The Power of School System

As I am constantly looking for some inspiration for my BA thesis, today thanks to my Cultural Regions and Ethnic Group classes, I had an occasion to listen to the hip-hop song, about the present-day situation of African Americans in USA on the bases of school system. There is no doubt, that this institution has a vast impact on people and contributes significantly to people’s views, as this song presents. That is why I decided to analyze this case.

Dead Prez is a hip-hop duo coming from Florida but formed in New York City in 1996. Their song called They School (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpipOqP_1C0 ) mainly criticizes school system accusing it of being mendacious and foolish. It begins with a question “why haven’t you learn anything?” which is quite misleading ( one can possibly think that it would be the allegation of being bad student), but then it goes on to the statement that school is a joke. What kind of a joke? That we are able to understand as we pass to the next sentence where the author strongly maintain:

“The same people who control the school system control
The prison system, and the whole social system
Ever since slavery(…)”

And here’s the meaning of the joke – school is not the institution where one can acquire useful knowledge, the true facts and useful skills as generally perceived, but it is an inherent part of the system controlled and manipulated by the same people, where certain values and ideas are imposed on society. Further, the author informs that he tried to enlighten teachers that what they teach during history classes is not true, and accuses them of claiming that black people are only in some degree human beings:

“They seemed to only glorify the Europeans
Claimin' Africans were only three fifth's a human being”

In the chorus the critique of the school is expressed in an emphatic and rude way, but the message is clear – all that people learn in school is a lie.

Moreover, the stereotype about black people being criminals – thieves, drug dealers and members of gangs still exists in people’s minds. Even though Black have equally a chance to be educated, and get a diploma as the hero of this song, people always have those prejudices against them.

To sum up, it seems like the school system has indeed a great power over people’s way of perceiving the reality and following certain ideas, not necessarily the true ones.