Week 1:What is African American

Studies?

African American Studies 40 A

Marable: Black Studies and the Racial Mountain

Why is the Black intellectual tradition an important part of African American Studies?

Three Aspects of the Black Intellectual Tradition

1. Descriptive- spoken from the perspective of Black people.

2. Corrective- educated the mis-educated of every racial group.

3. Prescriptive- theorized, offered strategies for, proposed tactics for the eradication of racism.

Marable: Black Studies and the Racial Mountain

• Why does African American Studies present a challenge to many White educational institutions?

• Why did the Black intellectual tradition begin in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)?

Marable: Black Studies and the Racial Mountain

• What are the two major approaches to African American studies in the academy?

• What are the differences between them?

• What alternative does Marable offer?

Carter G. Woodson

Key Questions:1. Who is Carter G. Woodson?2. Why does Woodson argue that the Negro is

mis-educated?3. Why does Woodson suggest that Black people

study slavery and other aspects of Black history?

4. What solution does the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History have for the race problem?

Hull and Smith: The Politics of Black Women’s Studies (1979)

• Why do the authors argue that Black Women's Studies is a political term?

• What are the origins of Black Women's Studies?

• Why is Black studies or Women's Studies not enough? Why a separate discipline?

• What are challenges to Black Women Studies in universities and colleges?

You can take Black Women’s Studies Courses at UCI!

• Arlene Keizer, Ph.D. Department of English

• Bridget R. Cooks, Ph.D.Program in African American Studies and

Department of Art History

• Belinda Robnett, Ph.D. Department of Sociology

• Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, Ph.D.Program in African American Studies

• Jessica Millward, Ph.D.Department of History

• Katherine Tate, Ph.D.Department of Political Science

Marable: Black Studies, Multiculturalism and the Future of

American Education

Key Concepts:

• African American Studies

• Multicultural democracy

• Culture

• Color blindness

• Conspiracy of silence

• Mutual transformation

Four types of Multiculturalism

1. Corporate

2. Liberal

3. Afrocentrism

4. Radical democratic multiculturalism