Quotes About the Definition and Purpose of Black Studies

 

 

“Black Studies is critical and corrective of the inadequacies, omissions and distortions of traditional White studies. Thus, it introduces practices which stimulate innovation and deeper inquiry directed towards producing new ideas and new approaches to human reality and human relations. Black Studies, as both an investigate and applied discipline, is dedicated not only to understanding self, society and the world but also to changing them in a positive development way in the interest of human history and advancement. In this quest, it challenges the false detachment of traditional White studies which contradicts reality and obscures clarity” (Karenga, 2010:21).

 

“As an affirmative, critical and corrective academic and social project, Black Studies affirms the truth of Black history and humanity and critiques and corrects the racist myths assembled to deny and deform them. Having made a necessary critique of such faulty scholarship, Black Studies, then, begins with rigorous research and critical intellectual production in the key social science, history, which yields data and interpretations valuable to all the other fields of Black Studies and offers a more accurate picture of Africans’ contribution to human initiative and human achievement in the world” (Karenga, 2010:21).

 

 “Black Studies has established its relevance as a contribution to the university’s realization of its claim and challenge to teach the whole truth, or something as close to it as humanly possible. No university can claim universality, comprehensiveness, objectivity or effectiveness in creating a context for the development of a socially competent and aware student, if it diminishes, denies or deforms the role of African peoples in history and society” (Wright, 1970:366).

 

“Black Studies challenges both the cultural content of what is called “western” and the definition itself, arguing for a multicultural interpretation of “western” rather than a Eurocentric one. Moreover, Black Studies joins with other ethnic studies scholars in creating and posing paradigms for multicultural exchange and possibilities of a just and good society. Such exchange and possibilities, of course, necessitates respect for each people’s right and responsibility not only to exist but to speak their own special cultural truth and make their own unique contribution to the forward flow of societal and human history” (Karenga, 2010:22).

 

“African American Studies is an academic discipline which seeks to investigate phenomena and interrogate issues of the world from an Afrocentric perspective. The resulting finds are then transposed into communally-digestible data which will ultimately liberate the African community and it to see its own worth once again” (Norment, 2001:xxiv).

 

“The primary objective and focus of Black Studies are African people. Philip T.K. Daniels argued his concept of Black Studies as being a “multidiscipline” that systematically focuses upon the experiences of Black people throughout the world. It is the study of Africa and the African diaspora… it simultaneously assesses the outer struggle of Blacks against oppression, discrimination, imperialism, racism and other pejorative forces, while also looking at their inner struggle to establish community, identity heritage, and a functional as well as practical and protective institutional infrastructure” (Norment, 2001:xxv).

        

“The purpose of African American studies is to provide the academic world with a new lens through which to discover the beauty of all human beings and to acknowledge and celebrate- not simply tolerate- the gifts that all have to offer, regardless of cultural worldviews and resulting differences. Indeed when black scholars and students first called for the Western academy to recognize and then to accept the place of Black Studies as a discipline, they were not simply reacting to white racist intellectual traditions; they were suggesting that the inclusion of all voices in the shaping of American education would assure that we ultimately create a society where everyone gets the chance to speak and listen” (Norment, 2001:xxv).

 

“After examining over 50 Black Studies proposals and programs, Charles V. Hamilton summarized Black Studies as having six functions:(1) the gaps function- correcting the inadequacies of existing courses; (2) the functional theory- the educate black students for useful service in the black community; (3) the humanizing function- to help white students overcome racist attitudes by imparting new knowledge and new human values; (4) the reconciliation theory- to bring about a new spirit of cooperation between blacks and whites; (5) the psychological function- to instill a sense of pride in black students to develop a sense of identity; and (6) the ideological function- to serve as a means to develop new ideological, Third World orientations, to develop theories of revolution and nation-building” ((Norment, 2001:xxvi).

“Black Studies was the direct result of a liberation struggle by persons of African ancestry” (Norment, 2001:xxvii).