Creating a passion for reading is one of the greatest gifts you can give to an African American child. The African American Child book can be the key to enabling enthusiasm for reading in the community. I came to this conclusion not from formal training in any the educational sciences (as matter of record my background is in technology and project management) but as a parent who just happened to be a Sci-Fi fan. Science Fiction opened my eyes to the cross synergies between the African American reading gaps and African American images.

In today’s world media comes at you from all directions. The internet the PC, cable TV, Video Games, IPODs etc. The exposure to all of this media for today’s African American Child is a given fact, you can not avoid it, the fact that is not so obvious is how this impacts African American reading gaps.

CASE IN POINT

I am a Sci-Fi media fan. One day while I was enjoying a episode of Star Trek – The Next Generation on TV with my then 6 year old in my lap when she turned to me and said,

“Daddy why do the black people on the show look strange?”

Before I tried to explain to my daughter that Worf was a Klingon and he hailed from a different planet and that Geordi was blind and his funny looking glasses allowed him to “see” I paused and asked myself

“Why DO the Black people on the show look strange?”

I then tried to look at the screen from the point of view of a 6 year old African American child.

I see 2 black faces and 1 white face on the TV screen:

* The African American character named Worf has the physical facial features of an animal and is from a race of warriors that loves to fight (violent) .
* The African American character named Geordi job is to “fix” and maintain things on the ship (the maintenance man)
* The 2 African American lead actors do not look human (see picture).
* I see the whitest face on the show (character Lt. Data the android ) is the strongest and most intelligent character on the show.
* The android actor who is not human “looks” human.

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