Interrogating the Problematic of Race, Ethnicity and Identity in African American Studies

Since its inception in the late 1960s, African-American Studies has advanced phenomenally and is now integral to American intellectual life. African American Studies departments, Center and Programs are now permanent features of the educational landscape. During the past four decades, the field has had to overcome rejection, neglect and marginalization. Recognition, integration and institutionalization have, however, not been attended by clarity and consensus on the essential and defining character of the discipline. Opinions remain sharply divided on its scope, mission and philosophical paradigm. What should constitute its defining character? What paradigm best advances its mission? What considerations should shape and determine scholarship in the field? How critical are, and what roles should be assigned, race ethnicity and ethnicity? Responses to these questions have been contentious and conflicting. The resulting divisions are reflected in the ideological trajectories and configurations of the field. Some scholars essentialize race, given the preeminent role race, and racism played, and continue to play, in the black American experience. Others, focusing on heritage, emphasize ethnicity Africanness . Furthermore, given the close identification of the field with the black struggles, opinions are also divided on the degree to which blacks, and their interests and aspirations, should determine the course, contents and character of the field. Attempts to resolve these challenges have provoked heated debates on, and conflicting constructions of, the role and place of race, ethnicity, and the nature and essence of black American identity.