Photo: Dr. Wade Nobles
First, a few housekeeping details:
- Remember that this class doesn’t use Blackboard. Check the course website every week for updates and detailed reading instructions which will appear on this page
- Weekly discussion post update: both sections of Chapter 6 are open for one more week for comments. After that, comment field on all posts will close after 14 days. So remember to keep up with your comments/replies! You still have 6 weeks to catch up on comments if you’ve fallen behind!
- Scholarships:
- The St. George’s Society of NY Scholarship is for students with heritage from British Commonwealth countries. Deadline is May 31. The scholarship application with full details is here and Lehman’s scholarship office asks that you email them before applying at: scholarship [dot] office [at] lehman [dot] cuny [dot] edu
- Zoom events
- The Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations (ASCAC) conference runs from April 9-17 on Zoom. Details here
Quick highlights from Week 11 (4/15)’s class:
- Reviewed Chapter 7 on Black Politics in Maulana Karenga’s Introduction to Black Studies (pages 265-283).
- Lecture notes posted in the usual spot
- Musical intro: DMX’s “Who We Be” Listen on YouTube
- Musical interlude: Jazzmeia Horn “Afro Blue/ Eye See You/ Wade in the Water (Medley)” Listen on YouTube
For Wednesday 4/21, (Week 12), there are 3 texts: 1) part of chapter 10 (Black Psychology) in Maulana Karenga’s Introduction to Black Studies 2) an article from Dr. Wade Nobles 3) a video from Dr. Joy DeGruy
1-READ the first half of chapter 10 (Black Psychology-pp. 397-407)) in Maulana Karenga’s Introduction to Black Studies which has the following sections:
- Intro and historical origins (10.1, 10.2)
- 3 major schools: differences between approaches (10.3)
We’ll read the second half (different theorists in the “Radical School”) next week.
2-READ Dr. Wade Nobles’s article “Fractured Consciousness, Shattered Identity: Black Psychology and the Restoration of the African Psyche” from the Journal of Black Psychology. 9 pages. PDF linked here. (Courtesy of his website.)
3-WATCH Dr. Joy DeGruy introduce her theory of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome:
4-(OPTIONAL)-Dr. Wade Nobles’s article “From Black Psychology to Sakhu Djaer: Implications for the Further Development of a Pan African Psychology” from the Journal of Black Psychology. PDF link here.
What to read for:
Chapter 10 gives an overview of the broad field of Black Psychology. It starts with a brief overview of the history followed by specific examples of practitioners who began to shape the response to their field, followed by the developments of the 1970s and beyond where a more defined response rooted in culture and experiences of African people outside of dominant theories takes hold. This week, focus on understanding the structure of the field and history from the reading in the textbook. For the reading and video by Drs. Nobles and DeGruy, think about their theories of collective trauma and how this shapes overall responses. If there are any psychology or social work majors, think about how this approach might shape your own ways of operating.
RESPOND to one idea in the textbook chapter or the PDF and DISCUSS it with classmates and myself with the comment board at the bottom of this post
ATTEND the weekly Zoom session @ 6 PM EST on Wednesday April 14
General reading strategies:
- Underline/highlight key points in the text
- Use the reading questions at the back of chapters to focus you: read those first
- Try to understand the definitions of the key concepts listed at the back of the chapter
- Make a note to ask the instructor to clarify anything you don’t understand
- Note key issues, approaches, and dilemmas/challenges Dr. Karenga outlines
Discussion questions
- See chapter/essay highlights above
Additional Resources:
- Website of Dr. Wade Nobles
- Website of Dr. Joy DeGruy
- Website for the Association of Black Psychologists
What’s Next?
Chapter 8 (Psychology) part 2 in Introduction to Black Studies
Comments on posts:
Scroll all the way to the bottom of the post for the “Leave a Comment” button below. Here’s how it works: you can use this to discuss points raised here. A few points:
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- You have to leave your name (enter as first name and last initial only) so a) I can make sure only people in the class are commenting and b) you get credit for the comment
- Remember to be respectful, especially when responding to classmates
- The comments section closes 14 days after a post goes live
To ‘participate’ in the class, I’d like to see everyone 1) post a substantive comment of their own based on either the reading or my lecture using some of the questions raised or conversation prompts, and 2) to respond thoughtfully to someone else’s comment—not just agree/disagree, but add on evidence or ask a follow-up question. You can also ask a question–for me or others–but that doesn’t count toward your comment and reply needed for the grade. It’s fine with me if conversation continues in a thread as long as it does, but two responses showing a clear engagement with the reading will count for being ‘present.’ Does that make sense? You have two weeks to write those two comments for credit.
Introduction to Africana Studies 
As I understand Dr. Karenga’s reading, Black psychology flowered in the Reaffirmation of the 1960s, during the period of struggle in which the need for Afrocentric ways of thinking grew more urgent. Psychology, or “the human science that systematically studies behavior in its relationship to the complexity of mental, emotional, physical and environmental factors that shape it” (398), was among the many fields that demanded a reimagining, a departure from Eurocentric practices that used a middle-class white person (likely a man) as the norm. Black psychology required a detachment and rejection of using the experience and expectations of white people and white psychologists as referents. The establishment and transformations of Black psychology followed three phases, according to Dr. Karenga, the Traditional, Reformist, and Radical Schools, which also reflected the diffusion of Afrocentric thinking into multiple humanistic fields, and gradually incorporated teachings of Kemet, such as serudj ta–the Maatian ethic of healing, repairing, and transforming the world and in the process, transforming ourselves. Current theorists, such as Dr. Joy DeGruy, a psychologist who developed the explanatory theory, “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome,” assert that the overwhelming horrors, torture, degradation, tearing apart of families, and sexual violence during the Holocaust of Enslavement have never been reckoned with on a psychological basis (or any other basis), and continue to cast a shadow over generations. Not only did these abhorrent acts continue for centuries, without respite, but they have continued in one form or another even until today. Behaviors or perceptions such as exaggerated startle response or a sense of foreshortened life, might be, in Dr. DeGruy’s words, adaptive or survival behaviors developed as an appropriate response to lifetimes spent in hostile environments. She and other contemporary Black psychologists are envisioning new ways, specific to descendants of those who survived Maafa and continue to experience the multigenerational relics of that overwhelming trauma, to process these experiences and bring an understanding of their antecedents into the light of day.
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In the texbook Introduction to Black Studies in chapter 10 it describes how there are concerns of Black psychology which revolve around the development of a discipline which not only studies the mind, heart, spirit, and behavior of Black people but seek to assist them in transforming themselves into selfconscious agents of their own mental, emotional, and social liberation.
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This chapter explains in more detail how phycology and emotional health affects African society. This could include someone’s disciplines and spirituality. We can connect this to previous chapters where the same idea was explored and how we can learn from past discipline and apply them to modern African society and make the future better.
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Today proved exactly how mentally and spiritually African Americans are drained. The African society has been through so much that hearing that guilty verdict today was a shock and a relief that maybe things are changing.
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Hello Joyce, I agree with what you said I also want to add on that black people’s mental is destroyed horribly and many of them do not feel worthy of justice. Black’s have been brainwashed for years because the whites had control over how blacks were viewed.
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Hi Joyce, I agree with your comment. How could African Americans not help but feel mentally and spiritually drained with the oppression they are still faced with? While Chauvins guilty verdict is final one of accountability, my pray is the system changes for the better and true justice is served and the system is no longer used to protect cops alone.
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@Neyfi del Rosario Thank you for your comment I agree with you especially now when african community still feeling the abuse and rejection…
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Kobi Kambon felt that Blacks were under white domination. He stated “African Americans operates in a space dominated primarily by a definitional framework which does not and can not give legitimacy to our African social reality.” I completely agree with this statement, with white people controlling everything from the political power to economics, Black people were still being oppressed. Therefore creating psychological genocide, killing the the mind and spirit of African Americans. Along the way Blacks needing psychological help felt that seeking help was a sign of weakness or a “white person thing.”
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Hi Joyce, I do feel like black people think Psychology is a White thing, being that we never had the resources to get the healthy support we need over the course of traumatic events we’ve dealt with overtime. We should stop normalizing this and support those that look like us in the field of psychology and mental health. Kind of like a hand washing the other hand.
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It’s taking me a while to comprehend Dr. Wade Nobles’ essay, but the imperative Prof. Williams quoted last night, to “decolonize the mind” was a powerful image. The language and metaphors of the essay encompass the lived violence of African Americans and were painful to take in. On my second reading, this quote stands out: “Hegel is suggesting that the one whose “humanity” is recognized but who does not recognize the “humanity” of the other becomes the master while the one who recognizes the “humanity” of the other while their own “humanity”is not recognized becomes the slave.” If we accept that this image describes the truth of our society, we might also describe that society itself is sick or distorted.
I take Hegel’s thought as a warning and simultaneously a framework to recognize how society functions, and to perceive more quickly society’s deformations. When society itself is mentally ill, it is that much more difficult to stand against its prevailing norms, but also that much more crucial to do so. Struggling to maintain one’s own mental health against the powerful pressure of such norms and within an atmosphere of illness and contagion (as one can argue) seems to be goal. Dr. Nobles’ and Dr. DeGruy’s powerful images might help facilitate seeing what is, as it is–the first step from detaching from a dysfunctional psychological system.
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Hey Gail,
I agree with you. Psychology being the most important thing in an individual’s life yet was never convenient for black people. Traumas are in everyone’s life and as we have seen in history, black people have been gone through many hardships to overcome slavery yet being affected by all this they had never received any psychological assistance. Matter of fact, black people were never taught about this which made them think that not talking about it was the solution.
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The Shattered Consciousness expressed how black people were mentally damaged from slavery. Hegel stated “man becomes conscious of himself only through recognition by the other”. What this means is that when a person is oppressed they are aware of themselves through their oppressor. For example, with the relationship of the slave and a master the slave only sees, themselves through their master’s perspective. Another thing that I found interesting is that black people’s mental was compared to a train derailment. I found it interesting because, black people face problems today, but it is swept under the rug because they do not know how to address their problems. Which leads to the post traumatic slave syndrome, where future generations are effected. They are in-directly affected because generations and generations have been broken and then they raise broken children who develop certain signs of PTSD. The signs are: feelings of unsure future, outburst, and hypervigilent.
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To piggyback off previous comments I would like to say that this video was an eye opener. To see how generational trauma can have a domino effect on a family was really critical to look at. You don’t see it as a rerun or carrying trauma when you’re looking at a black grandmother and their grandchildren. Exploring how mental health is not dealt with, confronted in the black community as part of a reparation ( it would be the bare minimum) is tragic and continuing to not solve the mental trauma our ancestors have physically faced continues to trigger and damage us as the later generations. I also wanted to say that black people, speaking for myself and generally the community have theories that mental health is not a real thing. We were always taught to deal with it, no matter how great the struggle is you suck it up and put a smile on your face. That may be fairly the reason why we don’t know that we are experiencing generational trauma because we were never given the opportunity to solve our problems in a healthy way, we have normalized “moving forward” without resolving previous issues.
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I so agree with you, Gail! And that was really well summarized. And thank you for sharing that perspective about feeling like you have to “suck it up and put a smile on your face”. I can imagine that this just further compounds the feelings a person is struggling through.
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Psychology has become one of the most important factors of one’s life. The reason why I state that is because black people are one of the biggest groups that have been affected by Psychology issues. As we saw in the video how DuGruy mentions that black people have come out of the most traumatic issues in life, yet there was no mental health assistance after being affected. In today’s world, we see that many people who come out of traumatic situations get all the help they need because PTSD is one of the worst disorders out there. However, we tend to forget all the traumas that black communities faced after continuously being tortured and oppressed. As DuGruy also states when their traumas turn into anger, exxgeration- it is automatically named as “This is their Culture”. Most of us believe that, black people are always loud, angry, and exaggerating but we never tried to find out why? Anger, exaggeration was probably the only way to get out of the trauma. Nobody gave them the assistance to talk to others about these situations. But this is not their culture, like all other people they have seen trauma. Many have been raped, murdered, sold and etc yet there has never been any assistance.
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Hello Gail,
I agree, the mind is the most important thing we have everything thing that we experience passes through that filter and if our mental health is not there is difficult for us to react well to whatever situation is being presented to us. The black community never got to address the issues of mental health yet were expected to continue as if the generational trauma was not there nor the traumas that people of color continue to endure.
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I so agree with you, Gail! And that was really well summarized. And thank you for sharing that perspective about feeling like you have to “suck it up and put a smile on your face”. I can imagine that this just further compounds the feelings a person is struggling through.
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Ah! Technical error – I had replied to Gail separately I thought? Hopefully!
Anyway, just wanted to also reply to Monika and say I think you’re spot on here – it’s a really subtle but vicious way to attempt to keep oppression against African Americans going and it’s sickening.
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Monika I totally agree with you. A lot of people are quick to point the finger and judge when they see certain behavior from black people instead of thinking of ways to help or why is it that this person is acting like this or asking themselves what is the person probably going through. Instead they say “Black people are ghetto, always fighting, etc.” Mental health is important in every aspect and not taking care of it can affect you as a whole, especially physically.
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I love that the element of spirit in understanding the mind and emotions is described as the illumination of the spirit, Sakhu. Black psychology focuses on the structure and functioning of the human personality as well as the possibility of expansion and the realization of a higher level of human life both personally and socially. Dr. Karenga describes three ways in which this mental, emotional, and social liberation is achieved. One, a severe critique and rejection of white psychology, its mythology conclusions in ideological promises on which it rests. In other words, question how things are being taught by the people who have suppressed American Americans for so long. Number two is the provision of Afrocentric models of study and modalities of prevention, treatment, and development. I interpret this as making sure the treatment and studies fit the culture and needs of African Americans. The third step is a self-conscious intervention in the social struggle to achieve conditions of well-being and wholeness for African people in the context of human freedom and flourishing in the world.
Dr. Karenga describes post-traumatic slavery syndrome as the legacy of hopelessness, self-hatred, despair, and self-destruction from the holocaust of enslavement. I am pained that this is something that African-Americans are still faced with within the context of how black people are treated in this country. How could somebody not feel so heavily affected by all this needless police violence against African-Americans? It’s exhausting and inhumane.
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in this chapter Dr. Karenga explain how african people suffer from Post Traumatic Slavery syndrome. I believe that when our ancestors do not overcome some trauma from the past, such as being slave. the growing generation suffers psychological trauma For this reason, Dr. Karenga is concerned with black psychology studying the mind, spirit and behavior of blacks, to help them and free themselves from their emotions, mental and social liberation. in other hands, in these times where the african american people are being oppressed it should be offered individual psychology for each person who has been affected and traumatized over the years .
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post-traumatic stress disorder is something that has plagued the black community, this is something that is something that most people of color must deal with in a society that sees a black skin as a weapon or in the case of the police in America, a shooting target. Dr. Joy DeGruy speech on generational trauma is something that brings light to something that most of us never thought about. How does the unresolved traumas of our ancestor affect and shape us? And how we can identify PTSD in our communities? Some of the symptoms are:
• panicking when reminded of the trauma.
• being easily upset or angry.
• extreme alertness, also sometimes called ‘hypervigilance’
• disturbed sleep or a lack of sleep.
• finding it hard to concentrate – including on simple or everyday tasks.
• disturbed sleep or a lack of sleep.
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Absolutely – and these are things that completely affect one’s way of life, and are symptoms of an oppressive society that are then used against them in “sociological” studies done by biased Eurocentric doctors! ugh. It’s appalling.
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I agree and I also think that this where psychology comes in play because it gives us these types of emotions about other people see us and how we see or start to see ourselves.
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This introductory portion by Dr. Karenga and the essay by Dr. Noble’s offer a really succinct and powerful look into a system that I think has been somewhat less openly talked about in general amid the continued fight for equal rights and treatment (socially, economically, medically)–but the mental / psychological aspect is extremely important piece of life and health.
The fact that African Americans (and any other oppressed group) were and are not automatically offered an easy path to receiving free care in the country that even admitted to its egregious oppression (to an extent, anyway) is a continued violence and oppression. However, even if this were offered, the kind of care is what is equally important and vital–the care must come from enthocentrist professionals and institutions so that those seeking to improve their mental health (and, thereby, their lives in general) can be assured they are getting a fair evaluation and appropriate treatment, with the context of their entire history (not just their own, but their people’s) acting as the basis and backdrop of said treatment.
And as Dr. DeGruy says, there’s no possible way that the enslaved people, through all of those generations, were not completely traumatized, and it’s so difficult for any traumatized person not to inadvertently pass down trauma when the trauma is not resolved through care and help, and the cycle continues on until it is appropriately and carefully addressed and treated.
It’s actually quite absurd that we even allow European/White sociologists and psychologists that have not worked with and learned from African American counterparts to observe, treat, publish on patients that have such a unique and storied history, so much so that it continues to be a part of them and their psyche to this day (to varying extents). Many “unbiased” White/European specialists have for so long seemed to focus only on a present-day picture, choosing to completely ignore the horror and trauma that their patients/subjects have essentially just come out of, and in many ways are still trapped within. Oppressed people cannot just be expected to “move forward” in a society that was completely structured to benefit their murderers and oppressors and deny their humanity, not just in the judicial and socioeconomic sense, but in the medical and psychological sense — there would be no relief, no escape, and no guarantee or even likelihood of fair and proper treatment.
As someone who is passionate about mental health and destigmatization, this chapter is deeply interesting and affecting.
– Julie W.
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This chapter basically explain how black psychology was rooted in and was reflective of the lives of people in a struggle for freedom and also to better understand itself as an emancipatory project. He explained in detail how black psychology was able around the development as well as the discipline which not only study the mind heart and spirit and behavior of Black people.
According to Dr.Karenga Black psychology as a discipline came about from the African American context of oppression as well as self-confirming practices that was rooted in memory and ongoing capacity as a people.
I like how this chapter showed how Black psycologist were able to attack the racism in white psychology. They also focused their attention on correcting and falsification about the behavior of the African people.
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In this Chapter, it talked about how Blacks had to struggle in society and how they had to deal with
oppression, seek liberation, and the concepts to Black Psychology which is mind, Body, spirit, and heart.
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Black Psychology first off i want to say basically that psychology basically deals with human behavior
and the mind. so to basically continue, Black psychology is dealing with how Black people are able
to adjust and live in society, as far as their mind, heart, body, spirit, etc towards struggles they would
commonly face. For Example, in the 1960’s in the South Blacks were facing racial segregation.
So Blacks were seeking Liberation in order to be equal as far as treatment in society is concerned.
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The first part of the chapter talks about the need to push psychology in black schools and provide mental health services to black communities. Traditional school, reformist school and radical school speak about the different perspectives and approaches of black psychology. Traditional school didn’t really focus on the development of black psychology, it was defensive and a little influenced by white psychology. Reformist school focused on developing black psychology however it still had certain things from traditional school. Last but not least, radical school was for the development of black psychology as a whole in terms on analysis, treatment and transformation.
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You know when I learned about psychology I had automatically assumed that it applied to all people. After reading this chapter I find that that was not always true. What I learned and understood about psychology was that it was the study of the brain, emotion, and behavior as it was effected by trauma. How this applied to everyone. The innocence of a child right… When reading this chapter I come to find out that people didn’t identify Black psychology until the 70s. It wasn’t until they themselves decided to do something about it and create there own program of sorts. With the ABP they made Black psychology know and made people recognize it. Which I honestly thought that it was a given to think that Black Psychology was real. Any form of trauma is something that should be recognized.
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In Chapter 10 talks about the psychology affects the African community. In the text, the definition of psychology is the human science that consistently studies the mental, emotional, physical, and environmental behaviors. The chapter also talked about how African American wanted to find a way to develop psychology in their schooling. For example, both traditional and reformist schools were sort of similar in a way, the only difference was the reformist school took in consideration of the Black Psychology while the traditional school didn’t.
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