Friday, October 17, 2014

Thoughts on a Beloved Departed Teacher


By Nadrat Siddique

 

Dr. Abdulalim Shabazz brought together many of the positive ideals for which we in the Jamaat al-Muslimeen strive in the slender, dignified frame of one man. He was deeply Islamic; spoke little of what should be done, but rather did what needed to be done; and was hard on himself, but did not judge or denigrate others for their weaknesses.

 

Although he inspired me on many levels, the aspect of his character which captivated me the most was his dedication to building the love of math in his students. He was determined to reach each and every student, and not just with rote learning, but with the aim of  inculcating true understanding of this integral subject.

 

As a bioscience person, I know that math is the language in which chemistry, biology, biochemistry, and especially physics is written. If you cannot easily write algebraic expressions, you will have difficulty expressing biological phenomenon, such as the flow of blood through a blood vessel; the rate of growth of a bacterial population; the amount of heat released as a steak ingested by a human is metabolized and much else.

 

Looking at the dearth of black and brown people in bioscience, I felt strongly that math was the major stumbling block for these students, which precluded them from entry into the life sciences. So, a strong understanding of math was vital to a science or engineering major in college. And weakness in math precluded many black students from these fields.

 

By uplifting the marginalized, those whom society wished to write off—and perhaps relegate to janitorial work, flipping burgers, or prison—Dr. Shabazz challenged the world order. And he was so effective that he turned out the largest number of Black math Ph.ds in the country.

 

I once asked him about his teaching method. He said simply. “If my students aren’t grasping what I’m teaching, then I have failed. If students don’t understand something one way, it is up to the teacher to find other ways to explain it until they understand.”

 

Still he seemed to sense that math, which is not intuitive, or something which one can see, would be difficult to grasp for many of his students---unless they were given a reason to own it.

 

Again, he challenged the existing order, teaching his students something all high school--and certainly most college—curricula ignore. He impressed on his students about the origins of mathematical knowledge. Their ancestors, black people of Ancient KMT—not Newton or Euclid—were the first to elucidate geometry, trigonometry, algebra, and physics, and that they ought strive for the same high standard. He taught them to think, and not to memorize.

 

Later on, despite his gargantuan achievements, he was, bizarrely, demoted from the position of Math Department Chair at Lincoln University, to an ordinary teaching position. Even more bizarrely, he was replaced by a white Jewish, woman who did not hold even a math degree. My sense of fairness made me incensed at the development, but he did not seem fazed, instead using the opportunity to accept the prestigious position of professor emeritus at Gramlin University where he had a lighter work load.

 

Of his many appointments at math instruction, one of the most interesting was in Saudi Arabia.  Since his students included Saudi women, the class was sexually segregated. As occurs in most classrooms in that nation, the men were in the same room as him, while the women were in the adjoining room. Incredibly, despite having to teach the women via a video screen, he was able to reach them, and they succeeded in his class.

 

He lived a full and beautiful life, travelled frequently to Africa and other parts of the world; and spoke and lectured broadly on math and Islam. He seemed to have a particular love for Ethiopia, and adopted, raised, and mentored Ethiopian children. He was also honored by the Kikuyu (Kenyan) tribe, which conferred on him the status of honorary Kikuyu.

 

Dr. Shabazz’s life was also a commentary on the state of racial affairs in the U.S. He never referred to himself as an American, and rarely wore American clothing, usually sporting an African suit in the tradition of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Like many Black men, he served in the U.S. military—only to return to the U.S. to experience numerous traumatic racial incidents. He did not dwell on the past, but selectively shared some such incidents with us at the Jamaat al-Muslimeen shura which he attended quarterly for the last very many years of his life.

 

For instance, while a young Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University, he was walking around searching for housing. Repeatedly, he had the door slammed in his face, and was told that they did not rent rooms to “n---.”

 

The incident with Dr. Shabazz occurred in New York. My husband, when he was a small child of about seven, went to a park not far from his house. An old white man who happened to be there, and thought he had more of a right to be in the park than a small black boy from Baltimore, called him the n— word, and then took away a toy of considerable import to my husband. Just a few weeks ago, after my husband, spoke at a “Baltimore for Ferguson” rally, decrying the murder of Michael Brown in the American state of Missouri, as well as police murders of many other Black men in Baltimore city, tens of Whites responded with death threats and ephithets of n----- and “ape” to him.

 

Talking to Dr. Shabazz, my husband, and others opened my eyes to American racism, which I as an Asian and a member of a privileged group, was unlikely to ever encounter in my lifetime. For a Black man in America, it didn’t matter if one was young or old, in New York, Baltimore, or down South, but one could be called the n- word and treated accordingly on a whim by White Supremacist America. Through it all, Dr. Shabazz neither bowed nor bent to anyone but his Creator, leaving us with a bright shining example of humility, brilliance, and taqwa.

 

 

This piece originally appeared in the New Trend Magazine, October 12, 2014:

http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1571.htm