African American Studies

66709_Davidson.indd709_Davidson.indd i 118/01/218/01/21 10:1310:13 AMAM 66709_Davidson.indd709_Davidson.indd iiii 118/01/218/01/21 10:1310:13 AMAM A frican American Studies

Second Edition

Edited by Jeanette R. Davidson

66709_Davidson.indd709_Davidson.indd iiiiii 118/01/218/01/21 10:1310:13 AMAM Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com

First edition published by Edinburgh University Press in 2010.

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Acknowledgements viii Foreword x Notes on Contributors xiii

1 Introduction 1 Jeanette R. Davidson

I HISTORY AND CONTEXT OF AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES 2 Danny Glover: Memories from 1968 17 Jeanette R. Davidson 3 Pedagogy and Decolonization: Historical Reﬂ ections on Origins of Black Studies in the United States 26 Ben Keppel 4 Toward Radical Pan-African Pedagogy and Civic Education 38 Greg Graham 5 The “Field and Function” of Africana Studies: Insights from the Life and Writings of W. E. B. Du Bois 53 James B. Stewart

II AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES: THEORIES AND METHODOLOGIES 6 African American Studies: Discourses and Paradigms 71 Perry A. Hall 7 Afrocentricity and Africology: Theory and Practice in the Discipline 84 Moleﬁ Kete Asante 8 Revisiting White Privilege: Pedagogy in Black Studies 99 Tim Davidson and Jeanette R. Davidson 9 Social Science Research in Africana Studies: Ethical Protocols and Guidelines 118 Serie McDougal III

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10 Africana Studies and Oral History: A Critical Assessment 126 Leslie M. Alexander and Curtis J. Austin

III SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, SERVICE LEARNING AND ACTIVISM 11 Africana Studies and Community Service: Using the STRENGTH Model 141 Jeanette R. Davidson and Tim Davidson 12 Africana Studies and Civic Engagement 157 Kevin L. Brooks 13 Danny Glover and Manning Marable: Activism Through Art and Scholarship 168 Jeanette R. Davidson 14 Contemporary Women of the African Diaspora: Identity, Artistic Expression and Activism 187 Ebony Iman Dallas, Marie Casimir and Jeanette R. Davidson

IV SELECTED AREAS OF SCHOLARSHIP IN THE DISCIPLINE 15 He Wasn’t Man Enough: Black Male Studies and the Ethnological Targeting of Black Men in Nineteenth-Century Suffragist Thought 209 Tommy J. Curry 16 Reading Black Through the Looking Glass: Decoding the Encoding in African Diasporic Literature 225 Georgene Bess Montgomery 17 Diversity and Representations of Blackness in Comic Books 238 Grace D. Gipson 18 Black Athletes and the Problematic of Integration in Sport 251 Jamal Ratchford 19 African American Music: The Ties That Bind 263 Alphonso Simpson Jr. 20 Afrofuturism and the Question of Visual Reparations 280 Tiffany E. Barber 21 The Black Studies Movement in Britain 292 Kehinde Andrews

Index 303

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Liam Yun Davidson

May we make a better tomorrow for you and for all children.

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I give my sincere thanks to the chapter authors and interviewees in this text. They are committed to the mission of Black Studies, and dedicated to their students. They know that their scholarly works not only teach and inspire students who are hungry for knowledge about the discipline and the riches of their research, but also that they have the serious responsibility to challenge faulty belief systems, confront anti-Black status quo societal norms and pat- terns of behavior, direct positive change, promote scholarship and activism and, in the best case scenario, transform lives. I give special honor to the legacy of greatness granted to us in this text by Manning Marable and Perry Hall, now ancestors to whom we owe a tremendous debt for their wisdom, their clarity of thought, and pristine writing. The National Council for Black Studies (NCBS) deserves a ‘shout-out’ for always being there to sustain us as we continue the struggle on our respective campuses. My appreciation for students at the University of Oklahoma, in African and African American Studies, is deep. I have been honored to be their teacher for eighteen years (ﬁ fteen of these years as program director) and I count on their energy, their inspiration and their belief that our work is vital to their personal and collective futures and to the relevance of the academy. A few students and former students read chapters as I received them from the authors, and cheerfully gave me their feedback: Miles Francisco; Blayke Hughes; Carlos Jackson; Sam McCann; Tori Mongo; Mia Mukes; Jamelia Reed; Tara Richards; Tyler Rivera; and Marcelias Sutton. Thank you for always keeping it real! Special thanks must be given for the assistance from everyone at Edinburgh University Press: to Michelle Hous- ton, whose enthusiasm always feels so reinforcing and sustaining, and to Jane Burkowski, Emma Caddy, James Dale and Ersev Ersoy for their invaluable help in bringing this work to print. I also thank my friend and colleague R. C. Davis, Neustadt Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma, editor of World Literature Today and managing editor of the Ethnic Studies Series, in which the ﬁ rst edition of African American Studies was published. Thanks go to the College of Arts and Sciences Dean David Wrobel, David L. Boren, Pro- fessor and Merrick Chair of Western American History, for ensuring that I had some “release time” to write; to my friend and colleague Professor Daniela Garofalo, Professor of English and Director of the Center for Literary Studies, who has opened a door for me to host campus- and community-wide Black

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literature reading groups, which brings me great joy; and to the many other valued colleagues, also from the University of Oklahoma, who brighten each day. As always, my deepest appreciation goes to my husband Tim Davidson, whose scholarly help in extensive reviewing of many contributions to this volume, over and above co-authorship of two chapters, was much more than I ever should have asked. I also greatly value the imagery in the original art by Zach Davidson, whose cover for the fi rst edition drew readers to the book and whose new cover for the second edition of African American Studies prom- ises the same attraction. Thank you Tim, and both our sons Zach and Corey Davidson, and daughter-in-law Yunjin La-mei Woo, all racial justice warriors in your respective spheres of infl uence, for the love, support, encouragement and validation that you give me every day of my life. Finally, thank you to my mum and dad, Elizabeth and J. James Carlisle, who fi rst taught me about all that is righteous and good and that matters in life.

Jeanette R. Davidson

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Something spectral is haunting the world—the truth that is Africana Studies. All the powers of the old White supremacist guard have entered into a solemn alliance to exorcise this specter: Donald Trump and Charles Murray, Breitbart and Fox News, Neo-Nazis and Federal Bureau of Investigation police-spies. They hurl attacks against African American Studies and try to stigmatize it to no avail—like a terrible swift sword against anti-Black racism, our truth is marching on. The book before you is not like any other textbook. It is a weapon of struggle in an army that stretches back in modern times to William Edgar Burghardt Du Bois, Sadie T. M. Alexander, Carter Woodson, Anna Julia Cooper and other vanguard scholars who earned their doctoral degrees. It introduces you to a discipline that has grown from the exertions of scholars and students just like you who refused to accept the master narratives of racism, supremacy and domination. It is, as the author of one of the chapters in this volume has said, a science of liberation. Black Studies is and has always been the intellectual arm of the movement for Black lives. Danny Glover, whom the world knows as a great actor and humanitarian, was a college student in 1968, who was drawn into the struggle to open colleges and universities to African American students and to make the education they received there relevant to their lives and truthful to their experiences. Jeanette R. Davidson’s important interview with him lays an excellent foundation to help you grasp what our discipline is all about. The decolonization of institutions of higher education in the United States is not a rhetorical exercise in high theory. It is about real problems and real people fi nding ways to solve those problems. All of the essays throughout this book work to redefi ne and reimagine not just what we teach, but how and why we teach what we do. As you read about the discourses and paradigms, and the theories that guide our disciplinary practices, remember that we are about world-making, and we utilize the most scientifi c research methods available to us. See and learn that we are about developing new ways to serve communities that are strong and resilient, but also under siege. As this book comes out, the world is in a pan- demic known as Covid-19. Researchers know the race and ethnicity for 97 per cent of the cumulative deaths in the United States, and it is clear that Covid-19 mortality is inequitably impacting African American communities. The facts

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show continued wide disparities by race, most dramatically for African Ameri- cans and Indigenous Americans. As Covid-19 steals Black and brown lives, the question is not only why, but how we stop the deaths. Africana Studies is born from community struggles and civic engagement, and it must ever be so long as our communities are the most vulnerable, the most beleaguered and the most susceptible to harm, whether from the systemic violence of the police and racial capitalism, or from viruses and other diseases. Some of the most brilliant scholar-activists in the world today have contrib- uted to this text. Collectively they introduce you to a discipline that is unique, that has grown mature, but is still quite revolutionary. We are not like those philosophers of old who were content only to interpret the world, in various ways. We do that, but we also know and accept that the point of it all is to transform the world. A day will come when no-knock warrants and the killing of someone like Breonna Taylor or the pressing of a knee on the neck of someone for nearly nine minutes until only a lifeless body remains, as happened to George Floyd, are a thing of the past. A day will come when the violence of hunger and food insecurity, of racial profi ling and the presumption of guilt, of mass incarceration and attacks on Black queer and trans folk, of children in schools that fail them, when all these unacceptable realities are no more. And when that day comes the world will have to acknowledge that Africana Studies led the way to change. It is our discipline that activates and supports all the other arts and sciences to see that Black lives matter. Before economists began to study reparations as a policy solution to the wealth gap that affl icts African Americans, Africana Studies heard and made the call for reparations. Before epidemiologists discovered that Black and brown workers were over- represented in the ranks of essential workers and suffered from risk factors at a higher rate than Whites, Africana Studies was already there. If you listen carefully you will see how African American Studies relates in many profound ways to other academic fi elds of study. We are not a ghetto, unless, as the musical group WAR once sang, “The World is a Ghetto.” So read, enjoy and relate the essays presented here to your life, your sur- roundings and your other studies. Draw connections and be empowered to change the world. As Anna Julia Cooper once wrote, “an authentic portrait, at once aesthetic and true to life,” that presents the person of African descent as a free human being, “not just the humble slave of Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” but a person, “divinely struggling and aspiring yet tragically warped and dis- torted by the adverse winds of circumstance, has not yet been painted . . . that canvass awaits the brush of the colored man himself,” the woman of African descent herself. Fifty years ago, the women and men who dared to approach that canvas gained a foothold in the academy that is called African American Studies (among other names). This book places before you scholarship from artists and scientists who work in that space that the great mass movements of Black folk demanded and helped to create. Their scholarship contributes to the painting of that authentic portrait of Black lives. Yes, Black lives matter. We

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will no longer need to say that when the revolution comes to our institutions and cultures. African American Studies works for that moment, and the essays that follow will guide you into how we work to radically transform the world.

Dr. Amilcar Shabazz President, National Council for Black Studies Professor of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Leslie M. Alexander Ph.D. is Associate Professor in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies and School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University. Kehinde Andrews Ph.D. is Professor of Black Studies in the School of Social Sciences, Birmingham City University, England. Moleﬁ Kete Asante Ph.D. is Professor in the Department of Africology and African American Studies, Temple University. Curtis J. Austin Ph.D. is Associate Professor in the School of Historical, Philo- sophical and Religious Studies and School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University. Tiffany E. Barber Ph.D. is Assistant Professor in the Department of Africana Studies, University of Delaware. Kevin L. Brooks Ph.D. is Academic Specialist for Diversity and Civic Engage- ment for the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, Michigan State University. Marie Casimir M.A. is Adjunct Instructor in the Clara Luper Department of African and African American Studies, University of Oklahoma and a movement art- ist, organizer, Founder/Director of Djaspora Productions and Co-Founder of the Instigation Festival. Tommy J. Curry Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy and holds a Personal Chair in Africana Philosophy and Black Male Studies in the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Ebony Iman Dallas M.F.A. is Adjunct Instructor in the Department of Art and Design, Oklahoma City University, and formerly Adjunct Instructor in the Clara Luper Department of African and African American Studies, University of Oklahoma. She is the founder of Afrikanation Artists Organization. Jeanette R. Davidson Ph.D. ACSW is Professor in the Clara Luper Department of African and African American Studies, University of Oklahoma.

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Tim Davidson Ph.D. is Associate Professor in the Department of Human Relations, University of Oklahoma. Grace D. Gipson Ph.D. is Assistant Professor in the Department of African American Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University. Danny Glover is an acclaimed actor in blockbuster movies, ﬁ lms that focus on the African and African American experience, and in television and theater projects. He is known for his lifelong efforts as an activist and has received numerous awards for humanitarianism and advocacy efforts. Greg Graham Ph.D. is Associate Professor in the Clara Luper Department of African and African American Studies, University of Oklahoma. Perry A. Hall Ph.D. was Associate Professor in the African and Afro-American Studies Department, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Professor Hall passed away on 19 April 2020. Ben Keppel Ph.D. is Professor in the Department of History, University of Oklahoma. Manning Marable Ph.D. was the M. Moran Weston and Black Alumni Council Professor of African-American Studies and Professor of History and Public Affairs, and Director of the Center for Contemporary Black History, Columbia University. He won (posthumously) the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for History for his book Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. Serie McDougal III Ph.D. is Professor in the Department of Pan-African Studies, California State University, Los Angeles. Georgene Bess Montgomery Ph.D. is Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of English, Clark-Atlanta University. Jamal Ratchford Ph.D. is Assistant Professor in the Department of History and the Race, Ethnicity and Migration Studies Program, Colorado College. Alphonso Simpson Jr. Ph.D. is Program Director of African American Studies and Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. James B. Stewart Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus in Labor and Employment Relations, African and African American Studies and Management and Organization, Pennsylvania State University.

66709_Davidson.indd709_Davidson.indd xivxiv 118/01/218/01/21 10:1310:13 AMAM 1 Introduction Jeanette R. Davidson

The story of African American Studies is one of strength, resilience, accom- plishment and empowerment. African American Studies scholars have, and will continue to have, unique and far-reaching contributions within universities— intellectually, aesthetically, spiritually, politically and culturally. At the same time, in many ways, African American Studies exempliﬁ es the quintessential story of race in America, with all the challenges, power dynamics and hard- fought successes too long in coming. As with the larger national context, so goes it for African American Studies. We have come a long way, but still have a long way to go. With a history reaching back to Black intellectual education pioneers like W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, E. Franklin Frazier and many others, inside the ﬁ eld of education and in other professional arenas, and reaching beyond to scholars, activists and artists in Africa and the Diaspora, African American Studies has a remarkable foundation.1 Building on that foundation, professors and students and people from the community, in the late 1960s, demanded that education within the ivory towers become relevant to Black students (and other students of color), with their efforts coming to fruition in the birth of formal Black Studies.2 Since then, African American Studies has continued to grow. In measurable ways, this development, in scholarship, curriculum building and creative production has been extraordinary. To understand African American Studies, one must understand the historical context, the ongoing political and institutional struggle existing for programs and departments. One must also recognize how those dynamics have shaped curricula, the development of varied theoretical perspectives and world views, faculty composition and the institutional prestige accorded to the discipline. African American Studies departments and programs have from their inception been under intense scrutiny. While the discipline has gained “good

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press,” and some would argue has experienced a “second Renaissance,” obstacles like racial bias and White supremacy have often prevailed in universities and have infl uenced external perceptions of academic legitimacy. Today the African American Studies discipline’s status has gained tremendous ground in universities within the United States, even where previously unwel- come. Universities are now responding to changes in the world, albeit some still with great reluctance. Appreciating that Black Studies is important for all people, not only for scholars and students of African descent, Cornel West notes that the heart of African American Studies was never solely for African Americans but “was meant to try to redefi ne what it means to be human.”3 Many (not all) departments and programs have endured, even thrived, and, in spite of the extraordinary challenges, faculty scholars have transformed the learning experience for students of all races by envisaging new paradigms, forcing a reexamina- tion and new understanding of history and past works, and creating substantial bodies of knowledge, literature and the arts. Over time, universities have been positively impacted by African American Studies and they will continue to change for the better because of the value of the discipline. Much has happened in the ten years since the fi rst edition of this text was published. The impact of systemic racism has become all the more engrained and pernicious: mass incarceration; legal inequities; health disparities; racial re-segregation in education; unfairness in housing, employment and all aspects of life have been affected; all the while White supremacy has run rampant. The backlash following the election of the country’s fi rst Black president has per- haps been worse than our worst nightmares, bringing to the fore, for the whole world to witness, the ugliness of the United States’ “original sin.” Greed, and the love of power, and White domination have been laid bare. With the increased use of cell-phone videos as evidence, the American public has been forced, like it or not, to view what people of African descent have been seeing and saying all along about racist killings and modern-day lynch- ings. Most recently the inhumane deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery have caught the attention of the world. At the same time, the overrepresentation in deaths of people of African descent (and other people of color) impacted by Covid-19 has further illustrated the unquestionable, institutional racial inequality experienced still to this day. It is not a stretch to suggest that within the recent crowds of protesters in support of Black Lives Matter must be students who have been taught in our discipline. Students from our classes can be expected to have insights into history, understand and speak the language that critiques White supremacy, have a commitment to the greater good of the populace, and understand the nature of struggle, the power of protest, the need for action and policy and political changes that are transformative. They know too of the remarkable value, and strengths, and accomplishments, and the contributions to this country by people of African descent, and the need for liberation so that this society can reach its promise and full potential.

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Some of the major articulators currently prominent in print and television media are from our ranks and our classrooms too: Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Imani Perry and Ibram X. Kendi, amongst many others, speak our truth to power on a daily basis as they remind all of us of the powerful words of James Baldwin, of the challenges in raising Black sons in America, and about becoming antiracist adults and raising anti-racist children.4 So our struggle must continue. We must stay strong and grow in our infl u- ence for good in our respective educational institutions, even when those with administrative power endeavor to “water down,” minimize, and commodify our scholarship, our teaching and our service to our communities, though all the while they are paying lip service to “diversity and inclusion” and racial equity. All the while they are still making sure that they, White men and women, are maintaining (sometimes with the help of a co-opted Black mouthpiece) the power on our campuses. All the while they are resisting our student activists. All the while they are denying students, of all racial backgrounds, an honest education. We need to maintain our confi dence and diligence in our transformative work that challenges the status quo, decolonizes the curriculum and seeks our own and our students’ liberation. This volume introduces students and scholars to the large and rich area of inquiry and scholarship known as African American Studies (also called Black Studies, Africana Studies, African and African American Studies, Africology, Diaspora Studies and Pan-African Studies). It is designed for use with undergraduate students in African American Studies Programs, American Studies and Ethnic Studies Programs as well as beginning graduate students in these fi elds of study. It will also be of use to faculty members and progressive university administrators as they work together to strengthen African American Studies in their respective institutions of learning. The volume exemplifi es African American Studies’ characteristic of pro- moting many different voices. Alexander and Austin, for example, give voice to “ordinary” people in their chapter: Bea Jenkins, picking cotton, who speaks from the heart about her anguish over Emmett Till’s death and Harold Taylor speaking about the invisible wounds wrought upon him through torture, all while he maintains that he will keep working for his people. Theirs are the voices that are not heard often enough in the history books, though they offer invaluable insights to the reader. The voices of artists, committed to being proactive in challenging injus- tices in the world, are also heard in the interviews with actor–activist Danny Glover, painter Ebony Iman Dallas and dancer Marie Casimir. We hear the world-renowned Glover, who has lived a life pursuing values established in him as a “child” of the Civil Rights Movement, as he voices his purpose- ful desire to share “the people’s stories”: stories of people about whom you would not normally hear; stories about people transforming from ordinary to extraordinary; important stories about relationships and living; and of people transcending against the odds. We hear Dallas and Casimir, Diaspora women

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from a different generation than Mr. Glover, speak of their endeavors as contemporary artists and activists in the United States, as well as in their other homes in Somalia and Haiti respectively. We hear the voices too of great scholars, like Moleﬁ Asante, our new ancestor Perry Hall,5 and James Stewart, who have known what it was like to push for Black Studies “back in the day,” and recall an early interview with Manning Marable, a brilliant “public intellectual” in his time, committed to sharing Black Studies with the public. These voices of long experience in the ﬁ eld are juxtaposed with those of more recent scholars, including Tommy Curry, who has made very recent history by taking Black Studies to the University of Edinburgh in Scotland; Georgene Bess Montgomery, a past President of the National Council of Black Studies, who gives insight into culturally correct analysis of literature; Grace Gipson, who introduces us to a new area of scholarship on race, gender and comic books; Tiffany Barber, who expounds on Afrofuturism, and many others representing various areas of expertise and longevity in Black Studies.

Part I: History and Context of African American Studies Part I investigates various aspects of history and context for students learning for the fi rst time about the origins of Black Studies. Often students, from all backgrounds, have been failed by the K–12 system in the United States, and have been taught little if anything about Black history, beyond knowing that there was slavery in the past and that Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the “I have a dream” speech. In the spirit of Sankofa, much of this text honors the idea of looking back to see and learn from where we have come, at the same time as we move forward. Thus, in this fi rst section, and elsewhere throughout the text, there are frequent references to educational pioneers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and to scholars, activists and students of the 1960s, to all of whom we owe an immeasurable debt. In the chapter “Memories of 1968” (previously in “Refl ections on the Journey” in the original edition of this text), Danny Glover, internationally acclaimed actor, activist and former student at San Francisco State College, describes the social and political environment of San Francisco at the time the fi rst Black Studies program was established. In this exclusive interview, Glover gives an in-depth account of his activities, and those of his peers, when together with external community supporters they fought for Black Studies to be added to the curriculum. This retrospective view of events, by someone who was actu- ally there and involved, gives us a bird’s eye picture of one of the major sites of struggle in the educational landscape at the time. Ben Keppel’s chapter, “Pedagogy and Decolonization: Historical Refl ections on Origins of Black Studies in the United States,” examines some of the early, informal beginnings of the discipline from multiple vantage points, set within the larger American and global contexts of colonization and decolonization.

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Keppel’s focus on selected individuals like Houston A. Baker and Lorenzo P. Greene and their efforts within schools and communities; on the brilliant writing and oratory of James Baldwin and Malcolm X; and on the revolutionary activities and educational philosophies of the iconic Kwame Ture and Angela Davis, give a fl avor of the drive for and organic expressions of Black Studies, prior to what is seen as the formal movement for curriculum change within colleges and universities. The chapter by Greg Graham, “Toward Radical Pan-African Pedagogy and Civic Engagement,” focuses on the author’s contention that Pan-Africanism is in dire crisis, despite the fact that it is of the utmost importance for African and African-descended peoples. Making reference to the works of C. L. R. James and Frantz Fanon, he makes the case for a guiding Pan-African pedagogy and civic education in the struggle for a more human world. Graham argues that obstacles in the way, at this point in time, are the neoliberal model of the nation-state, as exemplifi ed by South Africa, and the radical individualism that it fosters. One of the great stalwarts of Black Studies, James B. Stewart, in his chapter “The ‘Field and Function’ of Africana Studies: Insights from the Life and Writ- ings of W. E. B. Du Bois,” passes on classic, essential knowledge about Du Bois, this intellectual giant of a researcher, teacher, scholar and activist, whose legacy to the discipline is hard to match. Following a brief biography of Du Bois, Stewart focuses on ten themes to highlight major contributions he made to the discipline, including areas of debate and controversy. This chapter serves not only as an excellent introduction to students about Du Bois’ contributions but also highlights how his vision is still relevant to Africana Studies in the twenty-fi rst century.

Part II: African American Studies: Theories and Methodologies Part II introduces readers, fi rst, to different theoretical perspectives, and second, to research methodologies as utilized in Africana Studies. Set in context, and within the developmental frame of Black Studies, theory is also presented as central and inextricably linked to history. As with the history and context of Africana Studies discussed in Part I, the content of these chapters is foundational knowledge for students of the discipline. Clearly there is no ‘one way’ to conceptualize African American Studies. Ronald Bailey highlights, “We do not have to be the same or think the same to carry on collective work aimed at one or more common objectives. And we do not have to have the same objectives.”6 Thus, Perry Hall’s chapter, “African American Studies: Discourses and Paradigms,” presents a picture of the range and differences of intellectual and ideological perspectives in the fi eld, and the variations in paradigms and theoretical perspectives, past and present. Refl ecting on history, societal contextual factors and the evolution of African American Studies, Hall speaks from a long history of experience in the fi eld. Following a

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discussion of the integrationist/inclusionist frameworks, underlying epistemo- logical issues, Black Feminist discourse, Black Marxism and Black Nationalist discourses on race and class, the Afrocentric paradigm and Gender and Women’s Studies perspectives, he presents the “transformationist” approach, which he describes as a “range of alternative perspectives.” Elsewhere Hall has indicated that such an approach is helpful in the way it “connects and contextualizes classical and contemporary African American experiences to the wider, global human experiences.”7 Hall concludes with a discussion of Africana Critical Theory and the evolving issues that shape the fi eld of discourse in which African American Studies scholars work. While Hall’s chapter illustrates the diversity of approaches taken in African American Studies, it is reasonable to say that one approach that has garnered a giant share of attention is that of Afrocentricity. This bears testament to the tremendous impact of Afrocentricity and the work of Molefi Kete Asante in the fi eld of African American Studies. Molefi Kete Asante’s chapter, “Afrocentricity and Africology: Theory and Practice in the Discipline,” presents a clear and straightforward discussion of the philosophical paradigm of Afrocentricity. He highlights its origins as theory and practice, rooted in an intellectual idea written from activism, observations and notions of social transformation, and discusses in detail its emphases on the centrality and agency of the African person. Important constructs and characteristics of Afrocentricity are delineated and assertions corrective to common misunderstandings about the approach are presented. Throughout the chapter, Asante, the foremost articulator of Afrocentricity in the world, references Afrocentric scholars past and present, and clar- ifi es, alongside his discussion of the importance of their work, that it is consciousness and orientation rather than race per se that defi nes them. Thus he dispels the misconceptions that Afrocentric scholars must be African or of African descent, or that all Black scholars are Afrocentric. Over the last decades, understanding Whiteness, or White privilege, or White supremacy, has been discussed in a number of disciplines, generally by scholars who center Whiteness, through a Eurocentric lens, while disparaging its unfair outcomes. In the chapter “Revisiting White Privilege: Pedagogy in Black Stud- ies” by Tim Davidson and Jeanette Davidson, the authors argue that, in Black Studies, it is vitally important to examine and analyze White privilege from an Afrocentric perspective; that is, to center people of African descent and to understand how White privilege impacts the lived experience of Black people. Looking back to brilliant works by W. E. B. Du Bois, James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison, the authors illustrate how structures of White privilege persist, and have resulted in centuries-long social inequalities and suffering endured by people of African descent. A strong activist message is presented to students to engage in personal and collective social justice activities that push toward systemic change. This chapter includes the poignant story of Terence Crutcher, killed by a police offi cer in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2016, after encountering car

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trouble on his way home from an evening college class. A brief description and analysis of the violence enacted upon Mr. Crutcher underscores the continuing deadliness of White privilege for Black citizens. In this section of the text, it is also recognized that a number of different methods of research investigation are utilized in Africana Studies. These are critical for scholars whose aim is to conduct valid research, and to generate theory, and to reach for historical truths, and for all of us as consumers of knowledge. Two chapters illustrate appropriate research methodology for students and researchers in the discipline. Serie McDougal’s chapter, “Social Science Research in Africana Studies: Ethical Protocols and Guidelines,” focuses directly on how to conduct empirical social science research in a way that is respectful and affi rming to Africana populations. Specifi cally, he highlights the importance of conducting research that is of value to Africana communities, and he outlines protocol and guidelines to follow in order to ensure protection for research participants and to result in culturally valid research outcomes that will add to Africana Studies’ bodies of knowledge and practice. Leslie M. Alexander and Curtis J. Austin, in “Africana Studies and Oral History: A Critical Assessment,” describe and explain the importance and indispensable value of oral traditions to African people, throughout history, in telling stories and expressing their social, cultural and political realities. Alexander and Austin contend that oral history is just as signifi cant today, and argue that oral history methods should be central to Africana History and Africana Studies. The authors present a searing fi rst-person account of torture from Harold Taylor, a freed member of the San Francisco 8,8 and make a com- pelling case that access to such living history is likeliest to be made using the methodology they suggest.

Part III: Social Responsibility, Service Learning and Activism Part III calls to the forefront the traditional emphasis placed on the link between social responsibility, community service, social activism and the academy in Black Studies. This has been a deﬁ ning characteristic articulated in the discipline and should remain so. Though debated by some scholars,9 it is generally understood to be indispensable to Black Studies scholarship. In Beyond Black and White, Manning Marable expresses his view in no uncertain terms:

It is insufﬁ cient for black scholars to scale the pristine walls of the academic tower, looking down with calculated indifference on the ongoing struggles of black people. We must always remember that we are the product and beneﬁ cia- ries of those struggles, and that our scholarship is without value unless it bears a message which nourishes the hope, dignity and resistance of our people.10

While a focus on praxis threads through this whole volume, the chapters in Part III particularly highlight African American Studies’ responsibility to

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communities. Today most undergraduate students who have elected to major, double-major or minor in African American Studies state that they are motivated to be of service and to give back to their communities. Some aim to do so as academics and researchers in the fi eld, while others voice desires to serve as culturally competent journalists, or social workers, lawyers and teachers, doc- tors and public servants. These chapters champion service to the community as an essential ingredient of African American Studies. In the chapter “Africana Studies and Community Service: Using the STRENGTH Model,” Jeanette Davidson and Tim Davidson present a focus on student service learning within the community. This chapter demonstrates how Tim Davidson’s original model fi ts seamlessly with long-standing mes- sages of hope, problem-solving and change in Africana Studies. Built around an easy-to-remember acronym, the model consists of eight strength-based and solution-oriented principles, and has proven useful in helping students think through their volunteer activities and analyses of community engagement. Case illustrations are presented after discussion of each of the model’s principles, and quotes from well-known historical and contemporary fi gures highlight how Africans and African Americans have characteristically utilized their strengths in the face of incredible odds. Kevin L. Brooks’ chapter, “Africana Studies and Civic Engagement,” notes the emphasis placed on social responsibility by the National Council for Black Studies and the historical origins of the links between Africana/Black Stud- ies and working with communities, as he highlights the importance of civic engagement activities to the discipline. Brooks focuses particularly on the util- ity of African-centered womanism approaches for conceptualizing and design- ing university courses for students embarking on civic engagement activities, and presents an example of students and the work they developed around an annual conference for girls and young women. In “Danny Glover and Manning Marable: Activism Through Art and Schol- arship” I return to interviews conducted for the fi rst edition of this text. In this second part of the interview with Danny Glover (see Chapter 2 for the fi rst part) he talks passionately about his commitment to social justice and shows clearly that his art and activism are inseparably merged in his life. Inspired ini- tially by his parents, who fought for Civil Rights, and artists/activists of note, like Harry Belafonte, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee and Paul Robeson, he speaks of storytelling as important to his process as an actor, fi lm-maker and activist as well as his civic engagement in matters of social justice. The interview with Manning Marable presents the insights of one of the foremost Black intellectuals of recent times. He insists that Black Studies must be for the public and illustrates this in his discussion of efforts he has made, and examples of scholars of the past. Linking his belief that Black Studies must open new vistas of understanding and serve the public, he discusses the importance of advocacy and the pursuit of social justice. This, he believes, should entail involving ourselves in political projects with the goal of providing solutions to

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real problems experienced by Black people in their daily lives in the United States and the Diaspora, such as the incarceration of excessive numbers of Black men and women, inadequate health care and poverty. Marable makes it clear that the interdisciplinary approach of Black Studies is best suited for these complex tasks at hand. In the chapter by Dallas, Casimir and Davidson, “Contemporary Women of the African Diaspora: Identity, Artistic Expression and Activism,” we learn about the two artists, Ebony Iman Dallas, a painter, and Marie Casimir, a dancer. Both have experience as instructors in African and African American Studies, while fully active in their performance as artists. This chapter focuses on the lives of the two as they explore the complexity and convergence of different cultural aspects of their respective identities, their artistic endeavors in different parts of the United States, East Africa and Haiti, their social activism, and their teaching in Black Studies classrooms.

Part IV: Selected Areas of Scholarship in the Discipline It is impossible to present a fair representation of recent African American Studies scholarship in any single volume. The strength of the selections made for Part IV lies in their differing areas of subject focus, stylistic variation, and their varied pedagogical approaches and theoretical viewpoints. They thus point to the diverse and expansive nature of Black Studies, albeit within a small sample. At the same time, these chapters illustrate certain areas of convergence in substance and approach, illustrating the characteristic interdisci- plinarity of writers in the Black intellectual tradition. At the end of the day students should move in the direction of having a broad and inclusive, if not altogether holistic knowledge of Black Studies. These chapters will help guide students to think critically and will encourage them to look forward to delving more into various areas of Black Studies curricula. In “He Wasn’t Man Enough: Black Male Studies and the Ethnological Targeting of Black Men in Nineteenth-Century Suffragist Thought” Tommy J. Curry challenges any Pollyannaish ideas that readers may have about White woman suffragists. In this chapter he goes into ﬁ ne detail about prominent suffragists who were deliberate and ruthless in their demonization of Black men as rapists, deserving of being lynched, and most speciﬁ cally as not worthy of being given the right to vote. Suffragists’ portrayals of Black men as genetically inferior, unintelligent, brutish and misogynistic—to the extent that they were even described as worse to Black women than their White enslavers—Curry demonstrates, were vehemently racist and contrived, all while they endeavored to be side by side in power with their White men. Curry calls for scholars in Black Studies to investigate more deeply the too often overlooked sexual vulnerabilities of Black men, past and present, and to better understand the works of Black nineteenth-century male scholars who too often have been misunderstood.

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Georgene Bess Montgomery’s chapter, “Reading Black Through the Looking Glass: Decoding the Encoding in African Diasporic Literature,” highlights the importance of understanding literary texts by properly applying culturally specifi c theories in their analyses. While she acknowledges that other approaches may be helpful, she stresses that any analysis employing only these will never be suffi cient to understand correctly, and in full, any African Diasporic work. Using the Ifa Paradigm, Georgene Bess Montgomery presents an analysis of the short story “The Youngest Doll” by Rosario Ferré as illustration. Grace D. Gipson’s chapter, “Diversity and Representations of Blackness in Comic Books,” presents a detailed overview of the history and development of representations in comic books inclusive of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation and identity. She describes the ongoing challenges to develop diverse and intersectional characters, the writers and artists creating these works, and the growing scholarship in this fi eld of study. Beginning with a focus on the need to reset the standards, she guides us step by step through the transformation of comic books full of stereotypes and derogatory images to comics with a growing number of characters illustrating Black life, challenges, hopes and aspirations, as well as science fi ction fantasies. As an historian with a special expertise in sport, Jamal Ratchford takes us on a journey through the past, right up to the present, in his chapter, “Black Athletes and the Problematic of Integration in Sport.” Ratchford discusses challenges related to race, class, gender and sexual orientation, set in their historical context, and discusses the struggle even to have sport recognized as an analytical venue for these areas of focus in American life. Ratchford discusses White male identity and resistance to Black competitors, focusing on the color line, and the fi ght for inclusion in sports where segregation had been the rule of the day. This chapter offers insights into resistance against societal ills and protest by Black athletes across the decades, up to Colin Kaepernick and his very public stance against police brutality. In “African American Music: The Ties That Bind,” Alphonso Simpson follows the historic path of African musicians, and then African American musicians, within the United States. Focusing fi rst on work songs, spirituals and ragtime, he then moves on to the genres of jazz, blues, gospel, rhythm and blues and soul music, concluding with a discussion of “old style” rap. Throughout, he makes clear the indisputable contribution to the United States, and to the world, of music with origins in the continent of Africa. Simpson makes clear the emotional, physical and psychological despair out of which this music often emerged and the spiritual triumph and musical genius it represents. “Afrofuturism and the Question of Visual Reparations,” by Tiffany E. Barber, begins with a focus on the movie Black Panther, set in the fi ctive Wakanda, and highlights the popularization of Afrofuturism. She goes on to illustrate various ways that, over time, writers and fi lm-makers have conceptualized Afrofuturism, its links to African American past, present and future, and the convergence of

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a multiplicity of ideas and themes, including identity, representation, otherness, marginalization, liberation and redemption. The author delves into a discussion of Afrosurrealism and Afro-pessimism, and reminds the readers of the creative legacy of past Black British and African American fi lm-makers, and of more recent provocative contemporary work. This chapter offers a view into an excit- ing area of scholarship in Black Studies, on Blackness, racial politics, belonging (and not belonging), resistance, hope and even refusal to redeem the future. The fi nal chapter, Kehinde Andrews’ “The Black Studies Movement in Britain,” reminds readers of the global nature of the discipline, as he relates the recent story of creating a degree program in Birmingham, England. Couched in the language of struggle, Diaspora, the fi ght for liberation, transformative knowledge and practices, decolonizing the curriculum, community and adherence to the principles of Black Studies, Andrews illustrates the discipline’s commitment to social responsibility and advocacy. He describes how Black Studies in Britain is rooted in the community, with its objective being not to change the university but to use its resources to support liberation struggles off campus and thereby subvert it from the outside, for the common good. Andrews states with conviction that what differentiates Black Studies from other scholarship that focuses on Black or African content is Diaspora, liberation and community.

Opening Refl ection: African Symbols and African American Studies Africa is to African American Studies much as oxygen is to the study of life on earth; the second would not exist without the fi rst.11 Put another way, Africa is at the heart of what we do in Africana Studies. And so it is that I often start my Introduction to African and African American Studies course not only with an overview of the work for the semester, but with a discussion of selected Adinkra symbols12 and their meanings and value in Akan. Thus, students are immersed in the historical, and philosophical, and oral values of these traditional symbols, my hope being that these new scholars in our discipline will be inspired and motivated and even guided13 in their thinking throughout the course. Students gain a sense of how aesthetically pleasing these symbols are (and yes, sometimes our fi rst group exercise includes a drawing and “tattoo” session) and start to ponder the principles of behavior, co-operation, initiative, historical events and allusions, social and religious norms, political and judicial elements expressed therein.14 Our focus, too, includes how we might relate our Africana discipline to these Ghanaian symbols as we fi nd ourselves positioned generally within large Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) that, even though they do not know it, need African knowledge and wisdom from the past linked to present realities. African American Studies is positioned today to contribute greatly to the overall mission of the academy. The following six Adinkra symbols hold important communicative value to the discipline, with their ancient cultural

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expressions, holding meaning for current complex paradigms and world views. They remind us to move forward in this twenty-ﬁ rst century with a spirit of peace and determination.

1. Sankofa—meaning “go back to fetch it”—is a powerful reminder that it is necessary to learn from the past in order to build for the future. The symbol depicts a bird turning its head backward, with its long beak turned in the direction of its tail feathers, representing among several meanings the idea that a person should collect all the data and wisdom of previous learning experiences to strengthen the quest for knowledge in the present and future. This most popular symbol represents reﬂ ection and vision and captures an individ- ual and a collective sense of spirit and identity for people of African descent. Sankofa reminds us to value our rich heritage of wisdom and knowledge.

2. The spiders’ web—Ananse Ntontan—is a symbol of wisdom, creativity and craftiness in the face of life’s complexities. Here the spider demonstrates how something small can use its resources to survive and create something good from its ingenious design. This reminds us that even if we are marginalized in some university systems, being small does not mean we are unable to ful- ﬁ ll our destiny as a discipline.

3. Fu ntummireku-Dɛnkyɛmmireku is the popular Ghanaian symbol of a two- headed crocodile with a common stomach. It is a symbol for unity in diversity. Its application includes the idea that even though members of a group are different, they can still achieve mutual goals, be unique and creative, and function as a collective. This reminds us to embrace our theoretical breadth and divergent paradigms as a discipline, recognizing our diverse points of view and our common purpose.

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4. Mate Masie is a symbol indicating that what is heard has been understood and will be retained, therein representing the importance of listening to teaching and incorporating that wisdom into everyday life. This prompts us that we need to hold on to what we study and then translate that knowledge into a better world.

5. The symbol Nkyinkyin literally means “twisting” and is a symbol for tough- ness and adaptability, reﬂ ecting the Akan people’s admiration of the ability to withstand hardship and recognizing that a change of strategies is sometimes the best way to improve outcomes. This encourages us to be strong but not to be inattentive to the need to adapt to the twenty-ﬁ rst-century challenges for our discipline.

6. Tabono is an oar used in a canoe. The symbol refers to how a steady oar will inspire confi dence and how, if the canoe is to stay upright in diffi cult waters, the paddler will need to be persistent and strong. This is to provoke in us a fi rm resolve and steadiness as we move our discipline forward.

Notes

1. For a few examples, see: W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk [ﬁ rst published 1903] (New York: Penguin Books, 1989); and The World and Africa: An Inquiry into the Part Which Africa Has Played in World History (New York: International Publishers, 1965). Also, Stephanie Y. Evans, “Mary McLeod Bethune’s Research Agenda: Thought Translated to Work,” African American Research Perspectives 12 (2008), 22–39; and James B. Stewart, “Social Science and Systematic Inquiry in Africana Studies,” in Afrocentric Traditions: Africana Studies, vol. 1, ed. J. Conyers Jr. (London: Transaction Publishers, 2005); and James B. Stewart, “The

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Legacy of W. E. B. Du Bois for Contemporary Black Studies,” Journal of Negro Education 53 (1984), 296–311. See Cheikh Anta Diop, The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality, trans. Mercer Cook (New York: L. Hill, 1974). 2. See Perry A. Hall, In the Vineyard: Working in African American Studies (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1999). 3. Cornel West, The Cornel West Reader (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 1999), 542. 4. See Eddie S. Glaude, Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Les- sons for Our Own (New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2020); Imani Perry, Breathe: A Letter to My Sons (Boston: Beacon Press, 2019); Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist (New York: Penguin Random House, 2019) and Antiracist Baby (Kokila, Penguin Random House, 2020). 5. Perry Hall, brilliant colleague and friend, and author of Chapter 6 of this text, “African American Studies: Discourses and Paradigms,” passed away on 19 April 2020. 6. Ronald W. Bailey, “Black Studies in the Third Millennium: Reﬂ ections on Six Ideas That Can Still (and Must) Change the World,” Souls, Summer (2000), 88. 7. Perry A. Hall, “African American Studies: Discourses and Paradigms,” in African American Studies, ed. J. R. Davidson (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010). 8. See www.freethesf8.org/. 9. See Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Manning Marable, “A Debate in Activism in Black Studies,” in Dispatches from the Ebony Tower: Intellectuals Confront the African American Experience, ed. Manning Marable (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 186–91. 10. Manning Marable, Beyond Black and White: Transforming African-American Politics (London: Verso, 1995), 112. 11. See “Africa and its Importance to African American Studies,” by Tibor P. Nagy, in Chapter 7 of the ﬁ rst edition of this text. 12. W. Bruce Willis, The Adinkra Dictionary: A Visual Primer on the Language of Adinkra (Washington, DC: The Pyramid Complex, 1998). 13. See J. E. T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor, Geotge Appiah, and Melvin Nartey, “The Philos- ophy Behind Some Adinkra Symbols and Their Communicative Values in Akan,” Philosophical Papers and Review 7.3 (April 2016). 14. Ibid. 23.

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