The title of my Pedagogy Project is “The Main Event: SURVIVAL NEEDS vs. THE HEART.” The subtitle of my project is, Love or Dominance.
- This project explores the writings of three authors in particular and evaluates the struggle between the pressures of the heart and the “skills” needed to survive. It explains, but does not justify, the results of those “skills” being exercised in the home. It concludes by giving the reader a path to redemption and an opportunity to escape burden of carrying two loads.
- This project increases our understanding of the discourse of black masculinity by calling attention to vital issues that concern black men, and offering a solution to the problems. For example, it explains the problem of love and dominance from its root, which gives us a better understanding of what the actual problems are, leading the black community to a host of solutions. This project challenges the concept of dog eat dog and every man for himself. Also, it illustrates three principles of Kwanzaa.
- The purpose of this project is to equip young minds with knowledge that is not easily accepted by older generations. My motivation is the hope that the information being planted will fall on fertile ground, and cultivate change. The set, or group, of people that this projects attempts to reach is a group that has a heavy influence on children, and catches the eye of adults and those who exceed their age bracket. My purpose is for the ripple effect to take its toll through the implanting of valuable information within a specific learning community.
- The primary issues surrounding black masculinity that this project seeks to address are the differences between love and dominance, physical (emotional) abuse, and the inability to live two separate lifestyles. A learning community needs to witness my project because it reveals the need for change, it provides awareness of issues that face the black male, and it concludes with a solution that needs to be administered.
- The learning communities that I have chosen to cater my project to are, High School Seniors and College Freshmen, or those between the ages of 17 and 21. These communities consist of the young men of the future and present in the black community. They have the capacity to comprehend the information set forth in the project, and they are in a position to start a revolution of love and change within the black community. These learning communities, to some degree, know a small portion of what to expect, but they are also still innocent to the extremes of the survival needs that are seemingly required in the “real world.”
- The method that I have chosen to relay my project is through a website. The preparation for this method did not require a lot of time. I did not have to read the books by Litwack (Trouble in Mind), and Pittman (Man Enough) in there entirety, but I had already been exposed to the book written by Bell Hooks (Salvation: Black People and Love). The remaining preparation involved reading reviews, gathering young black male input, and recalling personal experience. The way that my website is organized provides a transitioning from the past to the present, an introduction to the issues at hand, information about the inevitable solution/conclusion.
- The texts that my project engages are Bell Hook’s Salvation: Black People and Love, Leon Litwack’s Trouble in Mind, and Frank Pittman’s Man Enough. Salvation: Black People and Love talks about slavery, it is an extension of Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s poem “We Wear The Mask,” and it is the basis of the pedagogy project and the source for the topic of discussion. Trouble in Mind renders information on slavery and testimony of how the minds of black children are twisted as a result of an ever-present double standard. Man Enough gives insight into the minds of black men and explains the level of importance that is held by black masculinity.
- The three discourses that are outlined in the project are personal, popular culture, and literary. This project speaks on the literary level by incorporating different texts, it speaks on the level of popular culture by engaging and denouncing stereotypes and applying principles that are not popular, especially in the American economy, and it speaks on the personal level by denying the need for certain survival skills and amplifying the heart’s demands.
- The international component of this project is the issue of slavery and the need for the resurgence of Umoja, Ujima, and Ujamaa, three of the seven principles of Kwanzaa. Slavery, which is common to numerous cultures, is mentioned in an attempt to set the stage and show the lack of love, or the absence of the knowledge to love within the black community. The three principles mentioned above, Umoja (Unity), Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility), and Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), are incorporated in the project as part of a solution to the issue at hand.
- I learned that we can not justify certain action, but we can attempt to explain those actions. Also, I gained insight on how we can begin to change the way we act, and perceive the world. The project provides great information and it shows that the struggle between Survival Needs and The Heart has a positive, realizable outcome. This project calls attention to just a few issues concerning black masculinity, but it is effective.
Email: emartin26@blackplanet.com
