Weekly Blog #2

After reading the three articles I noticed some similarities and noticeable differences among the essays. All of the essays talk about ways that African Americans are marginalized and peripheralized in society, but the main differences come from how to remedy the plight of African Americans. Asante argues that Afrocentricity is the best way so break the fringes of European beliefs. He says that African Americans have lost their "cultural footing" and won't be "able to free our minds until we return to the source". His arguement is based on the notion that, 'how can we change ourselves, if we don't actually know ourselves and our past?" He believes that Afrocentricity will be the key to proper education and the revival of African American culture. Hooks and West both argue that the best way to denounce popular belief is by "engaging decolonization" within the African American culture and branching out to new areas that others would deemed unsuitable for African Americans. They say that blacks themselves must challenge the notions of universality and create new identities for themselves. Both West and Hooks also call for the high intellectuals of the African American society to embrace black communities and "cultivate habits that reinforce awareness that knowledge can be shared on a number of fronts." They believe that change should start in the lower levels of classes, so that way it "enables social action and enlists collective insurgency for the expansion of freedom and individuality."