A partnership forged: BSW students and service learning at a historically Black college and university (HBCU) serving urban communities

ABSTRACT

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have a long-standing history of engaging the African-American community. In most instances, these institutions are located in predominantly African-American communities. This article intends to offer a discussion of a pedagogical approach used at an HBCU, located in a large mid-Atlantic city. The purpose of this macro-assignment was an effort designed to prepare BSW students for macro-practice with communities through participation in service-learning projects that involved community engagement with urban communities. Outcomes reflect that students have a vested interest in working with underserved communities, which exemplifies the School of Social Work’s mission; said mission is to fully prepare urban social work leaders who are committed to the alleviation of human suffering, social justice, and the improvement of the quality of life for diverse urban populations.     

Black Lives/White Backgrounds: Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric and Critical Race Theory

How do you criticise a hierarchical racial formation that is rendered nearly invisible by its colour (white) and positioning (background) in the contemporary, so-called colour-blind or post-racial US? The reading of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric that this essay will undertake seeks to offer a response to this question utilising some key insights from Critical Race Theory (CRT). As they are understood here, both CRT and Citizen offer counter-stories by ‘call[ing] out’ to what you ‘don’t see’, specifically to America’s racial formations so as to promote colour-consciousness and an anti-racist critique. Beginning with a discussion of the relationship between literary and legal narratives, followed by two sections on Rankine’s rhetorical strategies, this essay ends by closely reading her texts about Trayvon Martin, who was murdered on 26 February 2012.     

Expanding black subjectivities in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah

Deploying the call-and-response mode as the artistic premise of her fiction, foremost African-American author, Toni Morrison, has persistently called in her criticism for a participatory, intellectual and political, engagement with her position on and concerns around blackness. Morrison’s ideas are being critiqued and expanded to reflect contemporary ‘African’ attitudes and perspectives within the contemporary Afrodiasporic writing of critically acclaimed emergent author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In particular, Adichie has, in conversation and in her most recent fiction, suggested that Africans (in the diaspora) articulate themselves differently from African-Americans. Problematized and politicized thus as contested, rather than universally accepted, subjective terrain, blackness more significantly points to the diversity and dynamism of black culture and testifies, in the current socio-political/-historical moment, to recognition of the enduring complexity of black subjectivity. In a close, comparative reading of Morrison’s celebrated novel, Song of Solomon (1977), and Adichie’s popular text, Americanah (2013) – both recipients of the National Book Critics Circle award, this essay offers a fresh, specifically transatlantic and transnational, analysis of Morrison’s African-American views on blackness through the contemporary, Afrodiasporic lens of Adichie. Guided by the dialogic call-and-response mode, and underpinned by cultural, race and diaspora theory, the essay suggests and explores the ways in which Americanah speaks (back) to Morrison’s Song of Solomon, interrogating ontologies of race, particularly blackness, through an ‘Africanness’ that takes cognizance of culturally specific and context-responsive, globalized configurations of female subjectivity in particular. In this way, this essay seeks to expand understandings of, and discussions around, black issues and black life in order not just to resituate the relevance of black cultural ontologies but, through comparative engagement with the ‘politics’ of blackness, to revive in the political consciousness and imagination their crucial significance.     

‘Me Against the World’: Autoethnographic poetry

The existing literature on race and ethnicity overlooks learning disability (LD), and the latter often overlooks Black males and segregated schooling. Thus, this poetic account embodies the voice of a Black male with LD. As an autoethnographer, I applied critical disability theory to learn and become cognizant about my academic journey and identity development. Autoethnography allowed me to examine my personal experiences to understand the cultural experiences that were meaningful during my academic journey. The purpose of the poetic account serves two purposes: to shatter all notions that Black males with LD in special education cannot succeed academically; and to become a voice by offering an inside perspective of how I understood my position in special education. Moreover, this account is important because it is rare that scholarship captures the combination of academic literature and poetry among Black students who have navigated the special education system.     

The spatial structure of transnational human activity

Starting from conflictive predictions of hitherto disconnected debates in the natural and social sciences, this article examines the spatial structure of transnational human activity (THA) worldwide (a) across eight types of mobility and communication and (b) in its development over time. It is shown that the spatial structure of THA is similar to that of animal displacements and local-scale human motion in that it can be approximated by Lévy flights with heavy tails that obey power laws. Scaling exponent and power-law fit differ by type of THA, being highest in refuge-seeking and tourism and lowest in student exchange. Variance in the availability of resources and opportunities for satisfying associated needs appears to explain these differences. Over time (1960–2010), the Lévy-flight pattern remains intact and remarkably stable, contradicting the popular notion that socio-technological trends lead to a “death of distance.” Humans have not become more “global” over time, they rather became more mobile in general, i.e. they move and communicate more at all distances. Hence, it would be more adequate to speak of “mobilization” than of “globalization.” Longitudinal change occurs only in some types of THA and predominantly at short distances, indicating regional rather than global shifts.     

Ethnic Origins and Religious Transformations in the Afro-Colombian Muslim Community of Buenaventura

The aim of this article is to analyse the origins and transformations of a Muslim community in western Colombia. The history of this small religious group of Afro-Colombians is presented over a period divided into four phases. This division is based on four dominant interpretations of Islamic doctrines adopted by the majority of the group over a period of time. These changes were not only due to religious motivations but also due to changes in the social milieu and the need for taking advantage of emerging opportunities. The religious conversion of Afro-Colombians to Islam took place within the complex socio-political context of the Colombian conflict which began in mid-1960s and is still ongoing. The adoption of this new religious perspective did not evolve in an isolated manner, rather, it transformed the identity of the community by strengthening the value of ethnic differences in a place of segregation. In this context, this paper analyses the role of religion as an important element in the construction of ethnic identity. It is also important to recognize that this cultural negotiation happens at the margins of the dominant society, which views Afro-Colombian minorities negatively or simply ignores their presence.     

Strategic role of public relations in enterprise strategy,governance and sustainability—A normative framework

The purpose of the study was to suggest a normative framework for the development of an organization's enterprise (societal role/stakeholder) strategy, indicating its relationship with governance, sustainability, and CSR. The normative framework contains two dimensions: Enterprise strategy is developed within the context of enterprise governance as well as social and environmental sustainability and responsibility, to achieve the organization's strategic non-financial goals (the sustainability dimension). Corporate strategy is developed within the context of corporate governance as well as economic sustainability and responsibility, to achieve strategic financial/economic goals (the business dimension). PR/communication management plays a strategic role in enterprise strategy development but a support role in corporate strategy development. The development of enterprise strategy necessitates a Triple Bottom Line approach to strategic management.     

Make me Wanna Holler: Meshell Ndegeocello,Black Queer Aesthetics,and Feminist Critiques

This article examines the music and performance of Meshell Ndegeocello, arguing that they are part of a cross-Atlantic conversation that pushes the boundaries of Black feminist thought on masculinity and desire. From the time of her debut album in 1993, Ndegeocello has resisted categorization both in her public personae and in her music. Ndegeocello's refusal to be restricted in her stage performance and in her musical expression has created a rich text through which to read Black female masculinity. Her work has been particularly productive in rethinking (Black) feminist couplings of patriarchy with male anatomy. Ndegeocello's music challenges any one representation of female masculinity, mixing critiques of masculine privilege and violence with celebrations of pleasure and pansexual desire.     

An Exploratory Investigation of Treatment Strategies for Black,Gay, Bisexual,and Heterosexual Men-Who-Have-Sex- With-Men Who Use Methamphetamine

Research has repeatedly indicated a strong relation between methamphetamine use and risky sex leading to HIV-seroconversion. Despite the high prevalence of HIV among Black gay, bisexual, and other men-who-have-sex-with-men (BMSM) and the strong association between methamphetamine use and HIV-seroconversion, treatment research on methamphetamine use and HIV-risk behaviors among BMSM is limited. The goal of this exploratory study was to investigate treatment strategies for BMSM that may be used to inform methamphetamine treatment programs tailored for BMSM. Data was collected on a sample of HIV-negative and HIV-positive gay, bisexual, and heterosexual BMSM (N = 52) in New York City. Participants were asked to discuss methamphetamine treatment strategies they believed would be successful in treating their own methamphetamine abuse and that of other BMSM who use methamphetamine. Results indicated four treatment areas salient for BMSM seeking treatment for methamphetamine used disorders: (a) outreach/recruitment strategies, (b) therapist qualities, (c) group characteristics, and (d) intervention elements themselves. Findings gathered here and through literature review underscore the importance of adapting evidence-based methamphetamine treatment strategies to include culturally-relevant treatment strategies that address the specific needs of BMSM who use methamphetamine.     

逃避伤痛文化,寻根非洲文化--从艾利斯·沃克的《外婆的日用家当》看美国黑人文化认同

本文结合美国60年代后期70年代早期的历史文化背景,分析艾利斯·沃克的《外婆的日用家当》并指出:艾利斯·沃克运用象征手法,通过对母亲与两个女儿的关系的转变即母亲的顿悟描述,试图指出当时黑人文化认同中的两个误区:怯懦逃避伤痛文化,盲目寻根非洲文化。