The Furious Passage Revisited!!
I might work on this one some more. Let me know if you want in.
Statement of the problem
The Black student is confronted by a myriad of subjective dilemmas throughout ones career as a student. The Black graduate student in particular is faced with a quandary intensified by the Black individual’s aspiration to exhaust his or her scholarship and intellectual capacities. The dilemma then, for the black graduate is derivative of the contradictions in the personal mobility of the black scholar relative to the mobility of Blacks as a collective. Black’s collective identity is characterized by their African heritage, colonization, and enslavement, as well as the aftermath of that enslavement. Though the processes of Americanization set forth to strip Blacks of their heritage and integrate them into society in accordance with their utility to capitalism, assimilating agents could not accomplish the detachment of racial stigmas that had been affixed to justify the ill treatment of blacks in America. Thus, Blacks as a collective have been alienated from the assets of life chance enhancement. However, Black people as a collective have struggled all their lives to make it possible for themselves and their descendants to attend institutions of higher education. Thus “the people”, that is the collective Black community, feel the Black graduate has arrived (Davidson 1973). On the other hand, the Black graduate student may recognize European centered paradigms as lacking the utility for achieving Black liberation and rather than maximizing educational attainment, the Black scholar believes he or she would be more effective organizing in the streets for the revolution. Such circumstances may create turmoil in the Black graduate student associated with the creating of his or her own perspective. This turmoil as well overflows into post graduate pursuits and the choosing of a personally meaningful career.
Review of the Literature
As not to define the Black position in a dichotomous sort, but in order to examine a spectrum of diverse perspectives regarding the role of the Black scholar relative to the Black community, this study will focus on the liberal and nationalist perspectives. Furthermore, this study will discuss the intersections of these perspectives and others such as the Black feminist and womanist approaches. In exploring these positions of the Black scholar we can consider as well the relationships of the Academy to the Black community, the Black intellectual to the Black community, and the Black intellectual to the Academy.
A liberal thinker in this context can also be referred to as integrationist, inclusionist, or assimilationist. According to Dr. Arthur Lewin (2002), an inclusionist as he refers to them, strive to work within the academy and advocate for their closer integration into society. Inclusionists see themselves as rationally and scientifically establishing the field. They are funded by the establishment and have greater access via the university. Lewin indicates that Economic support for inclusionist pursuits demand conformity to conservative and conventional ideas. Integrationist alliances deliver benefits to the mainstream core and offer integration at the price of conformity in thinking.
William Julius Wilson (1999) stresses from his liberal perspective the importance of bridging the racial divide. He asserts that the division of groups along racial lines prevents their combined efforts from changing the political imbalance to reflect their interest in education and other social realms. Furthermore, he asserts that changes in the global economy have increased social inequality and have created situations that enhance antagonism between racial groups. Wilson refers to how industrial restructuring affected blue-collar black workers when job distribution became global competition and professional, technical, and managerial jobs were created to benefit those with higher levels of formal education, mostly whites. These circumstances intensified the racial divide. His remedy for racial antagonism is to unite racial groups on the basis of their commonalities and form a multi-racial coalition to mute the effects of global economic change. Where Wilson’s approach places the blame for racial antagonisms on falling and stagnated real incomes and the non-racial economic forces that have increased joblessness, he forgoes any explanation of the impact of culture, social structure, and power relations on communities of color. From his liberal stance race doesn’t matter nor does the racial hierarchy that places whites at the top. For a Black graduate student the implications for such a take on solving racial dilemmas would require him or her to disassociate from the specifics of the black experience. Multi- racial coalition building in America is still subject to the trickle down effects of the racial hierarchy. Meaning no real change for blacks would occur in the educational, political, or other social realms.
Wilson’s perspective designates economics as the problem for the racial divide and thus assigns an economic solution, much to the effect of Booker T. Washington’s ideas in The Awakening of the Negro (1896). Booker T. Washington argued that black’s education’s first priority should be to counteract the debilitating effects of slavery. He suggested that by utterly subjecting Blacks to the whims of white masters, Blacks had been disburdened of responsibilities for themselves. Washington advocated a program that incorporated manual labor and life management skills into its design. If students learned useful trades while in school, he suggested they would feel they had something to offer and could therefore lay claim a position in the social structure. Washington (1896) asserts, “Friction between the races will pass away in proportion as the black man…can produce something that the white man wants or respects in the commercial world”. In the decades of Washington, the existence of a racial hierarchy was undisputable. His liberal perspective was loyal to White’s slow acceptance of Blacks as full fledge citizens. His approach required black passivity to white oppression and encouraged boosting Black’s utility to capitalism. Lewin’s description of the inclusionist and Wilson, and Washington’s perspectives all possess this un-radical passivity toward social change. Such liberal stances tend to place the issues of the black community on the backburner; minor changes at the mainstream core are made to pacify blacks on their concerns (i.e. affirmative action), but no revolution has penetrated disadvantaged communities effectively.
In W.E.B. Du Bois’ Training of Black Men (1902), he argues that training blacks for economic usefulness is not enough. Designating them for manual labor without the benefit of education, culture, and ideas belittled them and suggested to them and to the rest of the world that they were less than fully human. Harmonization of race relations, he argued, could only occur between two self-respecting, cultured, educated races—not between a dominant elite and a forcibly subordinated, resentful minority.
Bernard W. Harleston (1965) assessed the state of higher education for Blacks. Educational opportunities, he argued, were still severely limited. Blacks generally lacked access to prominent white institutions and many all black institutions were under funded. However, Halerston optimistically designed programs to bolster students’ interest in academics. Social psychologist, Claude M. Steele (1992) suggested that the predominant reason for the failure of so many American blacks to achieve to their potential in school is an ongoing stigmatization in the classroom. The subtle and pervasive messages with which Black students are bombarded—that they are intellectually inferior; that there is no place for them in the ranks of the educated and successful—often causes them to refocus their energies outside o school. Steele (1992) asserts “if blacks are made less racially vulnerable in school, they can overcome even substantial obstacles”. Steele says a familiar set of explanations is standing ready to explain the educational performance of Black students. Any of these factors alone or through accumulated affects can undermine school achievement. These factors include societal disadvantage, the history of slavery, segregation, and job ceilings; continued lack of economic opportunities; poor schools; and the related problems of broken families, drug infested communities, and social isolation. However, Steele indicates that survey after survey shows that even poor black Americans value education highly, often more than whites. Steele goes on “Clearly; something is missing from our understanding of black underachievement” That something else, he believes has to do with the process of identifying with school. Steele speaks on his experiences that unveiled for him the importance of motivation and self-respect educational settings should foster. “Doing well in school requires a belief that school achievement can be a promising basis of self-esteem, and that belief needs constant reaffirmation even for advantaged students (Steele 1992).” Tragically, he believes the lives of Black Americans are still haunted by a specter that threatens this belief about identifying with school.
In Nicholas Lemann’s Black Nationalism on Campus (1993), he reports on his discussions with students at Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania who considered themselves participants in the Black Nationalist movement. He found that for many students Black Nationalism was not a militant uprising against the white establishment but rather a means of maintaining ethnic identity and self-respect as their education propelled them into the mainstream world. Lemann (1993) asserts, “From a white perspective, what looks like a sensible way to evaluate the thinking of Black America is to imagine an axis with a cluster of views at each end”. He goes on to say that such a model informs much of the public discussion of black issues so that the inner life of Black America comes across in the white press as being dominated by an argument between positions roughly corresponding to white liberalism and white conservatism, however Lemann asserts that white categories are not neatly applicable to black thought. Lemann suggest the main event for blacks seems to be ethnic and cultural identity, not the tension between rich and poor, government and business, or labor and capital. “To some extent it was ever thus. But black America traditionally was a thing unto itself, mostly poor and almost completely segregated. Its internal debates didn’t matter to whites. The never-ending argument over black identity continues on its own terms, not the outside world’s—only now it will probably have a growing effect on the outside world (Lemann 1993).” Poor blacks are likely to be unemployed and live in all black ghettos, while many middle-class blacks work, study, and even live side by side with whites. The middle class’s drama of ethnic assimilation has been accompanied by an unmistakable rise in cultural nationalism. Lemann points out that this seems paradoxical, “if you’re going to be living a whiter life, wouldn’t the subject of blackness be less consuming”. However, he asserts, members of every rising group feel intensely conscious of their ethnic identity at the moment they enter the majority culture and have to wrestle with social prejudice and self-doubt. Lemann suggest that the black middle class appears to be fulfilling the dream expressed by Martin Luther King Jr.; however, Malcolm X’s rhetoric of the psychological meaning of blackness now seems to be a more important cultural icon. He supports this notion by indicating the “first big heroic biography by a black director” was about Malcolm X, not King. Lemann says that the outside world probably views black nationalism as an anti-white, separatist ideology that grew out of the black-power movement of the 1960’s, however, a nationalist strain can discerned in the thinking of most of the leading actors in African American history. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois have both been subject to the arguments that they too are nationalist. After all, Dubois was involved in the Pan-Africanist movement for most of his life, and died a citizen of Ghana. Nationalism was a mass movement that came about with Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association three quarters of a century ago. Lemann continues with deeming the reason for so much confusion surrounding nationalism. It is the traditional white political division that on one hand attempts to promote black business and other forms of self help, resisting notion that the federal government can help blacks, but on the other hand nationalist would strike most whites as left wing. Lemann gives the example of both Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan, who were legendary among blacks as a proponents of traditional values, opponents of drugs and alcohol, nurturers of ghetto small businesses, and saviors of habitual criminals, prostitutes, and other hard-core members of the underclass—but they were perceived by the larger world as preachers of hatred. Lemann’s begins to conclude with the point that “nearly every social relationship with whites eventually arrives at the chilling moment of revelation of the hard inner kernel of racism”. He asserts Black students are looking to nationalism to provide a vision of the meaning of blackness, which is more uplifting than many of their daily realities. They want nationalism to provide them with an ordering principle by which to live. The net result was that nationalism became more a matter of intellectual and cultural attitude and a less precise blueprint. Lemann says that today there is not much nationalist organizing in the streets and the home of nationalism is the campus, and for the first time in history many of the leading nationalist are a tenured professor at majority white universities rather than leaders of black organizations. He addresses the inner turmoil some black students may experience where he ask “what are Black students who embrace nationalism supposed to do after they graduate, since there isn’t much black economy for them to join?” He goes on to say that very few nationalist ask their followers not to join the mainstream economy and very few assimilationist see no need to preserve black identity, thus nationalism and assimilation are now linked, not opposing forces.
John Michael’s (2000) assessment of the Black intellectual is that of an inorganic representative. He says intellectuals seek heroic organic models for the work they do and thus Black intellectuals are deemed the authentic spokes persons from the African American community. Adolf Reed, deemed an organic intellectual, identifies a racial vindicationism, a distorting pressure in work by and about African American intellectuals, a tendency to identify them as organic representatives of a putative black community (Michael 2000). According to Michael, these diverse intellectuals, such as Cornell West, Bell Hooks, Adolf Reed, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Shelby Steele, and Toni Morrison, have assumed the conventional task assigned by the dominant culture to African American intellectuals. Michael suggests that black intellectuals represent a group whose exclusion has constituted the dominant cultures self-understanding and that their insight power is thus unsettling yet undeniable. He goes on to say that these intellectuals are working to transform America’s understanding of itself. These black intellectuals are taking on the role of the “Talented Tenth” to lead the race, but he says the problem is with an organic model is that Blacks are no longer singularly “the Negro” thus intellectuals do not posses the authority to speak for Blacks as a collective. Black intellectuals must avoid intellectual elitism to continue interaction with the black community. He says that the economic and social dislocation of Blacks along with the unequal distribution of power, privilege, and wealth manifest themselves with particular force in among Blacks. Michael concludes that one must assume the burden and privilege of whatever authority society affords in order to make a more civil society in this struggle.
However many nationalist would critique the Black intellectual who operate in the safe and tame realm of the Academy and settle for a program of cultural uplift. According to Nathan Hare’s The Challenge of a Black Scholar, Black progress in society calls for divorcement from European centered ideas and institutions. He asserts that nationalist seek autonomy in education as well as other fields of social political and economic interaction. Nationalism requires the Black scholar to decolonize his mind so that he or she may effectively guide the people in their search for liberation. Furthermore he asserts that the Black Nationalist scholar can no longer afford to ape the allegedly value free approach of white scholarship and must decline the rationale that it is irrational and unprofessional to become emotional; that is that emotion and reason are mutually exclusive. Hare challenges the Black scholar to develop new norms and values and a new ideology and out of this ideology will develop a new methodology. In general, he says the Black scholar must re-asses the traditions, values and mores of Western European scholarship and achieve a black perspective that becomes an effective tool for black liberation. He goes on to say the Black scholar becomes the conscience of society and the spokesperson of such progressive forces and as such he is inevitably considered a nuisance by the ruling class seeking to preserve the status quo and by other intellectuals who accuse the Black scholar of being utopian or seditious at worst. Hare, concludes that the main task of the Black scholar is to cleanse the minds of the people of the white colonial attitude toward scholarship and towards people as well and this includes” icons of objectivity, amoral knowledge and methodology, and the total demolition of antisocial attitudes of Ivory-Towerism”.
According to William L. Van Deburg’s Modern Black Nationalism (1997), assimilationists assume that Blacks should desire nothing more than what whites consider the highest. A nationalist may ask why should Blacks trade their alleged pathology for values of gross materialism. According to Van Deburg (1997), Black Nationalist set forth a paradigm of Afrocentrism rather than Eurocentrism. Afrocentrism is not an anti white black version of the Eurocentrism that is based o white supremacy notions that protect white privilege, economic, politics, and education, but rather it is a pro-human innovation needed to stop the cycle of miseducation and dislocation of students. E. Franklin Frazier (1962) suggest that an Afrocentric paradigm would deviate from the Eurocentrism that rarely focuses on non-white participants in history and place the fate of black America in a broad framework that deals with the philosophical and scientific questions of the nature of human knowledge and the meaning (or lack of meaning) of human existence from the unique experience of Blacks in this world; the rationalization of black effort to survive in a hostile world.
Patricia Hill Collins (2000) examines the challenges faced by Black feminist in their efforts to understand and explain their experiences as a Black woman in this hostile and oppressive world. She asserts that the knowledge produced by Black feminist has historically been delegitimized and rejected by academic elitist, based largely on the assumption that true knowledge is produced through using positivistic models of investigation. Such elitists have criticized the subjective nature of Black feminist methodologies deeming them unscientific. Collins challenges this assumption by saying positivism “ask African American women to objectify ourselves, devalue our emotional life, displace our motivations for furthering knowledge about Black women, and confront in an adversarial relationship those with more social, economic, and professional power”. This lends it self to the example of the black, female, commercial lawyer Patricia Williams and the problem that she could not be objective if she identified with the subject and be was as well the observer. However, she asserts the benefits of her subjective predicament in that “to speak as black, as female, and as a commercial lawyer has rendered me simultaneously universal, trendy, and marginal (Michael 2000)” Thus Collins argues for an alternative epistemology that allows black women to evaluate knowledge claims using the lived experience of Black women. The ontological assumptions behind this paradigm are that reality is socially constructed and subjective. Although these assumptions suggest that the experience of oppression may vary by individual, Collins recognizes an accumulative impact of intersecting oppressions that stem from the embedment of gender, race, class, age, and sexual orientation ideologies. Collins asserts that Black feminism opts not to spend time concerned with the central identity of it’s cause, but rather associates itself with its goals and evaluating its role in social change. Collins believes that Black women’s collective experiences and dialogue can foster activism to change the social world.
Bell Hooks, a Black woman scholar, in Pedagogy and Political Commitment (1989), states, “Education is a political issue for exploited and oppressed people”. She goes on to talk about how education has been revered in the black communities, yet it has as well been suspect. She says education could help one adopt the values and attitudes of the oppressor; “education could help one assimilate”. According to Hooks, her experience at Black schools taught black people to be proud and uplift the race. At a white school, blacks were no longer people with a history or culture, but only primitives and slaves. At white schools, blacks no longer learned to resist white supremacy and were told not to challenge it because of the power whites had over blacks. Furthermore, Hooks indicated how Blacks had to depend on whites for approval and evaluation. Hooks felt she experienced isolation throughout her college career at white universities. Yet, she felt an obligation to her family and race to succeed. She challenged her professors who claimed to be radical, but appeared to her as even more oppressive than other professors. The absence of professors who actually practiced radicalism in the classroom made Hooks feel weary of her ability to do differently. Hooks makes reference to Paulo Freire who suggests education could be a space for the development of critical consciousness and that “all education has an intention or goal, which can only be political. Either it mystifies reality by rendering it impenetrable and obscure, which leads people to a blind march through incomprehensible labyrinths or it unmasks the economic and social structures which are determining the relationships of exploitation and oppression among persons”. Freire says we are confronted with the options to educate for liberation or for domination. Hooks mentions some of her frustrations, one is that it is difficult to imagine how to educate for liberation at a corporate university. She also points out that Blacks are an oppressed and exploited group where some have managed a degree of privilege. Hooks’ approach is to create strategies of learning to meet our needs and she states “and of course we must discover together what those needs are”. Hooks says teachers and students find it hard to shift their paradigms even though they have been longing for a different approach. Privileged students are often unwilling to acknowledge that they have experienced education of domination and recognize the politics of domination as painful subjects. Hooks concludes that “If one primary function of such a pedagogy is to prepare students to live and act more fully in the world, then it is usually when they are in that context, outside the classroom, that they most feel and experience the value of what they have shared and learned”. Teachers with radical visions may suppress them due to fear of exposure, however, to choose education as a practice of freedom is to take a political stance that may have great consequences. According to Hooks, the most rewarding aspect of such teaching is to influence how students grow intellectually and spiritually.
The liberal, nationalist, and feminist perspectives each assert that all thinkers should be concerned with the still existing questions surrounding “the Negro”. Lack of interest and understanding of the “Negro question” is the reason for confusion about Blacks and education in the first place. The liberal emphasis on economics integration cannot be ignored as long as whites control most of the resources. However, a nationalist extreme is necessary is for any radical change to occur and impact culture, structure, and power relations. Black feminist as well recognize the limits of institutionalized activism and advocate for a new epistemology. The position a Black graduate can take then is an ambiguous one that may embrace principles of multiple positions on the spectrum. The Black spectrum is not linear and the Black position does not fit in to Western binaries. Neither Integrationist effort inside the institution nor nationalist activism outside of institutionalization has to be forgone. It is a matter of temporality and how the scholar engages his or her discourse. Each perspective is concerned with the dislocation of blacks in education. Eurocentrism is responsible for this dislocation where it has fostered alien norms to evaluate blacks and this contributes to the continuing rise of human alienation and conflict. Eurocentrism has not only distorted and destroyed the educational development of Blacks, but has also miseducated the vast majority of white students, who are ignorant of the depth of African and African American culture, history, and contributions. Liberal, nationalist, or feminist, Black studies are necessary to accurately ascertain the Black experience and foster a progressive relationship among the academy, the Black scholar, and the Black community. Black scholars can provide the catalyst for not only black liberation, but also the ultimate resolution of America’s pathology that is infecting the entire world (Hare 1973). Thus the dilemma for the Black graduate student is a dilemma for all scholars.
Theory
The multi marginality of black women is forgone in black liberal and national perspectives. Feminism and black feminism lack a human philosophy where it leaves out men. With Africana Womanism, men and women of all ages can emerge with revelations about African heritage. It is a paradigm that reunites man, woman, child, the elderly, extended kin, the whole village, and the whole Africana Diaspora (Hudson-Weems 1993).
Men and women debate issues of the Africana woman’s authentic place in their existenace even if the dominant cuture does not consider it a primary concern. The ever-present question remains the same. What is the relationship between an Africana woman and her family, her community, and her career, all in regard to oppression, human suffering, empowerment, and individualism over human rights and dignity (Hudson-Weems 1993).
Most women do not adopt feminism unless they are trying to fit in with academy by having a framework that is suitable in the absence of one that fits women’s individual needs. Women are reevaluating the feminist movement as it is inviting much controversy. The Africana woman is looking for something with a different host of terminology that reflects the reality of their struggle. Even radical feminism has succeeded in alienating the most successful women. This is because the black woman is not simply oppressed by her sex, but also by her race and class. Africana Womanism is not an attack on men as feminism is perceived, but an attack on systems of inequality (Hudson-Weems 1993).
Africana Womanism is a term coined and defined in 1987 after nearly two years of publicly debating the importance of self naming for Africana women. Africana Womanism is a natural evolution of naming from Black Feminism which did not include the total meaning desired for the concept. Africana establishes a cultural identity that relates directly to ancestry and land based Africa. Womanism is an extension of the term “woman” unlike “female” that can refer to a member of the plant or animal kingdom as well as the human race. Womanism recalls a powerful speech given my Sojourner Truth called “Ain’t I a Woman”. Sojourner Truth demonstrated early on in the Women’s Rights Movement that a commonality exists between the Africana men and women of the South and the North in their struggle for freedom. Africana men and women should be allies. This issue must be properly addressed if an Africana Women’s’ Study’s agenda is to be realized and respected (Hudson-Weems 1993).
There are eighteen distinct and diverse characteristics of Africana Womanism. A true Africana Womanist possesses all of these qualities to varying degrees. The fist one is Self-Namer. While women have taken the initiative to differentiate their struggle from the White women’s struggle they have failed to give their struggle its own name. It is through the correct naming of a thing that it comes into existence. The Africana woman properly accessing her self and her movement must properly name herself. Even during slavery when White slave owners of the slave woman labeled her as a breeder for American society, the Africana womanist insisted on identifying herself as a mother of her children, and a companion to her male counterpart. Even though her children and spouse were taken from her, which was a common phenomenon during slavery, the Africana womanist did not relinquish her identity. She was thus a grieving mother and companion who held on to memories of her family. She knew that how the dominate culture viewed her contradicted the naming of her. None of these factors could control nor dictate the African womanist knowledge of these factors or response to them (Hudson-Weems 1993).
The second characteristic of Africana Womanism is Self-Definer. The Africana woman alone defines her reality. She comes out with a different reality than that that is defined by their slave master historically. Africana women’s activities are often collective defined by themselves and their community in terms of their African cultural experience. Their definition retains African ways in an African American culture. Africana womanist express a moral tradition with no allegiance to existing ideas. With a true Africana womanist cultural identity supersedes self definition (Hudson-Weems 1993).
The third characteristic Family-Centered gives us that the Africana womanist is more concerned with her entire family than just herself or her sisters. The Africana womanist does not have the privileged of centering her interest around herself as a victim in society when there is the victimization of her whole community is at large. She realizes her individual safety has much to do with the overall status of her community. She is not free until her entire people are free from victimization. Even if she does overcome the battle of sexism through a collective struggle of all women, she will still be left with the battle of racism facing herself and her family. The family’s efforts to stay together, the notion of primacy can not be overlooked. “The family is where the Black male obtains initial exposure to an environment of support, love, and affection”. Long after slavery, the Africana womanist could find labor when her male counter part could not. She did not have the luxury of remaining inside the home like white women did. Her labor outside the home was mandated. Africana males where not allowed stable employment under capitalism. The Africana womanist was aloud gainful employment as a tactic for the dominant culture to emasculate Africana men. Insecurity and joblessness did nothing for the Africana man’s self esteem. In a male dominated society it served to breakdown the Africana family and spirit. The Africana womanist is concerned with her career as it is the very means she can contribute and support her family. The movement of the Africana womanist today is from the workplace to the home place, spiritually if not physically, in a sense that the Africana womanist’s heart and spirit rest regarding the importance of her family and home (Hudson-Weems 1993).
The 4th characteristic is about being In Concert With Males In Struggle. An Africana womanist is in concert with the males in struggle for humanity and the liberation for all Africana people. The idea is the intertwined destiny is between Africana men and the dependency on the male sector and then the Africana womanist’s struggle for herself and her family. The Africana womanist invites her male counter part into her struggle for freedom and parity in society. This struggle is the bond that has held them together and enabled survival in a hostile and racist society (Hudson-Weems 1993).
The Africana womanist experience and with her family does not mean that Africana women and white women do not share a critical gender issue that needs to be resolved. The critical concern here is how a problem is to be resolved and with the specific reference to the exclusion of the very instrument of women’s subjugation. The male obviously needs correction and redemption. Africana women and men should work together resolving the tension via working together within mutual respect with the realization that emancipation is unattainable until basic rights are provided for all. While the White man may be the White woman’s enemy in her struggle, the Africana man does not hold that position against the Africana woman. Therefore, the Africana woman could close the gender gap of both genders so they could collectively ameliorative life-threatening social ills for Africana people and people in general in our world today. With the collective plight of Black people, they can not afford to have attention deflected on to gender based animosities. This is not to say there is no room for discussions of these issues relating to interactions where Africana men have internalized the White patriarchal system. Though dominate culture is not likely to distinguish between two sexes where African American genocide is an issue for the entire race. Africana men and women share a similar place for oppression and can not afford the division on the sexes (Hudson-Weems 1993).
Another characteristic of the Africana womanist is Flexiable-Role Playing. During slavery Africana men nor women where not able to act out roles set forth by the dominant culture. The roles in an Africana community have nearly always been distinguishable. The Africana woman has never been restricted to the home or house hold chores and her male counterpart has more often than night shared the role as the homemaker. In the traditional patriarchal system the male is expected to fulfill the responsibilities outside the home, while serving as the head of the house hold inside the home. The man dictates the order of the household and designates the woman to carry it out. Although Africana women do believe in and respect traditional roles, it must be established that those roles have never been so clearly defined in the Africana community and the roles have always been relaxed (Hudson-Weems 1993). .
Genuine Sisterhood is the next characteristic of an Africana womanist. It is the bond that has always existed between Africana women that can not be broken. Each sister reciprocates giving and receiving equally. It demonstrates a huge amount of responsibility when all sisters look out for one another and support each other. They are joined emotionally and embody empathy for one another’s shared experience. Even criticism is given out of love and sharing experiences yields rewards. In times of need and confusion there is no substitute for sisterhood. Though there have been attempts to define all type of female relationships, lesbian included, this particular kind of sisterhood is a sexual where women confined in each other and share true feelings, fears, hopes, and dreams. It is difficult to imagine any woman with out a genuine support system as that found in genuine sisterhood (Hudson-Weems 1993).
Strength is the next characteristic of the Africana womanist we will explore. The Africana womanist comes from a long tradition of psychological and physical strength. She retains centuries of struggling and slavery unimaginable, cruel, and forced. The Africana womanist continues to demonstrate strength and steadfastness in protecting the vulnerabilities of her family as the traditional role of the man is emasculated to my dominant society. An Africana womanist reflects on her historical strength and embraces with open arms the rich legacy of her sisters enduring strength, courage and true love for her family (Hudson-Weems 1993).
The next characteristic is Male-Compatible. The Africana womanist desires positive male companionship, a mutually supportive relationship that is part of a positive Africana family. A stance of totally disregarding or dismissing the other gender would be racial suicide. There are millions of Africana women who have different experiences than being abandoned by men. There are those who praise their hard working husbands and fathers. These do not get any recognition. Be that as it may, positive male companionship is of great interest to the Africana womanist. The Africana womanist realizes that the male and female relationship is not only comforting, but the key to perpetuating the human race. The Africana womanist also realizes that while she loves and respects herself and is at peace with her self in general, she ultimately desires a special somebody to fill the void in her life. She desires one who makes her feel complete. Merely settling for a companion for the sake of having a man is the farthest thing from an Africana womanist mind (Hudson-Weems 1993).
Above all the Africana womanist deserves Respect and Recognition, which are the next characteristics. This is in order to acquire true self-esteem and self-worth, which in turn enables her to complete a positive relationship with others. If an Africana womanist lacks self love, she will exude a negative sense of herself, there by allowing herself to be disrespected, abused, and trampled upon by others, including her male counterpart. Though sexism is not the most critical issue for the Africana womanist, the Africana woman must look at feasible ways to combat the tri-fold of oppression in her own community. Where it is the problem of race, class, or gender, the Africana womanist must insist upon her respect, her recognition, and of her humanness so that she may more effectively fulfill her role as a positive responsible co-partner in the over all Africana struggle (Hudson-Weems 1993).
The true Africana womanist seeks Wholeness and Authenticity. She does not want to neglect her home, family, nor career, none of these for others. The family does come first, but it comes together with other things very much needed and extremely important, into a harmony and security for the home. Her life is not complete with put the male counterpart and the male needs a woman’s companionship likewise. Both are essential in survival of the human race. Her sense of wholeness is necessarily compatible with her cultural consciousness and authentic existence. She reflects her own culture through authentic being, standards, acts, and ideals. Her true essence compliments her own culture, not leaving room for any inauthentic self. Collectively, wholeness and authenticity are powerful tenets of the Africana womanist and her heritage also stresses the importance of an entire family unit (Hudson-Weems 1993).
The Africana womanist definite sense of Spirituality is the next characteristic. Her belief in a higher power transcends rational ideals. It is an ever present part of her culture. Her spiritual reality brings into account the power of comprehension, healing, and the unknown and can not be omitted. The Africana womanist bears consciously or sub consciously witness to this aspect of African cosmology. When she looks at her making if everyday decisions, she senses her reliance upon the inner spirit of mind. In the area of healthcare, the Africana womanist goes back to folk medicine and spiritual healing, such as laying hands on and praying for someone’s healing. She is connected to the spiritual world and with undaunted faith. In Africana cosmology, the physical and spiritual worlds co-exist and hence, both realties compliment each other in working for the good of the entire universe (Hudson-Weems 1993).
Respecting and Appreciating Elders is another characteristic of the true Africana womanist. She also insists that her younger do likewise, for the elders have served as role models and paved the way to the future. She protects her elders and seeks and vice and undisputable wisdom. Elders are an integral part of the Africana family and have continued to strengthen the family by physical or spiritual participation. Africana women are a spiritual people who have been taught to practice the greatest regard for elders, the mothers and fathers of the community. If you can not respect parents, then one can not be expected to respect anyone, self included. Thus Africana woman has a tremendous reverence and love for their elders or (Hudson-Weems 1993).
The true Africana woman is not insistent on her personal space. She is the next characteristic, Adaptable. It is not a common reality for the Africana woman to have a separate space to escape to for creativity and success. She must rent a place or find a sitter for the kids in most cases and for the Africana woman this is taking away from family necessity. The Africana women’s intellectual freedom does not depend on material things. The absence of a separate space does not render her noncreative, or unsuccessful (Hudson-Weems 1993).
Ambition along with responsibility is highly important characteristics of the Africana womanist. Her family too depends on these qualities in her. An Africana womanist is a learner of self-reliance and resourcefulness; hence she makes a way out of no way. Among her daily tasking, she creates ways to fulfill her goals and meet objectives in her life. Africana womanist with out a space of their own explore their experiences in attempts to create some sort of semblance of their realities, perspective, and possibilities regarding the status of the community, its women, its men, its children. It is in this the Africana woman is equipped with her own problems, successes, and priorities (Hudson-Weems 1993).
Finally, we have the art of Mothering and Nurturing as a characteristic. This characteristic of the Africana womanist reigns supreme in Africana culture and with historical emphasis. Often mothers have prioritized the mother role over the wife role, but the Africana womanist comes from a tradition of dedicated wives and mothers. She is committed to a loving and caring that extends into the whole family. A positive sense of history, familihood, and security are provided by mothering and nurturing (Hudson-Weems 1993).
These characteristic are important in the Africana womanist brining about a holistic existence to herself. These characteristics we have established outlines for the overdue. These are critical concepts that can possibly resolve conflict between men, women, and children. Africana womanist can help us forgo the tension between men and women. If this theory is realized, Africana womanist is most efficacious for her family. Africana womanist should very well foster a more happy and harmonious template for the entire world in the future.
Methodology
Employing the qualitative component reflexivity, I would argue that quantitative and qualitative research are equally valid (depending on the topic of study) and can be used to compliment each other. However, quantitative methods better accommodate my research interest. Qualitative research produces insight from diverse experiences and legitimizes non-dominant epistemologies, often giving voice to those who have been silenced and acknowledging the validity their realities.
Although in-depth interviews, descriptive observations, and other methods that yield descriptive data, have been employed as far back as any history, qualitative research was not signified as such until it gained its popularity at the Chicago school in 1910 up until its sensational decline in 1940. Since its conception into social research, qualitative methodology has faced confrontational appraisal due to its positivistic deficiencies. The use of qualitative methods reemerged in the 1960s, more accepted into applied fields (Taylor and Bogdan 1998). Today, qualitative research is reaching the prevalence of its quantitative counter, where their various forms continue to be distinguished by researchers (Creswell 1998). Where positivist or quantitativist seek facts pertaining to social phenomena, qualitative methodologist focus in on the subjective states of individuals; what phenomena mean to actors in the social world (Taylor and Bogdan 1998).
Qualitative research can exist in many diverse forms. Here I will describe a few of these qualitative inquiry methods. A biography is one form, where the author tells the story reconstructing the experiences of a single individual. A phenomenology enlists a researcher to interpret meanings and produce themes from descriptive materials. A researcher may use a grounded theory approach to qualitative methods that take on a scientific, objective, and systematic format. Case studies are another form of qualitative methods. Cases of phenomena are bounded by place and time and multiple resources are used to provide a detailed picture of phenomena in that temporal setting. The last form described here is an ethnography in which the author tells his story informally, using extensive detailed descriptions to explore themes in the every day lives of persons (Creswell 1998). Qualitative methodology can utilize many of these forms in triangulation.
With an understanding of its history and its diverse forms, still, what is qualitative research and methodology? I offer the following consensus of authors Creswell (1998), Miles and Huberman (1994), Flick (1998), and Hammersely (1992) as an inter-subjective sum of the essential features of qualitative research. Qualitative research entails contact to real life situations. Social relationships and social phenomena are at the center of qualitative research. Also, qualitative research involves reflexivity; it strives for internal validity, and searches for meaning behind the social. It is often a prolonged study in a natural setting that is subject to interpretation. Qualitative research prescribes an inductive rather than a deductive analysis. Qualitative research attempts to encompass a holistic overview of a situation. Furthermore, Qualitative research involves collecting words and pictures, a focus on participant views, expressive and persuasive linguistics, and embededness in the research. Qualitative research is explanatory, flexible, and inclusive of a variety of methods.
Qualitative researchers approach their studies with a particular paradigm or worldview, a basic set of beliefs or assumptions that guide inquires (Creswell 1998). The ideological perspective for this study is a critical perspective. A critical approach helps people to be aware of the conditions of their existence (Creswell 1998). My approach as well resembles constructivism where I adopt a relativist position and reconstruct understandings. I will use this distinct approach in aim of sparking a realization about society that will encourage transformations of social relations. The ontological issue, or way of being, addresses the nature of reality for the qualitative researcher. The ontological assumption for this study is that reality is a set of multiple mental and social constructions. Although shared, they are local and specific and dependent for their form and content on the groups holding them, which is relativism. Also, reality is shaped by factors such as social, political, cultural, economic, ethnic, and gender. Overtime, these structures become real, that is historical realism (Guba and Lincoln 1994). Epistemology, or way of knowing, addresses the relationship between the researcher and that being researched (Creswell 1998). For this study the epistemological assumption is that findings are created interactively between the researcher and subjects, that is transactional and subjectivist (Guba and Lincoln 1994). Axiological assumptions concern the role of values. Values play an important role in this research and create outcomes. The values of the subject and I, the researcher, are given equal weight (Guba and Lincoln 1994). The rhetorical assumption or language for this study is the voice of a passionate participant, actively engaged in multi-voiced reconstruction. Changes come when reconstructions are facilitated and individuals are motivated to act in it. Another facet of the paradigm is the role of ethics. For this research, ethics are intrinsic. The research is to be transformative. Deception is considered unethical because it is destructive to the aim of uncovering improved constructions (Guba and Lincoln 1994). The last paradigm assumption discussed here, is the methodological assumption, or how one conceptualizes the entire research process. In qualitative research, the researcher starts inductively. Dialogue between the researcher and subject are needed. This dialogue is dialectical in order to uncover myths changing them to informed consciousness with hope of transforming those involved. (Guba and Lincoln).
Qualitative research can have flexible methodology. The proposed methodology for this study is multi faceted survey that will allow me to associate participants with a particular theory including inclusionist, nationalist, feminist, Africana womanist, far, few, and in between those categories. The study will as well examine the following research questions. 1) What is the relationship of the Academy to the Black community? 2) What is the relationship of the Black intellectual to the Black community? 3) Finally, what is the relationship of the Black intellectual to the Academy? The variables in this study are age, sex, socio-economic status, and education. Trends in this study will be analyzed by these demographics.
Data for this project is derived from the 20 interviews with open and closed ended questions in regard to Black perspectives. The population of interest is African Americans and White Americans. The sampling frame consisted 20 Americans, 10 of whom where women and 10 where men. Respondents had attended and graduated college, had some college, no college, or advanced degrees. Respondents were heterogeneous in socio-economic background and ranged in age from 18- 90. Respondents were questioned in person on paper, or via email in order to configure witch paradigms the respondents related to the most and their relationship as well to the academy, the black intellectual, and black community. Respondents were selected at random in that each member of the population has an equal chance of being included in the sample if he or she is African American and agreed to participate in the study by email or personal encounter. Conveyance sampling was also used to recruit respondents who were easily accessible. The sampling frame is non-representative of greater society in that it does not include numbers of elements in the same proportions as they occur in the general population. Interviews are evaluated to discover trends and themes that are supported by the literature.
Limitations to this study include I did not triangulate several methods. The use of multiple methods can be important in conducting research. The importance of accounting for advantages and disadvantages of each method exist as well. Other limitations to this study include respondent reluctance to respond sincerely to questions because of the identity of the interviewer. These shortcomings were overcome by recognizing the limitations and accounting for potential and existing biases.
I am using different types of questions and different ways of interviewing. Some of the questions are closed, and some of are open ended questions. The use of multiple types of questioning may eliminate the unreliability that may arise from the researcher’s observation or from the respondents’ interpretations of the questions. Thus, the use of multiple types of questioning can partially resolve unreliability by providing supplementation for the probable weakness that accompanies each method of questioning (Babbie 2001). Other advantages of the methodology include the opportunity to draw further conclusion from established primary data sources and test the validity by making comparisons to similar research and to the interviews constructed for the current study.
Analysis and Findings
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