by Jerrica Rucker
The history of AAAS is inspiring. The idea that I am currently studying in this class because men and women my age fought for it is inspiring. It took me back to a previous discussion post concerning whether or not students here at Memphis would fight for the AAAS program the way that the students at San Francisco did. I don’t think current students would sacrifice as much as those students did just for a course of study. It’s sad to say that there isn’t much that people in my generation would seriously stand up for.
The concept of this module that stuck with me the most was “Segregation versus Separation”. I began to wonder if blacks are separating themselves from the mass society as a result of segregation and racism. Now that black are not set apart because of inferiority, could the current issues dealing with racism stem from blacks unconsciously separating themselves from other ethnicities. Although there may indeed be some racist whites still living amongst us, is American society built to work against blacks or are blacks paranoid because they continue to separate themselves?
Also, seeing the different levels of Afrocentricism made me feel better about the concept. Originally, I felt that only black radicals upheld the concept of Afrocentrism. I assumed it was a counteraction or a type of reverse-racism. Now, I see that different types of Afrocentricists believe in different types of things. What really drove it home for me was that I found myself fitting into one of the categories. I believe that I am a social afrocentrist. I want to use my education in AAAS to promote progression in the black community that allows us to succeed as Americans since this is our homeland. I plan to teach inner-city teenagers African American history or literature with the ultimate goal of creating a group of open minded citizens so that they are not stuck in the box of victimization. I think that the reason blacks’ progression is a slow process because we did have a late start in becoming a part of a larger society and that we still want to be accredited for the things our ancestors went through. Where do you draw the line, as a black person, between remembering black legacy and using black history as an excuse for recent failures and setbacks?
The more I am introduced to the academia of AAAS, the more solid my goals become. I knew what I wanted to do, and why I wanted to do it, I just didn’t know HOW I would go about doing so. Being able to develop my own theories concerning my ethnicity allowed me to see a lot of things differently and I hope to produce students, who have been constantly taught that black have the short end of the stick, that can escape from that mental boundary and explore American society with open-mindedness.
