The African-American Impact
Hello, everyone! For today’s post, I’d like to speak about a crucial component of ethnic studies, the field of African American studies. In fact, one can really argue that racism against African Americans is one of the main reasons for the development of the field of ethnic studies, making it one of the most important parts. While African American studies is a young field, being no older than 150 years old, the field has resulted in many benefits. What are those benefits, though? That question is exactly what I aim to answer in today’s post.
To do so, however, I am drawing information from a journal article called “The Lasting Contributions of African-American Studies,” published by the JBHE Foundation, Inc. The author of the article first cites Rhett Jones, a professor of history and Afro-American Studies at Brown University, who believed that one of the main benefits of African-American studies was the improvements in education that resulted from the introduction of the field. Jones compares the early days of African-American studies, when all the classes were filled by purely black students, to today, when one can witness what he called “a rainbow” of students from a vast variety of ethnicities and races. Ultimately, these students have begun to understand the value of studying the African past and culture and are able to study concepts like multiculturalism and diversity as a result of Africana studies.
Professor Jones further explains how Africana studies was the starting point for diaspora studies, which is the study of dispersed ethnic populations. In the case of African Americans, we can see this clearly, as stories of the Middle Passage and the American institution of slavery distort any method for today’s African Americans to identify their roots back in Africa. The professor makes a strong point, as he identifies that while Asian Americans can identify themselves based on country, as seen by the existence of Asian Americans, Korean Americans, and Japanese Americans, contemporary African Americans find it extremely hard to trace the tribe of their ancestors. Ultimately, the African-American community was the only one to face the racism of America without a proper ethnic experience, and they had to construct one from scratch, without the use of a cultural base. Ultimately, the studies of Asian-American diaspora and Latin-American diaspora have their roots in Africana studies.
The author of the article also included a response from Alexander Astin, who is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Astin brought up an extremely good point about the impact of Africana studies, that it allowed us to appreciate the literary, scholarly, and scientific contributions of African-Americans throughout history. People like Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, and W.E.B. Du Bois were brought to the forefront as a result of African-American studies and all of them have introduced new ideas that influenced many people positively. Ultimately, while the contributions of African-Americans have not yet fully penetrated the general education curriculum, African-American studies serves as a “good focal point” through which students can learn about this often neglected part of American history.
One of the most important contributions of African-American history is in relation to dispelling racism in America. As I mentioned before, the African-American community had little to no ethnic identity due primarily to the institution of slavery. While members of other races were able to grow up learning about people of the same race who have made amazing contributions, it is only through African-American studies that African-Americans were able to do the same. The field allowed African-Americans to discover a legacy of prolific black people in the United States. Africana studies was able to instill a sense of pride in young African-Americans, as they were able to be proud of what other African-Americans have done.
African-American studies is also instrumental in helping to provide an alternative to the traditional Euro-American viewpoint. In my opinion, racism cannot be dispelled by mere words. People need to be shown that they are wrong, that African-Americans are not inferior, and can be just as impactful as those of other races. By countering the racist stereotypes that exist regarding African-Americans and academics by providing examples of highly educated African-Americans, Africana studies set a stage for young African-Americans to shed the psychological effects of racism and grow to their full potential.
Ultimately, Africana studies has helped many African-Americans to break the vicious cycle that plagues African-Americans, leaving many young adults without any guidance and any trusted person to confide in. As a result, they often give up on their education early, doing the bare minimum to graduate high school. Ultimately, social mobility becomes a huge issue, which is a problem that Africana studies is a crucial part of fixing. By helping young African-Americans learn about, and take pride in, the African-American legacy, the field encourages growth, both socially and academically. In fact, I believe that as society progresses, humans will begin to value inclusivity more, until we reach the day when all humans are truly equal.
Thanks for reading, everyone! I’ve linked my source below, so feel free to take a look at it!
