Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

An Assessment
~la~k t~ ~~ ~ ~ i~ ~u~~ u~
"It is incumbent upon those
seriously committed to
Black Studies to seek out
the ideological positions
that would be most beneficial
to Black people"
~ YEAR ago the entire
country was being
swept with demands
by black students for
more "relevant" educational
institutions . What were
those demands about? What has
been done? What remains to be
done?
Only after hundreds of black
studies programs have actually begun
has the real message of that
movement made impact . Many
have thought-indeed, hopedthat
the black studies movement
of 1968-69 was simply a fad . To
be sure, there was definitely spontaneous
contagion in the movement
; this is a necessary part of
any mass action. There are, however,
underlying issues that will
either sustain the work of the se-
88
BY J . FRANK YATES
rious black studies programs or
lead to new crises if they fail .
Simply stated, a school or educational
system justifies its existence
in a community by fulfilling
two functions . First, it must impart
the skills needed by the people to
maintain their physical existence.
Second, it must cultivate and transmit
traditions and ideological concepts
that meet the people's psychological
and "moral "needs . To
perform ' satisfactorily, a school
must be able to deal with both issues
simultaneously . The rebellious
black student of 1968-69 was saying
essentially that his schoolsblack
and white-were adequately
fulfilling neither function, but especially
the second .
We should examine that second
function closer . What, really, is
ideology? The concept has various
facets . Milton Pokeach (The Open
and Closed Mind) and T . W .
Adorno (The Authoritarian Personality)
isolate several of the core
ideas. They stress that ideology
represents an institutionalized set
of beliefs that one just "picks up,"
"an organization of opinions, atti-
March 1970 NEGRO DIGEST