Afrocentric courses praised

Gary Post Tribune ^ | 2/4/2002 | Leslie Jones McCloud

[mafree]

..the district seems to have determined that NOTHING else will EVER be worth studying more than African culture... and that is a really clear indicator that their priorities are not aimed where they ought to be...

If that were the case I'd have as much of a problem with it as you would.

[Khurkris]

...and what part of Africa are these children living in?

[junta]

huh?

[oldvike]

Ahhhhh!!!!!!! Click here

[junta]

Nope ain't me.

[Cleburne]

Why do I get the feeling an Anglocentric course would not meet approval? Or perhaps an Europeancentric course?

[rwb]

Neither do I. I KNOW about it, but I just don't APPRECIATE it. It's pretty primitive.

Then you don't know about it. You are only aware it exists.

[Libertarian_4_eva]

So they are going to teach how african kings sold millions into slavery to the euros for rum and guns then took the tribes land and made it his own and war on other african kings doing the same thing?

[rwb]

Giving Africans credit for Egyptian culture is like giving Panamanians credit for the American Revolution.

Egyptians are Africans. Which school did you graduate from?

[TopDog2]

Uh huh. Yeah. Right.

[randog]

You agonize over the definition of 'is', don't you?

[SWake]

the CLUE organization (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice)

I hate to point out the obvious, but shouldn't it be the "CLUEJ" organization? And does "cluje" still mean what it used to mean (something thrown together in the worst way possible)?

[rwb]

You agonize over the definition of 'is', don't you?

Not at all. Everything is crystal clear (about African culture and your clearly uninformed views on it).
Go ahead, I bet you're itching to tell me that Egyptians are Arabs and not Africans.

[randog]

OK, I'll bite. Fill me in on the cultural similarities between the Zulu and the Egyptians.

[Spiff]

Egyptians are Africans. Which school did you graduate from?

Yes - Egypt is in Northern Africa. So, Egyptians are Africans in a geographic sense.

However, what afrocentrism does is it makes up for the rest of Africa's lack of measurable contribution to modern civilization by pretending that Egyptians were black. You see, afrocentrism is not about the history of what is geographically known as Africa - instead it pretends to be about the history of black Africans (all other Africans need not apply). It overemphasizes the importance of cutaneous melanin content at the expense of historical accuracy regarding things like cultural significance.

[Spiff]

I hate to point out the obvious, but shouldn't it be the "CLUEJ" organization? And does "cluje" still mean what it used to mean

Wow. It's good to know that someone is paying attention to the details.

[denydenydeny]

Bump.

[ISonnet]

"How about phallocentric study?"

Right! If you don't study it, then you don't know dick!

[Snuffington]

“Cultural esteem is the problem, not self-esteem,” Asante said" Sounds like something out of Mein Kampf.

Well said, and entirely correct.

[Mortimer Snavely]

The trouble with African or Black Studies is that what's worth studying is extremely dense reading and demands a vocabularly and depth of intellect far beyond the ability of average undergrads. For example, The Black Phalanx, a history of black troops in the US military from the Revolution on through the Civil War, by 54th Massachusetts veteran Joseph T. Wilson, is written in a style which is seen all too infrequently these days; for example,

"For some cause, unexplained in a general sense, the white people of the Colonies and in the States, came to entertain against the colored races therein a prejudice, that showed itself in a hostility to the latter's enjoying equal civil and political rights with themselves. Various reasons are alleged for it, but the difficulty of really solving the problem lies in the fact that the early settlers in this country came without a prejudice against color..."

This emphatic style of writing, vivid and grammatically correct, has more in common with Samuel Johnson than Jesse "Babbling" Jackson and Reverend Al What's-His-Name, and so instigates culture vultures to decry it as "Eurocentric." What's generally promoted instead is pre-digested left wing pablum, which disgusts the scholastically inclined and is quite popular with the inarticulate and illiterate seeking university degrees.