The Afrocentric Education Provided by Historically Black Colleges and Universities

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Dr. Carter G. Woodson once said, “When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one” (Woodson, 71). Taken from his pivotal work, The Miseducation of the Negro, this quote encompasses a reoccurring theme of socialized inadequacy on an institutional level. Woodson goes on to include potential solutions to the miseducation problem that could be implemented not only in schools, but also throughout the entire community. Years later, Dr. Molefi Kete Asante would incorporate Dr. Woodson’s ideas in his articulation of a functional theory that calls for an intentional shift of the mental paradigm through which African-Americans learned and taught. Afrocentricity, as defined by Asante, is a “consciousness, quality of thought, mode of analysis, and actionable perspective where Africans seek, from agency, to assert subject place within the context of African history” (Asante 16). In essence, all roads converge and diverge with the African continent, with its rich history of pioneering triumphs and profound tribulations; Africa and all of her descendants are the end all, be all of one’s focus. There are five criteria to Afrocentricity: “(1) An interest in psychological location; (2) a commitment to finding the African subject place; (3) the defense of African cultural elements; (4) a commitment to lexical refinement; (5) a commitment to correct the dislocations in the ... ... middle of paper ... ...philosophers studied in Egypt, that Egypt is by all geographical and historical scales an African nation, and that African Moors, were responsible for educational provisions that brought Europe out of its Dark Ages! Young African-Americans need to know these things because all change begins knowledge, which leads to attitude evaluations and frequently behavior modification (Bettinghaus 456). And, while on one hand self discovery is an individual duty, it is the also the responsibility of centered and oriented African-Americans to share the knowledge that they already possess about not only who we are, but the plethora of powerful forces that seek to exterminate the very essence of that identity. Africana peoples must no longer allow or rely on the Western World to educate the youth! In this regard the rationale, role and responsibility of HBCUs are straightforward.

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