NEWSLETTER Vol

THE DEPARTMENT OF AFRICAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER Vol. I, No. 1 Fordham University Fall 2012 Letter From the Chair Looking Back While Moving Forward The Department of African and African American Studies is in the midst of an exciting and transformative moment. This fall marks the forty-third anniversary of the Depart- ment. Since its establishment in 1969, the Department has remained devoted to its core mission of contributing to discussions within the field of African and African West African Adinkra, American Studies at the local, national and international levels. It strives passionately symbol of life-long education and to broaden and enrich the intellectual life of Fordham community. In spring 2012, we continued quest for knowledge. developed a three-year strategic plan that will enable us to translate our mission and theme into reality. Today, I can say with great confidence that the Department of African and African Inside This Issue: American Studies is rebuilding and strengthening its position as a leading resource for research on Africa and African diaspora, program and curriculum development, 1 Letter from the Chair student mentoring and that it remains an important space for dialogue on Africa and 2 Critical Issues Forum African diaspora. We plan to increase our collaboration with other Fordham Univer- 4 Student Reflections sity area studies and departments including the Middle East Studies Program, Inter- 5 New Research Project national Studies Program, and Latin American and Latino Studies Institute. We will 6 Spotlight on 2011–2012 Events continue to work in collaboration with Fordham University departments and profes- sional schools to offer undergraduate and graduate courses, an undergraduate major 8 Forthcoming Events and minor. We are also exploring the possibility of offering either graduate Certificate Fall/2012 - Spring/2013 in African and African American Studies or M.A. in the nearest future. 8 Faculty Contributions to Student Research This past spring, in collaboration with other programs, we organized a very success- ful symposium on the life and legacy of Malcolm X. We also hosted a lecture given 9 Recent Faculty Publications by Patricia Sullivan who spoke about the history of the NAACP and the Civil Rights 9 Course Listings: 2012–2013 Movement. The department continues to work in collaboration with community orga- nizations in the New York area. In spring 2012, the Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP) and the department participated in the opening of Whedco’s Bronx Music Heritage Center. We continue to support and encourage undergraduate research and publication in African and African American Studies. In October 2011, the department hosted its first annual Student—led Conference at Lincoln Center Campus. The department also teamed up with other programs and student clubs to host perfor- mances of former artist—in—residence Akua Naru on both the Rose Hill and Lincoln Campuses. We plan to strengthen our outreach projects in the coming academic year by featuring new projects such as the African Diplomatic Forum and numerous lectures and roundtable discussions around issues of human rights, governance, and citizenship. In the coming academic year, we will continue to move forward with what we have achieved and initiated. We will be keen to develop the new directions and will orga- nize debate at academic, policy and cultural levels. The 2012–2013 academic year will feature a diverse agenda of events and activities, including symposia and conferences that engage scholars, artists, writers and policy makers. We remain extremely proud of what we have accomplished since our establishment and are confident that the best is yet to come. Dr. Amir Idris, Professor and Chair 1 Critical Issues Forum Disparate Impact Gone Awry: How the Misapplication of Civil Rights Has Department of African and African Encouraged the Demonization of American Studies the Nation’s Teachers Dr. Mark Naison, Professor of African American Studies and History Faculty ne of the AMIR IDRIS unexamined Chair and Professor Odimensions of the history of the R. Bentley Anderson S.J. School Reform Assoc. Chair and Assoc. Professor Movement is the role that Civil Mark L. Chapman Rights lawyers Associate Professor played in shaping its guiding assump- Aimee Meredith Cox tions and strategies. Assistant Professor I was reminded of this the other day Jane Kani Edward when reading an Clinical Assistant Professor unpublished manuscript by an Oklahoma City based teacher named John Thompson, who pointed out that civil rights Oneka Labennett lawyers typically demonstrated the existence of discrimina- Associate Professor tion by documenting statistical disparities between underrepresented and privileged groups, which is precisely the Claude J. Mangum approach School Reformers used in devising remedies for Emeritus Associate Professor the achievement, or test score gap, between black and white students. Reformers looked at statistical disparities between Fawzia Mustafa schools in Black and White neighborhoods and inferred that Associate Professor the lower test scores and graduation rates n the former could best be remedied by removing teachers and administrators Mark D. Naison in the underperforming institutions and replacing them Professor with more skilled people and/or by closing such schools and replacing them with new schools that had greater flex- Irma Watkins-Owens ibility in hiring. Associate Professor As I read these passages, they struck a chord on multiple levels. First, I thought of my own research on the evolu- tion of affirmative action and how civil rights leaders and federal officials developed a rationale for it. Affirmative action began when policy makers required employers to do statistical analyses of the percentage of underrepresented groups they hired or enrolled, and based remedial action on those statistics, rather than demonstrated discriminatory intent. The main agency responsible for enforcing antidis- crimination law in employment, The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission pioneered this approach, When companies complained that under representation of minori- 2 ties was not the result of intentional discrimination, their involving variations in student test scores from year to year. complaints were rejected, by both the EEOC and the federal On the basis of the models, which were statistically flawed courts, who invoked a doctrine called “disparate impact” and often defied common sense, schools were closed and (enshrined in a Supreme Court decision Griggs v. Duke teachers were removed and placed in a much stigmatized Power) which stipulated that practices which reinforced reserve pool. The consequence was an increase in the number historic patterns of discrimination, even when they were of tests and huge ratcheting up of stress levels associated neutral in intent, and even in application, were considered with them. In New York City, for example, every third discriminatory under federal law, and could be subject to grader must sit through 6 straight days of testing for 90 remedies that increased the number of employees from the minutes a day. Those who defend this practice still use the group in question even if the institutions normal standards language of equity in explaining why they are doing. But for hiring were set aside. quite frankly, the negatives associated with this level of quantification are far exceeding the benefits. Now let’s move ahead 40 years later. Civil rights lawyers began looking at disparities in achievement between Black We now face a situation where school reform policies and White students through a similar lens, treating such once described as necessary to achieve educational equity disparities as if they were the product of discrimination. and reduce the racial achievement gap have resulted in But rather than viewing those disparities as the result of uncontrolled testing , profit taking on a grand scale by test discrimination in criminal justice policy, the housing and companies, and attacks on teacher integrity and collective employment markets, and access to family wealth, they bargaining rights that have produced the lowest level of chose to isolate the school from the depressed neighborhood teacher morale on record. they were located and put continuous pressure on under performing schools to do a much better job educating Such is the consequence of the misapplication of a once Black and Latino students. honorable civil rights doctrine to a setting where the most publicized causes of discrimination –teacher apathy and One incidental outcome of the application of disparate incompetence- are far less significant than environmental impact theory to education was the identification of “bad factors excluded from the analytical and statistical model, teachers” and the unions which protected them, as the particularly poverty, and societal racism. primary cause of discriminatory outcomes for Black and Latino students. These were factors which policy makers The notion that “School Reform is the Civil Rights Cause felt they could directly influence, unlike inter-generational of the 21st Century has become a cruel joke to teachers poverty and discrimination in housing, employment and and students who find themselves deluged with unneces- criminal justice, and once the schools became isolated from sary tests and placed under intolerable stress in the name their neighborhood setting as discriminatory institutions, of educational equity. teachers quickly became the main

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