I was pretty skeptical about taking African American Studies at the University of Alabama, even though I am very passionate about standing up for my misjudged race. Being that I am from Tuscaloosa, I am well aware of the mistreatment that blacks have experienced on this campus. Never in a million years did I think I would be attending the university that George Wallace gave his famous anti- black speech expressing how segregation would live now, tomorrow, and forever. I really felt like there was nothing a professor at UA could teach me about African American people. After reading about how affective this course is I decided to give it a try anyway. So far, this class is my favorite and I wish I could occupy a desk in it every day! I have already learned a plethora of information. I can tell you about over looked innovative black inventors, the view points of Fredrick Douglas and W.E.B Dubois towards education, and about how our education system in the United States of America “arrest” our learning through its prison like teaching tactics. I have always found it very interesting that I live in the United States of America, the land of the free, the melting pot of the world, but I receive side eyes from …show more content…
Black people are just as ignorant about their own race. Blacks might have a better understanding about the struggles that face their race, but lack knowledge about significant trailblazers and events from the past. If we want to make a change in the way we are treated by society, we must become educated about the giant that paved the way for us. Studying African American culture is for everyone. Each and every person should take the time to study parts of history that are not main stream; history that is hidden but just as relevant as any other history taught in our prison style classrooms. I look forward to all of the knowledge I will gain in this course this
Throughout history, African American weren’t considered the smartest race on earth. With slavery and being for bided to ever touch or learn to read a book, African American became the race that envy having an education. Education became a prime factor in the African American culture. Having an education to an African is having the one-way ticket out of the terrible streets. They believe that if they don’t know nothing they won’t get nothing. In other word, if they aren’t educated their life would remain the same. Way back to slavery, African American would be beaten if they were to open a book and dare to read it instead of cleaning it.
The African American experience is one that is quite different from other racial/ ethnic groups. The majority of the first African American came over, unwillingly, on ships from various African countries. They were brought to America by white, European settlers to be used as slaves in an order to plant and harvest their crops and make money for the white man. This racial group was treated as if they were property and not people. However, with the ending of the American Civil War, African Americans gained freedom, freedom that not all white American were quite ready to handle. After gaining their freedom came the need for education, jobs and suffrage rights. Now in America this racial group has come a long way, having elected its first African American present for two terms, yet still there are many issues that are very prevalent. This racial group has been fighting their way to equality since the birth of this nation. African Americans have experienced an array of conflict, violence, stereotypes, prejudice acts, and discrimination against them throughout their history in America.
“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.
The National population of america in 1860 was 31 million. The African American population was 4.5 million with 4 million slaves and .5 free. The total amount of free in the north was 221,000. Blacks in the North were partially free. African-Americans did have certain rights such as the right to an education. Document Cc is a paragraph that was extracted from a speech found in Charles Andrew’s The History of New York Free school, Malon Day, New York 1830. According to Doc C by Charles Andrews Blacks in the North are allowed to an education. “Before the Civil War most Northern schools for blacks were segregated. However, this was an improvement over the South where public schooling…” This quote shows that even though they are segregated the
Over the course of the years that Black Studies has been a separate functioning entity, there have been different ideological and political reasons for why Black studies is needed in institutions of higher education. Scholars such as Nathan Hare, John Henrik Clark, John W. Blassingame and Devere E. Pentony have given their own varied rationales as to why they believe Black Studies is a necessity within these institutions; if it is even one at all. Each of these men have different opinions on this topic but they do share one similar perspective. The historical importance of black people should be taught and made a fundamental component of Black Studies because in institutions of higher education, where the populations are predominantly white, staying connected to the black culture can be difficult. Getting educated about it enables students to stay connected to their roots and use it to improve their future. Many black people grow up unaware of who they are and where they come from because in the current education system black people have been pushed to the side or spoken about very briefly. Students do not understand the struggles of African American people, so therefore having courses that educate them about the history of blacks, will spark understanding of black people as a whole and there might be a change in black and even possibly white communities.
Another major predicament that plays a large role in the amount of African Americans that do not receive a higher education is once they get to college, they do not have a typical or enjoyable experience once there. In today’s society, it is hard to imagine that there is still racism and segregation in schools and colleges today but the reality is, it still does very much exist. This is especially true when black students attend predominantly white universities. Even though most colleges promote themselves by talking about how diverse their
For as long as I’ve been alive I’ve been in school with whites and blacks. I couldn’t imagine going to school with all one race, but once upon a time that’s exactly how life was. There was a whole law about it, separate but equal, but the schools were far from equal. The schools for blacks weren’t fit for almost anyone to go to, but rules were rules. African American freedom was still in question long after slavery ended. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t know anything and I feel that everyone wants to learn more and expand on what they already know so being denied a good education was just rude and crude. Parents argued to get things changed but no one was willing change things until May of 1954.
African Americans have endured many trials and tribulations over the centuries. Our people have suffered from war, violence, and anguish simply because of the color of our skin. Our history has been so blatantly missing from textbooks and the K-12th grade educational atmosphere. Our educational system continues to neglect the history of our African American ancestors and fail to provide them with the educational resources to inform them of our past and allow them to learn about the true origins of our culture. We have made many significant contributions to the world but those have also been highly ignored as well.
One of the biggest problems Africans Americans faced in America is Segregation, discrimination, racism, prejudice, rebellion, religion, resistance, and protest. These problems have helped shape the Black struggle for justice. Their fight for justice marks a long sequence of events towards their freedom. Provisions of the Constitution affect the operation of government agencies and/or the latitude chief executives and legislatures in the creation and implementation of policies today. The rights and passage of Amendments granted to African Americans in the Constitution serve as a source of “first principles” governing the actions and policies of elected and appointed public servants across the United States. The 15th Amendment Equal Rights: Rights
“I don’t mind if I have to sit on the floor at school. All I want is an education,” said Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist for female education. In today's society, many people don’t realize how grateful they should be for the education they receive. Even the slightest education is much more than people were receiving just three centuries ago, and even more than people in countries besides the United States of America. In specifics, women and African Americans were once unable to pursue any form of education in the United States, along with many other ethnicities.
Historically black colleges and universities, otherwise known as HBCUs, have played an integral role in advancing the education of underprivileged black teenagers since their inception after the American Civil War. They have had students extremely well known in their fields today, such as billionaire entertainer Oprah Winfrey, the first African American Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. Though their graduation rates tend to be around 1 in 3, they have produced a majority of successful African American professionals. For the continued advancement of African Americans, HBCUs are necessary for offering educational opportunities that their students had been historically denied and presently out of financial reach, while promoting strong family values and equality that may be lacking at traditional schools and displaying positive African American role models in their alumni and staff.
There have always been African Studies, just not in the American Education System, black intellectuals dedicated many years to understand African American History and their origin and their role in society. Though the first instance for this course to be considered in school began in the 1960s. The purpose of the African American studies program is to study and analyze the history, culture, achievements, and issues of African Americans in the United States who are African descent. Also, the discipline explains the connection between African Americans and white and other ethnic groups. African American Studies was not created for the purposes of discounting European history, it will allow students to learn the importance of African history and how it has intertwined with American society.
In order to provide culturally appropriate care, an examination of one's personal views, beliefs, and prejudices must be examined. The first portion of this paper will examine my personal values, beliefs, biases, and prejudices. The remaining paper will analyze the African American culture relating to the Ginger and Davidhizar's Transcultural Assessment Model cited in Hood (2010). This model uses six key cultural elements that include communication, space, social organization, time, environment, and biological variations. This model provides a systematic approach for assessing culturally diverse clients. I will also discuss an aspect of care that I would
There are many discrepancies about the underlying causes of the problem of African American educational achievement. Measures of academic achievement in education show that African Americans are trailing their White counterparts, especially in higher education (Aronson, 2002). Numerous factors that affect academic achievement, affordability, financial aid, support of family. African American students are frequently stereotyped and spend a great deal of time establishing their academic credibility and rapport in the classroom. The challenges encountered in academic and social life on campuses is the result of the scrutiny that black students face when it comes to their intellectual ability. The need to validate their intellectual competence in the classroom to White peers and to faculty derive from stereotypes or comments from non-Blacks about the Black community (Fres-Brit, 2002). Whether women of color choose to attend a particular institution because of its ability to satisfy a desire to be in a predominantly Black environment, or because of the quality of education a particular institution offers, they can benefit in numerous respects when it comes to academic and career achievement. Understanding the variety of factors that contribute to Black students’ success requires researchers to examine resiliency from multifaceted perspectives (Bentley, 2015). In a space where black bodies and female bodies are considered “space invaders”, social scientist Nirmal Puwar, explains
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.