Dawn Turner Trice, Chicago Tribune, March 5, 2009
{snip}
Around the country this year, college campuses are celebrating the 40th anniversary of African-American studies programs. Although black scholars make up the majority of the faculty, white scholars increasingly are making their mark, including two teaching at Northwestern University.
It may be the ultimate in inclusion as well as irony in a discipline that emerged out of the Black Power movement of the late 1960s to challenge “the man” and the white status quo. If African-American history looks back at the black experience, African-American studies tries to examine it from the inside out and from every angle.
White scholars have pursued doctorates in African-American history in relatively large numbers; but whites with doctorates in black studies as well as those who teach in the field remain fairly rare.
Martha Biondi, an associate professor of African-American studies and history at Northwestern University, said she believes her racially mixed group of students places far more stock in her passion for her craft than the fact that she’s white.
{snip}
From the beginning, the goal of African-American studies—with its immersion in black culture, literature, history, politics and religion—was to critique and strengthen social justice policies for people of African descent worldwide.
Scholars of African-American studies often share a desire to immerse themselves in black culture but also come from a background that leans toward social justice and changing the world.
Biondi was raised in a predominantly white, small town in Connecticut. She remembers being anti-Nixon in the 3rd grade, watching black news affairs programs on television and reading her baby-sitter’s copies of The Nation. As a teen, she aspired to become a civil rights lawyer.
{snip}
African-American studies programs emerged in the 1960s from the racial transformation taking place on college campuses across the country. More black students were arriving and facing racism, and they believed universities could help by adding more black professors along with courses that reflected their experiences and sensibilities.
The first black studies program began in 1969 at San Francisco State University. Nathan Hare, a black professor hired the year before to head the department, said its mission was to create a new approach to scholarship that would lead to changes on campus and in the community.
“We were uniting the academy with the street,” said Hare, who holds doctorates in sociology and clinical psychology. “We wanted to elevate black scholarship, but it wasn’t like no white person could touch it. Just like it wasn’t like black students should only take black studies courses.”
He said that whites, Asians and Hispanics joined black students in the 5-month-long campus uprising—considered the most violent chapter in campus history—that began at the end of 1968.
By 1973 nearly all of the country’s major universities had a black studies program, but the transition was less than smooth. When Mark Naison began teaching at Fordham University in 1970, he didn’t just encounter skepticism about a Jewish guy from Crown Heights teaching in the discipline.
{snip}
At the time, Naison said, he was living with a black woman, was doing community organizing and had been kicked out of the white community. “I stared back because I had no where else to go,” he joked.
Naison has used rap music to teach history (he goes by the name “Notorious PhD”) and has appeared on comedian Dave Chappelle’s old show flaunting his knowledge of black history. {snip}
{snip}
Naison is old school. At Northwestern, Tom Edge is part of the newest generation of white professors entering the field. Edge, 33, received his doctorate in African-American studies last May from the University of Massachusetts.
{snip}
“Almost always it’s my white students who ask me how I became interested in the field,” said Edge. “Many of them have learned history the way I did, and when they see how black history fits in, they begin to understand its richness.”
{snip}
Original article
Email
Dawn Turner Trice
at dtrice@tribune.com .
(Posted on March 6, 2009)
Comments
From the beginning, the goal of African-American studies—with its immersion in black culture, literature, history, politics and religion—was to critique and strengthen social justice policies for people of African descent worldwide.
Yes, because - whether he arrived as a slave (the Americas and the Middle East) or as an immigrant (Europe) - “persons of (black) African descent” consistently find themselves on the bottom rung of society - but it’s raciss Whitey’s fault anyway.
Biondi was raised in a predominantly white , small town in Connecticut. She remembers being anti-Nixon in the 3rd grade, watching black news affairs programs on television and reading her baby-sitter’s copies of The Nation. As a teen, she aspired to become a civil rights lawyer.
How surprising - some people just never manage to grow out of the “rebellious youth” stage.
Naison has used rap music to teach history (he goes by the name “Notorious PhD”) and has appeared on comedian Dave Chappelle’s old show flaunting his knowledge of black history.
Sing after me, everyone:Egypt was black, then the pale-skinned Greeks stole their knowledge! Blacks brought civilisation to Europe, via the Moors! Without blacks, white people wouldn’t know music or dance!
But yes, $10 from Obscuratus here says that - in a few months time (what with the “reces-economic collapse and all) - there’ll be another fluff piece about black “teachers” whining that “whites can’t teach Black Studies to black students - THEIR distant ancestors weren’t slaves/they don’t “suffer from racism” ” etc
“Many of them have learned history the way I did, and when they see how black history fits in, they begin to understand its richness.”
Black history can be summed up like this: blacks used to be slaves but were freed. Freed blacks were treated badly until a black woman sat on a bus and a black man gave a speech. Freed blacks can’t achieve anything without the helping hand of whites every step of the way.
As for this article, I can’t believe many blacks are going to see this as a positive. It’s more likely they’ll complain that the white man is expropriating their history and culture again (code for this was supposed to be a job exclusively for blacks). It’ll be interesting to see a university having to pick between a black or a white.
Naison has used rap music to teach history (he goes by the name “Notorious PhD”) and has appeared on comedian Dave Chappelle’s old show flaunting his knowledge of black history.
Why is it that black students always need to be taught math/science/English/social studies/history/geography/etc within the context of rap? And does it ever work?
Well, there’s only so many positions in the English departments and since they are using identical reading lists, why not get in through the back door?
I have to be honest with you guys, one of the most enlightening courses I ever took was with a Black female professor at Brown university. The course was on Blacks in Postwar America 1945-1960.
She was informative, pleasant, attractive, did not seem to have a grudge against Whites and was all in enjoyable to be around. I wanted to take her for another course, but she ended up going to Stanford as an endowed chair before I had the chacne to do so.
No doubt, she was probably an excpetion to the rule.
I just can’t seem to wrap my brain around the fact that there are so many White intellectuals who voluntarily major in Black Studies, and then turning around and attempt to teach a hostile room full of them.
How about majoring in White history? It would be much more rewarding.
RobChapmanOnline.com
The leftists are still thinking in terms of being PC above all else and how they love to crow about anything that is harmful, denigrating or unusual as it pertains to whites. The above lefty wants us to realize that even whites can teach the much needed subject of Black Studies. And, how delighted she must feel in being able to relay this valuable information to her readers.
Obviously, she believes that this economic catastrophe isn’t going to hurt valuable, much needed subjects like Black Studies.
I’d like to see her reaction when the schools begin cutting useless subjects like that from the curriculum, because they can’t afford them. Looks like Women’s Studies will be on the chopping block too.
WHY?
Because this economic steam roller isn’t going to reduce everything to rubble, but leave these paragons of political correctness with all the funding they need. The fact is these so-called institutions of higher education are going to feel the full brunt of reduced funding, and some of them will not only cut back on absurd courses they’ll fail completely.
And good riddance to them. They’ve been a curse on us for far too many years.
MSM journalist never ask the right or the tough questions. Here’s the one I would ask; As a white Black Studies professor have you ever failed any of the black students in your class?
I do not find this phenomenon at all surprising, for it is the collective white-guilt of some leftist professors that saw the creation of such fields of study in the first place; teaching it themselves is the next illogical step on their always illogical train of thought.
Robert Kelly:
Sad to say, in this PC society and our current Black president, I would not be surprised if Women’s Studies, Black Studies etc… will become even stronger.
Adam:
It sounds like this was a History course.
The Whites teaching “Black History” are no doubt liberal guilt-ridden Whites who’ve embraced their own races’ ultimate destruction. They make Blacks much more than what they really are because of mis-placed sympathy and self-loathing. It’s an unfortunate reality of life that Blacks as a race have accomplished little, if anything, throughout history, and this ‘elevating’ of Blacks does nothing but minimize the huge accomplishments of White Europeans throughout history. To be White and to spend your time teaching ‘Africana Studies’ is an example of White guilt and weakness, the kind that has taken us to the precipice.
I thought only Black were qualified to teach Blacks. I thought that unless you had gone through the Black experience then you couldn’t understand what it was to be Black and therefore you couldn’t teach Blacks or Black subjects.
I’m waiting for Jared Taylor to be offered a position at Howard University.
Because this economic steam roller isn’t going to reduce everything to rubble, but leave these paragons of political correctness with all the funding they need. The fact is these so-called institutions of higher education are going to feel the full brunt of reduced funding, and some of them will not only cut back on absurd courses they’ll fail completely.
Robert, I believe those absurd courses will be the last one that are dropped.
A simple rule in selecting a college is to avoid the ones that have the most Blacks and select from the ones that have the most Jewish and Asian students. Unlike guilt ridden White liberals, Jews and Asian go to college to get an education.
Browsing through a college catalog you can find some very absurd courses in them. “The Black Experience in Film Genre”, “Healthcare and the GLBT Community”, “Feminism and Economic Models”, etc. The only reason these Whites teach black history at all is because there is an over abundance of liberals holding worthless Liberal Arts degrees and not enough teaching jobs to go around. There should be a federal law prohibiting government money, whether it’s loans, grants, etc., from being used to fund these junk courses.
Steve:
Liberal arts is the study of art, music, literature and history.
Of course it’s of great interest to Whites when given the opportunity to study black history, culture, education and achievements. It’s also fair to give black africans their due when they take over White businesses handed to them without payment, even if they have no experience or basic knowledge of the ins and outs of those same enterprises. Black africans constantly point out that they are perfecly capable of handling simple or complex technical tasks and do not need or want any White interference. So perhaps you would be interested in a report on ‘if it can go wrong, it will go wrong’. It’s well worth a read. http://allafrica.com/stories/200903050112.html
Just go to Detroit and observe, and there’s your course in black studies.
It is VERY hard for me to understand how full grown (black) males and females have PROVEN over and over again that they CAN’T make it without Special Hep and Programs. It is my honest opinion that the average (black) College Grad. can barely speak, or function at the level of a typical (non-black) 8th grade student. I see it everyday with blacks in relatively high profile roles who can barely do the job. In my opinion they should be ashamed that EVERY OTHER GROUP and RACE in America, in fact around the world can not only succeed BUT PROSPER without begging for or receiving some type of a crutch from those they claim are holding them and their superb talent back?
“Why is it that black students always need to be taught math/science/English/social studies/history/geography/etc within the context of rap?” “And does it ever work?” That would depend on how you would define “work”. One way to see if it “works” is to check the various test scores, although it seems rather vague how one would pass or fail a “black studies” course, other than regurgitating the drivel dished out by the professor. And what about all those “black studies” PhD’s? Those dissertations would probably give Saturday Night Live a run for its money.
“Sad to say, in this PC society and our current Black president, I would not be surprised if Women’s Studies, Black Studies etc… will become even stronger.”
Fear not, George, the die is already cast. The schools are set to be some of the most affected organizatiions.
Yes, Obama might WANT to inject some cash into them, but the money to do so isn’t there. The universities will be hit hard and many will be able to continue if they cut back to the basic courses.
Remember most of this cash infusion to help out local governments only covers a year. Next year there won’t be enough money to bail out city, county, state governments, and the universities.
Several analysts have forecast this, the most reputable being Celente.
wwwtrendsresearch.com
Obam’s approval rating has dropped to 58%. That’s still high, but it IS dropping. Although he’ll always have the blacks behind him and the mentally disturbed whites, I truly, sincerely believe 70% of the country will be calling for his head eventually. The man is an unscrupulous liar, much worse than Clinton.
The signs are forming right now after only six weeks in office. I can’t think of a president who has told more lies about ear marks, allowing the public to view the bills online before votes are cast or his claims of transparency, in addition to his denial he was going to concentrate on weakening the second amendment, in so short a time, and these lies are typical of blacks, because they are tainted with an arrogance that could only come from a black. He feels so superior he’s certain he’ll be able to fool anybody.
There’s a good reason he won’t release his school transcripts and writings, besides the book Bill Ayers ghosted for him: He’s just not that bright. He gives the impression of competence, because he speaks slowly and clearly (Always having a teleprompter where the cameras won’t pick it up)and his enunciation is very clear, but none of this translates to competence.
We have a pres no who is a less intellectual George Bush, but he speaks much better.
All this will be clearer about July or September. Look for big trouble in the meantime.
(By 1973 nearly all of the country’s major universities had a black studies program, but the transition was less than smooth. When Mark Naison began teaching at Fordham University in 1970, he didn’t just encounter skepticism about a Jewish guy from Crown Heights teaching in the discipline)
And how do blacks show appreciation to bleeding heart
“If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house” - Al Sharpton, quote from the
“Kill the Jew”- Shouted by blacks during the Crown Heights
Shouldn’t these enlightened white folks, who immerse themselves in sociology, psychology, and racial sensitivity for a living, shouldn’t these be the very ones educationg folks about the white experience? Is it 1864 and I forgot to notice on my calender? Do they experience something different than I do? Do they have some kind of elevated hyper sensitivity I just haven’t got? What this madness that’s taken hold of the white mind?
I have to be honest with you guys, one of the most enlightening courses I ever took was with a Black female professor at Brown university. The course was on Blacks in Postwar America 1945-1960.
I have to be honest with you guys, one of the most enlightening courses I ever took was with a Black female professor at Brown university. The course was on Blacks in Postwar America 1945-1960.
i think all of these left wing professors that buy into this stuff should have to take a course that teaches them a few things. among them that they did not ever own any slaves, that there are no living slave masters nor any living slaves, that 600 thousand white boys died ending slavery, and that this is the year 2009, not 1840. if those 4 things can be taught to these misguided people maybe there is hope.
Edward:
It was, but it was cross listed with Black studies and American Studies.
It will only be before long that we will see a large number of Latino Studies departments on college campuses.
Did anyone notice that even though it was Lincoln’s birthday a few weeks ago, that practically nobody mentioned he was born 200 years ago?
Skip:
I took the course because I thought that it might be interesting.
Yes. As I said in my previous post, the course was one of the best I took while at Brown. I opened my eyes to previously unkonwn facts.
“It is VERY hard for me to understand how full grown (black) males and females have PROVEN over and over again that they CAN’T make it without Special Hep and Programs. It is my honest opinion that the average (black) College Grad. can barely speak, or function at the level of a typical (non-black) 8th grade student. I see it everyday with blacks in relatively high profile roles who can barely do the job. In my opinion they should be ashamed that EVERY OTHER GROUP and RACE in America, in fact around the world can not only succeed BUT PROSPER without begging for or receiving some type of a crutch from those they claim are holding them and their superb talent back?
Posted by T RExx at 10:23 AM on March 7”
Yorkshireman @ 9:38:
From the linked article:
Companies must be more involved in educating the people they make millions of dollars from …
Bear in mind these companies are staffed with Zimbabweans. They’re as clueless as the farmers. And if the companies are "making millions of (Zimbabwean) dollars", they certainly couldn’t afford to hire better, even if there were any available!
I can’t even believe this “field of study” exists as anything more than a fringe-lunatic elective. The article says one white professor got a doctorate in African-American studies…are you kidding me?
What a saddening, humiliating article. More concerning is this: How many impressionable young white adults will read this and, without a strong white culture to guide them otherwise, fall into the same despicable “course of study?”
Sounds like a limited subject, after all how much more can be learned about the many things we’ve gotten from peanuts? The only beneficial accomplishment of blacks.
Unfortunately in my job to move up, a PHD is very helpful. It doesn’t matter the specialty, just that you have it. We have a “doctor” of music running the statistical research section for god sake.
To outflank this situation I thought I would get a PHD in African American history. Since I was a fan of pro sports in the past I figure I have ninety percent of the curriculum down already. The rest should take a couple of days. Problem solved.
The irony is that the whites who “immerse” themselves in black culture/history,whatever else they are doing, are showing an open-mindedness,a desire to explore new worlds and an intellectual curiousity about the world around them that the black students whose rumps they are so officiously kissing would NEVER demonstrate!! THATS a lesson in black history!
These Whites “breaking new ground”, I have no doubt at all, are short on the knowledge of their own history.
Black studies,MLK,the month of Feb,blah,blah,blah.
As a ethnic white Chicagoan this is another daily dose of wrath from the Tribsters! Yet we continue to fight the battle in the “white way” by grumbling amongst ourselves in taverns and parties.Yesterday was time for change in thinking.THIS IS A WAR for power over our minds and it has rolled us over. Now is the time to ASSERT our right to survive and live as people.Now is time to get in any liberal/marixist’s face-“they aint tough!”
Whites who are immersed in black culture are miserable people who go into dysfunctional depression.
>>>there are so many White intellectuals who voluntarily major in Black Studies, and then turning around and attempt to teach a hostile room full of them.
Think in terms of a former daily comic strip running in many newspapers. Called KUDZU. Now think of one of its characters, Nasal Lardbottom, described as “the Whitest White Boy in South Bypass High” in the strip. Nasal’s ferevent dream: To become a Black. The implied irony in this comic strip describes those whacko White Teachers of Black History to a “T”.
My personal conviction is Black History is a joke. A bone tossed to Black people having no legitimate history of their own. The liberals foam at their collective mouths at any claim there truly ARE racial differences. Now assuming, as liberals proclaim, ALL RACES ARE EQUAL… . it would stand to reason all races developed and progressed at roughly equal rate.
Reality showing the opposite history. That Whites started the upward climb roughly 5 or 6 thousand years ago. Developing agricultural learning and technique. Slowly developing civilizations. Developing agriculture to the point not everyone in was forced to labor simply providing food. Giving way to intellectual development… like our early Greek thinkers and philosphers. Eventually progressing through the centuries to European thinkers, researchers, experimenters searching for and accumulating scientific and medical knowledge. Eventually bringing us into the technological era starting with the Industrial Revolution.
So if Whites were able to do so, the burning question: Why couldn’t Orientals, Blacks, the Indians in the Americas have done nearly as well? That up until Whites started exploring and trading in Africa, the indigeous Black Africans had advanced only marginally past a Stone Age culture speaks volumes. Blacks not even having developed the wheel, much less having any practical need or use for it. Despite the outraged screams from our Afro-Centrist crowd.
“I took the course because I thought that it might be interesting.
“Yes. As I said in my previous post, the course was one of the best I took while at Brown. I opened my eyes to previously unkonwn facts.”
And I have no doubt the “facts” had something to do with some outlandish black claim that belongs under the category, “Black myths and legends.”
There’s nothing these people have to offer that is of interest to whites in general. They’re the failures of the world. Every race on earth has a REAL history but them.
“There are few exceptions. The new black EPA Secretary was quite impressive. I was shocked. She still has a ghetto accent but is very well spoken. Albeit I feel she is a rare exception.”
“Well spoken?” With a ghetto accent? What in heaven’s name does that have to do with competence and qualifications.
Sorry, but I wasn’t impressed in the least. She seemed like the usual affirmative action black to me.
There might be exceptions as you stated, but there hasn’t been anyone this man has appointed that doesn’t remind me of the primitives displaying shameless conduct, in Wright’s congregation,shouting with glee, everytime he degraded whites or America, especially Eric Holder.
Have you noticed MOST of his cabinet doesn’t have white Anglo Saxons per their representation within the population?
The man is a pro-black white hater, and I think it’s safe to say, especially his wife, so is every single one of his black appointments, with the whites in his administration being self-haters as well.
As the months go by, the truth will show better the ugly truth of this administration, but only after he has caused irrepairable damage.
Q:
I am a race realist and I find your comments ridiculous and pathetic. Have you hard of George Washington Carver? Dr. Charles Drew?, Dr. Ben Carson?,Benjamin Banneker? Ann Plato? They be a small number of people, but they were and are BRILLIANT Black people.
It is this sort of ignorant rhetoric that does nothing but give our critics ammmunition against us.
Some of you posters really need to examine what you say before you post.
“The Whites teaching “Black History” are no doubt liberal guilt-ridden Whites who’ve embraced their own races’ ultimate destruction. They make Blacks much more than what they really are because of mis-placed sympathy and self-loathing. It’s an unfortunate reality of life that Blacks as a race have accomplished little, if anything, throughout history, and this ‘elevating’ of Blacks does nothing but minimize the huge accomplishments of White Europeans throughout history. To be White and to spend your time teaching ‘Africana Studies’ is an example of White guilt and weakness, the kind that has taken us to the precipice.”
Posted by Awakened at 5:54 AM on March 7
> I so agree and would add this; These new “scholars” are simply the products of the brainwashing and PC indoctrination that has replaced history studies in public schools since the 1970s. It is just logic that some Whites would see a major in Black studies as a way to make a living - especially now. Since the election, what we see on television are many non-White faces telling us how things are going to be. People go where the money is and history shows us that Whites are best at going where the money is… this time however, it is not going to lead to an elevation of “The White Man.” When you sell out on enough principals and ethics for money - as White society has - Republicans best of all - you eventually find yourself working for undesireable people and supporting crooks.
“I took the course because I thought that it might be interesting.
I’d be interested to know what those unknown facts are. Please tell us more.
According to my research George Carver’s “accomplishments” are a myth created to promote black supremacy. Charles Drew did not create the method for separating blood plasma, whites did. That is another black supremacist fabrication. And the story that Drew died because a white hospital refused to treat him after an auto accident is an outright lie, designed to promote racist hatred of whites.
Fight the racists:
Perhaps you can provide such evidence with your supposed “research”?
All documented history suggests otherwise.
Is this the scholarly equivalent of Blue Eyed Soul? Taking the raw ignorance of Black studies and putting it in a more palatable form for the White market? I recall that a lot of Black musicians felt pretty aggrieved, rightly so, when White singers took their songs and made a lot more money than the Blacks ever did. What do Black studies professors think of this encroachment on their territory?
“Perhaps you can provide such evidence with your supposed “research”?
AR has provided a basic summary:
http://www.amren.com/ar/1994/04/
For other bogus black “inventions,” see
http://www33.brinkster.com/iiiii/inventions/#carver
“George Washington Carver:
Discovered” hundreds of new and important uses for the peanut? Fathered the peanut industry? Revolutionized southern US agriculture? No!
Most of Carver’s peanut and sweet potato creations were either unoriginal, impractical, or of uncertain effectiveness. No product born in his laboratory was widely adopted.
Anoynmous:
McIntosh’s article has been discrdited by a number of historians.
“McIntosh’s article has been discrdited by a number of historians.”
Such as?
The idea that any blacks can be racist has been “discredited” because “blacks have no power.” Whites score significantly higher than blacks on IQ tests, ACT tests, SAT tests, have much higher GPAs, and score higher on Civil Service Exams. Whites invented almost everything and made almost all scientific advances. Yet the idea that there might be a disparity in intelligence between blacks and whites has also been “discredited.” Liberals “discredit” anything that conflicts with their hate white people worship black people beliefs by simply denying reality. Surf the internet to see who really invented the traffic light.
One only has to look to Africa to comprehend the total lack of accomplishments by blacks over the span of thousands of years…
