AFRICAN-AMERICAN ISSUES:
BY JEROME M. JACKSON

THIS COLUMN WILL EDUCATE, MOTIVATE AND LIBERATE ALL AFRICAN AMERICANS

Jerome M. Jackson is the CEO and President of J. Jackson Consulting. He works as a consultant, mediator, facilitator and trainer. He provides consulting and training services in the following areas: community and program development, meeting facilitation, conflict assessments, conflict resolution, anger management and mediation training.

Jerome has provided consulting services for community members, nonprofit organizations, schools, police departments, corporations and small businesses.

He is an African American role model in the city of Pittsburgh with many accolades to his credit. He is married with three beautiful children and is from the Northside of Pittsburgh, PA.

Education and Training Curriculum
by BAP Columnist Jerome M. Jackson

Education is what we try to pass on to participants who attend our trainings and workshops. Let's take a quick look at what I believe about education. Here are some definitions I would like to use as a basis for this section.
Educate- Bring up; train mentally and morally.
Educed- Brought out or brought forth, develop.

Looking at these definitions, can you say that current models reach the goals of education? I would say no they do not meet the goals of education. Current curriculums do not educe what people already use, especially if what the people are already using does not fit into the process being passed on to participants. The current models do not bring up or address conflicts African American or other minority communities need to be brought up to learn how to effectively resolve them. The current models do not take into account the morals and values of the African American community. Therefore making ethnocentrism (one culture, in this case European culture, the only morals and values used) a major component in the training curriculum. Education should be ethnocentric (using the morals and values of those being educated) in its development and delivery. Education is only
effective when it brings out the potential within the participants. Trainers and teachers have to know what is within their participants and students. When the African American and other minority communities exercise their right to educate their own community and incorporate an appropriate cultural identity along with necessary skills to resolve conflicts within their own environment. We should as trainers educate our participants rather than pass on skills to them. This will require
a shift in the way we think and develop training curriculums.

The training curriculums used today have not and I believe will not work in the African American community or other communities of color. There are many problems with the current curriculums. I will cover many problems in this section, but will put more focus on a few of them. Today's curriculums are not culturally specific and do not cover conflicts that are relevant to the African American community. Conflict resolution & mediation has been present as a process. I do not want you to think the African Americans and other minorities cannot follow the process, that's not the problem. African American and other minorities can and have followed the process. When I talk about a process I am talking about a step-by-step way of resolving a conflict. The problem is not that we cannot catch on, it's that we often choose not to use it, because it is a process. I see a process as something you can use or not use. Because, the trainings or workshops are not culturally specific, it feels foreign, and sounds foreign to us. Our culture has not been taken into account when developing these training curriculums. There are no examples of relevance to the African American community. The only example or person used as an example is Martin Luther King Jr.. This is not a good example for African Americans, MLK Jr. stood for non-violence, which is only a piece of resolving a
conflict. I am not by any means down playing one of the African American community's greatest hero's. I want you to understand why he is used as an example. Most white Americans sees black Americans as a violent people, therefore needing to be taught non-violence. "In the book, "Black and White Styles in Conflict", Thomas Kochman describes some of the differences between the two cultures that white professionals need to appreciate. One is tone of expression. If an issue is being discussed between blacks and whites, oftentimes whites are reserved, unemotional, and detached from the conversation while African Americans are more intense and emotional. Many white
professionals are uncomfortable with such displays of passion, believing that violence could erupt"(Jawanza Kunjufu). The Martin Luther King Jr. approach does not, has not, and will not work for the African American community, because it only teaches non-violence and not how to resolve a conflict.

(c) Jerome M. Jackson, 2003, Do Not Reproduce Or Use In Anyway Without The Permission of Jerome M. Jackson

DISCLAIMER: The views in this column are the opinion of the columnist and are not shared or associated with Brotha Ash Productions.