Personal Study | My Site

Everyday, people all over the world sit in classroom to undergo a system that allegedly is intended to inform in order to elevate the mind.

But who decides what is put into student’s minds?

When learning about philosophy, you learn about the big Greek or Western names that has shaped society as we know it now. But what tends to get left out is all the black people who adequately contributed their philosophies to society and helped shape it too. Black philosophers and their work seem to always get overlooked and not credited with its contribution.

I took the time to conduct a survey to see just how well the people in my own community were exposed to diversity in philosophy. I asked people from a diverse group of educational backgrounds if they knew certain philosophers and at what age were they exposed? Was it through the educational system or was it from personal inquisition and curiosity? I posted the survey on my social media accounts which has a diverse audience. So, here are the results.

Question 1: Are you still in School?

70% of the people who chose to participate in the survey are currently in the school system and obtaining an education. Of those still in school, 30% were high schoolers while the remaining 40% is in college.

Question 4: Do you know who W.E.B DuBois is?

So, 62% knew who WEB DuBois was while 30% did not and 8% was unsure. I chose to ask about DuBois to showcase that is big names in philosophy that are black, but who we are exposed to is very calculated and repetitive. Again, while we can assume that the ones who knew about DuBois somehow stumbled across his name, we can not assume that they know about his ideologies and teachings.

Question 2: Do you know who Socrates is?

76% of the people who took the survey knew who Socrates was. I chose to implement Socrates with the knowledge in mind that he is considered the founder of western philosophy, which is thoroughly discussed in the school system from what I’ve experienced personally and from the results of this survey. We cannot assume everyone who knows who Socrates is also knows his ideologies and teachings, but we can assume that in some point of their life they were conditioned to associate philosophy with a Greek Male who is considered top tier to the white man.

Question 5: When were your introduced to philosophy?

Question 3: Do you know who Ptahhotep is?

87% of the people in this survey had no clue who Ptahhotep is. A high number of people not knowing who he is was kind of expected on my end. Ptahhotep was the first Africana philosopher who decided to bless his world in Egypt with his “wisdom literature”. I was not taught about Ptahhotep, I came across his name while doing research for my website. His teachings project listening and responding in an intricate manner.

Question 6: Were any of the Philosophers from Africana descent? (Black in general)

46% of the participants were introduced to philosophy in high school, 22% of the participants were exposed in college and 22% were exposed by their own inquisition, the last 11% said they were exposed in middle school. This statistic is important because it reveals the mental capacity when the learning first takes place. From the results I can safely assume that majority of the population is introduced to philosophy around the age of a high schooler, which denounce the ideas that the subjects aren’t mentally capable of comprehending ideas that goes beyond the surface of western philosophy consolation.

This question was very blunt, and was saved for last with the hopes that people would understand their own lack of exposure explicitly.

This question hopefully ignited self reflection

Roughly ⅓ of the participants learned about black philosophers and ⅓ did not, while the remaining ⅓ was unsure.

At some point, we all have to grow up and realize that nothing and no one is obliged or obligated to ensure the further of one’s knowledge. We have to be willing to look for answers on our own and be independent in our thinking.