Thursday, February 2, 2012


Blog #3:


Part 1 & 2

Before I start, I think that the majority of these events, if not all of them had an impact on the dynamics of Black Family Life in some way. The ones that stood out to me were:

1739 – Stono Rebellion
Comment: I never even heard about this revolt and I feel like if we know about major revolts, why don’t we know about the first? Rebellions and revolts were crucial in leading to slavery being abolished and civil rights being established.
Nguzo Saba:
Ujima (Collecetive Work and Responsibility) – “To build and maintain our community together and make our sister’s and brother’s problems our problems and to solve them together.”
Umoja (Unity) – “To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.”

1831-1861 – Underground Railroad
Comment: Although there are so many crucial events to the history of the African American Family, this is important because it was a very unique event unlike many others. Rewards were set for slaves like they were property, abolitionists took an attempt to make change in what was going on, and I just learned that many slaves escaped to Canada, which I had no clue of.
Nguzo Saba:
Ujima (Collecetive Work and Responsibility) – “To build and maintain our community together and make our sister’s and brother’s problems our problems and to solve them together.”
Umoja (Unity) – “To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.”

1867 – Five all-black colleges (HBCUs) founded
Comment: I feel like this is extremely crucial. HBCUs were created to help minority students, specifically blacks and now latinos, to continue in school and become professionals or leaders. --Surprisingly (in my eyes), Bush attempted to increase funding for HBCUs by 30% during his term.
Nguzo Saba:
Nia (Purpose) – “To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.”
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) – “To build and maintain our community together and make our sister’s and brother’s problems our problems and to solve them together.”

1947 – Jackie Robinson breaks the color barrier
Comment: Maybe I am biased being a guy, but I think this was a very significant event because it definitely had an affect on the way many black men think today. Aspirations of being a major league player in sports have become common among black men because they see other black men succeeding and dominating over sports.
Nguzo Saba:
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) – “To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.”
Imani (Faith) – “To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.



1963 – “I have a Dream” Speech
Comment: I think this is self-explanatory. This speech still continues to be used in classrooms every day.
Nguzo Saba:
Nia (Purpose) – “To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.”
Imani (Faith) – “To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

1971 -  Congressional Black Caucus formed
Comment: I feel like this is important because African Americans should be preent in the justice system. I had never previously heard of this.
Nguzo Saba:
Umoja (Unity) – “To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.”
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) – “To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.”


1990 – U.S. Census says 50% AAs still in southern states
Comment: Interesting to me, I figured that things would be more spread out. I believe this shows how important nuclear family values are though.
Nguzo Saba:
Umoja (Unity) – “To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.”
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) – “To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.”

1991 Black Entertainment Television (BET) founded
I had no clue that it was the first AA company on the NY Stock Exchange. I am puzzled because this only happened 21 years ago. But I feel like it is important for blacks to be expressed in the media.
Nguzo Saba:
Kuumba (Creativity) – “To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.”
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) – “To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.”




#Sidenote
When I do these assignments for class, even though it is not required sometimes I can spend hours simply going over this information because there is so much that I still do not know and want to learn. Does this happen to anyone else?

Part 3


The Nguzo Saba principles evident in the Harvey article include all of them Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba, and Imani. They are all mentioned in the article.
In the Dynamic Duo article, principles evident are Umoja, Ujima, Kujichagulia, Ujamaa, Nia, and Imani.

3 comments:

  1. It is so great that the class and the assignments have you thinking and seeking to learn more. I look forward to reading more of your blogs.

    Rose
    (class TA)

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  2. I agree with you, I spend a really long time working on the blog as well and reading extra links. It's really interesting and enlightening to learn more about Black history. After watching that video today about the kids from Brooklyn, it made me really think about how unequal our system is and want to do something about it.

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  3. I agree that we do need to make our brother and sister's problems our own as well, because what affects them in this society will eventually indirectly and directly affects us all.

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