Papers by Sundiata Cha-Jua
Black Scholar, Dec 1, 1999
Oppression and exploitation are man-made by minority interests to the disadvantage of majority in... more Oppression and exploitation are man-made by minority interests to the disadvantage of majority interests. What then must the oppressed and exploited majority do to turn things in their favor ...Goto the masses of the oppressed and exploited peoples of our land. Work among them; work with them to prepare the way for a take-over of power. Govan Mbeki, Learning from Robben Island: The Prison Writings of Govan Mbeki, 1991, 66.
The Journal of African American History, 2017
In Atlanta, Georgia, on 23 September 2015, scores of friends, students, scholars, and colleagues ... more In Atlanta, Georgia, on 23 September 2015, scores of friends, students, scholars, and colleagues convened a plenary session at the Centennial Anniversary of the Association for the Study of African American History (ASALH) to honor “The Scholarship, Activism, and Institutional Work of V. P. Franklin.” The inspiration for the session was Franklin’s recent retirement as Distinguished Professor of History and Education at the University of California, Riverside, and to celebrate his tenure as Editor of ASALH’s The Journal of African American History. For the last 40 years, V. P. Franklin has produced pioneering research on a multitude of subjects of African American life, culture, and history. Trained as a historian who initially focused on education, Franklin quickly expanded his intellectual interests to include African American intellectual and cultural history, specifically, Black nationalism, African American autobiography, African American–Jewish relations, and the history of black social movements, particularly the Civil Rights Movement and the contributions of African American women. Over the course of his career Franklin enlarged his work in educational history to explore questions of teachers’ role in community leadership, Black Catholics, cultural capital, IQ testing, the role of black newspapers in community education, the education of quasi-free blacks for colonization in West Africa, the history of apartheid education, black student activism, and the pedagogical possibilities of Hip Hop music. Near the end of his life in academia, Franklin can look back on an exceptionally productive career in which he generated both high quality and often pioneering work. Franklin was frequently the tip of the spear launching new approaches and pursuing heretofore-untrod paths of struggle. Since 2002, Franklin has served as the Editor of The Journal of African American History. Under his leadership, the JAAH has been revived and returned to its preeminent role as the site for knowledge production on the lives, cultures, and histories of people of African descent, in the United States and abroad. In his inaugural editorial launching his editorship in the JAAH Winter 2002 issue, Franklin
The American Historical Review, 2007
IntroductionOn August 9, 2014, Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson, two African American teenagers, ... more IntroductionOn August 9, 2014, Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson, two African American teenagers, were walking in the street in Ferguson Missouri, when Officer Darren Wilson had an encounter that significantly impacted society's attitudes towards policing. After hearing of this incident, most in the policing profession took the side of Officer Wilson, while many in the African American community have been outraged with police. This incident has begun an important discussion involving the intersection of race and the practice of policing, as it has highlighted the police need to make dramatic reforms. There is now a spotlight on issues of police practice and conduct, especially in working-class, African American communities. One of the largest issues involves the evident display of distrust racial minority communities have shown in the police following the Ferguson incident. There is no one, simple answer for how police may gain the trust of all citizens, though this should be the...
The Black Scholar, 2006
O N AUGUST 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast, devastating towns and citie... more O N AUGUST 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast, devastating towns and cities from Alabama to Louisiana. In its wake Katrina left at least 1,836 people dead, destroyed or damaged 275,000 homes, and caused damages to property estimated at over 81 billion dollars. In ajune 2006 report, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) described Katrina as "the costliest hurricane in US history and one of the five deadliest hurricanes to ever strike the US. " However, Katrina was probably even deadlier and more costly than the NOAA recognized. Perhaps more than any single event in US history, Hurricane Katrina exposed the relationship between class, power, race, and place in the United States. The winds of Hurricane Katrina blew the cover off the relationship between race, class, power, and place. The deluge exposed the propaganda of "compassionate conservatism" as just that, propaganda. The floodwaters washed away the far;:ade of fairness covering George W. Bush's colorblind America to reveal a racially malignant state lorded over by an ignorant, insensible, right-wing racist. Along with the bodies of the dead, the receding waters exposed extensive poverty, whose eradication was the goal of government forty years ago. Hurricane Katrina uncovered the extent to which the country had abandoned both the pursuit of racial equality and the War on Poverty. These noble pursuits were dashed on the jagged rocks of global capitalism and the United States' pursuit of empire. At the root of the social and political crisis
Journal of Urban History, 2000
African American interest in the martial arts is ubiquitous in the contempo-rary United States. I... more African American interest in the martial arts is ubiquitous in the contempo-rary United States. It can be seen in the burgeoning numbers of black youths enrolled in self-defense classes and in hip-hop culture. African Americans' fascination with the martial arts cuts across ...
Race and Justice
We investigated how ethnocultural empathy and colorblind racial beliefs were associated through t... more We investigated how ethnocultural empathy and colorblind racial beliefs were associated through the racial composition of close friendship groups in police recruits. In a sample of White police recruits in a midwestern training academy ( N = 192), mediation analyses revealed a significant association between ethnocultural empathy and colorblind racial beliefs through Black friendships. Specifically, findings from path analyses indicated an indirect effect between earlier empathy for Black, Indigenous, People of Color and later reduced denial of institutional racism. Although both ethnocultural empathy and racial beliefs were associated with Asian American and Latinx friends, these close cross-racial friendships were not significant mediators. Limitations, directions for future research, and implications for training and intervention in police samples are discussed.
Uploads
Papers by Sundiata Cha-Jua