Study Of African American Experience

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How do we undertake the study of African American Experience. Abstract What does it mean to study something? To take part in the intellectual review of any topic certain guidelines must be established. The first is to acknowledge that a certain “thing” is complex enough to collect, review, and analyze information and content in said field. Second is to recognize that the “thing” in question is valuable enough or worth studying in the first place. When these two goals can be established one can truly begin to undertake the study of something Critical Review of Scholarship Early in the school year the rich culture of Africans was made readily apparent to me. Though I already had a baseline understanding of the culture and heritage I have learned…show more content…
This component may be the toughest to grasp due to the abstract nature of the term African American culture. What does that actually mean? Africa is a place of many great and diverse nations to say African American though viewed differently is an very broad term if u look at it as classifying a person from Africa that has migrated to the Americas. A proper term for that would be Nigerian-american or Gahnan-american. The term African-American is more geared to those who are generations removed from the home land but are still heavily influenced by the culture of their ancestors for a lack of a better term the “blacks” of America. Ignorant to their history many blacks of the 21-century try to dispel their heritage and try to only become American. Referring to themselves as only such with no ties to anywhere past what is now. This mind set is conducive to what was trying to be accomplished by whites for centuries the relinquishment of everything known before slavery. “in a situation of the colonizer and the colonized the question of consciousness become a site of intense struggle” (Thiong’o, 109) As discussed in class being ripped from everything you know into a new world is the most traumatizing experience and those who gave their lives in hopes of a better future, a future where if they can’t make it home at least they claim their own stake in this new land; these ancestors will look in turmoil as they realize that…show more content…
As already stated it is not the separation of African history and Modern blacks only when the two come together can u have true African American study. The study of African Americans is not a thing that has sprouted up in the wake of a divergence between whites and blacks in American with or without this canyon the study would still thrive and should always be a viable topic. This study is not a surrender of any previously recorded data or ideals that were made about African culture and isn’t a sub-level educational section that should be easily overlooked. In reality the Study of African American culture and the experience of doing so is the culmination of all studies previously recorded about African culture and the blending of modern society to confirm and create hypotheses about how our black culture came to be, where we pull influence from, and where our culture is headed. So now that we understand how to approach the study of the African American experience, will we now view our history and move into the future in a different light or will we continue to try and fit our unique presence into the preset constraints of modern
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