Psychology 12: Introduction to African American Psychology
S/R Paper for March 22, 2007
By
Halford H. Fairchild
Fairchild,
H.H. (2000). Taking care of business: The Black family and the
Stimulus: This paper summarizes several readings on the
Black family and the Black church. The
family and the church were the savers of the enslaved.
Glenn Loury – a
conservative (Black) economist who serves to blame the victim – moral scruples is
the cause of the plight of Blacks. Unemployment as an “act of will.” (Exculpates the broader
societal forces).
Responses: The church can be seen as the Dept. of
Health, Education and Welfare for the Black community. It is an organizing principle/place for
social and family life.
Use the term, “enslaved
Africans” instead of “slaves.”
Religion has an ambivalent role: to encourage liberation vs. placating the
masses (religion as the opiate of the poor).
To focus on the hear and now – and make your heaven
on earth – or wait for salvation after death?
Fairchild objects to the idea that only 74,000 and
400,000 Africans were captured during the
Provides a future orientation – may be another 200
years before freedom is ever won (if then).
Fairchild,
H.H. (1992). Aren’t they really us? LA
Times, May 13, p. B7.
Stimulus: Describes Fairchild’s perspectives on the
conflagrations of 1992. First person
pronoun is a better way to understand societal problems.
Responses: The message is that we each must take
responsibility for the ills of society – in order to correct those ills.
Ending phrasing was sweet. “Only long-term solutions that correct
schooling inadequacies and that improve housing, health and employment opportuntieis can hope to quench the fires that smolder
within the soul of
Fairchild, H.H.
(1991).
Scientific racism: The
cloak of objectivity. Journal of Social
Issues, 47(3), 101-115.
Stimulus: This article debunks the scientific racism of
J. Phillippe Rushton. It offers the alternative of examining school
size and per pupil expenditures.
Responses: Notes the dual roles of Black psychologists –
to be reactive (debunk racism) and proactive.
Scientific racism is a lie; such lies are relatively
easy to detect.
Admits to ideological
biases.
“Race” as a proxy variable.
Social science should heal.
Ending paragraph is a nice summation.
Sudarkasa, Niara.
(2007). African
American female-headed households: Some
neglected dimensions. Chapter
12, pp. 172-183 in H.P. McAdoo (Ed.), Black Families (4th Edition).
Stimulus: This chapter explores the issue of
“female-headed households” and focuses on 6 points:
1. FHH derived from African and
African American extended families.
2. FHH are diverse
3. FHH does not mean
instability
4. FHH are predictable and
acceptable
5. Women are often primary
providers in FHH and coupled families
6. FHH are not the cause of
poverty, crime and hopelessness.
A very key quote on p. 172: “A sound analysis is not only relevant to the
formulation of policy, it is indispensable to it.”
HHF: If you
do not correctly understand the nature of the problem, then the problem is
unsolvable. (3/22/07)
Responses: The idea of a male head-of-household is a
contradiction in terms. Women have
always been the center of families – and their heads, hearts and souls.
We engage in a “mutual pretense” when we say that
men rule the roost.
All families are extended families that include
fictive kin… and women are prominent in all of them.
Scarcity of men, due to criminal injustice, bravado
(violence, homicide), is exacerbated by war.
The idea of a kept woman is very new in human
history…. And the reality is that “…it is
not so much their husbands who have supported them as it is the masses of
people in the lower classes whose work has supported them both” (p.
178).
Sudarkasa suggests that “…the
evidence is unequivocal that most two-parent families in the ghettos are often
powerless to combat the drugs, crime, and degradation that grow out of the
conditions of poverty in which they live” (p. 179). But, they have power, but the power is latent.
How to make it manifest?
Drug trafficking (and other
petty crimes) as a means to survive in an alternative-less environment. And as a means to
criminalize and incarcerate.
Vs. the Enron scandal (see the documentary).
Underlying causes of despair: a history of slavery and Jim Crow, and
structured inequalities in the things that matter.
Critiques:
Having large numbers of children to enhance survival is an “action that
speaks for itself.” No, people have sex
for pleasure, children is a usually unintended consequence. High birthrates are due to ignorance and poor
health care/advice.
In public housing – we need really decent
environments, not just policies that do not discriminate against extended
families.
Final solution:
Plan for and reclaim the best of what extended families had to
offer. Involving
churches, etc. BUT: If the problem is lack of jobs, then the
solution is to provide education, training, and jobs.