavery experience. Without faith, he has lost his will to establish strong social institutions. His situation is even more precarious in that some of his ethnic icons from among his brethren have seemingly abandoned traditional spirituality for the new Secular Humanistic worldview. Some of their names are listed in The Humanist as Secular Humanist.
According to Pew Research Center, even with the decline in spirituality among African Americans they still have a larger percent committed to religion than whites. Their study showed that 83% of African Americans believe absolutely in God as compared to 61% of whites. The disquieting aspect of their findings was that in 2007 only 12% of African Americans were not affiliated with any religion; by 2014 that number had grown to 18%. The influence of secular thinking is more pronounced when young adults between 18 and 29 are considered. In this group, 29% are unaffiliated with religion as compared to 7% of those age 65 and older. Clearly secular sensitivities — the separation of Church and State — are influencing young people to abandon their spiritual roots. I believe this abandonment is leading to the general malaise that is affecting African American communities.
Although there are individual exceptions, a large number of African Americans find themselves socially and economically partitioned. Their community-conscious spirituality has been systematically displaced by a secular worldview, which they have internalized through public education. Further the ubiquitous hegemony of secularism is codified through the seeming success of individuals that have achieved prominence in American society. I believe that this focus on individualism rather than faith in The Almighty is destroying African American family and community life.
Conclusion
The absence of spirituality in the lives of young African-Americans is destroying the current generation. Without regard for family life, young men impregnate young girls without any intention of assuming responsibility for the new life that is created. As cited earlier, 77% of African American girls are unmarried when they give birth. This is an alarming statistic. Young women boast of their baby’s father (“baby Daddy”) rather than their husbands. Many of these young people are ill-prepared to earn a comfortable living or be in a position to make a meaningful contribution to community life. Without spirituality the African-American is losing the cornerstone of his/her identity.
Therefore, I believe that African-American young people should strive to achieve a spiritual connection with the Almighty. This connection leads to freedom of the human spirit regardless of the physical circumstances in which one finds oneself.
There is a verse in the Qur’an, Surah 8 Verse 73 in which the following idea is presented. The Almighty says that people that are unbelievers stick together and are protectors of one another; and if those that believe in Him The Almighty do not also stick together and protect one another, there will be much oppression and misguiding of humanity from faith in Him. That is what we see today. Non-God conscious people are influencing American society; African Americans as well as others are spiritually suffering. Changing this trend requires Africans of all faiths in America to insure that young people are re-introduced to the significance of spirituality as a necessary component of African-American education.
