When facing the world beyond the United States, Black Americans generally, and Black American Studies specifically, naturally focus their interests essentially on the wider Black (Pan-African) world. But, in so doing, they must not lose sight of the wider Third World and the still wider international system that increasingly has assumed global proportions. The systematic examination of Black American Studies or Black World concerns logically should embrace these wider arenas. The more frequently recognized comparative dimension of Third World/International Studies that focuses on developing an understanding of other peoples and systems, other cultural or racial experiences, and the like, deriving similarities and differences, is but one side of the picture. Equally and perhaps even more important is an international systemic perspective focused on the continuing relations between systems and peoples across national boundaries within a substantially evolved global context. If special programs for minority students seem still to be groping toward a recognition of the former (comparative) dimension, they can hardly be said to have developed systematic awareness of the validity of the latter (international systemic) perspective. A good part of the problem derives from realities in the wider American educational system which, whether through design or accident, simultaneously underprepares and miseducates its citizenry in terms of understanding other systems and cultures as well as evolving global realities. Complicating this state of affairs is the consideration of Black American misconceptions of their role and functions in the international system. Partly because of a lack of actual or potential statehood (unlike their Caribbean or African