Wednesday, December 19, 2007
African American Catastrophic View of Self
I base this blog on Dr. Julia Hare’s theories, related to the education of African American children. Unfortunately, we’ve elevated what she presents as a catastrophic view. I’ve never encountered so many African American adults ashamed of our youth and scapegoating them, especially in relation to hip hop culture. I plan to spend this upcoming Black History Year addressing this propensity.
Of course, beginning with statements made in the WPA (Works Progess Administration) slave narratives, we can note such expressions of a generational gap. However, now, as a prof, I experience the locus of such negative statements, about them, being regurgitated by my African American students. In my African American folklore class, these students are overly concerned by what their white peers think and ashamed of our coping strategies. It is not as simple of being a matter of social class. From the projects to subdivisions named for plantations, too commonly, African American youth accept the platform aired by Bill Cosby: “We Can’t Blame White Folks.”
Other scholars such as Michael Eric Dyson, in Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind, have dissected this politics. I want to reiterate some of what they say as well as narrate my own privileged position of studying African American culture and being able to bear witness to our strengths in the face of oppression. On the other hand, I am concerned about the general symptoms of internalized oppression. Too many accept uncritically the e-mail in recent circulation, allegedly written by a white male: "A great man once said, 'The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book.'" It has all the earmarks of an urban legend. Regardless, it is one of the most insidious of those in circulation. Of course, we read; but do we deploy critical thinking as we read, whether the newspaper, e-mail, or a Tavis Smiley book?
To begin, we can credit African American scholars like E. Franklin Frazier, who promoted negative research on the Black family and bourgeosie, which many African
Americans accepted to our detriment. It is another commonality to trace any perceived deficiency to slavery and post-slavery experiences, despite the now mounds of research that indicates African Americans developed a multiplicity of adaptive mechanisms to facilitate our survival. We continue to be resistant. However, because these strategies deviate from assimilation models, even among countless African Americans not of this mindset, we still prefer to hear rhetoric about….more African American males in prison than college; sagging is another paean to a prison mentality; and hip hop culture purely propagates misogyny, capitalism, and worse.
Instead, I strive to assert otherwise. The travails experienced were real! But what about the triumphs? The truth is, that no matter how the statistics read, the majority of African Americans are not in prison! When Frazier was touting his theory about the demise of the Black family, 85% were intact!….Many accepted the myth of the matriarch and the welfare systems destruction of two headed households to the further downfall of our marital society. It appears that, without action, African American adherents to a catastrophic view won’t be placated until the majority of African Americans (males and females), indeed, are imprisoned. They will never question the politics involved because they, too, vie to build more cells so that they might have a job (with benefits) without questioning a judicial system that incarcerates at a rate higher than in the 1930s and South Africa during apartheid (see earlier my earlier blogs). The criminalizing of Iraqi civilians goes hand in hand with the criminalization of our youth. Please don’t perpetuate either one.
Of course, beginning with statements made in the WPA (Works Progess Administration) slave narratives, we can note such expressions of a generational gap. However, now, as a prof, I experience the locus of such negative statements, about them, being regurgitated by my African American students. In my African American folklore class, these students are overly concerned by what their white peers think and ashamed of our coping strategies. It is not as simple of being a matter of social class. From the projects to subdivisions named for plantations, too commonly, African American youth accept the platform aired by Bill Cosby: “We Can’t Blame White Folks.”
Other scholars such as Michael Eric Dyson, in Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind, have dissected this politics. I want to reiterate some of what they say as well as narrate my own privileged position of studying African American culture and being able to bear witness to our strengths in the face of oppression. On the other hand, I am concerned about the general symptoms of internalized oppression. Too many accept uncritically the e-mail in recent circulation, allegedly written by a white male: "A great man once said, 'The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book.'" It has all the earmarks of an urban legend. Regardless, it is one of the most insidious of those in circulation. Of course, we read; but do we deploy critical thinking as we read, whether the newspaper, e-mail, or a Tavis Smiley book?
To begin, we can credit African American scholars like E. Franklin Frazier, who promoted negative research on the Black family and bourgeosie, which many African
Americans accepted to our detriment. It is another commonality to trace any perceived deficiency to slavery and post-slavery experiences, despite the now mounds of research that indicates African Americans developed a multiplicity of adaptive mechanisms to facilitate our survival. We continue to be resistant. However, because these strategies deviate from assimilation models, even among countless African Americans not of this mindset, we still prefer to hear rhetoric about….more African American males in prison than college; sagging is another paean to a prison mentality; and hip hop culture purely propagates misogyny, capitalism, and worse.
Instead, I strive to assert otherwise. The travails experienced were real! But what about the triumphs? The truth is, that no matter how the statistics read, the majority of African Americans are not in prison! When Frazier was touting his theory about the demise of the Black family, 85% were intact!….Many accepted the myth of the matriarch and the welfare systems destruction of two headed households to the further downfall of our marital society. It appears that, without action, African American adherents to a catastrophic view won’t be placated until the majority of African Americans (males and females), indeed, are imprisoned. They will never question the politics involved because they, too, vie to build more cells so that they might have a job (with benefits) without questioning a judicial system that incarcerates at a rate higher than in the 1930s and South Africa during apartheid (see earlier my earlier blogs). The criminalizing of Iraqi civilians goes hand in hand with the criminalization of our youth. Please don’t perpetuate either one.
# posted by Power2People @ 2:00 PM 
