Katie Sroufe
Thomas Edge
Ethnic Studies 1200
September 8th, 2016
African American Studies Essay 1 “The history of American looks very different viewed from a cotton patch.” (23, Cole) African American Studies, also known as Black Studies, is a way for us to learn about the culture, history, literature, economics, and everything in between about African Americans. Growing up in a mostly white school we actually learned a lot about African Americans. Not only about slavery, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., but also about the achievements in arts and literature. We learned about what they had achieved in their hard times, rather than what was done to them. Yes, we learned about what happened to them as well, but we didn’t focus on that.
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While reading chapter “The Intellectual and Institutional development of Africana Studies,” something that Harris says is, “One goal for the fourth stage of Africana studies should be to broaden and deepen the field of inquiry” (19, Harris Jr.) This can relate to current events. Such as Black lives matter, and the police brutality happening. These opened the eyes of many people and showed us of on going race issues in America. This makes us wonder, and research other issues going on in America. We are broadening our knowledge on African American history. Something’s that were taught were: “1. ‘All Negros were ignorant,’ 2. ‘All negroes were lazy, dishonest, and extravagant,’ and 3. ‘Negroes were responsible for bad government during reconstruction.’” (711-713, Du Bois). This is the way a lot of people grew up learning about African Americans. Back then people were taught based on opinion, not facts. This is relevant today. My grandparents still talk about African Americans in a negative tone, and sometimes my dad stops himself from saying these things, because he knows better, but it was how he was raised. Our generation has changed these views because we live in a time were more things are accepted and everyone is getting viewed as equally. Our generation will be the next to teach children about African American history and having more of an equality sense in the world now, will help our world in the future. We have a new perspective on things and will hopefully carry that on for future
Most public schools in the United States kept it simple and straight to the point. They taught, what we know as, “Black History” from the media’s standpoint. This concept neglects the true meaning of black history in the educational system, making it hard for African Americans to be prideful in who they are. Knowing history other than what the school systems tells us African Americans would not only give us more knowledge, but would allow us to stand up against others when try to put down our history. Media gives us mainly negative perspectives with very little positives of our
Imagine this; the year is 1836. You are a 17-year-old student interested in learning more about the world around you; however, such an opportunity won’t come your way because you are black. Due to this fact you have no hope of furthering your education past the reading, writing, and arithmetic their slave masters taught your parents. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. The minds of many African American’s go to waste due to individual ignorance of their people and thus of themselves. Historically Black Colleges and Universities were put into effect to educate the black mind and eliminate the ignorance. The discussion of whether Historically Black Colleges and Universities are still necessary in the 21st century has taken place in recent years. Within the discussion many debate that due to the fact that the world is no longer like it was in the 1800’s, the time period in which Historically Black Colleges and Universities were created, the purpose of them no longer exists. However, the cultural significance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities seems to be overlooked by those who argue their importance and relevance in a time where blacks have the option of attending predominantly white institutions (PWIs). The purpose and grounds on which Historically Black Colleges and Universities were developed are still being served. The need to increase efforts to not only rouse, but support Historically Black Colleges and Universities is necessary now more than ever in order to preserve our past, fulfill the purpose of our present, and ensure our future.
Education is an ideological mechanism African-Americans used to enhance their social standing in the United States soon after liberation. During the period of W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington, the sort of education explored by African- Americans was the focus of intense discussion. Washington was an enthusiastic supporter of industrial/vocational education while DuBois supported both higher and industrial education, but greatly emphasized on the higher education (Ogbu 23). A lot of people in the Black society accepted DuBois’s stand on higher education remained the better proposal because it was thought to uplift the community. They thought that Washington’s approach was inefficient and left the whole race exposed to violation by White Americans.
African American history plays a huge role in history today. From decades of research we can see the process that this culture went through and how they were depressed and deculturalized. In school, we take the time to learn about African American History but, we fail to see the aspects that African Americans had to overcome to be where they are today. We also fail to view life in their shoes and fundamentally understand the hardships and processes that they went through. African Americans were treated so terribly and poor in the last century and, they still are today. As a subordinate race to the American White race, African Americans were not treated equal, fair, human, or right under any circumstances. Being in the subordinate position African Americans are controlled by the higher white group in everything that they do.
The core principle of history is primary factor of African-American Studies. History is the struggle and record of humans in the process of humanizing the world i.e. shaping it in their own image and interests (Karenga, 70). By studying history in African-American Studies, history is allowed to be reconstructed. Reconstruction is vital, for over time, African-American history has been misleading. Similarly, the reconstruction of African-American history demands intervention not only in the academic process to rede...
“The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, – this longing to attain self-consciousness, manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message f...
The time has come again to celebrate the achievements of all black men and women who have chipped in to form the Black society. There are television programs about the African Queens and Kings who never set sail for America, but are acknowledged as the pillars of our identity. In addition, our black school children finally get to hear about the history of their ancestors instead of hearing about Columbus and the founding of America. The great founding of America briefly includes the slavery period and the Antebellum south, but readily excludes both black men and women, such as George Washington Carver, Langston Hughes, and Mary Bethune. These men and women have contributed greatly to American society. However, many of us only know brief histories regarding these excellent black men and women, because many of our teachers have posters with brief synopses describing the achievements of such men and women. The Black students at this University need to realize that the accomplishments of African Americans cannot be limited to one month per year, but should be recognized everyday of every year both in our schools and in our homes.
In From Slavery to Freedom (2007), it was said that “the transition from slavery to freedom represents one of the major themes in the history of African Diaspora in the Americas” (para. 1). African American history plays an important role in American history not only because the Civil Rights Movement, but because of the strength and courage of Afro-Americans struggling to live a good life in America. Afro-Americans have been present in this country since the early 1600’s, and have been making history since. We as Americans have studied American history all throughout school, and took one Month out of the year to studied African American history. Of course we learn some things about the important people and events in African American history, but some of the most important things remain untold which will take more than a month to learn about.
Chapter five from Whose America by Jonathan Zimmerman explains the many struggles African Americans had to go through (even after the Brown vs. Board of Education desicion) to have an accurate version of their history in schools text. Based on Zimmerman, black activist used three main arguments when demanding a place in the American history. First, a correct retailed of history in schools texts might help persuades whites to "revise their views on present-day quests for racial justice" (Zimmerman 113). Activists claimed that an acurate and truthful history was necessary to make whites awaken from the myth of stereotype Negro. Second, when the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, african american activists claimed that new books in schools were
In the period after Reconstruction the position of African Americans in southern American society steadily deteriorated. After 1877 the possibilities of advancements for African Americans disappeared almost completely. African Americans experienced a loss of voting rights and political power created by methods of terrorization such as lynching. The remaining political and economic gains that were made during reconstruction were eventually whittled away by Southern legislation. By the 1900s African Americans had almost no access to political, social, or economic power. Shortly after this Jim Crow laws began to emerge, segregating blacks and whites. This dramatic transition from African American power to powerlessness after reconstruction gave birth to two important leaders in the African American community, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. Although these two remarkable men were both in search of a common goal, their roads leading to this goal were significantly different. This is most evident in the two most important documents of the men’s careers: Booker T. Washington’s, “1895 Atlanta Exposition Speech” and W.E.B. DuBois’ response to this, “The Souls of Black Folks.” These two men were both dedicated to solving the difficult problems African Americans experienced in the post reconstruction south. Both DuBois and Washington wanted economic prosperity for African Americans but they differed on what would be done to achieve this. Both men focused on education as a key to the improvement of black life but they differed on the form education should take. The true difference in these men’s extremely different routes to better the lives of African Americans after reconstruction was a product of their extremely different backgrounds. In this essay I will examine the documents, “1895 Atlanta Exposition Speech” by Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois’, “The Souls of Black Folks” in order to determine the paths that each of these men took towards the advancement of African Americans, and the reasons behind these methods.
...ry kept black Americans in a state of oppression. Still, education was cherished as the way to get ahead. Today, a black is president of the United States and there are black politicians elected to the Congress and the Senate. Several Fortune 500 companies are headed by blacks. Admission to any college or university is open to black high school scholars. But now, getting good grades and an education is passé, construed as "acting white." It is as if black education rose from the ash heap of slavery and Jim Crow after the Civil War and, then, was pulled back down into a tar pit of welfare assistance and government dependency.
Du Bois’ study of the American race revealed the propaganda about what the American children are being taught today about Reconstruction. This era was two-fold; the entire nation, the North and the South, had to rebuild after the Civil War and the South had to reconstruct the state and society. The facts were falsified in order for the “Southerners” to save face. The three issues taught about the Negroes were that they were ignorant, lazy & dishonest, and responsible for bad government during the Reconstruction process. They were deemed ignorant because they did not know how to read. As slaves, they were not allowed to go to school or even own a book without severe punishment. Because they had no or very low book learning, some Negroes depended on others who took advantage of them. Due to their lack of knowledge, they could not be effective ...
Paul E. Lovejoy realizes the importance of learning the history of a situation correctly and thoroughly. Lovejoy states (1997), “The failure to study enslaved Africans in the Americas from the perspective of African history is largely a result of the way in which African history developed as a sub-discipline” (p. 5). If African Americans points of view on their historical markers are not studied, that will cause a misrepresentation throughout history. During slavery, slaves were known to form communities composed of their homeland origins in order to keep their social identity (Lovejoy, 1997, p. 3). The Great Migration happened once millions of African Americans decided to leave the South in order to escape the oppressive laws and find better economic opportunities. The South was ruining their sense of social identity. Lovejoy also notes they would (1997), “…create a world that was largely autonomous from white, European society” (p 3). That shows African Americans were already capable of living in America without the need of white people. However, they were halted by unfair and evil treatments. After the Great Migration to the North, Midwest and West, they still faced those halts. The Civil Rights Movement sparked the acts of overcoming those problems. The oral history of those involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Congress of Racial
W.E.B. DuBois (1868 – 1963), a Civil Rights activist began to confront the popular point of view and stereotypes of African-Americans (Welcome to the Civil Rights Digital Library, 2011). Discouraging images became a part of the accepted society, but were also implanted in the educational and scientific institutions of the United States. The initial founders of ethnic studies set out to discredit bogus theories and propaganda about African-Americans. The civil rights movement challenged the political and cultural authority of white America and confronted educational institutions that discriminated and demoralized African-Americans because of their race. As warriors of this cause, they were adamant about institutional equality, the end of discriminatory practices, and curriculum reform.
In the work of Du Bois, the main concern appears to be the way African Americans are portrayed in literature post-Reconstruction era. In his article, he states that there are three main ideas that are portrayed from textbooks about the African American population: “all Negros were ignorant; all Negros were lazy, dishonest, and extravagant; Negros were responsible for bad government during Reconstruction.” Several examples are given to support each statement, after which Du Bois discusses the hardships of the past several decades from slavery to Reconstruction and how the truth frequently fails to be told. The article, written in 1935, seems to depict a tone of frustration and disgust at the American people, particularly the white population who exhibits these beliefs. The purpose seems to be fairly straightforward-exhibiting the is...