Experiences in Intro to African-American Studies

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I'm posting this thread in the politics forum because I feel it will attract more attention than if it were in the school forum.

Recently, I decided to add African-American Studies as a minor because I was and still am interested in the history and culture. I'm currently taking Intro to African-American Studies as a prerequisite for the minor.

At first, I was looking forward to the class. Now, several weeks into the semester, I'm very disappointed. It's very Afrocentric, and various speculations about ancient Egypt and Africa have been presented to the students as facts (such as an ancient African presence among the Olmecs because some of their statues appear to have African features).

Not only that, but my professor likes to invite guest speakers to come and lecture to the class. One of them was a representative of the New Black Panthers, a questionable organization. Others peddled conspiracy theories about Planned Parenthood being a racist organization.

Did I mention the fact that the professor basically said that black women can't be feminists? Feel free to agree or disagree with that viewpoint, but I have a problem with professors who present their own ideological biases as facts.

So, my experiences in this class have made me second-guess my AA Studies minor. I'm trying to hold out, because there are several other classes in the program that I really want to take.

Has anybody had any similar experiences with questionable classes taken in college? Or maybe some of y'all have advice for me regarding my situation.

Any branch of history, including African-American history, can be really interesting and enriching. This doesn't sound so much like a history course as it does a political propaganda course, however. If the instructor is putting Africans in ancient Mexico or maybe saying the Greeks stole all their ideas from Egypt -- well, that's entering crackpot territory.

Here's one useful source:
http://www.amazon.com/Not-Out-Africa-Af ... 046509838X

One thing you might consider is just finishing this one course and then doing a history minor instead of African-American studies in particular. You could of course focus on that specialty within a history minor if you wanted, or just early American history, or something else.

That's exactly what I was thinking. It is basically a propaganda course.

I actually did consider history as a minor at one point. Given my four years at a community college and all the credits I've amassed as a result, there are several minors I could take that wouldn't require a lot of classes left over, AA Studies and History included.

Still, there are some AA Studies courses that I really want to take, if I can get through this one.

Also, I've heard about that book, "Not Out of Africa." I added it to my "want to read" list on Goodreads, in fact. From what I've read, the author, Mary Lefkowitz, got a lot of s**t for being white and Jewish and speaking out against Afrocentrism being taught in schools. She was accused of racism and was even on the receiving end of anti-Semitic remarks.

That reminds me of why I don't want to publicly speak out against this course, at least not with my name attached. I don't want to be accused of racism, given that I'm white.

Unfortunately, college can be very political. And many professors are biased and use the classes to preach all of their political views to the class, rather than actually teach what is supposed to be taught. I've never taken an African American history class, but I've had the same problem with other classes.

I've heard that African-American studies classes tend to attract political extremists for whatever reason. Especially Afrocentrists. It's not real history, and it's not going to give you the kind of knowledge that you are seeking.

I'd seek out the knowledge on my own rather than deal with a bunch of racist propaganda. Afrocentrism is pretty much the equivalent of the extreme racist Eurocentric history that used to be taught in the early twentieth century and before.

The problem is not necessarily universities being political, it it, the idea that once they get tenure they have the right to try and limit open discussion. I don't know if that is the case here though.

This is pattern that I have been following.

Although I wouldn't support Black Panthers. I think they should come to talk on the condition that they can be challenged. No platforming is bad. See my thread:

viewtopic.php?t=306256

Meh. They shouldn't have a propagandist teaching an entry-level class. That's like having feminism 101 taught by a male-exclusionary radfem who thinks heterosexual sex supports the patriarchy.

I second the idea of switching to a history minor, but you could fill it out with AA classes on specific topics, taught by other teachers perhaps. Check with the history department. There's more than enough crazy AA history, especially in the US, to take up a minor's worth of time without resorting to pseudo history.

why should it matter if it is entry level?

There's really only one other AA Studies class that I really want to take, but that can be cross-listed with the English department.

As much as I want to drop this class, the fact that I already paid for it, and that it's an easy class that could boost my currently low GPA, make me hesitate.

If I did drop AA Studies, I'd still have my Spanish minor, which I have no intention of dropping.

I don't think the professor or the lecturers try to limit discussion, but here's the thing. There's not much discussion going on in this class, especially none that disagrees with whomever is lecturing.

When the guy from New Black Panthers visited, the professor had to goad the students into asking him questions. It's possible it's because the students were intimidated by him. Granted, it was probably due more to the group's reputation, because he didn't say anything particularly controversial to the class (the most controversial thing he said was that his organization opposed race-mixing).

Interesting idea about the race mixing. Genetic studies have revealed that African Americans (the descendants of slaves brought to the United States) have on average 20-30% European DNA. No subjects tested were of 100% sub-Saharan African ancestry. They all had at least some European DNA. Some had as much as 50% European ancestry, even with two parents that identified as black.

So as a group, they are already mixed-race. That's why the idea of no racial mixing makes no sense to me. What's the point?

I recall him saying something about uplifting the African-American family unit, hence they discourage interracial relationships among their members.

That makes sense, I suppose.

if the students are naive (as freshmen often are), they may take what the professor says at face value. If they're not, they may assume that the credulous lies tarnish the entire field rather than just the subset that the professor belongs to.

Once students have a grounding in the basics from a less-biased source, they're better able to critically judge for themselves the various crack-pot theories of some of the tenured faculty. Hell, even Linus Pauling was off the deep end about vitamin C.

It's an introductory course, so I don't think all the students are freshmen. I know I'm not.

I think the professor is adjunct, though. I know she teaches a similar course at a local community college. One review of her on Rate My Professors from a student at the community college said her guest lecturers were problematic, so I know I'm not the only one with that issue.

To be honest I'm not really having much confidence in the average student these days.

If they have reached university level without developing any critical thinking skills soemthign has gone badly wrong.
Thankfully Descartes has.

This need to be done much earlier. In primary school they can be introduce the concept, and further developed through secondary school. University is far too late.

Critical thinking has gone out the window primarily becuase education is a political football. So the teacher have no choice but to just focus on getting their student to pass exams. They have no time to actually teach. They have said as much, at least in the UK.

There is a high emphasis on standardized testing in the U.S. as well.

I remember when I was in school, from elementary through high school, teachers would spend a great chunk of their lesson plans teaching us how to take and pass state exams.

I do worry that the students in my Intro class will develop warped views and resentment about certain topics and against certain people. The fact that the material is designed to boost self-esteem, and that the professor has "Dr." in front of her name, make it less likely that the students will think critically about what's being lectured.

perhaps you should minor in underwater basket weaving instead

a lot of academia is just cushy jobs for people that provide nothing of value except spreading their own ideology but I guess that's the point, it's a "safe space" for people that don't want to do real work

I talked to my mother about the women's studies class she took back in the 80s, she thought it was complete drivel

I imagine almost any ethnic or gender study type class jus basically amounts "we're the s**t, we've never did anything wrong, everyone else ****'d us over"