Intro to African American Studies - CH 1

Africana/Black Studies

can be defined as the critical and systematic study of the thought and practice of African people in their current and historic unfolding

Africana - What is it short for?

The term Africana is a shortened version of the term "African Diaspora" and speaks to the academic scope of the discipline

Diaspora

dispersion or scattering of people with a common origin

African Diaspora

African peoples on the continent of Africa and those living outside of the continent

Discipline

a specialized branch of study and knowledge

Discipline - Characteristics

1. Theories

2. Methods

Academic Discipline - Theory

An explanation of known facts

Academic Discipline - Research Method

Or methodology is the study of how a researcher collects data, information, or sources

Research Method - Example

Historical Analysis - which involves the collection of primary sources (diaries, newspapers, official correspondence, etc.)

Kawaida Philosophy - General

a philosophy of cultural and social change developed by Maulana Karenga

Kawaida Philosophy - Specific

contends that the solution to the problems of Black life demand critiques and correctives in the seven basic areas of culture

7 Basic Areas of Culture

Represent the core fields of Africana Studies

1. Spirituality and ethics (religion)

2. History

3. Social organization (sociology)

4. Economic organization (economics)

5. Political organization (politics)

6. Creative production (arts, music, dance, etc.)

7. Ethos (the collective psychology of a people)

What Does Kawaida Philosophy Suggest?

as a consequence of the psychological, physical and cultural trauma of enslavement (lynching, peonage, epistemic violence, etc.), African Americans do not have a critical awareness of who they are or where they come from

Self-Knowledge with Respect to Kawaida Philosoph

mental (cultural) liberation must precede physical liberation (social change)

Kwanzaa

the African American holiday that centers on a ritual celebration of African values and beliefs, is the practical application of kawaida

Maulana Karenga created the holiday in 1966

Agency

the act of creating reality in one's own image and interests

Africana Studies as an Academic Discipline - Origins?

the social visions and critical concerns of the student movements in the 1960s

1960s Student Movements - Critical Concerns

struggles for:

- freedom

- justice

- equality

- power

- political and cultural self-determination

- educational relevance

- an expanded sense of human possibility

Relevant Education

an education which is meaningful, useful and reflective of the realities of society and the world

Educational Relevance - Key Concept

Problem Solving - is a concept that is critical to the overall mission (e.g., social responsibility) of Africana studies

Educational Relevance - Historical Origins Example

Sesh: an activist intellectual (of ancient Egypt) who committed themselves to acquiring knowledge for the betterment of society

Eurocentric

refers to education or knowledge centered on and privileging European people and culture at the expense of the culture and lives of people of color

4 Key Thrusts of the Student Movements

1. Civil Rights Movement - Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee

2. Free Speech Movement - UC Berkeley—White student protest

3. Anti-War Movement - Students for a Democratic Society

4. Black Power Movement - Black Panther Party, Organization Us

First Black Studies Department in the Nation

1968, San Francisco State University, under the directorship of Nathan Hare

The Three Basic Areas of focus that guide the mission of Africana Studies are:

1. Cultural grounding

2. Academic excellence

3. Social responsibility

Kwanzaa - 7 Principles (title)

Nguzo Saba (Swahili)

Kwanzaa Mechanics (how it is practiced)

7 days, each day a candle is lit, each candle symbolizes one of the 7 principles,

Kwanzaa Kinara

Holds 3 red candles, 3 green candles, & 1 black candle

Kwanzaa candle color meaning - Red

our ancient and beautiful struggle for good

Kwanzaa Candle Color Meaning - Green

the hope, promise, and future that come from that struggle

Kwanzaa Candle Color Meaning - Black

represents our people

Kwanzaa - 7 Principles

1. Umoja

2. Kujichagulia

3. Ujima

4. Ujamaa

5. Nia

6. Kuumba

7. Imani

Kwanzaa - 1st Principle

Umoja = Unity

Umoja begins in the family when we live in harmonious lives with each other, family & community

The First Kwanzaa

Dec 26 1966

Kwanzaa - 2nd Principle

Kujichagulia = Self-Determination

Honors the various ways in which Black people define, name, create, defend, and speak for ourselves

Kwanzaa - 3rd Principle

Ujima = Collective Work & Responsibility

We shape the future with our intellect, solve problems together, build & maintain healthy communities

Kwanzaa - 4th Principle

Ujamaa = Cooperative Economics

The practice of shared social wealth, promotes self reliance in building, strengthening, and controlling the economics in our community

Kwanzaa - 5th Principle

Nia = Purpose

Helps us to know who we are and where we are going, planning, envisioning future

Kwanzaa - 6th Principle

Kuumba = Creativity

Focuses on how we use our talents, imagination, and artistic skills to create harmony and beauty in our communities

Kwanzaa - 7th Principle

Imani = Faith

In ourselves, in our elders, future, etc.

pan-African

Including all Africans

Initiative

Thinking and acting according to one's own will and interests

Focuses on what Africans have done and do

Experience

That which is undergone or lived through

Deals with what africans have undergone and lived through

Segregation

The legal separation and unequal treatment of racial groups

Black Studies Origin (years)

1960s

Under Black Studies How is "University" Viewed?

- a key institution in the larger system of coercive institutions created by the established order to maintain its power

- viewed as a microcosm of society

- racist & unresponsive to people of color

Sesh

Activist Intellectual

Maat

Truth, Justice, & Rightness

Doing Maat (4 things)

- Includes insuring justice

- caring for the vulnerable and the environment

- respecting persons as bearers of dignity and divinity

- working for future generations

Olùkó

Sage and teacher

Ire

Good

4 Basic Thrusts in the Student Movement

1. The Civil Rights Movement

2. The Free Speech Movement

3. The Anti-Vietnam War Movement

4. The Black Power Movement

The Civil Rights Movement sought to: (3 things)

1. Break down the barriers of legal segregation in public accommodations

2. Achieve equality and justice for Blacks

3. Organize Blacks into a self-conscious social force capable of defining defending and advancing their interests

Most Notable Student Group of the Civil Rights Movement

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

2nd Thrust of the Student Movement

The Free Speech Movement

Directly inspired by SNCC

credited SNCC for their inception and involvement in the civil rights struggle

White

Third Thrust of the Student Movement

The Anti-War Movement

The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

Also credits SNCC

Third World

People of color

African Americans' Opposition to the War in Vietnam was Based on Their Opposition to: (3 things)

1. The threat the draft posed to Blacks and other males of color not covered by student deferment and especially vulnerable in the South

2. The government's war against Third World liberation movements and peoples in general and Vietnam in particular

3. Fighting an unjust war for a nation depriving Blacks basic civil and human rights

Final Thrust of the Student Movement

The Black Power Movement

Began in 1965

Cultural Pluralism

The predecessor to multiculturalism

Mutual respect for all peoples and due recognition of their contribution to U.S. and world history

The Struggle at San Francisco State University (SFSU)

BSU arguing and demanding the first Department of Black Studies

Black students established a Black arts and culture series in the Experimental College (also created 1966) for the surrounding community

Funded by Student money = no resistance

Students demanded legitimate Black Studies Department funded by college = strong resistance

Dr. Hare hired to create Black Studies Department - 1968 - board of trustees continually delayed implementation

BSU strike on Nov 6th 1968

Strike ended March 20, 1969

SFSU became the first institution of higher education to establish a Black Studies Program & Department

BSU

Black Student Union

Changed from the Negro Student Association

BSU Demands in SFSU Strike

- to have a Black Studies Department

- Special admissions for Black students which would waive entrance requirements for a given number of Black students

- financial aid

- decisions on personnel

According to Dr. Nathan Hare - Instead of searching merely for equality of education, Black studies' premise was:

1. That there can be no equality of education in a racist society

2. The type of education conceived and perpetuated by the white oppressor is essentially an education for oppression

3. Black education must be education for liberation

Black Studies Struggle at Black Colleges - what they actually taught

What they actually taught was "negro history" which both in content and consciousness was different from the liberational thrust for which Black Studies advocates struggled

Black Studies Struggle at Black Colleges - 3 Reasons They Resisted

1. Alleged financial problems

2. Assumption that only a militant faction advocated it

3. The "bourgeois mentality" of the staff which was "committed to workin within the system (and) completely rejected the notion of Black liberation" (respectability politics)

Black Studies Struggle at Black Colleges - What Changed?

Only adopted after "Harvard, Yale, & Columbia universities provided 'legitimacy' by the adoption of such programs"

Relevant Education

An education which is meaningful, useful and reflective of the realities of society and the world

Central Realities for Black Studies and Black Power advocates:

1. The need to solve the pressing problems of the Black community, society, and the world

2. The revolutionary struggle being waged to end racist oppression and change society and the world

Academic Concerns

1. Intellectual inadequacy and injurious(harmful) nature of traditional white studies

2. White studies viewed as propaganda for the established order which posed whites as the paradigm for all other peoples

3. White studies also viewed as resistant to education for social change

4. Advocates argued that Black Studies needed to be taught from a Black frame of reference

Paradigm

Exemplary model

Afrocentric Perspective

a view centered within the culture and in which Africans are the subjects and agents of their own history

Social Concerns

1. Low number of Blacks on campus - a racist exclusion to maintain the white monopoly on critical knowledge and thwart the rise of Black intelligentsia

Demand - special admission and recruitment efforts

2. Treatment of Black students on campus

3. Concerned about what they conceived the university's transformation of Black students into vulgar careerists with no sense of social commitment and little more than what Frantz Fannon called "obscene caricatures" of Europe, pathetic imitators of their oppressors

4. The social problems of the Black community and how Black students and Black Studies could address and solve them

Basic Objectives

- To teach the Black experience in all its varied es and with special attention to history, culture and current issues

- To assemble and create a body of knowledge which contributed to intellectual and political emancipation

- Creating intellectuals who were dedicated to community service and development rather than vulgar careerism

- The cultivation, maintenance and continuous expansion of a mutually beneficial relationship between the campus and the community

- To establish and reaffirm its position in the academy as a discipline essential to the educational project and to any real conception of quality education

Political Emancipation as a social goal was seen as...

dependent on intellectual emancipation as an academic goal

2 Basic Arguments Traditionally Put Forth Against Black Studies

1. That Black Studies is not a serious discipline

2. That it is concerned with the social at the expense of the academic

Grounds of Relevance

1. It is a definitive contribution to humanity's understanding of itself

2. Contribution to U.S. society's understanding of itself

3. Contribution to the university's realization of its claim and challenge to teach the whole truth, or something as close to it as humanly possible

4. A contributor to the rescue and reconstruction of Black history

5. A critical contribution to a new social science

6. Contributes to the development of a socially conscious Black intelligentsia and professional stratum

7. Vital contribution to the critique, resistance, and reversal of the progressive Europeanization of the human consciousness and culture

The Europeanization of Human Consciousness and Culture

The systematic invasion and effective transformation of the cultural consciousness and practice of the various peoples of the world by Europeans

The Europeanization of Human Consciousness and Culture - Results in 3 things

1. The progressive loss and replacement of the historical memories of these people

2. The progressive dis-appreciation of themselves and their culture as a result of a conscious and unconscious assessment of themselves using European standards

3. The progressive adoption of a Eurocentric view not only of themselves, but also for each other and the world

7 Basic Fields of Black Studies:

1. Black History

2. Black Religion

3. Black Social Organization

4. Black Politics

5. Black Economics

6. Black Creative Production

7. Black Psychology

Black Creative Production includes:

Black Art, Literature, Music, Dance and other Performing Arts

Black Studies 3 Basic Areas of Focus

1. Cultural Grounding

2. Academic Excellence

3. Social Responsibility

African Worldview

a frame of reference and conception of the world rooted in African culture

Africana Studies 5 Overarching Goals:

1. The critical and persistent search for truth and meaning in human history and social reality from an African vantage point

2. A depth full and intellectual grasp and appreciation of the ancient, rich, varied and instructive character of the African initiative and experience in the world and of the essential relevance of African culture as a unique and equally bvalid and valuable way of being human in the world

3. A rigorous intellectual challenge and alternative to established-order ways of viewing social and human reality

4. A moral critique and social policy correctives for social constraints on human freedom and development, especially those rooted in race, class and gender consideration

5. Cultivation of commitment and contribution to the historical project of creating the truly multicultural democratic and just society and good world based on mutual respect of the rights and needs of person and peoples, mutual cooperation for mutual benefit and shared responsibility for building the good world all humans want and deserve to live in