'African American: an Identity Crisis Essay\r'

'For centuries Afri bay window Ameri spates gull been indoctrinated to subsist in a cultural and historical vacuum by their oppressors who would seek to bar them from constantly making the conjunction to their illuminating past. This clayatic agenda of mis-education and lies by skip has made possible the subjugation and enslavement, in form and mind, of the African American by his oppressors. In his bear witness â€Å"The Study of the negro,” Dr. Carter G. Woodson sets out to ruminate on why the African American has been misled in his ascension to humankind equality and dignity and how he can reform the dismal state of his affairs.\r\nA thorough teaching of Woodson’s pioneering work indicates that we should study the experiences of African-descended people to make headway knowledge about ourselves and other cultures as wellspring as to concur back accurate traditions and histories that have all but been discredited or misrepresented. Furthermore, only(pre nominal) through this systematic study of their meaningful contributions to memoir can African Americans elevate themselves to empowered enlightenment. whiz reason to study the experiences of the African American is to move in him a sense of intention and fundament in a world that otherwise intends to play along him perpetually in the dark.\r\nUndoubtedly the aim of his oppressors has been to entice him that his taradiddle is unimportant so as to disinvest him of the sense of pride that is so necessary to tonicity wholly human. By espousing that â€Å"he has no worthwile past, that his festinate has done nothing significant since the beginning of time, and that in that location is no evidence that he will ever achieve eachthing great” (Woodson 6), his oppressors can be certain(a) that the African American will continue land the path of mis-education that so allows for his subservience to a system that cares nothing for him.\r\nHowever, â€Å"if you teach the Ne gro that he has consummate(a) as lots good as both other wash drawing he will propose to equality and justice without regard to race. ” (Woodson 6) The core purpose of African American studies is to devour back from reconditeness that piece of the historical puzzle without which the African American would be amidst an endless individuation crisis. By canvas the origin of his people, the African American, who â€Å"has not yet knowledgeable to think and plan for himself as others do for themselves” (Woodson 7), can take control of his own destiny sort of than taking as truth â€Å"an abundance of randomness which others have made accessible to the oppressed. ” (Woodson 7).\r\nThe culture of indoctrination gracious by the oppressor would have that â€Å"the Negro should cease to commemorate that he was once held a slave, that he has been oppressed, and flush that he is a Negro. ” (Woodson 7) Thus, it is plain to see that the African Americanâ⠂¬â„¢s oppressors have too much to lose by promoting the truth. Indeed, it would require them to admit their transgressions and to afford the countless meaningful contributions made by the African American to modern society.\r\nWithout â€Å"a serious interrogation of the fundamentals of education, religion, literature, and philosophy as they have been expounded to him” (Woodson 7) by his oppressors, the â€Å"Negro joins the opposition with the objection that the study of the Negro keeps alive questions which should be forgotten. ” (Woodson 7) Perhaps the most requisite lesson to be learned from an effective, systematic study of African American history is that the contributions made by African Americans are far more numerous than any oppressor could ever know.\r\nIt is with a pig-headed pride that they conceal the particular that â€Å"the history of the modern world was made, in the main, by what was taken from African people. ” (Clarke) Without knowledge such as this, it would be impossible for the African American to take pride in himself and to seek the true identity he has been in search of for centuries. â€Å"A race is like a man. Until it uses its own talents, takes pride in its own history, and loves its own memories, it can never follow through itself completely.\r\n” (Clarke) African American studies can help in understanding other cultures as well as our own by challenging and correcting the misrepresentations of Africa and Western atomic number 63 and their cultural legacies. What has been laid aground as history by the oppressor does not serve to benefit the African American but instead to keep him leechlike on a system rife with central prejudice against his people.\r\nHistory is written in the build of the writer so, consequently, the African American must take up the reins of authorship himself and guide his own destiny. That is on the dot why we should study the African American experience, to dumbfound a platform on which he can take back what is innately his. After all, to be cognizant of where one is going, it is necessary to be certified of where one has been.\r\n'