This course will use African American biographies and autobiographies to illuminate the experience of African Americans and explore how the lives of individuals reflect and represent larger social forces and issues in history.

This course will be taught from the perspective, and based on the premise, that over the course of the last 500 years or more, a white supremacist culture emerged in the West (Europe and the Americas). That white supremacist social order has been based on racial hierarchy, with a system of stratification that has privileged white skin and granted certain advantages to "whites," while Africans and African Americans have been labeled and stigmatized as inferior. Accordingly, persons of African extraction in the United States have been enslaved, segregated, victimized, exploited, ghettoized, terrorized, and basically subjugated, oppressed, marginalized and subordinated. Thus, at the center of the African American saga lies the experience of white domination and black subordination--and the efforts of black people to assert, protect and defend their humanity in the face of this degradation. It is the story of the refusal of black people to be or become the caricature that white supremacy seeks to force them to be or become. Anyone who is uncomfortable with the perspective from which this course is taught, or the premise upon which it is based, or who cannot cope with such an inquiry, should not take this course.

The lives of the men and women whom we will study will reflect the encounter with racial hierarchy; and the efforts of these men and women to resist dehumanization and to transform an unjust and oppressive social order. The individuals whom we will study in detail will be Charles Drew, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale (as exemplars of the Black Panthers), Angela Davis, and James Baldwin and Marlon Riggs. I have not included biographies of Martin Luther King because the subject of MLK is treated in my course on the Civil Rights Movement.

It should also be noted that the autobiographies of Rosa Parks and Angela Davis illustrate not only the encounter of black women with white supremacy ("racism"), but also with the sexist, male dominant, patriarchal aspects of black culture. And the lives of James Baldwin and Marlon Riggs (whom we will explore through film rather than writings) illustrate the principle of the simultaneity of oppression, whereby people can be oppressed in many different ways simultaneously.

The experiences of Rosa Parks, Angela Davis, James Baldwin and Marlon Riggs also demonstrate another paradox of oppression. This paradox is that people who are oppressed in some way can turn around and oppress other people (the oppressed-as-oppressor or the victim-as-victimizer). Baldwin and Riggs were both openly gay (homosexual) black men, and they struggled not only against white supremacy but also against homophobia, often within the black community itself. Some of the same people who screamed the loudest about how they were oppressed by racism (white supremacy) were themselves patriarchal bigots who blamed and disparaged black women; and were homophobes with contemptuous attitudes toward homosexuals.

Again, this course is taught from a liberal, progressive, inclusive, humanist perspective that strives, as Martin Luther King said, to respect the dignity, and the value, and the worth of all of human personality, because all people are created in the image of God (Imago Dei) and all people are the children of God. From this perspective, prejudice is prejudice is prejudice. No matter in what shape or color it comes, no matter what excuses are used to justify it, prejudice is prejudice. And when we disparage people on the basis of some aspect of their identity, simply because of who they are rather than because of anything that they have done, it is prejudice--and it violates the sacredness of human personality. Students who are uncomfortable with this perspective should probably take some other class.

The major readings include:

Spencie Live, One Blood: The Death and Resurrection of Charles Drew

Rosa Parks, Rosa Parks: My Story

Michael Eric Dyson, The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X

Bobby Seale, Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party

Angela Davis, Angela Davis: An Autobiography

James A. Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son

James A. Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

Also recommended

Huey Newton, Revolutionary Suicide (out of print, but available at some libraries)

Malcolm X, Autobiography of Malcolm X

George Breitman, The Last Year of Malcolm X

Deborah Gray White, Too Heavy A Load
 
 

It cannot be assumed that all students understand the culture of a university. In our class we may have freshmen and transfer students from community college, as well as juniors or seniors. Therefore it is necessary to spell out, in writing, what the behavioral norms and expectations are. For the record, attendance will be taken in this class. No more than six absences are expected (which is about one every two weeks). If you are excessively absent it will hurt your grade (10 points, the equivalent of a letter grade). If you have not completed an assignment on time, you should still come to class anyway. I would rather that you attend class and turn in an assignment late, than to miss class because you didn't finish the paper. If you are enrolled in this class, we expect you to be here. If you are not going to attend, you should not be enrolled: In that case, take somebody else's class. This course is reading intensive. If you cannot make a commitment to read on a regular basis, this is not the course that you want.

If you are in a car accident and are hospitalized and are going to be absent for weeks at a time, contact the Student Advising Office. That office will then send a notice to all of your professors, making them aware of your situation. The same procedure should be followed if any type of illness or emergency occurs that will cause you to be absent for an extended period of time. In this class, if you are absent for weeks at a time without notice or explanation, you will be referred to the Student Advising Office, and will not be re-admitted to class or allowed to turn in assignments until the Student Advising Office provides a satisfactory explanation and documentation.

You should not be chatting while I am lecturing. If you need to chat during the lecture, please take your conversation to the lounge. That kind of chatting is rude. It marks you as an uncouth, lower class person who has not been adequately socialized. Such behavior might be tolerated in high school. But all of you should know better by now. If not, be assured that it will not be tolerated here.

THIS WILL BE A WRITING INTENSIVE COURSE. We will read a book, discuss it, and then write a paper on it. The papers will be responses to directed questions, somewhat like a book report or book review, and should be about five to six pages long. If your paper is excessively late (more than four days late), your grade will be reduced (this is a late penalty).* Attendance is also crucial because there will be several videotapes that will accompany the books, and if you miss the video and discussion of the video you will be at a disadvantage in writing your papers.

The papers will count as 85% of the course grade. Class attendance and participation will count as 15%. In order to get an A one will need not only to get As on the papers, but also a good grade for class attendance and participation. It will not be enough just to write well, or just to show up. Come to class prepared to participate in a discussion about the readings.

Imagine that an individual gets a 90 on all of the papers. Ninety x .85 = 76.5. But suppose that this same person has deplorable (piss poor) attendance, and was absent ten times, and gets a D (poor) for class attendance and participation. (D = 60 x .15 = 9). In this case 76.5 + 9.0 equals 85.5. (or B+). However, the penalty for excessive absence kicks in, as a reduction of ten points. Then 85.5 becomes 75.5, and what would have been a B+ gets downgraded (downsized) to a 75.5, or C+. This person will NOT get an A in this class no matter how well they do on the papers if they get a bad grade for class attendance and participation. Don't let this happen to you. Come to class. Class attendance and participation make the most difference in the case of borderline grades.

We probably will not need to use the website extensively for this course. However, on occasion, I might post something if I feel that there is a need for it, and I will inform you of this. You can access the website at crab.rutgers.edu/~glasker. (sometimes it works better if you do not type the www, just start with crab). The ~ symbol is to the left of the number 1, using the shift key. Typing in crab.rutgers.edu should take you directly to the index page. Scroll down ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM, and be sure it says FALL 2002. Click on African American Biography. A window will open showing the course description. Scroll down to the VERY BOTTOM, and in time some links will be there giving the titles of lectures that you can print out.

W Sept. 4 Introduction

W Sept. 11 Spencie Love, One Blood, Chaps 7-Conclusion

M Sept. 16 First Paper due

W Sept. 18 Rosa Parks, My Story, Chaps. 1-6.

M Sept. 23 Rosa Parks, My Story, Chaps. 7-12.

W Sept. 25 finish reading

M Sept. 30 Second Paper

W Oct. 2 Michael Eric Dyson, Malcolm X, Preface, chaps. 1-2, pp. vii-76.

M Oct. 7 Michael Eric Dyson, Malcolm X, Chaps. 3-4, pp. 77-128.

Begin reading Bobby Seale, Seize the Time, Intro, Foreword, to p. 56

W Oct 16 Bobby Seale, Seize the Time, pp. 59-149

M Oct 21 Bobby Seale, Seize the Time, pp. 153-222

W Oct. 23 Bobby Seale, Seize the Time, pp. 223-285

M Oct. 28 Bobby Seale, Seize the Time, pp. 289-361

W Oct. 30 Bobby Seale, Seize the Time, pp. 367-429

M Nov. 4 Paper on the Black Panthers

W Nov. 6 Angela Davis, Autobiography, Chaps. 1-2, pp. vii-113

M Nov. 11 Angela Davis, Autobiography, Chaps. 3-4, pp. 115-279

W Nov. 13 Angela Davis, Autobiography, Chaps. 5-Epilogue, pp. 281-400

M Nov. 18 finish Davis autobiography

W Nov. 20 paper due on Angela Davis

M Nov. 25 James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son, entire

Pay particular attention to the essays "Notes of a Native Son" and

"Stranger in the Village"

W Nov. 27 No class, Friday schedule, day before Thanksgiving Recess

M Dec. 2 Baldwin, The Fire Next Time, first half

W Dec. 4 Baldwin, The Fire Next Time, finish

M Dec. 9 video material on Marlon Riggs

W Dec. 11 there will be a final paper, on Baldwin, due during the Finals Period