Research2a - African Americanuts

Research

The failure to accurately tell the stories of African American achievements and the crucial contributions made by African Americans to the building of America is a substantial factor in stereotyping, prejudice, intolerance, and racism. It enables the spread and effectiveness of white supremacy propaganda.

Research 1

Learning from history promotes self-esteem and positive identity, which studies have shown can foster a greater interest in learning and higher academic achievement among African American students.

All youth struggle with their identities during their adolescent years. However, African Americans are faced with added social character challenges, such as having to deal with the notion that society does not think they can become high achievers. There are also significant, proven inequalities that come from being black.

Research 3

Blacks and whites both made enormous sacrifices and contributions to help build this nation. Learning this true history promotes a sense of pride and accomplishment, forging a connection to our common roots that heals and binds us together in a common cause for understanding, fairness, and equality.

Bryce-LaPorte further supports Black Studies on the basis that mutual respect for Afro-Americans must come through increased knowledge of their contributions to American culture.

Research 4

A full and accurate account of American history must fully include the experiences, sacrifices, and contributions of African Americans while being honest about the cruel, inhuman treatment they have received from those whose sole motivation is greed. At the same time, it’s important to emphasize that most white Americans were opposed to shackle slavery, violence, and the harsh mistreatment of blacks.

When we look into African American history, we see that African Americans helped to build and improve our nation and influence society as a whole. All people look for ways to improve and increase their voice. By learning history, African American students can do just that.

Research 5

It is essential for the positive growth and development of young children to have a sense of identity that gives them pride in who they are. Becoming confident, successful adults begins with the constructive growth of self-esteem as children.

Racial identity can impact the self-esteem of a child both while they are developing and throughout their lifetimes. Swanson, Cunningham, Youngblood II, and Spencer discussed the fact that children who were taught at a young age about their racial identity were less likely to feel a difference between their personal and group identity.

Research 6

History reveals patterns in behavior through events of the past. By learning about history, we can seek to avoid past mistakes.

Not only can history be told to help us to understand what is going on in the world, to understand ourselves and others, to understand change, to understand how to be good citizens, to help us make better decisions, but it can also help us to not repeat the past mistakes that have been made.

Recent data gathered by the University of San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism (CSHE) reports a rise of 9% in hate crimes in 2018. Reports reached a high for the decade with 2,009 incidents across 30 U.S. cities in 2019.

Last year marked the most exorbitant rise since 2015 and the fifth successive increase in hate crimes. 70% (21 police departments) reported increases, with just under half (47%) hitting or tying decade highs. 2018 was the only year in this decade in which the cities exceeded 2,000 reports. Data from 18 cities from partial year of 2019 also showed an overall increase. If the forthcoming Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 2018 hate crime totals replicate this 9% rise, it will be the fourth consecutive increase and the highest total since the FBI’s 2001 record. While CSHE abstains from making such a specific forecast, 2018 will likely show another national increase. CSHE’s last multi-city study deviated about 1% from subsequent FBI findings and matched overall FBI national trends for four of the last five years (2013 to 2017).

The threat from right-wing terrorists in the United States of America is of particular concern. There are extremists who are anti-government, along with white supremacists, including militia groups and the sovereign citizens who show interest in conspiring and planning attacks against religious, racial, and political targets in the U.S.

Hate crimes have increased nationally in recent years after bottoming in 2014, with the CSHE/WVU analysis of police databases and the Federal Bureau of Investigation representing the biggest projections in politically conflicting time durations in October 2008, November 2016, August 2017, and fall 2018.

African Americans have consistently been the top target for hate crime, but in shrinking proportions.

Recent social surveys mirror these findings, showing an increase in social distancing and fear, as well as reduced tolerance for certain outgroups.

Even as big commercial corporations struggle with prejudiced content, hatemongers have increasingly switched to code-converted and inclination-based platforms and messaging services, where animosity speech is even more abundant. Like hate crimes, activity on these platforms tends to spike around catalytic events.

Virtual anti-Semitic and anti-black hate speech had the most sustained digital increase, even as white supremacist and neo-Nazi presence at large rallies plummeted amidst a post-Charlottesville breakdown of more organized extremist groups and their leaders and the closing of an election cycle.

The Internet has helped in enabling new extremists to maintain a public presence, but it also offers unaffiliated loners and extremists a tool to assemble, radicalize, and broadcast fanaticism, along with disturbing actions of mass violence that reference prior attacks.

Social media has also been adapted for use as a weapon, not only by domestic and foreign extremists, but also by state actors like Russia that are seeking to “sow discord” and launch conspiracy theories amongst the electorate to advance prejudice and political division.

It is crucial that there are interventions and programs designed to increase communication among racial groups and change the deep-seated attitudes that have led white individuals to commit horrific, racially motivated crimes.

Getting rid of important African American stories or forgetting to include African history causes increased intolerance and stereotypical racism toward African American students. According to Green, we gain insight and direction from other people around us and stereotypes are “cognitive structures that contain the perceiver’s knowledge, beliefs, and expectations about the human group” (Green, N.D.).

Movies and other sources have portrayed African American people in an unnatural manner, allowing stereotypical ideas to be formed about African American women, students, and families. Educating people about inaccurate stereotypes can help to alleviate some of the misconceptions that are formed by other racial groups.

By meeting the cultural and academic needs of all students and emphasizing the importance of all races and cultures, the attitudes of students toward themselves and other cultures can likely be improved. ME has been touted as one such activity that could bring about a major shift in attitudes (Banks, 1991).

Decades-old research on attitudes has shown that by meeting the cultural and academic needs of all students, the attitudes of students toward themselves and other cultures would likely be improved. ME (Multi-Cultural Education) has been touted as one of the planned activities that could bring about attitudinal change (Banks, 1992). Jackson (1944), Fisher (1965), Hayes and Conklin (1953), Leslie and Leslie (1972), Litcher and Johnson (1969), Shirley (1989), Trager and Yarrow (1952), and Yawkey (1973) found that students developed positive racial attitudes after exposure to ME.

These results show that the curricular intervention dimension of ME is more effective in reducing students’ negative racial attitudes. The curricular intervention dimension of ME may be more effective in reducing students’ racist attitudes because students can see cultures as an integral part of their curriculum, rather than an additional outside activity.

These results reveal that ME is effective in bringing about positive racial attitudes in students in urban and suburban areas. ME may be more effective in reducing racial attitudes in urban areas because these areas have a more diverse population than the suburbs. Students in urban areas who have been exposed to a variety of cultures tend to be more willing to accept differences and recognize similarities among the various ethnic groups.

On the other hand, students in the suburbs tend to live in homogeneous neighborhoods with minimal contact with different ethnic groups. The fact that the ES of the studies done in urban areas was only slightly greater than the ES of the suburban studies could be the result of the increase in the minority populations in suburbs. As the suburbs become more diverse, the residents become more exposed to (and accepting of) different cultures.

This meta-analysis shows that ME brings about positive change in racial attitudes across all age groups and grade levels. However, ME has been shown to be more effective among older students. It is important, therefore, for ME interventions to start early and continue through all the grade levels. This consistency will increase the effects of ME and allow students to see ME as an ongoing learning experience.

ME has been found to be most effective in urban areas and moderately effective in suburban areas. Since urban areas have the highest concentration of various ethnic groups — and thus are likely to have more racially motivated rivalries — this finding can be interpreted as good news, as it shows that ME can be a tool to improve communication among cultures.

Improvement in communication has never been more important than it is today. Current census reports indicate that minority populations in general — and specifically that of school-age children — (NCES, 2008; Snyder et al., 1998) are increasing and will continue to increase, especially in urban and suburban areas.

Because many of the studies used in this meta-analysis were conducted before the 1990s and only two of the studies were conducted in the 1990s, applications in the 21st century will need to take into account the current needs and practices in education that will be necessary to prepare our children for the global world they will inherit.

According to Okoye-Johnson (2011), Afrocentricity does not advocate the degrading of other cultures; however, it requires people of African descent to reach within to draw strength from their ancestry. Afrocentric curriculum, therefore, should emphasize the culture and heritage of African Americans as the foundation to new learning.

Dwayne Wong (Omowale) said, “When you disenfranchise an entire group, this sends an overt and direct message of disrespect and lack of appreciation. We are consciously or without consciousness portraying this sentiment to a very specific population of the United States. We are breeding racist children through our teachings.”

There is an undisputed consensus that we have reached a crucial point as a nation in which we must find a way to increase communication between racial groups and teach tolerance, appreciation, and understanding of each other’s differences. We should do this in order to change the deep-seated hatred and attitudes of those who commit racially motivated crimes and to move toward a more just and equitable society. We have the intellectual ability, interest of the majority, and a deep desire to move beyond our oppressive past and into the future with hope for a more unified, humane, and compassionate future.

Colon (1984), George Bancroft, and other early chroniclers of the nation’s history explicitly used religious beliefs and moral judgments to guide their narratives. They defined the enslavement of blacks, the disfranchisement of women, and the conquest of Mexicans and Native Americans as the white man’s “manifest destiny.” As such, early 19th-century historians excused social injustice and crafted a narrow, white male nationalist history of the United States.

In 2011, Okoye-Johnson reported that in this continuously fluid educational environment, it is imperative that schools turn out citizens who are capable of surviving and succeeding despite the changes and demands they encounter daily. He argues that they can accomplish this goal by ensuring that curriculum leads to the success of all students, irrespective of cultural differences.

Policy makers and practitioners, therefore, should endeavor to use all available and proven resources and programs, such as ME, that will improve not only racial attitudes but also the academic achievement of all students, thereby bridging and ultimately eliminating the achievement gap between student subgroups.

Sources

Banks, J. A. (1992). African American scholarship and the evolution of multicultural education. The Journal of Negro Education, 61(3), 273-286. Retrieved from Qualitative Methods in Africana Studies

Colon, A. K. (1984). Critical issues in Black studies: A selective analysis. The Journal of Negro Education, 53(3), 268-277. Retrieved from http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~hfairchi/pdf/Blacks/Colon-CriticalIssuesBS.pdf

Green, Laura. “Negative racial stereotypes and their effect on attitudes toward African-Americans.” (N.D.). Accessed from: http://www.ferris.edu

Hayes, M. L., & Conklin, M. E. (1953). Intergroup attitudes and experimental change. The Journal of Experimental Education, 22(1), 19-36. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220973.1953.11010467?journalCode=vjxe20

Jackson, E. P. (1944). Effects of reading upon attitudes toward the Negro race. The Library Quarterly, 14(1), 47-54. Retrieved from https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/616510?journalCode=lq

Shirley, O. L. (1989). The impact of multicultural education on the self-concept, racial attitude, and student achievement of black and white fifth and sixth graders. Retrieved from https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=7550169

Okoye-Johnson, O. (2011). Does multicultural education improve students’ racial attitudes? Implications for closing the achievement gap. Journal of Black Studies, 42(8), 1252-1274. Published by Sage Publications, Inc. Accessed: 29-07-2019 23:25 UTC.