The department holds a panel discussion on” Queering Black History Month,” and teaches a class on” Performing Black Womanhood.”
To prepare students to be “scholar campaigners,” City College of New York is expanding its Black Studies Department, which includes a new bachelor’s degree, business suite, and revamped program architecture.
One outsider claimed to The College Fix that many of these programs currently are primarily centered on “activism” rather than knowledge.
Following the demise of the office in 1996, the common school re-established its Black Studies Department on July 1, 2024, according to its site. The Board of Trustees therefore voted in February to establish a fresh Bachelor of Arts in Black Studies.
According to the most recent annual report from the office, Jervette Ward, chair of the department, the faculty wants to train students to be “engaged scholar activists.”
Ward cited engagement in the Black Lives Matter and the Civil Rights Movement as” we connect to liberty struggles globally” in his article.
Our kids have repeatedly raised a picture up to us and demonstrated that we must remain with those who have been harmed and abused. Student protesters have done but by standing for something greater than themselves,” Ward wrote.
The report also listed the organization’s objectives for the upcoming academic time. The following are included in the article:” Establishing the New Black Studies Department Office Suite in Historic Shepard Hall,”” Hiring fresh Tenure-Line University to meet the required amount of university lines for a Department,” and” Revamping the… program construction.”
Ward did not respond in an email that The College Fix sent her over the course of the last two weeks asking about the district’s rise and any potential concerns about its prospects as a result of President Donald Trump’s DEI-related reduces.
The college’s media relations team immediately promised a response may be made when The Fix asked for comment, but no one did.
However, Eric Kaufmann, a professor at Birkbeck College and a part of Color Us United, stated over email to The Fix that” Black Studies is, on its face, a worthwhile field of study,” but that its latest application has a bias toward “scholar-activism.” Color Us United is a group that fights against cultural division in the United States.
” Black Studies agencies were established in the wake of the Black Power movement in the late 1960s. While student-led requirement or intellectual interest were secondary, sit-ins, demonstrations, emotional blackmail, and social pressure helped them find them, Kaufmann said.
He stated to The Fix:” The area continues its tradition of scholar-activism, in which only a select few questions are posed and only a select few answers are permitted. This is engagement, no fellowship, and it should not be funded by the taxpayer.
The organization is a common school that is funded by tax money.
The office highlighted courses for the spring expression on its website, including” The Black Revolution,”” African History &, the Afro-American Experience,” and” Performing Black Womanhood in the United States.”
” The Black Revolution” provides a” review of the forces shaping the current turmoil in the global Black community, including actions that project the altered approach toward being Black for Blacks and non-Blacks.”
The program features both the positive and negative emotions that come from the fresh self-pride on the part of Black people, according to the information.
Other programs on the education section include” Prejudice an the American Legal System,”” Social Inequality: Hip Hop,” and” Malcolm X: His Existence, Leadership, and Legacy.”
The course” Racism an the American Legal System” addresses” c] ontemporary legal corporations, their intrinsic race and class prejudices, the peculiar development and entanglement of the institution of slavery and American law, and the impact of the racist implementation of the American legal system on every aspect of the Black practice.”
The department also co-hosted a panel discussion titled” Souls of Queer Black Folk” about Queering Black History Month in February.
Kaufmann claimed that it becomes a problem when programs are more focused on activism than education.
” A political pressure group or NGO should strive to end racism,” the statement goes. An academic department must be primarily committed to the pursuit of truth and open debate, he said, even though this can be a part of the academic mission.
He said that these departments tend to gravitate to the most extreme and unscientific theoretical positions, particularly critical race theory, which is inconsistent and occasionally dissimilar from racial blood libel.
According to Kaufmann,” It arguably exacerbates racial tensions while overlooking key sources of racial disadvantage, such as the public school system, depolicing, and the decline of the family.”
MORE: A class at UMinn explores” transgender saints” in the context of intersectional medieval art.
IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Graduation robe holders hold a” Black Studies” sign. Annual report for the CCNY Black Studies Department from 2023 to 2024
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