Black Studies

For a girl who’s least favorite subject was History, I still wonder how I ended up with a Black Studies Bachelors. Writing is my passion so I understood the minor in Journalism, it’s just something about traditional history courses that shifted my mood for the worse.

Literally switched from Business Management to Black Studies my senior year at The City College of New York. It was something about economics that I couldn’t get into, I wish it was a requirement in grade school but trying to grasp it all in college wasn’t it for me.

I’m already two years into college when I transferred to CCNY as a communications major not knowing it’s a whole process to get into the communications major so I had to switch quick. Just as quick as I switched to Business Management I sprinted my way down to the Black Studies department with an interest in their jazzed up curriculum. There I was going into my last year unsure if I will take a liking to their style of teaching our enriched horrific history.

Just from one class I knew I was there to stay, as long as all my professors we’re strong, stern and unapologetically BLACK. It was something special about them all, their passion, voice, course material and overall blackness put the icing on the cake for me. I’ve already gotten all my electives and minor requirements out the way so my last year was filled with so much rich history of my people. From typical history courses to African cinema to a theater class focused solely on Black creators.

There was a shift in my life, I for the first time ever enjoyed my history classes. I realized than it’s not the material it’s the angle in which it’s taught. Especially when your teacher has the slightest clue of what it means to young black children to digest this intense information. I always suggest college prospects to look into their schools black studies program and take a course or two. You learn in depth about a long list of amazing black intellectuals in which adds fuel to your fire in life.

I write to inspire others who may have acted out in history class when you’re just in elementary school and they show you a movie on the Holocaust. If you ever cursed your teacher out for saying Columbus discovered the United States, yea I was that kid, always spoke from passion and was never afraid to correct someone even a teacher. I write to let you know there are other professionals who take pride in putting those bogus curriculums to shame with rich course material.

This is to be applied to life not just history. If you don’t take a liking to something being taught to you, it may be that you learn a certain way and the teacher isn’t meeting those standards. That’s cool, just figure out how you can make the best of the material, find another teacher who takes a different approach. One thing I’ll leave you with from my time as a Black Studies Major is that self-education is very important, it is up to you to learn more and continue to soak up knowledge as you go through life. Always remember at one point they didn’t allow our people to learn but we still overcame and look at us now.