Afrocentric courses praised

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

[bwteim]

ROTLF, get ready, ;>)
... Comment removed by moderator

[rwb]

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,
You are right about the seemingly prevailing African-American view of afrocentrism. It's "funny" because African-Americans are Americans, not Africans, and should therefore concentrate on a "americocentrism".

You, Randog, and similar posters on this thread are wrong however in dismissing the significance or relevance of African culture to the world, because all that enters your head are CNN pictures of warlords/criminals/corrupt politicians starving, killing, and robbing their own people with western and soviet (during the cold war) help. And it is to that extent that your 'knowledge' about african history and culture extends.

More specifically, though, the Arabs were not always native to Egypt, especially during 'Pharaohnic' (sp?) times, sahara or no sahara.

[summer]

Interesting article. thanks for the flag. I have mixed feelings about it. I always encouraged students to read from a wide variety of authors, so I do not have a problem with students reading from black authors. But, are we going to have a separate curriculum for each of more than 140 different groups in the schools here in Florida?

[Landru]

"But, are we going to have a separate curriculum for each of more than 140 different groups in the schools here in Florida?"

Excellent question.
Can't speak about Florida, dear summer.
But that'd sure seem to be the case in many other places, right now; especially in the north of the Mason-Dixon cities.

Just thought you'd profit by plugging-in to the dialog I stumbled onto.
"Coming Soon To A School Near You" ????

...have a great day, Ms. teacher; & here, have an apple. ;^)