Essay On African American Studies

Although the article has good points, the article did not mention solutions for the struggles, challenges, and dilemmas of African American students on campus and the future trajectory for African American studies. I know that it is very difficult to predict what changes will be in the future for the trajectory of the African American Studies program. However, the article did bring insight for other researchers as an “opportunity to cultivate solidarity and sharpen and update its analysis of racism in the United States” (p 235).

“The Black Studies Program: Strategy and Structure” was published Fall of 1972 in The Jounal of Negro Education. It’s contents are a relection on the years before when colleges and universitys were allowing African Americans to attend , but did not provide curriculum about or for African Americans.

Students participate in seminar discussion of excerpted versions of either Dubois’ article “Of the Training of Black Men” or Washington’s “Atlanta Compromise Speech” in order to better understand each man’s beliefs about the best strategy for African Americans to achieve equality at the turn of the century. Students analyze

The history that is taught in the American educational system is Eurocentric; hence, European history is taught, but not African history. “We do not offer here any course in Negro history, Negro literature, or race relations,” recently said a professor of a Negro college. (132) Woodson noticed the systemically system and deliberated the new program of education for African Americans’’. The application of this concept is for African Americans educate themselves in order to know as much about their history as much as others.

Similar to how there are prosperous programs, there are also unsuccessful ones. As some schools are beginning to take the first step and are including Black programs as part of their curriculum, some are starting to cause chaos between Whites and Blacks, crumbling along the way, portraying Black programs in a negative form. One example can be seen in how “Harvard’s Black Studies program has already crumbled”(Drimmer 440). Harvard’s little success demonstrates that it is not the school’s excellence that matters but how well the program is able to accommodate with its surrounding. The program’s surrounding determines the level to which discussions lead as well as the students’ involvement in them.To help alleviate this issue, a unconditional positive regard environment will provide greater results than a tense enviroment, making students feel “free to try things out and make mistakes” (McLeod para 23). This can be seen in Crestwood high school’s Black Culture Reading Program that has brought immense progress. In just the first week the library reported a “circulation of 1,000 books on Black Culture; and interviews with 12 visitors from other schools and the public who were interested in a Black

During the Great Depression, things were hard for women. Many people had different opinions about what women should do. Many thought they shouldn’t work because they are taking men’s jobs and they thought that wasn’t right to the men. Many other people thought they should stay at home and just be a stay at home mom and clean the house and to make sure food is on the table when men came home from work. Women believed they should do there own thing, many women wanted to work during this time to help. The Great Depression made it hard for women because people had many different ideas on what they should do, White and African American women struggled differently, but in the end it became better for both groups.

Both W.E.B Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were prominent figures in the advancement of African Americans during the 19th and 20th centuries. The facade of unity among these leaders was broken when Du Bois addressed Washington’s book, Up From Slavery, in a chapter named “Of Booker T. Washington and Others” from his novel, The Souls of Black Folk. Although he did acknowledge the accomplishments of Washington, Du Bois was clearly opposed to most of his ideas. Through the topics of submission and education, Du Bois exposes the paradoxical nature of Washington’s plan and presents a stronger argument than the passive Washington.

In Ellis Cose last chapter in The Envy of the World: On Being a Black Man in America, he list twelve “Hard Truths.” The first truth reads: “Play the race card carefully , and at your own peril.” To play the race card means to use race to gain an advantage in a situation. At your own peril is another way of saying at your own risk. The whole phrase as a whole acknowledges the fact that being of a certain race holds an advantage. In order to gain the advantages during different situations you must use the race as a tool, but carefully. Being that you must be cautious with using your race, negative consequences may follow if the race card is used the wrong way. This is why it must be done at your own risk so there is no one to blame but yourself.

The African-American History from the Late 19th Century through the Present course was very informative and educational. This course offered a broader view at looking and analyzing the history of African-American in the United States. Though, I have read extensively and possessed a small collection of books on the subject, this course has affirmed what I have already knew as well as elevating my knowledge on the subject. The course also opened up new ways to look and understand certain facts about African-American’s experiences since Reconstruction.

As an African-American male of Nigerian descent growing up in the United States, my parents constantly talked about my heritage and invariably enforced it on me throughout my 17 years in this world. As an adolescent I often see my parents on the phone with my relatives in Nigeria discussing their daily struggles, lack of food, little or no electricity and the withering health of the old and the young due to lack of medication and treatment. This prompts my parents to constantly send money to their loved ones. This sparked my awareness of the problems that Nigerian community and the rest of the third world countries are going through. How my parents voluntarily support their relatives has made me to participate in more volunteer activities in my Maryland Community. I have joined the National English Honor Society at my school and I participated in a home makeover program with “My Girlfriend’s House” Community Program to help the less fortunate by providing them with food and new living utensils. The many charitable acts I have done resulted from my cultural background and I plan to continue doing this during and after college.

The life of an African brought to the United States in the eighteenth century was not an easy one. They were torn from their land of origin, stripped of all of their personal property, had their senses of originality and individuality stolen from them and were then forced to work in brutal environments where they were treated inhumanely. Yet still, many African (turned African Americans) were able to find time to both keep their culture intact and advance themselves and their fellow people. Both Leslie Alexander and Fredrick Douglass detail the tribulations African Americans went through in America who attempted to hold onto their senses of self in a place where everything around them was meant to restrict that very ability and how they managed

The purpose of this essay is to inform the reader of the struggles that black people have to face. The stereotyping that is still happening today. The essay is telling a story of a black man who had to face them.

You walk into the classroom and it’s the most awkward thing ever. You regret the day you signed up for this class...African American history. But why? Why did everyone inelegantly stare? Why does your skin color make matters this problematic? It’s essential that a class like African American history becomes more diverse. Most assume that this class is aiming for an African American audience. This assumption is completely misleading, but most fall the underdog to. The homogeneity society amongst the students is bare and should be altered.

Since whites did not want to teach them, African Americans decided to educate themselves and succeeded. For instance, Du Bois celebrates the fact that “in a single generation [the missionaries of ‘68] put thirty thousand black teachers in the South; they wiped out the illiteracy if the majority of the black people of the land, and they make Tuskegee possible” (60). This quote implies that when given the opportunity to do so, blacks can succeed educationally just as well as whites. Therefore, another part of Du Bois’ scholarly agenda is to educate African

Introduction to African American Studies was the class that I decided to take this summer because I am genuinely interested in learning more about the cultures and lifestyles of African Americans through out history and I want to further my knowledge beyond just learning about what was taught to me in secondary school. I do not know much about African American studies as I have not taken any courses on it or relating to it in the past but I hope that I can gain a lot of information on the topic through out this intellectual experience. I also hope to gain a better understanding of the history of Africans and African Americas and be able to dive deeper into this topic instead of just hitting the surface as I feel as though my previous experiences with this topic have covered. In just this first weeks lesson I have learned about the three great principles that characterize the “Black Intellectual Tradition” and how these three principles are used and perceived.