"Do We Shrink Like a Raisin or Explode?"

"Do We Shrink Like a Raisin or Explode?"

The Nubian Message, North Carolina State University's African American student newspaper, was first published on November 30, 1992. In this March 28, 1996 article, a campus coalition, the Students for the Advancement of Afrikan American Studies appealed to the paper's readership and to African American campus leaders to support the creation of an African American Studies Department at NC State. The coalition first laid out the reasons that NC State needed such a department. Writers explained that African American Studies was "part of a greater narrative in a pursuit of a greater version of the truth." Because Africans and African Americans have long been omitted from the American national narrative, these writers believed that an African American Studies Department would bring black experiences to the fore and in the process, redefine not only what it means to be African American, but what it means to be American.

The student coalition then traced past efforts to create this department on campus. As the writers explained, students inspired by the civil rights movements of the 1960s attempted in the 1970s to establish an African American Studies department at NC State. Denied their request by the faculty and administration, these students eventually led a protest that halted final exams and forced the university to create the first African American Studies courses. In the 1980s, students again appealed for an African American Studies department, were again denied by the administration, and again turned to protests. They ultimately succeeded in pushing the university to create an African American Studies minor, but in 1996, a full department devoted to African American Studies had yet to be developed. The student coalition therefore ended their article with a call to students, faculty, staff, and administrators to fulfill this dream and make an African American Studies Department a reality.

While the students who wrote this article did not see the creation of an African American Studies Department in their tenure at NC State, student efforts eventually helped influence the establishment of an Africana Studies major, which was a viable major for students as early as 2009. An African American Studies Department has yet to be created, however; the Africana Studies major lies within the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies.

Students for the Advancement of Afrikan American Studies

Students for the Advancement of Afrikan American Studies, "Do We Shrink Like a Raisin or Explode?", The Nubian Message 4, no. 12 (March 28, 1996): 10. Digitized by the Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.

1996-03-28

Rose Buchanan

document

Do We Shrink Like a Raisin or Explode?

Campus Leaders,

This letter is an appeal to our sisters and brothers and the yard requesting your active support in the struggle to create an Afrikan American Studies Department. An Afrikan American Studies department at N.C. State has been a dream long deferred. We pose the question asked earlier by Hughes and Hansberry, "Do we shrink like a raisin in the sun, or do we explode?"

In Afrikan American America today, hairstyles, clothes, music and campus speakers, mirror the cultural expressions which harken to the days of the late '60s and '70s.

The institutional roots of Afrikan American Studies began more than a generation ago, where "small cadres of well-organized, deeply dedicated students" at Berkeley, San Jose State, and other institutions "questioned traditional values, tested the assumed authority of institutional elites... and ultimately brought mighty universities to their knees."

It was a conviction held by the trailblazers of Black Studies in the '60s that "a society's institutions of higher learning not only reflect, but are capable of transforming a nation's basic value system." Yet, we recognize that the essence of any cultural renaissance is the search for one's true identity and a search for a greater truth which exists at the core of any university.

Such a pursuit of greater truth exists where there is the presence of a free market of ideas. And like any free marketplace, the supply exists only if the demand is present. Therefore we must demand Afrikan American Studies.

We must demand Afrikan American Studies because it is part of a greater narrative in the pursuit of a greater version of the truth. This greater truth is a dialectical process, a process where we constantly define, re-examine, and redefine once more not only what it is to be Afrikan American, but what it is to be an American. 100 years of Plessy vs. Ferguson defined American citizenship for Afrikan Americans, we look to determine what it is to be an Afrikan American for ourselves and in the process transform America itself.

In concrete terms, Afrikan American Studies is the study of "the broad experience of peoples of Afrikan descent on the continent of Africa and in the Diaspora, particularly the United States."

Through an interdisciplinary program of history, economics, philosophy, religion, science, psychology, politics, and literature, Afrikan American Studies attempts to create a praxis, that is to apply a systematic examination and research of the black experience to the issues and problems of daily life. Afrikan American Studies generates agenda in every conceivable facet of life.

Whether the focus is health care, cyberspace, urban culture, spirituality, or global economy, Afrikan American Studies seeks to grasp obscure aspects which affect the greater whole, "the impact of rap within the culture and social consciousness of young Afrikan American," [sic] for example. Afrikan American Studies is a way to examine "the impact of the Information Revolution, telecommunications, computer technology, and the Information Superhighway on Black America."

It will take the collective efforts of campus leaders like yourself, concerned faculty, administrators, and Afrikan American alumni to see about the development of an Afrikan American Studies major. Collectively, we all have a role to play. Concerned faculty, administrators, and Afrikan American Alumni are pivotal components in the movement for Afrikan American Studies, adding credence and legitimacy to the cause.

Alongside Afrikan American Alumni and student organizations, the Students for the Advancement for Afrikan American Studies is instrumental in our struggle.

Most important is the support of fellow students. Your verbal and active support is unequivocal and paramount to the movement's success. For in students and student leaders such as yourselves, we look for support in the following ways:

--attending meetings on Sunday evenings at 8:30 p.m. on the third floor of the Afrikan American Cultural Center
--attending organized rallies centered around increasing awareness in the campus community
--volunteering
--registering for Afrikan American Studies courses in the fall or applying for a minor in Afrikan American Studies
--assisting fundraising efforts, and
--appealing to the administration and alumni to join the struggle.

In Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Afrikan American and white clergymen were disgruntled with King for his militant tactics. They chided him for his "unwise and untimely" activities while Afrikan Americans were repeatedly and systematically being denied economic and social justice. King's response to such passivity was that Afrikan Americans had been waiting peacefully, but unsuccessfully for the "natural course of events" to bring about justice.

Now the road recently taken by Blacks had only been traveled because the power structure "left the Negro community with no other alternative." Because "leaders consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation," it had become apparent, King went on to write, that Afrikan Americans had to act as agents in their own cause.

The Afrikan American Studies situation at NCSU places Afrikan Americans in a similar dilemma. The history of Afrikan American Studies at NCSU shows us a pattern - a pattern of student mobilization and administrative apathy. Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement and the development of Afrikan American Studies programs throughout the nation in the early '70s, a courageous group of Afrikan Americans appealed for the very first Afrikan American Studies courses at our institution.

As expected, they were turned away despite appeal after appeal. Frustrated by both the faculty and administration's refusal to recognize repeated student requests for Afrikan American Studies courses, Afrikan Americans rose up with righteous indignation, forcing the suspension of final exams for the semester. Through struggle, they created the first Afrikan American Studies courses at our institution.

With the foundation of an Afrikan American Studies department laid so valiantly by their architectural predecessors, the movement for Afrikan American Studies in the '80s met a recalcitrant administration, more concerned with placating peace and the status quo than justice and a greater truth. Our sisters and brothers of a generation ago refused to be denied.

They protested and when the political and academic dust settled, the brickmasons of the Afrikan American studies movement of the '80s put in place the cornerstone of the Afrikan American Studies Department - the Afrikan American Studies minor.

Now, after generations of struggle in the '70s and '80s against an administration which has conceded nothing without demand, we sit squarely in the '90s. 20 years ago, the movement resulted in the formation of courses. Less than a decade ago, Afrikan Americans were made to settle for a minor. Today, it is our turn to decide how, or even if, we wish to build upon the legacy constructed by our brave, intellectual fore-mothers and fathers.

The essayist, novelist and playwright James Baldwin once wrote: "I love America more than any other country on earth and precisely for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually." No words better reflect our own love for our alma mater. The grievances which we bring forth and the goals we seek are driven by a loving devotion for our people, university, and a greater truth.

While we anticipate the admonishment of administrators, faculty, alumni and fellow students, it is the words of Baldwin and others - Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Fannie Lou Hamer, Reinhold Neibuhr, and Martin Luther King, Jr. - which constantly remind us that power concedes nothing without demand.

The movement for an Afrikan American Studies department at NCSU has been a long time coming. We must no longer wait, for the time has come. We ask you whether to let this movement for an Afrikan American Studies major shrink like a raisin in the sun or explode. Together, we will decide.

Yours in Struggle,

Students for the Advancement of Afrikan American Studies

newspaper article