Research4a - African Americanuts

Research

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.

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 2

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

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.

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 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.

When we look into African American history, we discover 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.

According to Mamer, the history of African Americans must deal with the fact that people felt that Africans should be quiet and educate themselves, leaving civic rights and other political goals for the whites (Mamer, 2013). This, of course, was where African Americans ultimately made some of their biggest contributions, fighting politically for the right to share their voice. Throughout this fight, they were able to find a new identity and work through conflicting social situations that caused identity struggles.

Much of the discrimination against African Americans was based on greed. However, many, if not the majority of whites, were against the shackled slavery legacy. The slave trade gave people political power and wealth and many parts of history remain unknown to the general public. For example, many of the colleges and universities throughout the United States were established because of African American slaves and labor that they put into the schools so that everyone could be educated, giving blacks a place to learn, even if it was under a system of bondage (Smith and Ellis, 2017).

The African American experience should be fully be appreciated for what it has always been, a commentary on the American experience, making it more difficult to ignore contradictions in favor of oversimplified slogans that sometimes pass for national history. While a true history will surely be a more troubling one for most Americans, it will ultimately be more useful, providing the historical context for contemporary conversations on the nation’s most difficult and pressing problems.

Issues of race have defined (and still define) much of American history, shaping distinctive parts of our culture. Whatever your stand on the question of reparations or affirmative action might be, true knowledge of the life, work, suffering, and determined struggle of slaves has great relevance. It provides a different perspective on traditional assumptions about America as a rich country, along with keen insight into the historic production of national wealth. It also confronts American national mythmaking in profound ways.

A full and accurate account of American history will shine an honest light on the critical value the African Americans provided in the development of the nation and to the early settlers whose lives literally depended on the protection, and labor of the Africans, which is significant to the American story.

When the heritage, culture, and contributions of an entire group of people is not recognized — especially in the educational arena — it sends a message to all students. That message is, “Your contributions don’t matter to this country because you don’t matter to this country. Therefore, you don’t matter to me or within the system of my country.” This creates an immediate disrespect for the group being disenfranchised — in this case, African Americans. Why in the 21st Century are African Americans still being disenfranchised, deliberately or unintentionally? What are the consequences of the marginalization of the dreams and hopes of the founding fathers, who sought a better life and saw America as the land of opportunity. We pursue a place where one can live with freedom of choice, have inalienable rights, experience equal justice, and have the opportunity to pursue a better life. Was the Declaration of Independence simply an idea that sounded good at the time or are the high moral values written in that document something that a large number of Christian white men and women have simply been unable to successfully achieve?

Janeane Davis (2016) said that when students are not taught to be respectful or acknowledge the truth that the African Americans have always been superb and great contributors to society in the American States, they are actually taught to be disrespectful in failing to show gratitude to the African Americans presently residing in America. The end result is lack of feelings for others, no emotions, distrust, and an indifference toward treating other people — particularly students and African Americans of color — as they should be treated.

Heuschkel & Hyland (2010) said that as educators, it’s important to be responsive to the needs of African American students. For these students, they have their history erased from the history books.

The majority (over 80%) of teachers in the United States are Caucasian, which creates a potential cultural gap between students and their teachers. We can now point to evidence showing that when an African American child understands their history, it can contribute to greater school moral and enhanced academic performance. It is beneficial for a teacher to have knowledge of African American history so they can help their students gain an understanding of the importance of their history.

“My argument,” Ladson-Billings states, “is not that human needs must be ignored by teachers and educational institutions but that academics cannot forget their major goal – instilling knowledge and encouraging students to learn” (p. 56). The actual method of elevating students’ academic and intellectual achievement should continue to be a focal point of our academic and educational programs as the problems surrounding the educational institutions become more pressing (Heuschkel).

Thus, it appears that the major rationale for Black Studies is the inclusion of the Afro-American experience as a valid and integral part of the history of the United States. This inclusion is vital in order to correct historic omissions and to diminish stereotypes (James Newton, 1974).

Newton (1974) and Bethune (1969) maintain that a clear rationale for Black Studies must be provided for two major reasons: to enlighten the majority of Americans, black and white, and to insist that educational institutions be held responsible for transmitting the complete history and culture of this pluralistic society.

Newton (1974) and Durham (1970) state this idea explicitly: In order for American history to be accurate, it must present an inclusive record of the deeds and achievements of all peoples. In the past, there has been an unfortunate and ill-advised tendency to exclude substantial portions of the history of African Americans in the country from the record of national experience. This omission is not only unjustifiable from the standpoint of historical scholarship, but it has also allowed generations of Americans to grow up with a distorted view of our nation’s development and the part African Americans have played in it. Durham has much support from other writers in the field: Wright (1970), Hurt (1968), Lee (1971), Proctor (1971), and more.

Sources

Hyland, N. E., & Heuschkel, K. (2010). Fostering understanding of institutional oppression among US pre-service teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(4), 821-829. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X09002170

Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). What we can learn from multicultural education research. Educational leadership, 51(8), 22-26. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ508261

Mamer, B (2013), “Reclaiming one’s own voice and identity. The African American slave narrative and its evolution.” (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.portal.education.lu

Newton, J. (1974). A Review of Black Studies as Related to Basic Elements of Curriculum. The Journal of Negro Education, 43(4), 477-488. Accessed: 29-07-2019 23:23 UTC

Smith, Stephen & Ellis, Kate (2017). “Shackled legacy. History shows slavery helped to build many U.S. colleges and universities.” (2017). Accessed: http://www.apmreports.org