Shallow Attack by Columnist on Afrocentric Studies

By Leon Dixon

(printed in the Kansas City Star on March 14, 1994

in response to the February 16, 1994 Mona Charen article)

In a recent column in the Star, Mona Charen woefully misses the mark in looking at the motives of those who expound and promote Afrocentric studies.

She bases her remarks on a report from the Manhattan Institute, which clearly is no authority on the subject. There are holes and miscues throughout her assessment.

For starters, she states that Stolen Legacy is “the seminal book on the subject.” Afrocentric scholars do refer people to this book, but primarily novices.

She goes on to say that “scholars of the ancient world” contradict assertions in that book. Afrocentrists (not a monolithic group) can name plenty of such scholars who corroborate their views.

For example, there are English Egyptologists Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, Osiris & the Egyptian Resurrection, volumes 1 and 2; Gerald Massey, Ancient Egypt the Light of the World, volumes 1 and 2; and Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, The Making of Ancient Egypt and A History of Egypt, volumes 1, 2, and 3. All attest to the prominence of the negroid peoples and their cultures in ancient Egypt.

Charen seems to imply that Greece learned nothing from Egypt. James H. Breasted, the University of Chicago Egyptologist, surely thinks so (see his translation of the Memphite Theology).

Consider: Why did the early Greeks like Archimedes, Plato, Pythagoras and Solon among others go to Egypt to study? Why are the “Greek” universities in Egypt and not Greece?

Martin Bernal of Cornell University, in his voluminous work Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization — whose title and subtitle speak volumes — draws from a variety of disciplines that yield tons of evidence supporting much of Stolen Legacy.

Scholars, like George G.M. James, its author, did their work under difficult circumstances. Unable to get grants, they worked largely at their own expense just to get things done. And they seldom get media access to discuss their research. Bernal acknowledges these scholars who tried to keep these flickering light aglow as “old scrappers.”

Charen claims the Manhattan Institute study reveals that “there is no empirical evidence that teaching about African civilization improves the academic performance, personal situations or the life chances of black students.”

There is plenty of evidence: The Marcus Garvey School in Los Angeles, the Institute of Positive Education in Chicago and the J.S. Chick School in Kansas City, to name a few of many that have clearly demonstrated remarkable academic achievement.

Afrocentric studies is multifaceted and analyzes a range if ideas and disciplines as they relate to African peoples. One of the seminal things that Afrocentric scholars seek to study is why and how things happened and evolved to the point they are now. And not simply this for is own sake, but to gain some insight into what can be done to set things aright.

Charen also claims the study reveals that “the content of the major Afrocentric curricula is often racists and frequently in error.”

What this curriculum does is try and revise the curriculum that is consistently racist and erroneous in virtually omitting blacks from any meaningful role in human history. Subjects that included blacks often cast them in disparaging lights that blacks have had to pull teeth to change.

Afrocentric studies are about the struggles that blacks have had to wage for centuries. And the Afrocentrists are fully aware that it often makes some people so uncomfortable that they will resort to categorize them as racists in a veiled attempt at self defense.

In her third point for the study Charen says, “There are better and more honest ways to teach about African history.”

The books she suggests are apparently those with which whites feel comfortable. And they are good books. But there other important books that also need to be read and studied. Afrocenric scholars are not willing to wait until they get Eurocentric approval before delving into these materials.

Leon Dixon is a member of the National Black United Front, co-founder and chairman of the board of the W.E.B. DuBois Learning Center and the author of the book Future In Our Hands.

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