Weekly Blog #2

I thought that all 4 of these essays were pretty hard to follow and grasp main points. One similarity between all is that they all adressed how/why Africans and others perceive themselves. In Asante's piece, Afrocentricity was the main idea, Asante focused on the idea that the world views Africans based on European viewpoints and ideas. What we know of African culture comes from how Europeans interpret it, not necessarily how it really is or how Africans want to be perceived. Asante goes all the way back to the Greek era and says that for half a melinium or 5000 years that African culture was ignored. During that period, any good doing, say by the Egytians the greeks would have taken credit for. Asante says this still goes on today and black's could have the slave mentality, accepting their culture interpreted by Europe (or others).

Hooks, Hall & West look at how Africans are perceived from both sides. They say that African culture today is influenced by how they (Africans) think of themselves as well as how other ethnicities see them. You cannot have a valid argument on African culture by only looking at how others view them, you have to know how they see themselves as well. Multiple variables can influence ideas and represenations on a culture. And, in order for one to have a valid opinion on a culture, or history of a culture, you have to look at every viewpoint, and any variable that could skew ideas.