African American
Philosophies can be viewed as lenses of understanding African American intellectual history.
Below are a few African
American philosophies that we will be exploring over the course of this introduction
to African American studies course.
Review all of them, get to know at least three philosophies intimately. Be able to use them in discussions and when
exploring historical or thematic content.
·
Post-Colonial Theory
· Black Existentialism, Jazz
Theory
· Black liberation theory
· Critical Race Theories
· Comparative race studies
· Black existentialism
· Whiteness Studies
· Appalachia Studies
· Rememory – Toni Morrison
· Black Nationalism ,
inclusive of African National
Congress
· Black Consciousness
Movement
· Cosmopolitanism
· Afrocentricity
· Assimilation Politics
· Interest conversion Theory
(Derrick Bell)
· Intersectionality
· respectability
·
Affrilachia
CFP on African American Intellectual History http://aaihs.org/2016-aaihs-conference/
Double consciousness- Double consciousness describes the individual sensation of feeling as though your identity is divided into several parts, making it difficult or impossible to have one unified identity.
ReplyDeleteWomanism-believing in and respecting the abilities andtalents of women; acknowledging women'scontributions to society.
Afrocentricity is a paradigm based on the idea that African people should re-assert a sense of agency in order to achieve sanity.
Womanism: A social change perspective which focuses on addressing inequities, specifically targeting women of color.
ReplyDeleteBlack conciousness movement- was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress leadership after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960.
ReplyDeleteAppalachian studies- The study of the environmental, cultural, and political ways of rural Appalachia towns.
Afrocentrism- The study of black culture, black philosophy, and black history. It was in response to Eurocentrism.
Created by: Osei Jordan, Kurtis Johnson, and Jared Boswell
Black Feminist Theory: a theory which focuses on the idea that sexism, class, oppression and racism are bound together.
ReplyDeleteIntersectionality: The idea that various identities converge in the arenas of oppression, domination or discrimination.
ReplyDeleteDouble Consciousness: term used to describe an individual who has several different identities or multiple personalities.
ReplyDeleteRememory- Toni Morrison: Able to reconstruct your past realities physically or mentally. Usually when someone revisits things in their past which triggers vivid memories
Assimilation Politics: the process by which a person or persons acquire the social and psychological characteristics of a group.
Double consciousness- Double consciousness is an internal conflict that one deals with when trying to identify themselves as one thing in particular and find that it is a nearly impossible task.
ReplyDeleteblack feminist theory- sexism, racism, and class oppression are all tied in together. Black feminsism exploded in the 1960s around the same time Civil Rights Movements were in effect. Many African American celebrities such as Beyonce have expressed their interest in helping Black feminism become more well known worldwide.
Intersectionality- the combination of race, class, and gender and the negative impacts they could have on a person or group.
The three topics our group (Kyler,Barry, Josh, and I) choose was double consciousness, whiteness, and cosmopolitanism, and these are the results we've found:
ReplyDelete1. Cosmopolitanism: Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all human beings belong to a single community, based on a shared morality.
2: Whiteness: We discussed and concluded that whiteness is the way in which those who identify themselves as white, preserve the cultural, historical, and sociological aspects that are associated with the white community. In order to remain within that identity.
3. Double consciousness: This term was originally coined by W.E.B Du Bois, the term refers to the psychological challenge of the reconsidering of African American heritage, with a European upbringing in slavery and education.
Black Feminist Theory: It exploded in the 1960's during the Civil Rights Movement addressing the role of a black woman. It is a school of thought which argues that sexism, class oppression and racism are bound together.
ReplyDeleteJazz Theory: A practice of how chords are used in Jazz. Piano and Guitar are the two most used.
Bebop scales- taken from a major scale. David Baker, the worlds best Jazz educator came up with it.
Afrocentricity; A paradigm based on the idea that AA people should re-assert a sense of agency in order to achieve sanity. During the 1960's a group of AA's intellectuals began to formulate a novel of ways of analyzing information.
Whiteness Studies-traces economic and political history behind the invention of "whiteness" and to analyze the cultural practices that create and perpetuate "whiteness."
ReplyDeletePost-Colonial Theory and the study of post-colonialism study the aftermath of mass imperialism and colonialism. Specifically how imperialism impacted the views about self-identity in different cultures around the world.
Womanism is a social change perspective based upon the everyday problems and experiences of black women and other women of color. Womanism broadly seeks methods to eradicate inequalities not just for black women, but for all people
The New Negro Movement- A 1920s movement of the advancement of African Americans in literature, poetry, and writing.
After discussing these philosophies in class, Afrocentricity is a topic that really stood out to me. This philosophy stood out to me because it was so different from anything I had ever learned about African American culture. This term was formed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and has evolved over the years. Afrocentricity requires you to forget essentially everything you have ever been taught about African American topics such as politics, history, and geography. Afrocentricity is an ideology dedicated to the history of African Americans. This ideology comes from the extreme racism African Americans have experienced. This ideology downplays the influence of the European culture while highlighting the achievements of the African American culture. Afrocentricity believes that many achievements of African Americans have been discredit. Everything about this ideology intrigues me and I agree with many of the points the ideology makes. Because this ideology is so different, I think it would take a very deep understanding to fully understand this philosophy.
ReplyDelete