Critical Issues in Black Studies: A Selective Analysis

Abstract

Black Studies is the most recent mass expression of a venerable tradition of Afro-centric scholarship among African-Americans.' This tradition has sought to incorporate scholarly pursuits with (1) the transmission of knowledge relevant to the individual and group achievements of African-Americans, (2) the vindication of Black people from scholastic and ideological onslaughts against them, and (3) the creation and application of means for African-American group problem-solving. Proposed in the mid-1960s as a theoretical critique of and practical departure from the racist-elitist aspects of Euro-American scholarship and schooling, the essence of Black Studies has been to bring a critical analysis of the black experience into the educational process. This was to be done by infusing the realities of African-American life into that process, by changing the process itself through articulation of the needs of Black liberation, and, by working toward established goals. In this task, a wedding of scholarship to community development was to transpire. Black Studies was to be a bold and audacious new approach to social change through education. Black Studies, then, refers to the attempt to create a systematic body of knowledge and experience based in the history of Black people. Black Studies theory and practice examines and enhances