Essay Sample on Black Studies: Uncovering a Multicultural Perspective of Western Society

Introduction

Black studies, also called African-American studies is a multi/interdisciplinary field in education that focus on and treats the present and past of Blacks people on matters such as achievements, issues, culture, and history. The studies challenge the cultural and sociohistorical content and understanding of Western ideologies. It proposes a multicultural view of western society instead of a European centered perspective one. Black studies trace its origin from sociology, history, arts and literature. To date, these disciplines provide the most critical methods, findings, and concepts of black studies. According to the Thelwell (1964), black studies faced considerable opposition from the White supremacists who believed that in acceptance of the "one society myth." This opposition is an indication of the problems that African Americans face in the field of academics, especially in matters associated with their academic contribution and history of Black studies.

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One than one and a half decades after the Emancipation Proclamation's signing, Blacks still struggle to gain space and acceptance in the field of academia to voice their perspective and interpretations in their present and past experiences in North America, diaspora, and Africa. Those in favor of back studies argue that apart from the marginalization of their voices, the history, contributions, and experience of Blacks in the U.S has systematically and historically been omitted in the educational curricula and academic literature. For them, Black studies provide an opportunity for incorporating the black experience to the mainstream traditional disciplines (Asante and Maulana).

Centrally featured in the Black studies is the idea that the experience of blacks in the diaspora have been ignored and presented falsely in popular culture and academia. From the on the onset of black studies movement has to primary objectives: first, to create a strong sense of African American community and identity as a way of increasing their leverage in the struggle for social, economic, cultural, and political liberation. Secondly, to counteract the influence of white supremacy in the process of elevating the position of African Americans in society. The goals are all-inclusive in the life of Blacks; therefore, on the contrary, those opposing it arguing that Blacks studies do not prepare black learners to be economically productive by taking the roles such as being managers in general motors nor prepare them to be Pope. One of the widely circulated academic literature that negatively affected the position of blacks in higher education was a document written by Dew, a young professor at William and Mary College in 1832. In his publication, he wrote that it was in the order of God and nature that Whites being superior in knowledge and faculties, given them superior power that allows them to dispose and control those inferior to them (Dagbovie). As a result, it is equally acceptable for superior men to enslave others in a similar way that animals pray against each other. This publication had negative impacts on the position of Black in all aspects of life, including in education, politics, and economic sectors. Consequently, African-Americans had to make an effort to overturn such demeaning and stereotypic academic literature about them.

Despite the demeaning view that the white had toward Black on matters of education and their intellect, the affluent white school still attempted to lure the most committed, intelligent, and gifted African-American scholars out of Southern Black intuitions of learning. The departments of black studies in white universities had the responsibility of protecting the Negro college against the brain by prohibiting recruitment from these sources. The same case applies to African American schools in African countries that were losing the most valuable intellects to White institutions.

To achieve the goals of the black studies, Africans with the leadership of W.E.B DuBois inaugurated the earliest scientific investigation on the conditions of African American population in a conference held in Atlanta University between 1898 and 1914 (Rojas). The studies covered a critical aspect of African-American people such as higher education, homes, health, the church, artisans, suffrage, crime, and economic development. This period marked the introduction of black studies in black academics and institutions of higher learning.

To oppose what many Whites claimed about African Americans, the goals of scholars in Black studies was to respond to the negative representations and images of blacks that had initially been institutionalized by the society as well as the academia. It was mainly in response to the false notion in the social science claiming that people with African origin were genetically inferiors other races and that Africa a continent was "dark" because it had not civilization. In 1896, Blacks founded the American Negro Academy to change the negative notion about Blacks and the African continent by publishing the explanation of the Blacks from assault they experience in all areas of life. As a result, DuBois published a landmark study of the Africans called The Philadelphia Negro. The publication showed the states of the black population in Seventh Ward in Philadelphia. It reflected the condition of blacks in various aspects of life, such as in religion, public health, business, voluntary associations, and public education.

The following years marked the rise of various African studies movements such as the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), founded in 1925. The association led to the foundation of the Journal of Negro History. During the period, ASNLH was responsible for the release of books with content about the history and contemporary life of Blacks, bring harmony between different races, and promote the education of blacks through schools and clubs. The following year after the foundation of ASNLH, the founders launched a successful Negro History Week, which paved ways to the inclusion of Black studies to the mainstream academia. The historically black colleges and the university began offering a course in black history that has part of their curricula. This was because Black students were agitating for culturally relevant courses. The period between 1940 and 1960 saw a revolution in the black studies in social science and history when the study gained increased legitimacy, with a large number of white scholars joining the movement (Joseph). Before this time, most of the research on Black studies were conducted by black scholars. Such revolution let to the introduction of the department of black studies in many Universities.

In 1968 and 1969, the students from San Francisco State University (SFSU), held a strike calling for the creation of the Division of Ethnic studies and departments of Native Studies, Chicano, Asians, and Black. The Black Student Union in the University developed a strong political slogan that became the main document for championing the creation of Black studies departments in over sixty universities. The document called the justification for black studies had several objectives/demands that included opposition to the ideology of "liberal-fascist" that was common in the University. The administrators in the university promoted the ideology by pacifying the request of the Black Student Union on the curriculum by teaching only a few courses on the history and literature about the Blacks. Besides, the statement prepared Black, student, to direct struggles for rights of their community by reinforcing their position both in the country and diaspora (Crochet).

Conclusion

Since the inception of Black studies, the field has been evolving because of the radical social movement that opposes racism in higher learning institutions of higher education in the U.S. Taking into consideration the convention roles of Black education and racism in the country, many African Americans today view culture as either liberating or oppressive. Consequently, Blacks began considering Black studies and education as the option of challenging mainstream knowledge by the whites and its corruption and deficiencies. Indeed, the rise of Black studies right from the beginning was because the blacks were forced by the position in society to evaluate the racist nature of the American education system. Because of European cultural hegemony, Africans, in Africa, America, and the diaspora found that the issue of interpretation was problematic. Their unfortunate experience with inhuman slavery that has provided the foundation for cultural hegemony has distracted their historical continuity by preempting cultural construction using the decentering technique. Even though the experience of exploitation and oppression needed the shift away from the African center, the resulting experience leads to the rise of Black consciousness to be promoted through Black studies. For Africans, the problem of perspective about their history, and contribution in the American society emerged as their intellectual tradition.

Works Cited

Asante, Molefi Kete, and Maulana Karenga. Handbook of Black studies. Sage Publications, 2005.

Crouchett, Lawrence. "Early black studies movements." Journal of Black Studies 2.2 (1971): 189-200. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/002193477100200204?journalCode=jbsa

Dagbovie, Pero Gaglo. "Making Black history practical and popular: Carter G. Woodson, the proto Black studies movement, and the struggle for Black liberation." Western Journal of Black Studies 28.2 (2004): 372. https://search.proquest.com/openview/18eae90807ef6a7d11c7e718d54e0d59/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=47709

Joseph, Peniel E. "Dashikis and democracy: Black studies, student activism, and the black power movement." The Journal of African American History 88.2 (2003): 182-203. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.2307/3559065?journalCode=jaah

Karenga, Maulana. "Black studies and the problematic of paradigm: The philosophical dimension." Journal of Black Studies 18.4 (1988): 395-414. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/002193478801800401?journalCode=jbsa

Rojas, Fabio. From black power to black studies: How a radical social movement became anacademic discipline. JHU Press, 2007. https://books.google.co.ke/

Thelwell, Mike. "Black studies: A political perspective." The Massachusetts Review 10.4 (1969): 703-712. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25087918