Monday, February 28, 2005
Nothing to see here
Black! Did you know that there's an African American studies program at Berkeley High? You should, if you read regularly. That's the department that has veto power over Academic Choice, for some reason. But in case you missed it, the Daily Cal provides this breaking news: Berkeley has had an African American studies program for more than 35 years!
When [department head Robert McKnight] joined the department’s faculty in 1971, there were about 900 students and more than 10 teachers in the program, he says. The department, then under different leadership, flourished, McKnight says.
The department has been slowly shrinking since 1997—in 2002, four teachers remained. Then the department lost its journalism teacher, and publication of the department’s black student newspaper, “Ujamaa,” ceased.
That's hardly something to readily admit. "Yeah, back when I wasn't in charge, things were going great. Then I became department head, and things went downhill, fast."
“(African American studies) is too important to world history and world civilization to lose its identity by becoming co-opted in other departments,” he says.
Yep. All the more reason to keep the Asian American studies, European American studies, and Latino American studies departments seperate, up and running, too.
Berkeley High alumni who visit him say their experience in the department was unique and valuable, McKnight says.
“One of the things they always shared, 100 percent of them, was that students cannot believe that they had an opportunity to take African American studies in high school,” McKnight says. “What they know about their culture places them light-years beyond other (college) freshmen.”
Well, yeah. The ones who didn't feel that way wouldn't have bothered to visit you. That's like "100% of the folks who responded to this survey say they were willing to respond to this survey."
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