When I tell many folks my major, the reaction is a look of mixed confusion, indignation, pity, astonishment, and amusement. "What in the world does she plan to do with THAT?", is the question their eyes reveal. Or, "I know her mother is not paying 45 grand a year so she can waste her time."
Well my response to the latter is, thanks to Amherst's very generous financial aid packages, my mother isn't paying the college tuition sticker price and I've been doing plenty with my major thus far, thankyouverymuch.
I declared a double major in Black Studies and History (with a concentration in the Caribbean and US history) in my sophomore year, and although my fam has had my back, the wider community has been less than receiving. From having to deal with people outright scoff, to having kindly adults attempt to move me towards more "scholarly pursuits" I've dealt with it all. However, I must ask - is the problem ethnic studies, a discrediting of the humanities or rather is it that the Black diaspora does not make for intellectually rigorous inquiry? I wish I knew...
After 18 years of learning about people of color as a footnote to history throughout primary and secondary school, I came to Amherst in large part because of the strength of its Black Studies department. And while its been bomb, I've also learned to code switch and simply tell certain people that I'm a history major. There is a fear that ethnic studies studies are uber-militant, race-baiting, and care only about their own racial group. These stereotypes can bear out for any student at any college of any major. However the minute you slap the world "black" in front of something it becomes a political statement. Something larger, threatening even.
Do European Studies majors ever deal with this?
One of the beautiful things about college is the open exchange of ideas. The willingness to try something new and to change your ways of thinking. My major has given that to me (hand claps for Profs. Moss, Redding, Ferguson and Alves). To allow a student to see themselves represented in academe is a great gift, too often denied to people of color. And I am so grateful to those who've come before me to make it possible for me to be a BA candidate in Black Studies and History. So all my Afro-American, Black Studies, Latin American, Caribbean, African Diaspora, Asian Languages and Civilizations, Native American Studies major stand up!
Besides, I heard that most employers could care less about majors anyway. Let that college degree speak for itself. punto
2 comments:
While there is definitely a stigma associated with black studies, it extends generally to any type of liberal arts major (unless you are pursuing a law degree, then you're fine!)... I hate getting the brush-off in favor of my friends with more "solid" majors such as Bio-Med or Finance. Too often in our community, we stress getting a job instead of obtaining a career, so when we mention a major with no direct career path, they run off in the other direction.
It would be a lot easier to keep up if you were still on planworld... but I like the blog format. Have to break out that Google Reader, I guess.
It's true, we've come to assume that European studies is about history and sociology and 'culture', while black studies is just some radical/whiny/slacker pseudodepartment. =( But that will change, and is changing, right?
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