Beyond Higher Education: The Need for African Americans to Be "Knowledge Producers"

Despite the relative triumphs towards equality in education, the search for culprits who promulgate standards of inequality is not difficult to ascertain. Aside from the deluge of litigation mounting challenges to the constitutionality of affirmative action and school financing policies, various state and local ballot initiatives have sought to impose a deleterious effect on educational opportunities. Proposition 209 in California, Initiative 1- 200 in Washington, and the One Florida Initiative are illustrative of this problem. While much attention has been focused on legislative and judicial efforts intended to remedy the various problems afflicting students in the higher education landscape, far less discussion has been directed at those students under the auspices of elementary and secondary educational systems. However, this essay addresses the broader implications of higher education for African Americans, specifically the need for African Americans to enter academia and pursue intellectual scholarship.