Responds to previous article (this issue) in which Frisby argues that five basic assumptions underlying Black Cultural Learning Styles hypothesis that widespread failure of black children can be attributed to culturally determined African-based learning styles that clash with Eurocentric configuration of schools are seriously flawed. Commentary…

Responds to arguments in Hale's and Richardson's rebuttals to "One Giant Step Backward: Myths of Black Cultural Learning Styles" (Frisby, this issue). Contends that neither Hale nor Richardson presents substantive data refuting main evidence discussed in original article. Analyzes their comments within framework of five reasons why Black Cultural…

Investigated whether there were distinct behavioral profiles involving perceived and daily stress and Afrocentric identity in a sample of 701 African American college students at historically Black colleges and universities. Afrocentric identity and stress were not correlated, but the cluster with the highest level of Afrocentric identity…

Inspired by W. E. B. Du Bois and Walter Lippmann, this article discusses the development of African American values and their impact on African American attitudes toward education. Identifiable black American values include racial thinking (Afrocentrism), conceptions of social and economic justice, commitment to community, and passion for…

Reflects on the implementation of African-centered composition curriculum within the traditional curriculum, describing five theoretical traditions upon which the African-centered composition curriculum is based. Highlights the implementation of this curriculum at one university in 1996, noting problems encountered during the implementation that…

Examines controversial positions in the field of race relations that provide a context for multicultural interventions. Discusses issues of rejection of assimilation, the rise of multiculturalism, the acceptance of linguistic diversity, and the cultural critique posed by Afrocentrism. Notes key points in these changing attitudes for practitioners…

The article highlights the realities and dynamics facing researchers researching indigenous African culture. The cultural aspirations, understandings, and practices of African indigenous people should position researchers to implement and organize the research process. Suggestions are also made for implementing the "Afrocentric method," and how to…

The author discusses several culturally sensitive qualitative research approaches, revisits the Culturally Sensitive Research Framework, a theoretical framework for conducting culturally sensitive research in African-American communities and provides examples of research that has employed culturally sensitive approaches. The discussion then shifts…

Public schools are facing the largest crisis in American educational history. More and more minority students are attending public schools, and traditional methods of instruction are failing to meet their needs. The back-to-basics and belt-tightening movements within public schooling are part of a last-ditch effort to support an elitist education…

Literature that speculates about the future omits African-Americans. Racism and unemployment have caused this group to swell the ranks of the underclass. Thus, as a group, blacks have been written off as obsolete and useless. Most at risk for joining the underclass is the black male. Because of the way Western males are socialized to be strong and…

Discusses the lack of reliable instruments for studying African American behavior and psychological functioning as a technical and philosophical flaw in Western psychology. Surveys the development of Africentric theory-based assessment instruments and presents the African Self-Consciousness Scale, a 42-item personalilty questionnaire designed to…

Student development theories and student-support programs should be designed to meet the special needs of culturally diverse populations. Specifically, those responsible for teaching and helping black students must create models of human and student development that take into account the unique needs and experiences that black students bring to…

These essays explore why the historic conflict between blacks and whites in the United States has become a crisis that divides many African Americans. The changing racial dynamic is not marked by conflicts. between the black middle class and the poor, black men and women, the black intellectual elite and rappers, black politicians and the urban…

Challenges social workers to understand the nature of privilege as it relates to oppression and to develop a profound multicultural literacy that is carefully translated into practice imperatives. Africentric theory provides a framework within which social workers can challenge the invisible hegemony of privilege. (FC)

A review of "Contentious Curricula: Afrocentrism and Creationism in American Public Schools," by Amy Binder, claims it is a valuable analysis that employs a social movement perspective to uncover the dynamics involved in proposals for and the politics of curriculum change, especially in highly contested curriculum areas. (Contains 13…