Lack of Basic Geography from Students Learning Africana Studies
Can someone please tell me why the American youth is so ignorant when it comes to geography? The school system is to blame for.
I’ve always been baffled by the continental generalization of regions around the world. “I went to Europe”, “I went to Asia”, “I visited Africa”: what do these phrases actually mean? It’s giving lazy, disrespectful, and annoying.
This past year at Lehman College (CUNY) has showed me an outstanding number of oblivious college-aged students who don’t care to know geography. Majority of the students are also non-White immigrants or first/second generation BIPOC, which alarms me the most. How can you not know your place in the world, in your own city even, at the old age of 18-19? Especially if you more than one or two heritages in your identity? I am worried to think that literacy and spatial awareness are now soft-skills luxuries that will in time set apart more and more the smart portion of society from the rest of the followers.
The word “geography” means “graphics” or “writing” of the “earth”. To know geography is to understand where you are and what is around you. Many people in the USA are not aware of what’s beyond their backyards, let alone comprehend how continents work. By themselves, continents are based on political and social constructs, which throughout human history are subject to expand or scale down in territory. I find it extremely incorrect if not derogatory referring to European culture anytime there should be a distinct nationality to emphasize instead of its own continent. Europe, just like the Americas, Oceania, Asia, and Africa, is diverse and made up of several countries different from each other. But what hurts me the most is seeing young people not being embarrassed enough to pick a book, read an article or two, or do something about their lack of geographic knowledge. My heart kept sinking these past two semester anytime a student, especially BlPOC or Latine, would refer to Africa as a country and not as a continent. How is this American colonial behavior of generalizing cultures, heritages, and territories permeated the minds of BIPOC and Latine people here in the US? Shouldn’t you be the first ones to make a difference and know what you’re referring to? What kind of spatial awareness did you grow up with?
Throughout history, colonization has been a cataclysm that just like a snowball effect generated a series of irreversible circumstances that keep enabling a free range of miseducation and disrespect towards the African culture and its contemporary experience. As a person who grew up in Italy, I have missed lots of civic engagement conversations in school around race, heritages, diversity, and immigration. But somehow, I grew some type of fondness towards geography, as it allowed me to explore my own spatial awareness in my city, region, and ultimately country. Maybe it was the mixed race household I grew up in, maybe because we had lots of geography pop quizzes and tests in elementary school. I understand that no everyone grows up with the same resources, but somehow I thought that the level of geography knowledge in the US would be the same, especially for students about to enter college as young adults. I was so wrong. This reality hit hard during my first year of adjunct lecturing and it was pretty shocking.
A great portion of the students I had these past two semesters had to be introduced to so many concepts around literacy (how to read a map, how to ask for directions, how to comprehend geographical terms) and spatial awareness (names of countries, nationalities, languages, and similar realities). Shouldn’t be these concepts taught in elementary or middle school?
Africa is a continent, not a country. I lost the count of the times I had to repeat such thing. It’s a disservice to the African American people to instruct them to think of Africa as a single territory with a homogenous population and set-in-stone culture. I find it embarrassing to live in a country where its own citizens, especially its minorities, are not instructed since a young age to know names of cultures, countries, and continents. I have a gut feeling that this generation of kids do not know and do not care of appearing ignorant. Knowing how to read, pronounce, or where places, cities, and sites are located seem to be a taboo when it shouldn’t.
On the other hand, this lack of education around basic worldly literacy and civic spatial awareness made me revaluate how important my job is. I hope that teaching students the power of fashion through the Africana experience can spark them an interest in knowing a thing or two more on the continent of Africa and its regions.
