Africana Studies: An Anchor in a Liberal Arts Education

"The idea of a liberal education as a basis for general education in American schools is alive-but barely." --Herbert M. Kliebard Introduction In the 21st century the subject of relevance in education is located on highly contested ground. The political and economic editorial pages of mainstream newspapers, as well as the agendas of state legislatures and many cost conscious families are in conversation about the meaning of "purposeful" subjects in higher education. Predicated on the ideas of using tax dollars efficiently and giving young Americans (in their view) the best shot at a job, the favored subjects in the debate are STEM i.e. science, technology, engineering and math. Consequently, as humanity moves forward in the second decade of the new millennium it is difficult to argue against the proposition that these are necessary and important subject fields in a technological world. In the public sphere one can witness firsthand the highly charged partisan political climate that America is locked into at this moment and while the political actors can't agree on much, it is clear to a large degree that this body merged into consensus on this burgeoning dilemma. Because of this widening 21st century reality, the liberal arts are under a critical microscope in terms of their meaning and purpose in education. This topic produced a series of special reports in The Chronicle of Higher Education which highlighted this reality on Feb 28, 2010: * University Honors Colleges Pitch the 'Liberal-Arts College Experience'--by Peter Schmidt * Think Selling the Liberal Arts Is Hard? You Should Try It in Texas--by Beckie Supiano * Are the Humanities on the Ropes? Maybe Not--by Jeffrey Brainard * For the Liberal Arts, Rhetoric Is Not Enough--by John Strassburger * 7 Major Misperceptions About the Liberal Arts by--Sanford J. Ungar Three years later more developments on this issue enter the horizon. On June [19.sup.th] 2013 both the Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times ran stories on a of 61-page report titled: "The Heart of the Matter." The headline in the New York Times story by Jennifer Schuessler titled: "Humanities Committee Sounds Alarm" speaks to a common thread running through both of these articles. The understanding that policy makers, families with children in college, as well as states with tight budgets, are wondering is: What is the value of the liberal arts in the technologically centered 21st Century? It is important to note here that African-centered Africana Studies is more than just about the life of the mind as is understood about the general nature of the Liberal Arts. The discipline holds a larger place in the human world as it also addresses quality of life issues when done in an empirical fashion as a member of the social sciences. A glance at the quality of life and social indicators paint a rather bleak picture for many Black Americans as the second decade of the 21st Century treks forward hurriedly. This has been broadly looked at by social scientists for quite some time as Winant (2001) maintains: Pick any relevant sociological indicator--life expectancy, infant mortality, literacy, access to health care, income level--and apply it in virtually any setting, global, regional, or local, and the results will be the same: the worldwide correlation of wealth and well- being with white skin and European descent, and of poverty and immiseration with dark and "otherness." (p. 305) Taking Winant's observations into account, the goal of this article is not to illuminate the causes of this reality; although that is a very worthwhile pursuit, but to discuss the intellectual role that Black Studies has in speaking to these issues to some measureable degree in the new millennium. Public Scrutiny a Recurring Theme From its inception few disciplines have come under the level of scrutiny that Africana Studies has both in the educational and political spheres. …