Origins of Black Studies as a formal Academic Discipline

Origins of Black Studies as a formal Academic
Discipline and the Three Central Elements which
define its mission



By Felicia McCaw
Saginaw Valley State University

Wednsday 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Introduction to Black Studies BLS 100
















Origins of Black Studies as a
Formal Academic Discipline
and the Three Central Elements
which define its mission
Felicia McCaw
Page 1


1. The origins of Black Studies as a formal academic discipline have originated since the social science and humanities departments have revised their syllabi and or offered courses to incorporate exposure to black experiences to accommodate black student demands for increasing knowledge of their heritage, black experience and community improvement. Further, this serves as a purpose to give students a clear conception of the complexity of American life, to acquaint students with the problems, successes and failure of America’s largest minority group, enable students to understand the nature of the contemporary racial and social turmoil and to guide them to constructive models of thoughts about current issues and to enable students to see the black experience in a world setting.

2. Consequently, Professor Gates stated in 1989 scholarships in black studies tends to bring together insights from several disciplines (precisely) because black studies started as multidisciplinary field which evolved to the slow emergence of doctoral programs and provided greater opportunities for in-depth interdisciplinary study and research. Because this is a relatively new step few anticipated the difficulty of trying to A) Create a new discipline, B) Perform corrective functions, C) Become race relations generalist, D) Do Afro-loco-parent duty; E) Work as minority Ombudsmen, and F) Receive “precisely the same” treatment at tenure as their opposite race colleagues with far fewer responsibilities.

3. The goal of Afrocentric infusionists is to urge the positive value of infusing or blending African-based ideas, concepts, values and historical data into the curricula to inflate deflated self-esteems of the African people – descendents from Africa and African People. Further, the purpose of afrocentricity as a theory for studying the past consist of verifying a reason as to why black people should acknowledge Africa and its culture as a foundation to realize the varying differences of where they come from and where they are now.

Origins of Black Studies as a
Formal Academic Discipline
and the Three Central Elements
which define its mission
Felicia McCaw
Page 2



4. By studying Africa and its people they can realize the sheer affect of racism and its originality of creation. As a person whose ancestors originated from Africa the stigma of racism, prejudice and bigotry well into racism and prejudice and bigotry will never really phase itself out but is a continuing battle for the rights of the oppressed to free to themselves of prejudice and bigotry which seems a futility in itself.

5. Due to overwhelming and control of a racist people the struggle to be free never seems to be realized by some but by a few The sheer condenscending attitude allocated to Africans and American Africans is pathetic in its extreme – the very thought people of color have not evolved to be self-thinking, able to make reasonable decisions and conduct their lives individually is in itself a sign of fear and lack of self-esteem to subject people of color to continual abuse and ridicule because they themselves feel a need to show of superiority
all the time.





The End.






Bibliography





Africana Studies, A survey of Africa and the African Diaspora, 3rd Edition
By Mario Azevedo , Carolina Academic Press, Dunham, North Carolina