Staff Interview : Dr. Ron Manuel

I it was my pleasure to interview Dr. Ron Manuel in the School of Sociology and Anthropology.

Did the movement negatively affect the black community?
- No. If anything it instilled a sense of pride and that pride took the place of shame. Often blacks were told that everything about you is ugly and inferior and the black power movement came along and changed the way African Americans thought about themselves.

In your opinion, is it possible to eradicate the negative connotations about physical features within the African American community?
- Yeah. It’s very possible. Like any great problem, it can be solved with the right attitude and determination. It' very clear throughout history.

Should the African American community only look to our community to fix this issue or should it be solved as a human problem?
- It’s human problem. This problem goes deeper than one race. More importantly there is no such thing as black or white suffering but human suffering.

Is there anything that one can do to destroy negative views pertaining to beauty within the black community?
- Changing the way we think can help this issue. Changing the way you think can cause a ripple effect and change the way the world thinks. It can be done with determination and perseverance.

Group Presentation #1

This group discussed Hip Hop culture. Although the topic would seem interesting, sadly that wasn't the case. I'm not sure if it was because the information was old news or because of the way it was presented. They discussed it not only as music but a glamorized lifestyle. I disagreed with the group on various point, it seemed as if they blamed Hip Hop for many of the misfortunes with in the black community. Many of the issues such as the murder rate pertaining to black on black crimes seem to be a result of pursuit of profit because they live in impoverished settings in which opportunities are rare. At one point, I felt that the group had gotten their research from Wikipedia because it seemed as if it was coming from the mouth of a elder racist white man that had no personal relationship with a black person. They then continued on the issue of the representation of women within the Hip Hop culture. One of the members said, “Because of the way women are represented, young girls want to be a whore.” I looked around the room to see if anyone was a stunned as I was, maybe I should use the word flabbergasted because they stated opinions as if they were fact. If I’m not wrong, whores existed before Hip Hop or any music for that matter. If anything this was an ignorant statement because prostitution is the oldest career in the world. Overall, I didn’t learn anything but I did hear a lot of opinions.

African burial ground trip

The trip to the african burial ground was alot of fun. I really enjoyed it. The trip started off with a visit to the neighboring memorial. We saw the seven symbols of family values. One of which is sankofa. We also paid tribute to those who died there. Dr. Carr and a few students in the front poured libation and said a few words to which we responded “ase.” after all this we went into the actual museum. There was an example of a funeral almost as soon as you walk into the building. After viewing the displays on the floor we went to a little room where we watched a movie. In the movie a young slave girl “Amelia,” has lost her father. In the movie the culture and traditions of ancient African Americans is revealed. The movie ends with the funeral of Amelias father and baby cousin. The family of her father cries and sings and Amelia sadly places the wooden doll her father carved for her on top of the coffin.

Afterwards, we took a cultural journey to harlem. The thick smell of incense and the soft sound of reggae and slow beats ht me as I got of the bus. Men sat at tales selling a large assortment of things and were all proud to tell us the history of our people. One man selling afro-centric jewelry explained to me the meaning of the ankh symbol. He told me that it was the symbol for eternal life and represented fertility in ancient Egypt. He also advised me to buy the earrings which were only $10.

Dr, Williams Lecture

At first I thought this presentation was going to be useless but it turned out to be pretty helpful.useless. She pretty much summarized what had been going on for the prior 6 weeks. That day, she explained some of the basic tenants of research for scholarship and for personal gain, and six steps that were needed to execute research properly and throughly which began with stating your question. Using the explanation of education in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, D. Williams helped me understand that the natural disaster devastated the region not only physically but also socially and economically. As Dr. Williams mentioned the question, it opened my eyes to a large social problem of which many Americans are probably unaware. CYBERBULLYING! Since my group has a definite question, which is How does cyberbullying affect the psyche of a teen, only the five other steps remain to complete the research process. I really appreciate Dr. Williams lecture because laying out the steps the way she did makes the process a lot more clear and concise. Since our question is pretty detailed, I think having a format to follow will allow my group to get the most out of our resources. It was great to hear how we can apply simple steps to learning about broad topics in freshman seminar and through our lives at and after Howard