Word: afro-am
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Even with this disparate and broad approach, Afro-American Studies has yet to gain popularity among the student body, because many students call it unpractical. Therefore, students decide to double-major. Says Dawkins, "It is hard to legitimate Afro-Am studies to the outside world--to both Blacks and whites...
David Lattimore '88, who majors in Afro-Am and economics, says, "Afro-American studies falls conceptually low on an academic priority list. But this is reflective of society's prejudices, not of an understanding of the intellectual field." While Lattimore says he likes Afro-American studies more than economics, he adds it is just not as practical as the more popular department...
Catha Worthman '89, a white student majoring in Afro-Am, says she receives a wide range of reactions when she tells people her concentration, "It really varies. The reaction is usually dependent on the person's politics...
...white professor in the department, Sollors admits there are some drawbacks to not being Black and an Afro-American expert. "Looking at it [Afro-Am] from the outside, you are particulaly prone to see larger cultural patterns and the connectedness of the fabric of Afro-American life to modern life in general," he says. "But, there is always the fine tuning of the field that becomes most apparent from being a part of Afro-American life, particularly in the realm of literature...
...Afro-Am courses are cross listed under the specific concentrations to which they are related, cross-listed under Afro-Am are several courses that could actually be classified as African Studies, including Religion 1901, "Introduction to African Religions;" Government 1220, "Government and Politics in Africa;" and English 167c, "Black Writing in South Africa." The lack of an African Studies Department at Harvard forces the Afro-Am Department to take the responsiblity for courses relatively unrelated to the Black experience in America...