CHICAGO-Since
the hot days of the civil rights era, Black Studies professor Armstead Allen has
maintained a tradition of bringing Black intellectuals together to discuss the issues
facing the Black world and the need for protecting the area of learning called Black
Studies. In these days of expanding globalization and assaults on such programs
nationwide, he sees the need for discussion even more urgent.
"Through the years, the Black studies mission has evolved to higher levels of
complexity," Prof. Allen told The Final Call, during his 25th Annual Black Studies
Conference at Olive-Harvey College April 17-20, sponsored by the African-American Studies
Association. "One of our roles is to confront the social, political and economic
issues that affect our lives and to clarify and interpret those trends that impact the
Black community."
The theme of this year's conference was, "Keeping Faith with the Vision of Black
Studies: 25 Years of Leadership and Confrontation with Shifting American and Global
Realities." The workshop sessions offered presentations on the impact that the
struggle for Black liberation has had on domestic and foreign affairs, legislation,
education, labor and the proliferation of Black professionals.
On the other hand, it exposed the void and disconnect that a younger generation of Blacks
face-growing up in a world with seemingly little knowledge of the rich legacy of the Black
freedom movement, the exploitation of cultures, generational gaps and the roll back of
civil rights gains, once believed to be the beginning of an end to racial hatred and
discrimination.
Despite the impact of Black Studies programs, Prof. Allen said schools are challenged to
keep their relevance from being marginalized by critics, speaking directly to the
shrinking of accredited Black studies programs and departments. "It's ironic that no
one ever questions the continuing relevance of White Studies in America, except we don't
call it White Studies, we call it education," Prof. Allen said.
According to Prof. Allen, who is a member of the African-Studies Department at
Olive-Harvey, Black studies emerged out of the need to balance education, infuse
curriculums and destroy the monopolization that Whites possess on telling Black history.
At the same time, it is the belief of the Association that since the September 11, 2001
terrorist attacks on the United States, White America has become very afraid and considers
itself extremely vulnerable.
"We need to find new intellectual strategies that can assist African-Americans and
help lessen the kind of viciousness and violent damage that they continue to face,"
said conference keynoter Dr. Floyd Hayes III, professor of African-American Studies and
Political Science at North Carolina State University. Dr. Hayes said a reexamination of
what it is to be Black, finding a language of inclusion in a global era where Blacks and
others continue to fight oppression should be top priority. He also noted that Whites need
to examine their "Whiteness," and what this has meant socially, politically,
economically and in the psyche of world affairs.
"Black and Hispanic students are always considering what it means to be a person of
color, but I find that many of my White students have rarely given being White a second
thought," he said. Globalization and changing realities focus of Black Studies.
"Globalization has many meanings and each meaning has scores of swirling
ramifications, implications and connotations," said Salim Muwakkil, senior editor of
"In These Times," in his discussion on "Gaining More Mind Share," a
media panel directed at building strategies to counter the corruption of Black culture and
its commodification.
"Globalization is all of the social, cultural processes that contribute to making
distance irrelevant. The process has important economic, political and cultural dimensions
as well as equally important ethical implications," he said. More importantly to
Blacks, he continued, human rights issues have been connected by way of default,
particularly since the advent of the Internet. The world now examines issues of race, U.S.
foreign policy, U.S. political imprisonment and reparations in ways that were never before
available.
"What is clear, however, is that the unifying forces of globalization and the
fragmenting forces of identity politics seem to be coexisting at the same time as if they
are two sides of the same coin. It helps us understand that we are part of this global
dynamic, not some special segment somewhere sitting off in the corner, but we are a part
and share in many of these speeches that are going on in the rest of the world. The better
that we understand our connection to those dynamics, the better we can harness the forces
that are shaping the rest of the world and use them for our own benefit," he said.
Additional emphasis in the three-day confab included identifying the new Black economic
and intellectual elite, the new century's talented tenth; exploration of quality of life
standards for Blacks and the challenges faced in formulating effective public policy; and
legislation geared toward enhancing standards. Heavy debate centered on issues of identity
and finding voice in Black America, meaning who and what are Blacks listening to and how
this might impact on the reformulation of movement and community.
Njeri Jackson, a political science professor and chair of African-American Studies at
Virginia Commonwealth University, told the conference that the task facing Black studies
departments and instructors is one of finding their collective voice to advance the Black
cause, its politics and its culture.
"We must speak out loudly and often. We must write (books, reports), never forget why
we are here, how we got here and refuse to be bought at any price. We must begin to again
exercise control over our destiny," she said. |
