Making it on Broken Promises

"This book provides an occasion to examine the complex conjuncture between the White supremacist realities of the American Academy and the often threatening presence of brilliant Black men in the Academy. This challenging book should also serve as an inspiration for a new generation of Black men deeply devoted to the life of the mind in or outside the Academy." -From the foreward by Cornel West.Sixteen of America's leading scholars offer an uncompromising critique of the academy from their perspective as African American men. They challenge dominant majority assumptions about the culture of higher education, most particularly its claims of openness to diversity and divergent traditions.They take issue with the processes that determine what is legitimized as scholarship, as well as with who wields the power to authenticate it. They describe the debilitating pressures to subordinate Black identity to a supposedly universal but hegemonic Eurocentric culture. They question the academy's valuing of individuality and its privileging of dichotomy over their cultural styles of community, humanism and synthesis. They also range over such issues as culturally mediated styles of cognition, the misuse of standardized testing, the disproportionate burden of service placed on African American faculty and a reward system that discounts it.

Lee Jones is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Instruction and Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the College of Education, The Florida State University.

PREFACE 1. A MESSAGE FROM OUR ELDERS 2. THE DATA SPEAK: NO REST FOR THE WEARY 3. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DILEMMA OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ACADEMICIANS 4. ONE BY ONE, OR ONE: AFRICANS AND THE ACADEMY 5. EXAMINING THE PITFALLS FACING AFRICAN AMERICAN MALES 6. EQUITY AND EXCELLENCE: IS THERE ROOM FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN PH.D.S? 7. COME SO FAR, BUT SO FAR TO GO: INTERVIEW WITH DR. JOSEPH WHITE 8. UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIALIZATION PROCESS 9. CULTURE, STYLE, AND COGNITION: EXPANDING THE BOUNDARIES OF THE LEARNING PARADIGM FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN LEARNERS IN THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE 10. THE ROLE OF BLACK COLLEGES IN EDUCATING AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN: AN INTERVIEW WITH NATHAN McCALL 11. AFROCENTRICITY AND THE AFRICAN AMERICAN MALE IN COLLEGE 12. AFFECTIVE COMPUTING: THE REVERSE DIGITAL DIVIDE 13. VISUALIZING THE FRAMEWORK FOR ACCESS AND SUCCESS: DEMOCRACY DEMANDS THAT WE CARE 14. FROM NA EZALELI TO THE JEGNOCH: THE FORCE OF THE AFRICAN FAMILY FOR BLACK MEN IN HIGHER EDUCATION 15. THE PREREQUISITES FOR ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP