Handbook of Black Studies PDF

Sage Reference Handbook of Black Studies For the most optimal reading experience we recommend using our website. A free-to-view version of this content is available by clicking on this link, which includes an easy-to-navigate-and-se...

Sage Reference Handbook of Black Studies For the most optimal reading experience we recommend using our website. A free-to-view version of this content is available by clicking on this link, which includes an easy-to-navigate-and-search-entry, and may also include videos, embedded datasets, downloadable datasets, interactive questions, audio content, and downloadable tables and resources. Author: Willie Cannon-Brown Pub. Date: 2010 Product: Sage Reference DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412982696 Keywords: Afrocentricity, Asante, African Americans, anti-intellectualism, the afrocentric scholar, victimology, Egypt Disciplines: Race & Ethnicity, Race, Ethnicity & Migration, Black Studies, Sociology Access Date: July 8, 2024 Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc. City: Thousand Oaks Online ISBN: 9781412982696 © 2010 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Decapitated and Lynched Forms: Suggested Ways of Examining Contemporary Texts WillieCannon-Brown “Nu said to Atum: Kiss your daughter Maat, put her at your nose, that your heart may live, for she will not be far from you.” —Coffin Text, Spell 80 § 35 (Faulkner, 1973) Point of Departure The Temple Circle of Afrocentric scholars uses African origins of civilization and the Kemetic high culture as a classical starting point, and those origins are the practical manifestations of the ways the scholar secures centrism while studying Africa (Asante, 1990, p. 14). In Kemet (ancient Egypt), Ma'at, was the goddess of truth and justice; hence, Ma'at as a philosophical ideal is sought in all Afrocentric inquiry. In this article, I will explore how Afrocentricity—that is, placing people of African origin at the center of discourse that concerns them rather than as marginalized victims of society—supports clarity and understanding. From an Afrocentric point of view, African Americans have played and continue to play significant roles on the human stage. This article will demonstrate how one Afrocentric method can be used to make an Afrocentric location of texts. I do not call this an Afrocentric reading of the text, as one might speak of a feminist reading or a critical theory reading, because the idea here is not so much to concentrate on the written text as on the structure, the hous- ing as it were, of the text within certain mental frameworks. What is most important in the critique of any work for Afrocentric critics is to satisfactorily situate texts as either located or dislocated. I do not offer this type of criticism as the only option for the scholar, but I want to suggest it as a serious alternative to the haphazard way we often secure knowledge of a text. There are several ways one could make an Afrocentric study of a text. It is possible to locate the text in a particular political era, identifying its agency in either advancing or hindering the centrality of African people. One could also study the text from the standpoint of Afrocentric style: That is, what is the author's use of metaphors, figures, and analogies from the African philosophical context? One could even make some sug- Handbook of Black Studies Page 2 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. gestion about the nature of the text in the context of Ma'at itself. How does this text hold back chaos to support the agency of African people. In this way, the critic applies classical African canons to the current discourse or text. Asante's Location Theory as Method To maintain the integrity of Molefi Kete Asante's Afrocentric methodology for analyzing and critiquing texts written by African American and non-African American scholars, much of what appears here is a paraphrase of Asante's (1992) position in the methodological article, “Locating a Text: Implications of Afrocentric Theory.” In this article, Asante postulates that there is a need for a methodology for critiquing texts written by African American as well as non-African scholars from an Afrocentric perspective. What he hopes to achieve is a “multicultural literacy that can lead to a critical transformation in the way we approach any discourse” (para. 3). He argues further that “the serious textual reader is able to locate a text by certain symbolic boundaries and iconic signposts offered from within the text itself” (para. 2). Three factors assist the critic in discovering a text's Afrocentric location: language, attitude, and direction. These are the keys to the kingdom of place in seeking to determine centrality or marginality of the African author. Locating the Text: Place Asante contends that place has two definitions: First, there is the decapitated text, which exists without cul- tural presence in the historical experiences of the creator. In this text, one sees “the contribution of an author who writes with no discernible African cultural element; the aim appears to be to distance herself or himself from the African cultural self.” Moreover, the writer's “contributions to literature are made as a part of the Euro- pean and White experience in the West” (Asante, 1992, para. 14). Indeed, many of the critics of Afrocentricity show evidence of this type of writing. Interestingly, they would be critiqued or as Asante would say, located, by the place they occupied in the matrix of Eurocentric reflection. Lynched text, on the other hand, “is more easily produced by African American authors who have literary skills but little cultural or historical knowledge.” Images and arguments tend to be thoroughly Eurocentric, rep- resenting the leading theories of White supremacy. “Since the literary establishment often reinforces Africans Handbook of Black Studies Page 3 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. the more removed we are from our cultural terms, there is social pressure on the writer to write what whites write” (Asante, 1992, para. 15) and to assume that what Blacks write about is not significant. This is danger- ous thinking and a clear evidence of texts that would be lynched with the heads cut off. There is no intellectual head here, no sense of purpose rooted in the historical interest and common objective of holding back chaos in the lives of human beings found in the classical canon of Ma'at. The first of the elements of location is language. “Words have function, meaning and etymology.” Asante's concern is “primarily with meaning…. Location is determined by signposts.” The assumption is made that writ- ers in the 20th century have moved past using pejorative words such as Hottentots, Bushman, and Pygmies and stereotypical phrases when referring to ethnic groups—for example, referring to Native Americans as “a bunch of wild Indians” or Latinos as “greasy.” While it is true that authors might use irony, sarcasm, and other techniques of language to deliver a certain point or perspective, the Afrocentric critic is sensitive to the persistent and uniform use of pejoratives as demonstrating the author's location. When an author uses pejoratives unknowingly to refer to Africans, the critic often is being confronted with an unconscious writer, one who is oblivious to the social and cultural milieu. (Asante, 1992, para. 17) The Next Element is Attitude Attitude refers to a predisposition to respond in a characteristic manner to some situation, value, idea, object, person, or group of persons. The writer signals his or her location by attitude toward certain ideas, persons, or objects. Thus, the critic in pursuit of the precise location of the author can determine from the writer's char- acteristic or persistent response to certain things where the writer is located. The attitude is not the motive; attitudes are more numerous and varied than motives. Consequently, the attempt to locate a writer by refer- ring to “motivating attitudes” may be useful in some situations. The common adage, “I cannot hear what you say because what you are shouts so loudly in my ear” is a remarkable example of how our attitudes influence our appraisal of those around us. This is the same for writers. Once a critic has read certain portions of a text to “get the drift” of what it is the writer is getting at, he or she can usually locate the author. (para. 18) Handbook of Black Studies Page 4 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Finally, Direction is the line along which the author's sentiments, themes, and interests lie with reference to the point at which they are aimed…. It is the tendency or inclination present in the literary work with regard to the author's object. One is able to identify this tendency by the symbols which occur in the text. For example, a writer who uses Ebonics, African American language, in his or her works demonstrates a tendency along the lines of Afro- centric space. The reader is capable of digesting some of the arguments, the poetic allusions, and situations because of the tendency identified in the writing. (para. 19) Applications Two books will be used to demonstrate Asante's Afrocentric methodology for critiquing texts: John McWhort- er's (2000) Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in BlackAmerica and Tony Brown's (1995) Black Lies, White Lies: The Truth According to Tony Brown. Both writers have currency within the African American community and both are quite well known in their own circles. Brown is much more famous than McWhorter because of his television show that has aired for nearly 30 years. On the other hand, McWhorter has gained notoriety for assuming what some consider to be conservative positions on many issues. Both McWhorter and Brown are critical of many aspects of the African American community and, consequently, their works will help us tease out the distinctions between them. An Afrocentric Analysis of a Eurocentric African American Author's Text: Introduction to Losing the Race McWhorter (2000), a professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, argues that the cults of victimology, separatism, and anti-intellectualism are “the ideological sea of troubles plaguing black America and keeping black Americans eternally America's case apart regardless of class” (p. xi); they prevent African Americans from achieving scholastically He goes for the jugular vein in his assault on the leadership of the African American community. Moreover, he believes that the idea that “white racism is the main obstacle to black success and achievement is now all but obsolete” (p. xi). In his opinion, affirmative action policies, once Handbook of Black Studies Page 5 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. necessary in university admissions, are now obsolete and perpetuate victimology, separatism, and anti-intel- lectualism. Victimology, he says “encourages the black American from birth to fixate upon remnants of racism and res- olutely downplay all signs of its demise” (McWhorter, 2000, p. xi), Separatism “encourages black Americans to conceive of black people as an unofficial sovereign entity, within which the rules other Americans are ex- pected to follow are suspended out of a belief that our victim-hood renders us morally exempt from them” (p. xi). Victimology and separatism naturally lead to anti-intellectualism. He reasons that “because of a virus of Anti-intellectualism that infects the black community” (p. 83), African American students perform so poorly in school. He admits at one time, however, that “his Anti-intellectual strain is inherited from whites having denied education to blacks for centuries” (p. 83). McWhorter (2000) uses history, statistics, and his personal experiences to illustrate that victimology, sepa- ratism, and anti-intellectualism are endemic for most African Americans regardless of socioeconomic class. Furthermore, he argues that these factors are the primary reasons that African Americans perform below Eu- ropean Americans, Africans, Asians, and Caribbean students on SAT tests and in the classroom. The first three chapters of the text deal with what he calls the “Cults of Victimology, Separatism, and Anti-in- tellectualism” in modern African American thought. The next two chapters deal with the debate of two con- troversial topics—affirmative action and Ebonics; and the final chapter is devoted to suggestions for African Americans “to get back on the track that our Civil Rights leaders set us upon” (McWhorter, 2000, p. xv). Locating McWhorter McWhorter's (2000) work, Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America, can be located as both decap- itated and lynched text. McWhorter provides clear illustrations in the text that place him outside the typical African American historical and educational experiences. He appears to be writing from the “outside looking in;” however, he does make an attempt to identify himself with the history and culture of African Americans and their struggles with racism when he writes, “My mother participated in sit-ins, was deeply aware of racism in American society, and taught a course on the subject at Temple University for years” (p. 112). He locates his mother as a woman who understands the Black self-empowered person the way so many other Blacks in America do. Furthermore, the reader is reminded that both his parents are, indeed, African American. To Handbook of Black Studies Page 6 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. enhance his credibility to share his sociopolitical opinions, he provides examples of his personal experiences of his treatment of what might be called “modern-day” racism. Given McWhorter's pedigree in the struggle for civil rights, at least, on the part of his mother, one would think that he would have understood the place from which he was writing. This was not to be the case. Early in the text, it is clear that McWhorter (2000) has an attitude problem. When we recall that Asante's idea about attitude was that it referred to a predisposition to respond in a certain way to a situation, value, or group of people, it becomes clear that McWhorter is stating what his attitude is regarding African Americans. There are several passages in the text where he appears to distance himself from the African cultural self. One in- dication of a decapitated text is when he talks about bringing African Americans to true equality “in the only country that will ever be their home” (p. xv). What is meant by this statement? Why would the United States be the only country that could be the home of African people who reside here? Who makes that determina- tion? There are tens of thousands of African Americans now living on the African continent. There are some such as Professor Molefi Asante who carry African passports. It appears that McWhorter is speaking from his own sense of being outside the African community. He seeks to join the Eurocentric community because he sees it as being mainstream. Actually, McWhorter eagerly joins with Lefkowitz (1996) and other Eurocentric writers who argue that Afro- centrism has become an excuse to teach myth as history. Yet one can see that he places himself outside the African historical stream and is a long way from the Afrocentric location of scholars such as Maulana Karen- ga, Jacob Carruthers, Asa Hilliard, Drusilla Houston, Ama Mazama, and Cheikh Anta Diop. Having not read, or at least, giving no indication that he has read these scholars he repeats the mantra from White scholars that African American scholars are looking for an excuse to “teach myth as history” when in fact the people who have taught myth as history for 500 years have been Whites who have advanced a White agenda. What is clear is that McWhorter has located himself clearly in that place and has therefore refused to see the inad- equacy of his arguments. He further complicates his place and shows that he is out of touch with reality by suggesting, as if some of what he says is factual, that African Americans should not be taught African history and culture “based on a mythical relationship to an Africa that never existed and that none of us would any longer even recognize as home” (McWhorter, 2000, p. 261). This is a statement that shows by its direction that it is away from a centered place. There is no mythical relationship to Africa; African Americans are Africans, just as Whites are Handbook of Black Studies Page 7 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Europeans and Japanese and Chinese who live in San Francisco are Asians. In the decapitated text, one sees the evidence of an author who shows no evidence of an interrogation of an African cultural presence. He does not give any indication that he has experienced anything cultural or historical that relates to Africa. It is as if a White writer, whose mother worked in civil rights, but who is now conservative is writing this text. Nothing should prevent the African American Studies scholar from exploring and espousing any aspect of African culture from a Pan-African perspective. One cannot argue sincerely that African Americans are un- justified in searching for their ancestral roots in art, language, culture, and personalities beyond the shores of these United States. Why should our children not learn that their history did not start in enslavement. I see as much evidence in the literature to suggest that the reason children might not do as well as they ought is because of a lack of knowledge of their history. A concentration of African history has never been shown to be a factor in keeping African children in the United States from learning. Clearly, we do our children a great service when we alert them to the fact that they are the descendants of ancestors who achieved great things. Diop (1974) quotes C. F. Volney in Voyages en Syrie et en Egypte, Paris 1787, I., 74–77: Just think that this race of black men, today our slave and the object of our scorn, is the very race to which we owe our arts, sciences, and even the use of speech? Just imagine, finally, that it is in the midst of peoples who call themselves the greatest friends of liberty and humanity that one has approved the most barbarous slavery and questioned whether black men have the same kind of in- telligence as Whites! (pp. 27–28) Perhaps McWhorter, Lefkowitz, and other Eurocentric writers disagree, but the thought that Egypt is to Africa what Greece is to the Western world is neither a mythical nor a crazy notion. Many European and African writers have shown cultural continuity of Egypt and the rest of Africa. Only those who consider Egypt outside of Africa would try to deny the cultural continuity. Not only can African Americans draw from Kemetic cul- ture but also from West African cultures such as the Yoruba, the Dogon, the Asante, and the Wolof. African Americans are, without a doubt, justified in their search for their historical and cultural past beyond the wall of enslavement. Of course, America is our place of domicile and we carry American passports when we travel, but we are everywhere African in cultural origin. The fact that some of us may not be aware, because we have not been taught, does not mean that we are not interested or should be pleased with a happy ignorance. McWhorter (2000) speaks of “our personal achievements right here in the real home, these United States of America” (p. 261) as if one denies achievements here because we are of African descent. What this state- Handbook of Black Studies Page 8 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. ment reveals is the individualistic bias of the writer and further places him outside of the general search for Ma'at in a collective sense. Another salient example of decapitated text, from among many, will make a reader wonder “Who is this writer?” They might even ask, “What is on his mind?” To explain that self-image is not a reason for Blacks to score lower on SATs or to perform in class lower than Whites, McWhorter compares “a white female student who is considerably overweight” with a Black male. He asks the question: Precisely what about the fact that the black kids' great-great-great grandparents were slaves, or that his grandfather grew up in a segregated Southern town, makes his case so profoundly different from that of the overweight white woman, especially when, for example, if she is Jewish, her grandfather was severely restricted in where he could work, and even she has probably at least once or twice in her life experienced some form of subtle anti-Semitism? (pp. 111–112) One would be foolish to argue that an African American should be expected to be excused for being intellec- tually inferior, not only to an overweight Jewish female but to any other human being, female or male. The comparison explained in McWhorter's scenario does not take into consideration generations of exposure to quality education provided to Jewish people in America, nor does it take into consideration the differences of cohesiveness in the two ethnic communities. Jewish people have an established ethnic community within the American society. There many Jewish agencies; for example, Jewish Family Services, whose mission is to serve the Jewish community. Moreover, Jewish people could from the early 1900s truly assimilate into the American society by changing their names, eliminating their native accents, and altering the structure of their noses. She can fit into the American “melting pot” if she chooses to. She can also decide to reduce her weight. Hence, Jewish females have options that an African American male absolutely does not have. The African American male cannot “melt” in America's melting pot and blend in. The notion of the American melting pot is quite different from what McWhorter (2000) identifies as “the melting pot in all of its glory” in his discussion on young White females and males in the Bay Area. He describes young White females ages 10 to 14 emulating Black female gestures and “white male high schoolers and undergraduates … who perform hip-hop, imitating ‘ghetto’ gestures and intonation as closely as they can” (p. 56). When this group is ready, they can shed these trendy behaviors and quickly transform themselves to truly fit into America's melting pot. Many hippies transformed themselves and are now members of “The Handbook of Black Studies Page 9 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Establishment.” It would be more interesting to study why African males are higher scholastic performers than African American males. Does this have something to do with the intervention of the American experience in the lives of African Americans and not in the lives of Africans as surely it does not have anything to do with patrimony? To this writer, this might be a closer comparison of apples to apples. I strongly believe that the nation would be surprised at the outcome if African Americans heard a new and different message both inside and outside the academy. Perhaps there should be a special community school that all African Americans, both parents and students, attended to be reconnected to their African historical and cultural past in general, and to West Africa specifically. In West Africa, Chinua Achebe (1960), a famous Nigerian author, depicts strong leaders in the community and the expectation that students achieve acade- mically in No Longer at Ease. Perhaps the examples of cultural values that Achebe provides in this novel explain why African immigrants in the United States are the nation's most highly educated group. African immigrants were more educated than White native-born Americans according to a report of the U.S. Census Bureau as shown in an article by Theodore Cross (1999/2000) in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (pp. 60–61). Obviously the Africans have several things going for them. In the first place, they are connected to thousands of years of history, in some cases unbroken. Second, they come from societies that expect them to achieve, and third, they are attuned to the political implications of their education in ways that one does not find in American students. Lynched Text McWhorter's (2000) work fully meets the criteria of lynched text. Even though he is able to sketch the horrific experiences of Blacks in a racist society prior to the 1950s, he often trivializes their experiences with racism in the 21st century. McWhorter says he was educated in middle-class private schools and attended elite uni- versities; hence, he escaped the trap of victimization because he learned to cope with racism. As a matter of fact, he provides some examples of personal experiences with racism. One can develop coping skills to deal with both overt and covert racism. However, covert racism can be painful and demotivating for African Americans who have not had the privilege of being grounded in self-determination or who have been exposed to family or friends who have experienced racism at its worst and have survived and transcended racism in their scholastic and career performance. In addition, those who have figured out how to “cope” with racism Handbook of Black Studies Page 10 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. are often stating that they have become accustomed to it or “acquiesce” in its perpetration in order to advance their careers. Obviously, this is not the future envisioned by Black Studies. Language Words have function, meaning, and etymology. Moreover, tone is also conveyed in the way words are used to construct an idea or image in the mind of the reader. The title of McWhorter's (2000) book, Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America, creates a “finger-pointing” picture in the mind of the reader. Perhaps if McWhorter would have titled the book Saving the Race: Ways to Avoid Self-Sabotage in White America, it would have presented his work in a positive light; but he may not have found a publisher. Even the statistics that McWhorter uses in his text are used without adequate explanation of the racist and White supremacist nature of the society. He shows academic performance for all ethnic groups and demon- strates that in the statistics African Americans lag behind. Yet African immigrants have the highest educational success in America, as they have for several years in the United Kingdom. The major problem with statistics, as most people know, is they can be used in many different ways to argue a point. I believe that the issue of income, health conditions, high school experiences, and sugar content in foods can be discussed as corre- lations with lower scores. If you show me the lower socioeconomic class condition of a student, I can almost predict what that child's scores would be compared with someone who is from an upper-middle-class family. The tone of McWhorter's (2000) voice in the text places total blame on the African American mass for their lack of performance—that is, ordinary parents and students. Meaningful information in McWhorter's message is lost because as Asante (1992) points out the common adage, “I cannot hear what you say because what you are shouts so loudly in my ear” (para. 18). To say that “the grip of the Cult of Victimology encourages the black American from birth to fixate upon remnants of racism” (McWhorter, 2000, p. xi), hence, separatism and anti-intellectual attitudes, without considering other variables presents an image of African Americans doomed to lose their race. Most scholars will dispute this conclusion based on the consciousness of the young generation to the problems of racism. Handbook of Black Studies Page 11 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Attitude Asante (1992) says, “The writer signals his or her location by attitude toward certain ideas, persons, or ob- jects. Thus, the critic in pursuit of the precise location of the author can determine from the writer's charac- teristic or persistent response to certain things where the writer is located” (p. 10). What comes across in McWhorter's (2000) book seems to be his frustration and embarrassment with, and envy of, African American scholarship. Several examples illustrate McWhorter's (2000) preference for and alignment with the European cultural ex- perience. One area that he is extremely critical of is the work of African American scholars. In the section titled, “The Ghettoization of Academic Work,” McWhorter condemns the work of Afrocentric scholars and claims that their work is “founded not upon intellectual curiosity but upon raising in-group self-esteem” (p. 54). This is the same nihilistic view that Mary Lefkowitz (1996) takes in her book, Not Out of Africa: How Afrocen- trism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History. Moreover, McWhorter (2000) writes, “Afrocentric History… is primarily founded upon a fragile assemblage of misreadings of classical texts to construct a scenario under which ancient Egypt was a ‘black’ civilization (was Anwar Sadat a ‘brother’?) raped by the Ancient Greeks, who therefore owed all notable in their culture to them” (p. 54). If this statement was not so off-center, one could say that McWhorter was at least in the margins of centrality, but clearly, he is way off the margins. Let us examine this statement. One cannot be standing in two places at the same time. If you are viewing African history or African American history from a Eurocentric point of view, you would make such a silly statement. However, if you were standing in your historical stream, you would understand the problem with the statement before anyone pointed it out. There is no “fragile assemblage of misreadings of classical texts” that has giv- en the Afrocentrists the upper hand in analysis. Afrocentric scholars who read the ancient texts in Egyptian, Greek, and Latin such as Onyewuenyi, Karenga, Obenga, Hilliard, Asante, and others know precisely what it is they are saying. Indeed, if there is a fragility, it is in the promotion of a White triumphalist history that has not been able to stand the test of time. What is further shown by this statement is that McWhorter has no understanding of the people of Egypt. The aside about Anwar Sadat was not comical. Sadat's grandmother was a Black African. However, the domination of contemporary Egypt by Arabs has clouded the ethnic and racial history of the land. It is not a small thing to know that Black people created the pyramids and the tombs in the valley of the kings. One point in fact that might throw some light on the displacement of McWhorter is the credentials of Professor Handbook of Black Studies Page 12 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Theophile Obenga. Indeed, Obenga holds the Doctora d' Etat es-lettres et sciences humaines (Ph.D. in Let- ters, Arts and the Humanities) from Montpellier University, France. He is a member of the French Association of Egyptologists (Société Française d'Egyptologie) and of the African Society of Culture (Prçsence Africaine). In 1974 at Cairo, Egypt, Dr. Obenga accompanied Cheikh Anta Diop as Africa's representatives to the UN- ESCO symposium on “The Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of the Meroitic Script.” This meet- ing remains one of the most important and famous defenses of African intellectual and historical integrity in the modern era. Certainly, it is unknown to McWhorter because if he did know it, he would have had to dis- miss it. At this conference, Diop and Obenga gave the proof of the Blackness of the ancient Egyptians to an assembly of scholars who applauded their brilliance, two Black men in a sea of Whiteness. Perhaps the words of Serge Sauneron (1960) will best address the difficulty Eurocentrists have with Egypt as a Black civilization. He writes: To understand ancient Egypt, we must abandon the idea of finding in it our own culture and our own trends: we must accept this exclusion, and not delude ourselves with the apparent similarities…. for Egypt, the sea marks the limit of a world—of an African world; thus the dreams of Ogotommeli, or the “Bantu philosophy” carry precious elements which help us to understand better certain aspects of Egyptian religious thought—but we must expect to find little of Platonic thought in this world. (pp. 6–7) This is an excellent statement, and there are many others by European scholars and writers on this subject. One might argue a little with Sauneron on the Platonic affiliations because Plato went to school in Egypt and found many of his ideas there, according to Herodotus. Nevertheless, the point is that Egypt is an African, a Black, civilization. There are many statements that show this text (McWhorter, 2000) to be both decapitated and lynched, and I cannot deal with them all in this essay. The author has rehashed so many old canards that it is difficult to put them back in the yard. Indeed, they are the same ones used by Mary Lefkowitz (1996) and distributed to White and Black conservatives to show what Black Studies scholars were doing. Molefi Asante's (1999) book, The Painful Demise of Eurocentrism, has dealt with quite a lot of these negative works, including works by Lefkowitz and Stephen Howe (1998). As far as McWhorter (2000) is concerned, one has to understand that whether Cleopatra was Black or White is not an Afrocentric issue. Most scholars know that she was a descendant of Ptolemy, the Greek, left in charge by Alexander. However, it is argued that some of her ances- Handbook of Black Studies Page 13 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. tors were Egyptians, Black. But the reason that is not a major issue with Black Studies scholars is that she is relevant only because of Shakespeare's account of her chasing Mark Anthony. Cleopatra is not a great ruler. She is not a Hatshepsut, the first woman to rule Egypt in her own right. One must dismiss this as a serious discussion about an African queen. In the statement that “Aristotle stole books from an Egyptian library that wasn't even built until twenty-five years after he died, etc.” (p. 55), stole is the only debatable word. Herodotus says in the History that arts, solemn processions, sculpture, politics, religion, philosophy, came from Egypt to Greece. Something is stolen when you take it and then act like you have forgotten where you got it from. Furthermore, McWhorter (2000) presents, following Eurocentric writers, half-truths, as if they are facts. For example, the comment that Aris- totle could not have stolen books from a library that “wasn't even built until twenty-five years after he died” is misleading. Aristotle was given books by Alexander; indeed, there is no way that Aristotle could have been responsible for writing a thousand books accredited to him. Furthermore, it is wrong to suggest that the Egyp- tians did not have libraries until the Library of Alexander was built. Indeed, it was built on the grounds of the old temple city of Rhacostas where there were many books when the Greeks came in 333 BCE. It is a pity that McWhorter has distanced himself from his own great tradition because it means that he will never “be dazzled, if not blinded, by the bright light of his discoveries” (Diop, 1974, p. xvii), as many others have been. Chapter 4 (McWhorter, 2000) highlights The Roots of the Cult of Anti-Intellectualism. This chapter opens with a quote by a Black Berkeley High student in 1999 that depicts the institutions of learning as “a ‘white’ endeav- or” and “her views are far from rare.” The quote is worth recounting here: When I walk in that gate every morning and I look up and see all those names for poetry and drama and Einstein are here, that doesn't reflect my culture. When I go to chemistry, and they teach me about Erlenmeyer and his flask, I don't know nothing about him. But they won't teach me about peo- ple from my culture that have done things that are wonderful. When they teach me about math, they tell me about Pythagoras, but the pyramids were there hella long ago. The Mayans had pyramids, but it's all the Pythagorean Theorem? No! That's a lie. And then they teach me all this stuff and they say, “Oh, I don't know what's wrong with you.” (p. 137) McWhorter believes that this is carefully taught rhetoric from the late 1960s. As Americans, should students who are African American not expect to learn something about the contributions of their ancestors to this great land? Can they not question these absences without inheriting 1960s rhetoric? In his book, African Origin of Handbook of Black Studies Page 14 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Biological Psychiatry, Richard King (1994) says, Presently black people are awakening from the spell of mental slavery, ignorance of self, and an inability spiritually to focus the mind. Black people have learned that a major key to shattering the chains of mental slavery is to know one's own history. When one knows what the ancestors did to develop themselves, in order to make such great advances, then they will know how to do the same today. For the ancestor and today's black person are literally the same person: king, queen, architect, physician, teacher, artist, competitor, merchant, jurist, and military giant. In knowing one's history one can expand the mind through the illusion of time and space, unite with ancient black priest-scientist ancestors, and utilize the same timeless and universal ideas to produce the same greatness. (p. 14) It appears that the only thing this student and millions of others are asking for is a reconnection to their African past, its history and culture. Direction McWhorter's (2000) direction—“the author's sentiments, themes, and interest”—is clear. The primary theme in Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage is the argument that African Americans believe they are victims of racism in scholastic performance. McWhorter opens Chapter 1 by suggesting African Americans' ignorance of the etymology of the Middle English word, niggard. He says that the word means “stingy” in the language of a European American. McWhorter's tone comes across as scornful of the African American. Attribution theory espouses that we draw from past experiences to respond to present experiences. For the African American, negative connotations surrounding the word nigger as a pejorative word to describe African Americans, which traditionally meant dirty, stingy, and so on, resulted in association. McWhorter criticizes advocates for Ebonics and affirmative action. His sentiment is that Ebonics and affirma- tive action perpetuate the image of African Americans as dumb. Dumb to whom, is the question? He com- pletely discounts Black linguists and educational experts who have studied the language of African Americans (Asante, 2005). To support his claim, McWhorter either justifies or rationalizes actions and attitudes of European Americans. Handbook of Black Studies Page 15 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Here is just one example of justification of a White woman choosing a White male over a Black male. He gives this account: Law firms have to choose from dozens of interviewees for summer positions, and if a white person interviewing one of these men decided that she would rather hire the white guy she interviewed that morning because he laughed at her jokes, seemed like he would be more fun to have around, and in general did not give the impression of hating her, this does not make her a racist, it makes her human. (p. 80) No, what makes her a racist is choosing the White guy over the Black even though the Black is the most qual- ified. One cannot excuse any kind of racism, not even racism based on the idea that it is human. It is unfair to choose any candidate just on the fact of his or her race. Given a situation where a Black person laughed at jokes, I would expect the employer to hire only the person who is best qualified to perform the job regardless of personality. In a management class made up of all African Americans, an Afrocentric professor who requires “more” from students spent a class period sharing the ideas presented in McWhorter's book. One student asked, “Why do they have to compare us anyway?” The professor took the long way around and explained American values determined by the dominant culture. Competition, progress and change, science and technology, and mate- rialism were among these values. Students realized the need for individual academic achievement to benefit African Americans' overall performance. European Americans naturally live the culture established by their forefathers. The students in this class work to improve the quality of their work because the professor sets high expectations and then guides students to achieve to the level of expectation. They never thought of be- ing victims or anti-intellectuals. McWhorter (2000) recognizes internalized victimology in African Americans but does not recognize internal- ized racist attitudes in European Americans. He talks about “degree” of racism, but he fails to realize the dam- age that both overt and covert racism that African Americans face is drastically different from all the groups included in his discussions. Handbook of Black Studies Page 16 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Afrocentric Analysis of Black Lies, White Lies: The Truth According to Tony Brown Tony Brown's (1995) key thesis in Black Lies, White Lies is that regardless of how Americans gained access to the United States, everyone must take responsibility for the country's future. He addresses the problems that all Americans face and what all citizens must do to resolve those problems. Place: Decapitated or Lynched Text A journalist and investigative reporter, author, commentator, radio host, educator, and advocate of self-em- powerment, Tony Brown (1995), in his book Black Lies, White Lies, presents neither decapitated nor lynched text. Brown appears historically and culturally centered. He shows two fundamental elements of centrality of African culture. First, in Kemet (ancient Egypt), to speak Ma'at, when translated means truth and justice. Brown grew up in a communal environment in Charleston, West Virginia. He says, “At an early age, I devel- oped a finely tuned sense of moral outrage at injustice and dishonesty. The truth… could not be denied” (p. 18). In his Acknowledgments, Brown says that “before every public utterance … his first words are ‘May God grant me the words to speak His thoughts.’ God's thoughts are the only truth” (p. xiii). Second, in Kemet, autobiographies that depicted one's life were a common occurrence. In Kemet, Asante (1990) says, “The origin of the introductory salutation is found in the ‘t'ete,’ oratorical expression…. Based on the historically correct position of Africans, the introductory salutation was intended to connect the present audience to the past” (p. 81). Brown (1995) takes an autobiographical approach similar to the Kemetic ap- proach. For example, in Chapter 1, he describes both poor Blacks' and Whites' lifestyle in Charleston, West Virginia. Moreover, he tells the reader that he was raised by surrogate mothers until they died; then he and his siblings joined their biological mother. His “mama, Elizabeth Sanford, supportive school teachers, and an extended family that in many ways encompassed most of the Black community” (p. 2) were responsible for his overachieving nature. This speaks to the African value of extended family. The next section of the autobiography addresses his personal character. In the introduction, Brown, perhaps unknowingly, follows the autobiographical tradition of Kemet by presenting a snapshot of his personal char- acter in the following “I” statements: Handbook of Black Studies Page 17 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. ▪ I want to warn that you are about to be confronted with truths that may startle and upset you. ▪ I have been called an “out-of-the-box thinker.” ▪ I have been called an “equal-opportunity ass kicker.” ▪ I see myself as an American who cares about this country and all of the people in it. ▪ Most of all, I care about truth. ▪ I detest lies of any kind from any source. ▪ I have no tolerance of racists or demagogues of any color. ▪ I am a Black man with highly critical views of the Black establishment, the Democratic Party, and White liberals. ▪ I am no less critical of the White establishment, the Republican Party, and White conservatives. ▪ Although I am unsparing in my assessment of the Black community, I love Black people, but I be- lieve Blacks present a serious obstacle to the stability of this nation because too many are still waiting for White people to solve their problems. ▪ I critically examine affirmative action. ▪ I believe Black people should let White people go, and solve their own problem. (p. xviii) Brown's life purpose of commitment to change that fostered justice and fairness in the community and society was already shaped in his teenage years. Throughout the text, Brown gives testimony of his personal experi- ences and contributions for the improvement of individuals, communities, and the society. Language Even though Brown (1995) talks candidly about Black people, he presents a positive Black image; therefore, he is opposed to negative images of Blacks. He says that “as a product of poverty who has risen to some level of accomplishment” (p. 128) he resented the following statements by Jackson and West: “I hate to admit it, but I have reached a stage in my life that if I am walking down a dark street late at night and I see that a person behind me is White, I subconsciously feel relieved” (Jesse Jackson). (p. 87) “Without jobs and (economic) incentives to be productive citizens, the black poor become even more prone to criminality, drugs and alcoholism” (Cornel West). (p. 98) Handbook of Black Studies Page 18 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Brown provides evidence based on his personal experience that West's statement is not necessarily true. Moreover, if it is true for poor Blacks, he shows that the same is true for poor Whites as well. Another way that Brown (1995) recognizes the use of language and the impact of the meaning of words is the way Martin Luther King, Jr. used integration. He contends that Dr. King “understood the need for economic self-sufficiency as well as an inclusive desegregation philosophy (pluralism) that he mis-classified, as most people do, as ‘integration’” (p. 65). Black leaders did not comprehend Dr. King's vision of integration. Brown argues that integration as understood by most Black leaders seems to espouse that “being around Whites would win Black acceptance and equality.” He, on the other hand, believes that integration “interpreted as cultural assimilation into the White community” is a “mechanism to marginalize Blacks by preventing their em- powerment” (pp. 48–49). Brown uses African American proverbs, metaphors, and analogies as well as biblical parables to convey his message. For example, he uses an old African American proverb: “When Whites catch a cold, Blacks get pneumonia” to illustrate the point that the weakest members of a society suffer the greatest impact of the evils in society first. Poverty, illiteracy, homelessness, welfare dependency, illegitimacy, school and domestic violence, unemployment, school dropouts, and gang activities are among the evils in America that result in socioeconomic metastasis. The overall primary threat to national sovereignty, he says, is the loss of moral virtue in the American character, racial conflict between Blacks and Whites, and national debt. Brown argues that “unless America confronts its racism, its greed, and its moral rot,” at the very least Ameri- cans will experience “a drastically reduced standard of living” (p. 8) and at the very worst, racial conflagration and national bankruptcy. Affirmative action, revised and modified to strengthen the weak, ultimately strengthens the strong. He says that Dr. H. Naylor Fitzhugh, who in 1931 became the second Black to receive an M.B.A. from Harvard, point- ed out to him that in professional sports, the weakest team gets first chance at selecting the best new player to be drafted. The benefit of this approach fostered a win-win situation for the players, the spectators, the TV networks, and the owners. This is affirmative action at its best. Examples from history and statistics show structural changes for Blacks and Whites and predict how the evils Brown names will affect all Americans in the future. The ratio of Black and White illegitimate births; the rise of drug availability in White middle-class communities, which includes school playgrounds, college campuses, Handbook of Black Studies Page 19 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. office buildings, and pizza parlors; and the increase in gangs in the heartland of America are all examples of the beginning of moral and economic degeneration of America. The proverb, “When Whites catch a cold, Blacks get pneumonia” holds true even in the 21st century. Attitude On one hand, the use of words can help to determine the location of an author. On the other hand, the writer's characteristic or persistent response to certain things helps the critic to determine the writer's attitude. As can be seen in his autobiography, Brown (1995) locates himself as a Black writer who demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the history, culture, and language typical of the African American experience. Begin- ning with the acknowledgments, one even slightly familiar with the African American culture catches a feeling of African culture when Brown pays tribute to the members of his family for their contributions to his work. Moreover, he illustrates his respect for Black people when he acknowledges his publishers for permitting him to use “Black” as the proper noun it is. Throughout the text both Black and White are proper nouns when referring to race. Brown does not see the problems presented in his work as a Black problem or a White problem. A boat is used as an analogy for America. In Chapter 1, “Different Ship, Same Boat,” he recognizes that all ethnic groups arrived in different type ships, but regardless of the means of entry, all ethnic groups are in the same boat. This analogy locates Blacks in America not as subjects but as actors on the American scene. Brown launches discussions ranging from “this nation's economic survival to the failures of Black and White leadership, the origins and cause of ‘AIDS,’ the possibility of racial genocide, the potential disasters posed by biomedical research, and the realities of racial politics” (p. xvii). He warns the reader that he would “write the things that normally are not brought up by Blacks in the presence of Whites” that include betrayal of the Black community by its misguided, elitist leadership; why Black Americans are the least successful sociological group in the country; … the pervasive fear among Blacks that they will become the victims of racial genocide; and why that fear is more grounded in reality than perhaps most Blacks and Whites realize. (p. xviii) The overarching theme throughout the text is pluralistic teams, which he calls Team America. He offers sug- Handbook of Black Studies Page 20 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. gestions for how Black Americans can position themselves to break economic barriers that hold them hostage and marginalized. Although Brown does not use the African words for the seven principles of Karenga's (1993) Nguzo Saba, a value system for community reconstruction, he (Brown, 1995) advocates for Unity (Umoja), Self-Determination (Kujichagulid), Collective Work and Responsibility (Ujima), Cooperative Econom- ics (Ma), Creativity (Kuumbd), and Faith (Imani) (pp. 173–174) in order to build a high-performing team. What Brown calls for is Black team autonomy in the 21st century for Blacks, which is what Blacks called for them- selves when enslavement was first abolished. He believes that Black people should let White people go and solve their own problems. Brown understands the benefits of segregation for Blacks with equal economic op- portunity. Moreover, he was intimately involved in the original Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. The words of the song “Let the Works I've Done Speak for Me” are appropriate to illustrate Brown's (1995) “attitude.” At an early age, he came to see the isfet (evil) of racism “as immoral as well as illegal, especially in a nation that preached the Ten Commandments as a way of life and proclaimed that all men were created equal” (p. 3). Even though there are many more exemplary examples of Brown's works, three will be provided to indicate his attitude. First, one might say he began to serve his life purpose at age 15. In a dedication speech delivered at a pro- gram for the town's “colored” YMCA, he says: Then the words came spilling out of me…. I had this sense that I was hearing someone else speak- ing boldly, through me. “Why have we come tonight to celebrate a damp, raggedy old building with hand-me-down, smelly furniture and flat-sided Ping-Pong balls and pool tables that run down hill?” … “Why are we pleased with a facility—if you can call it that—lacking even a swimming pool, while the White YMCA has a first-rate pool just two short blocks down Capitol Street? Why are we content to be second-class cit- izens and to celebrate our second-class role tonight? No, thank you. When we have something to celebrate, let's do it. Until then, let's do what we have to do to have equal facilities and equal respect under the law. Thank you and God bless you.” (p. 5) Brown goes on to say, “In the next few minutes, I was reborn.” Another example of Brown's works, even though he was “accused of grandstanding by a handful of middle- Handbook of Black Studies Page 21 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. class Blacks” (p. 27) is when he learned from an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer on April 13, 1992, about a 14-year-old Black girl “of great promise who was in danger of never realizing that promise” (p. 25). Brown used his creative journalist abilities and his commitment to helping those who need it the most to raise money for this young girl along with his own personal money. At the writing of the text, Karesha, whom Brown calls a prodigal daughter, was attending the exclusive George School in Newtown, Pennsylvania. Karesha wrote to him, “Not only did you help change my life for the better, you also changed my mother's (who was serving a life sentence), my sister's and my brother's … And for that I thank you with all of my heart” (p. 27). In addition, one of her teachers sent him a report along with the comment: “All who have invested time and money in her have made a great investment” (p. 27). Finally, on June 23, 1963, Brown coordinated the Walk to Freedom march in Detroit, Michigan, where Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech. According to Business Week (July 29, 1963), more than 500,000 people participated in the largest march in history. Direction Direction is defined as “the line along which the author's sentiments, themes, and interests lie with reference to the point at which they are aimed” (Asante, 1992, para. 19). Brown's sentiments, themes, and interests are obvious. He advocates for the principles of Nguzo Saba, not only for Blacks but also for all teams in Team America (unity). The idea of “helping those who need it most” applies to all ethnic teams. This concept locates Blacks parallel to Whites and other Americans. Affirmative action is an effective tool when it helps those who need it most. For example, to provide an education that results in employment for a member of any ethnic team in America helps the individual, the community, and ultimately the society. The theme of helping the weakest, which also helps the strongest, is evident in this type of affirmative action. Brown (1995) identifies himself, in a non-Afrocentric thrust, with what he calls “The John the Baptist Brigade ‘cries’ for Blacks to ‘Take Back your Mind.’” Such a brigade might have been called “Shakan Brigade” or “Sun- diata Brigade” or “John Henry Brigade” or some such Afrocentric name. He challenges Blacks to revisit the wisdom of Black ancestors such as Carter G. Woodson, Marcus Garvey, and Booker T. Washington, whose message was “Pride, education, and economic self-sufficiency” (pp. 124, 273). He challenges the reader to imagine history being written where “the early Black rank and file followed self-help advocates, Booker T. Handbook of Black Studies Page 22 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Washington and Marcus Garvey instead of the Talented Tenth elitist who shunned and exploited the masses” (p. 68). There were, however, members of the Talented Tenth class who have not shunned and exploited the masses. Throughout Black Lies, White Lies, one cannot deny that Brown (1995) makes critical examinations of what Asante (1990) categorizes as policy issues. Asante asserts that “Africalogy is necessarily an area which en- compasses all political, social, and economic issues confronting the African world…. Some policy issues in- volve … education, welfare, and employment” (p. 22). Tony Brown appears located and connected to the history, culture, and language of Blacks and Whites in America. He takes a strong stand against European hegemony and makes room for a pluralistic society. Brown is truthful enough to talk candidly about the Talented Tenth and the consequence of this thought. He recounts a statement by Michael Meyers whom he identifies as a Talented Tenther, “who has been discovered by the New York media as a Farrakhan-NAACP basher and a ‘civil rights’ leader …” who said … “there is no such thing as Black culture … I don't know what it means to be proud that you're Black” (Brown, 1995, p. 53). Brown has no problem expressing what Black culture is and what it means to him. In a real sense, one sees Brown (1995) as expressing sentiments that resonate with African Americans be- cause there is a genuine sense of caring about the community. It is as if he is a part of the community, com- mitted to its survival and victory. He is not an outsider, in the margins, looking in but, rather, a deeply loyal African American who may harbor quite different political opinions from others but is nevertheless authentic in his concern. One does not see this, for example, in the work of McWhorter (2000) discussed above. Above all else, Brown's Team America is a clear example of his belief in the cooperative nature of victory. In con- clusion, location methods can be employed to examine the extent to which an author is off center, that is, outside his or her own cultural context. In this demonstration to contextual-ize texts, it is important to see that all documents can be viewed from the perspective of the agency of African people. This has been a work in the interest of provoking more agency analysis of texts. References Achebe, C. (1960). No longer at ease. New York: Anchor. Handbook of Black Studies Page 23 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Asante, M. K. (1990). Kemet, Afrocentricity and knowledge. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Asante, M. K. (1992). Locating a text: Implications of Afrocentric theory. In C. Blackshire-Belay (Ed.), Lan- guage and literature in the African American imagination. Westport, CT: Greenwood. Asante, M. K. (1999). The painful demise of Eurocentrism: An Afrocentric response to critics. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Asante, M. K. (2005). Ebonics: Introduction to African American language. Chicago: African American Im- ages. Brown, T (1995). Black lies, White lies: The truth according to Tony Brown. New York: HarperCollins. Cross, TAfrican immigrants in the United States are the nation's most highly educated groupJournal of Blacks in Higher Education (1999/2000, Winter.) pp. 60–61. Diop, C. A. (1974). The African origin of civilization: Myth or reality (M. Cook, Trans.). Chicago: Lawrence Hill. Faulkner, R. O. (1973). The ancient Egyptian coffin texts (Vol. 1). Warminster, UK: Aris & Phillips. Howe, S. (1998). Afrocentrism: Mythical pasts and imagined homes. New York: Verso. Karenga, M. (1993). Introduction to Black Studies. Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press. King, R. (1994). African origin of biological psychiatry. Hampton, VA: U. B. & U. S. Communications Systems. Lefkowitz, M. (1996). Not out of Africa: How Afrocentrism became an excuse to teach myth as history. New York: Basic Books. McWhorter, J. H. (2000). Losing the race: Self-sabotage in Black America. New York: Free Press. Sauneron, S. (1960). The priests of ancient Egypt. New York: Grove Press. Afrocentricity Asante African Americans anti-intellectualism the afrocentric scholar Handbook of Black Studies Page 24 of 25 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. victimology Egypt https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412982696 Handbook of Black Studies Page 25 of 25