Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Blog Assignment
Assignment: Please address the relevance of African/African American/Black Studies curriculum or program in your blog writing assignment. Write your blog based on your readings and your own perspectives
My name is Corinne Mbakop and I am 22 years old student. I came from Africa, especially from Cameroon to pursue my studies and have a better higher education. In fact, discrimination is not a new thing for me, but just a sad reality that I have to challenge everyday of my life, at school, work, and basically everywhere in the society. Once arrived in United States, I realized that discrimination is at the same time a problem and a reality that have still surfaced in the American society. By discrimination, I mean bias, unfairness, injustice encountered by African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans. However, I will more emphasize on Black discrimination in United States where African Americans are stereotyped or labeled as lazy, convicted felons, drug addicts, uneducated, minority, and so on. On the other hand, is this completely true about African Americans? Don’t we know Black celebrities and intellectuals who have succeeded in this multicultural American society? To my mind, these intellectuals such as Will Smith, Bill Cosby, Dr. Ron Karenga and Maya Angelou are important figures showing that Black community also has a lot of values and qualities to offer.
Therefore, I think it is very important to introduce African American studies in a university program or curriculum not only to inform non-African Americans about Black culture but also to reconnect African Americans to their roots and culture that they tend to forget or ignore with time.
As mentioned above, I think it is important to introduce Black studies in university to go in depth or explore black culture. Moreover, I think these studies can help reduce the rate of discrimination in United States. This point is more emphasized by Molefi Asante and Ama Mazama, who in Encyclopedia of Black Studies underline some points of Ron Karenga. In this encyclopedia, it is mentioned that: “Karenga understood that to close the historical gap created by years of denial and neglect of Africans’ contribution to society, there had to be a model that identified and introduced the basic social, intellectual, and philosophical elements in the Black studies Curriculum” (Mazama, 276).
In addition, I think African American studies will provide people of all races with answers about questions they wonder about black history. In other words, they will learn the evolution step by step of Blacks from Africa to United States. These studies will also help people better understand and know the black community and it issues it faces in the modern world, and why not maybe help them change their negative thoughts or believes they had of the Black Human being. Besides, Black studies will help Black students adjust their behaviors and improve themselves on campuses in order to be better stereotyped.
In the Introduction to Black Studies, Dr Karenga highlights seven goals that African American Studies want to accomplish or want people to better understand about Black community. These goals comprise spirituality and ethics, social, economic, and political organizations. One of these goals is Kuumba which means Creativity. By Kuumba, Dr. Karenga wants us, Blacks, to always do as much as we can, in the way we can. Another goal is Umoja which means Unity; by Umoja, Dr. Karenga wants us to be still united in the community.
Finally, I think all these points mentioned above underline the importance of Black Studies program or curriculum in universities. More simply, African American studies will help Black society rapidly emerge and be more appreciated.
Sources:
Molefi, Asante, and Ama Mazama. Encyclopedia of Black Studies. SAGE, 2005. 274-276.
My name is Corinne Mbakop and I am 22 years old student. I came from Africa, especially from Cameroon to pursue my studies and have a better higher education. In fact, discrimination is not a new thing for me, but just a sad reality that I have to challenge everyday of my life, at school, work, and basically everywhere in the society. Once arrived in United States, I realized that discrimination is at the same time a problem and a reality that have still surfaced in the American society. By discrimination, I mean bias, unfairness, injustice encountered by African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans. However, I will more emphasize on Black discrimination in United States where African Americans are stereotyped or labeled as lazy, convicted felons, drug addicts, uneducated, minority, and so on. On the other hand, is this completely true about African Americans? Don’t we know Black celebrities and intellectuals who have succeeded in this multicultural American society? To my mind, these intellectuals such as Will Smith, Bill Cosby, Dr. Ron Karenga and Maya Angelou are important figures showing that Black community also has a lot of values and qualities to offer.
Therefore, I think it is very important to introduce African American studies in a university program or curriculum not only to inform non-African Americans about Black culture but also to reconnect African Americans to their roots and culture that they tend to forget or ignore with time.
As mentioned above, I think it is important to introduce Black studies in university to go in depth or explore black culture. Moreover, I think these studies can help reduce the rate of discrimination in United States. This point is more emphasized by Molefi Asante and Ama Mazama, who in Encyclopedia of Black Studies underline some points of Ron Karenga. In this encyclopedia, it is mentioned that: “Karenga understood that to close the historical gap created by years of denial and neglect of Africans’ contribution to society, there had to be a model that identified and introduced the basic social, intellectual, and philosophical elements in the Black studies Curriculum” (Mazama, 276).
In addition, I think African American studies will provide people of all races with answers about questions they wonder about black history. In other words, they will learn the evolution step by step of Blacks from Africa to United States. These studies will also help people better understand and know the black community and it issues it faces in the modern world, and why not maybe help them change their negative thoughts or believes they had of the Black Human being. Besides, Black studies will help Black students adjust their behaviors and improve themselves on campuses in order to be better stereotyped.
In the Introduction to Black Studies, Dr Karenga highlights seven goals that African American Studies want to accomplish or want people to better understand about Black community. These goals comprise spirituality and ethics, social, economic, and political organizations. One of these goals is Kuumba which means Creativity. By Kuumba, Dr. Karenga wants us, Blacks, to always do as much as we can, in the way we can. Another goal is Umoja which means Unity; by Umoja, Dr. Karenga wants us to be still united in the community.
Finally, I think all these points mentioned above underline the importance of Black Studies program or curriculum in universities. More simply, African American studies will help Black society rapidly emerge and be more appreciated.
Sources:
Molefi, Asante, and Ama Mazama. Encyclopedia of Black Studies. SAGE, 2005. 274-276.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
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