RBG Afrikan- Centered Cultural Development and Education

RBG Street Scholars Think Tank's Purpose:
This Educational Program and Research Project is Dedicated to Further Building the Hip Hop--Black Liberation Movement Connection by Integrating Conscious Digital Edutainment with A Scholarly Self Directed Learning Environment.

Welcome to one of the baddest EduTainment Resources on the Web. A one-stop-shop for education,consciousness raising, entertainment and liberation. And the nicest thing about it is that you can become a contributor. Just start out by reading this overview and learning how things work. You can play a video right within this start page and even browse to it's music. Or turn on an audio playlist to facilitate your browsing. Tons of other options, too numerous to mention here are also right at you finger tips. Ride it however you like, it's all good. Once you get going, check out a Multi-Media Article that interests you and make a comment. I, RBG Street Scholar-Your Zine author, editor and guru will respond. The aforementioned approach is a kol gateway to doing bigger and better things in and with the Communiversity.

WHAT IS RBG STREET SCHOLARS THINK TANK AT ZIMBIO ALL ABOUT?

It's about creating and maintaining the best "Afri-Conscious Cyber EduTainment Portal / Communiversity on the Web".

It's about saving time doing study, learning / teaching together and having madd fun doing it.
The merticulously researched choice of links can be thought of as our votes in the popularity contest that is the "Best of the Best in Black Internet" . The intention is to provide a diverse and concise starting point for you to begin your quest for whatever information you are looking for from a progressive/radical/revolutionary Black perspective . As most of these sites have vast links sections of their own, so do the sites they link to, and so on, and so forth—starting from these links, you can delve further into whatever area interests you.

You got a myspace, youtube, odeo, website etc.
Add your Stuff Folx--and let's learn from each other, build together and teach the world

Our Zines are intended to help us develop and maintain a resource for scholarly research, build together and learn about any subject / topic related to what we're already about: Namely, the "Africentric Idea of Education" let's take the learner from G.E.D. to Ph.D in the contemporary liberal arts and sciences;

Including:
> computers & information technology,
> history and cultural development,
> religion and spirituality,
> sociology,
> political science,
> creative productions/ entertainment,
> education,
> health promotion and disease prevention
> economics and
> psychology
A one stop shop using all forms of media to interactively showcase our ideas of relavent education, unification, collectivity and self definition.

They say " Black Folx Can't Unite, I say they're a lie" Let's show the world our truth and culture; all under the umbrella of Black Nationalism> PanAfrikanism> Scientific Socialism> Revolutionary Change>Afrikan Internationalism.

Browse existing content in any of our four Zines and you will discover that they are all concentricly integrated, thus providing you with a most rich and wholesome interactive learning experience.

Help RBG Street Scholar, your Resident Guru, build our school with your good works.

Rate each others work as to keep us on point.

I'VE STARTED US OUT WITH SOME SOLID CONTENT. NOW WE MUST CONTINUE BY BUILDING TOGETHER. A GOOD WAY TO START IS BY FIRST SIGNING UP AND THEN BROWSING EACH FIELD IN THE TABLE OF CONTENTS PANE TO THE LEFT AS TO GET QUICKLY ORIENTED. A LINK BELOW TO "RBG STREET SCHOLARS THINK TANK RULES OF ENGAGEMENT" WILL TAKE YOU DEEPER STILL.

THE FOLLOWING IS A GUIDING SYNOSIS TAKEN FROM THE COMMUNIVERSITY PROPER:
With strick attention to developing our student’s basic education skills in the context of the highest standards of academic excellence, suitable for one to confidently sit for high stake exams(ie. SAT/ACT and MCATs, LSATs), we simutaneously advance the psycho-emotional healing and spiritual upliftment of our people by providing KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM AND OVERSTANDING of the historo-cultural, socio-political and psycho-educational experiences of Africans in America in away that RADICALLY REAPPRAISES EDUCATION from the pained and angry perspective of the oppressed black community.

WHY WE NEED TO DO THIS:
With the present day high rates of Black on Black homicide, suicide, and imprisonment and a rise in single-parent homes, rampant police brutality, unprecedented unemployment, and Blacks use of popular (ENEMY) culture (through music, video games and popular movies) to celebrate "anti-intellectualism, ignorance, irresponsible parenthood, drunkenness, dope dealing, weed smoking, cocaine, x-pills, loose sexual behavior and criminal lifestyles / thuggism"; we have chose to design a curriculum that, rather than getting caught up in the entertainment / BLACKPLOTATION aspects of hip hop/rap, will use hip hop/rap within a historo-cultural, socio-political and psycho-educational framework to address these various death walks forthrightly. Our new methodological style is intended to get our young people to begin to think critically about themselves, their world and their role as people of Afrikan descent.

WHERE WE ARE AND WHERE WE WANNA GO:
This work is a comprehensive (but only a core framework) sequenced survey of subjects and topics that have confronted Afrikans in America throughout our 246 years of chattel slavery, 100 years of aparthied and only “one generation of freedom” here in America. I like to describe the school as a “cultural development and leadership training communiversity”. From our research, we have determined that the idea of Sankofa, which means "We must go back and reclaim our past so we can move forward; so we understand why and how we came to be who we are today", really encompasses the whole Afrikan-centered ideal. Nonetheless, as this is a work in evolution and always under construction, we have chosen to focus our teaching/learning journey most directly on the past 45 years of our struggle for human and civil rights—

THE THEME “THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THINGS STAY THE SAME, WE NEED A REVOLUTION, THE SYSTEM AIN’T GONA CHANGE UNLESS WE MAKE IT CHANGE”.

The content and character of the curriculum is Afrikan-centered and the goal is academic excellence in persuit of black power. We tease out the social, political, economic and moral imparatives of black power in the 21st century by zooming in on two povital questions throughout our course of study:

“WHAT IS BLACK OPPRESSION IN AMERICA AND WHAT IS AFRIKAN LIBERATION.”

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RBG Blakademics 2009: Feat. RBG, EDUCATION AND CULTURE DEFINED

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right click on the mp3 icon that follows>open link in new tab>once playback starts>click back on this tab>Browse and Enjoy (firefox browser)

RBG THEME
Emotional Productions

Is this your first time visiting us or would you like to get deeper into how the communiversity teaches? Then check out

RBG Street Scholars Think Tank Rules of Engagement .

Dr. Marimba Ani on Yurugu and Afrikan Rebirth/ Full Video Workshop and link to her RBG Classroom

Dr Ani Marimba — African Worldview Yurugu is on e of RBG Street Scholars Think Tank's Two Required Textbooks (T he other being Dr. Amos Wilson's Blue Print for Black Power) Following is a Audio Clip and Textbook Extracts: Chapter 1, Utamawazo: The Cultural Structuring of Thought Archaic European Epistemology: Substitution of Object for Symbol The African world-view, and the world-views of other people who are not of European origin, all appear to have certain themes in common. The universe... Access Full Lesson

Jacob H. Carruthers is a founding director of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations and a current member of its national board of directors. He is a founding member of both the Kemetic Institute of Chicago and the Temple of the African Community of Chicago. He is the acting director of the Center for Inner City Studies, Northeastern Illinois University, where he also serves as a professor. He is the author of Science and Oppression, The Irritated Genie, and MDW NTR Divine Speech.

http://africawithin.com/carruthers/carruthers.htm

Intellectual Warfare

By: Jacob Carruthers,

A scholarly work several years in the making, Intellectual Warfare testifies that the foundation of modern Western thought, theory, and practice can be traced back to ancient African thought, theory, and practice. Dr. Carruthers exposes the African influence on Greek and Roman thought and its influence on the development of modern Western society, then establishes the urgency to defend and honor the role of Ancient African civilizations on this major event

In the pages of Intellectual Warfare , Dr. Carruthers exposes fallacies and reestablishes new and undistorted ways of viewing the formation of Western society and how classic literature shaped the contemporary world in intricate and sometimes startlingly and brutally honest and uncompromising detail. He is not satisfied with simply challenging the reader to think about things differently, but goes further citing specific examples and offering instruction on how to begin to retrain oneself to think about the origins of modern society in other terms. The esteemed scholar and defender of African centered thought is ever vigilant and provocative in the pages of this text. He separates this latest work from other such critical efforts by expanding the text with instruction for implementing new ways of looking at the educational curriculum to ensure the challenge to improve education can be taken up by future generations. He offers insight into how to incorporate the reexamination of classical African literature in the education system.

RBG STREET SCHOLAR PRESENTS: "The Deepest Academic EduBlog in the World"

LINK 2 THE ACTUAL FULLY INTERACTIVE POST ALL IMAGES ARE HOT AND EXPANDABLE /RIGHT CLICK AND VIEW /OPEN IN NEW TAB B aba Del Jones Classroom ENHANCED WITH INTELLIGENT IMAGERY / MSE R BG Blakademics PDF Learners Manuals and Booklets RBG Street Scholars Think Tank Core Curriculum EduBlog Our Professors are Our Scholars ...cultural workers, raptivists, revolutionaries and grassroots communty folk; including the likes of DPZ and Family, UNO The Prophet, Paris, KRS-1, PE/Chuck D, Dr. Mutulu... Read Full Story

http://www.knowingafrica.com/

The Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness:
Eurocentric History, Psychiatry and the Politics of White Supremacy
(Awis Lecture Series)
By Dr. Amos N. Wilson

Description

T his book presents two ground-breaking lectures by Amos Wilson. The first, European Historiography and Oppression Exposed: An Afrikan Perspective and Analysis, was among the first contemporary analyses which delineated the role Eurocentric history-writing plays in rationalizing European oppression of Afrikan consciousness. It explicates why we should study history, how history-writing shapes the psychology of peoples and individuals, how Eurocentric history as mythology creates historical amnesia in Afrikans in order to rob us of the material, mental, social and spiritual wherewithal for overcoming poverty and oppression. Moreover, this engrossing lectures the relationship between the rediscovery and rewriting of Afrikan history and achievement of liberation and prosperity by Afrikan peoples. The second lecture, Eurocentric Political Dogmatism: Its Relationship to the Mental Health Diagnosis of Afrikan People, advances the contention that the alleged mental and behavioral maladaptiveness of oppressed Afrikan peoples is a political-economic necessity for the maintenance of White domination and imperialism. Furthermore, it indicts the Eurocentric mental health establishment for entering into collusion with the Eurocentric political establishment to oppress and exploit Afrikan peoples by officially sanctioning these egregious practices through its misdiagnosing, mislabeling, and mistreating of Afrikan peoples’ behavioral reactions to our oppression and our efforts to win our freedom and independence.

RBG FEATURED STUDY GROUPS

RBG FEATURED CLASSROOMS (70)

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RBG BLAKADEMICS DEFINED

Brotha Praylu is RBG Street Scholars Think Tank's Master Video Educator.
We started this project five years ago.
Here's what I wrote up in 2006 regarding this warrior-scholar.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank and welcome RBG Street Scholars Think Tank's newest contributor. My good friend and colleague Praylu. We started out together about two years ago teaching on You Tube. There were only about seven of us on You Tube at that time doing Re-education of Afrikan people work. The others were-ParadigmS...., Akeem, Dadieshak, Antihostile , Rootsymali and SynQ....READ MORE IN OUR HIP HOP AND CONSCIOUS RAP MUSIC WIKIZINE

RBG CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT DEFINED

RBGz WORKING DEFINITION OF CULTURE:

http://www4.pictures.zimbio.com/img/831c/RBGStreetScholar/1733l.jpg

RBGz WORKING DEFINITION AND INSIGHT INTO AFRIKAN CULTURE

RBG Blakademics reflects the cultural continuity and recurring spiritual and pedagogical themes of Afrikan peoples education and socialization across space and time; from ancient classic Nile Valley Civilizations to West Africa (from which we most directly come from) North , Central and East Africa and throughout the Diaspora, right on up to our present day experience here in the hells of north America. So the process does not put in as much as it draws out what is already pre... Read Full Story

Culture is not one of life’s luxuries: it is life itself.

“Culture” may be defined as “the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behaviour… language, ideas, beliefs, customs, taboos, codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of art, rituals, ceremonies, and other related components…” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1989).

At times,“culture” and “civilization” have been regarded as synonymous; at others, culture has been regarded as the end and civilization the means. In anthropological terms, culture encompasses a broad range of material objects, behavior patterns and thoughts. In western society, culture is commonly regarded as something highbrow, a luxury rather than a necessity. Certain activities are deemed to constitute culture, while others are excluded. This paper argues that a democratic culture where there is access, respect, coherence and/or relevance in the public interest is not elitist, but a basis for human and social development.

Senegal’s former president, the poet Léopold Sédar Senghor, once stated in an interview: “At intellectual conferences in the Third World culture is made an instrument for politics, although Marx was of the opinion that politics should be the instrument for culture. To Marx the purpose of politics is to make man free in order to be able to ‘create works of beauty’. Culture, not politics is the weave that keeps a society together. But industrialized countries in East and West do not accept the notion that cultures be equal although different. They do not take African culture and philosophy seriously as long as we have no economic power.” 4

“Is ‘culture’ an aspect or a means of ‘development’, the latter understood as material progress; or is ‘culture’ the end and aim of ‘development’, the latter understood as the flourishing of human existence in its several forms and as a whole?” 5

These quotations reflect a longstanding and ongoing discussion of two viewpoints. These can, however, be combined without one overshadowing the other. They are interdependent and nurture one another.

On the one hand, the importance of culture is thought to lie in its function as a medium of messages for educational or other social purposes. Here, the sharpness of the instrument depends on the dedication, skills and depth of the conveyor.

The other viewpoint emphasizes culture as a means of paving the way for creativity and showing experience that can be neither measured nor weighed. The artist’s imagination, or the world it builds, is a laboratory of the not-yet-experienced.

In the words of John Gardner, the American novelist, “Art is as original and important as it is precisely because it does not start out with a clear knowledge of what it means to say.”

To stimulate our imagination and nourish our dreams, we seek art, literature, film, music and theatre for a varied range of aesthetic experience. This applies to people all over the world, of all social classes and ages, women and men alike. What we cannot dream about cannot be realized either.

Culture helps us transgress limits, self-imposed or otherwise; to challenge ourselves; and to discover talents we were unaware of – talents that are valuable in every kind of situation in life. Without imagination and creativity, we are prisoners of the structures and thoughts of others.
Four aspects of the role of culture in development may be discerned. There is no competition between the four: rather, they empower one another.
They are:
* using culture to illustrate or clarify a medical, political, educational, agricultural or family problem = culture for development
* strengthening the cultural sector = cultural development
* the importance of analysing the consequences of development cooperation on the culture of a country, community or group.
* mainstreaming culture in all development work.

Modified from: The Power of Culture

Companion Article: African Culture and the Ongoing Quest for Excellence Dialog, Principles, Practice by Maulana Karenga, Ph.D.

RBG AFRIKAN CENTERED EDUCATION DEFINED

Dedicated educator and educational theorist Dr. Barbara Sizemore applied the expertise she acquired at premiere institutions to work on behalf of disadvantaged students. Sizemore was born on December 17, 1927, in Chicago. Upon completing a B.A. in classical languages at Northwestern University, she began teaching in the Chicago public school system. Sizemore returned to Northwestern and received an M.A. in elementary education in 1954. Twenty-five years later, she graduated from the University of Chicago with a Ph.D. in educational administration. In 1963, Sizemore was among the first African American women to serve as principal of a Chicago school. Six years after switching from elementary to high school administration, she was the first African American woman elected superintendent of a major city's school system in 1972. For two years Sizemore served as the top official of the District of Columbia's public schools. She then accepted a position at the University of Pittsburgh, which she retained until 1992. At Pitt, Sizemore studied schools located in low-income, high-crime areas whose students were predominately African American. She incorporated her findings into an innovative educational strategy called School Achievement Structure (SAS), which she championed as dean of DePaul University's School of Education from 1992 to 1998. Schools that followed her routines had tremendous success raising their students' test scores, increasing these individuals' chances for success in system that often works against them. A former member of the board of directors of The Journal of Negro Education, Sizemore participated in the dialogue of how to empower students as a prolific writer and member of the National Alliance of Black School Educators. She has received numerous awards and honors recognizing her contribution to educational theory. Sizemore's children, Kymara Chase and Furman G. Sizemore, are also professors. She passed away on July 24, 2004. Sizemore was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 9, 2003.

Ten Vital Principles for Black Education and Socialization

We are not new to the study of and practice of education and socialization that is rooted in deep thought.

We will not accept a dependent status in the approach and solution to our problems.

Chapter 2 (excerpt)

Ten Vital Principles for Black Education and Socialization

1. We exist as African people, an ethnic family. Our perspective must be centered in that reality.

2. The priority is on the African ethnic Family over the Individual. Because we live in a world where expertness in alien cultural traditions (that we also share) have gained hegemony, our collective survival and enhancement must be our highest priorities.

3. Some solutions to problems that we will identify will involve differential use of three modes of response to domination and hegemony: a) Adaptation—adopting what is deemed useful, b) Improvisation—substituting or improvising alternatives that are more sensitive to our culture and c) Resistance—resisting that which is destructive and not in the best interests of our people.

4. The “ways of knowing” provided by the arts and humanities are often more useful in informing our understanding of our lives and experiences and those of other oppressed people than the knowledge and methodologies of the sciences that have been privileged by the research establishment despite the often distorted or circumscribed knowledge and understanding this way of knowing produces.

5. Paradoxically, from the perspective of the education research establishment, knowledge production is viewed as the search for facts and (universal) truth, while the circumstances of our social and existential condition require the search for meaning and understanding.

6. The priority is on research validity over “inclusion.” For research validity highest priority must be placed on studies of: a) African tradition (history, culture and language), b) Hegemony (e.g., uses of schooling/socialization and incarceration), c) Equity (funding, teacher quality, content and access to technology) and d) Beneficial practice (at all levels of education, from childhood to elderhood).

7. Research informs practice and practice informs research in the production and utilization of knowledge; therefore, context is essential in research: a) Cultural/ historical context, b) Political/economic context and c) Professional context, including the history of AERA and African people.

8. We require power and influence over our common destiny. Rapid globalization of the economy and cyber-technology are transforming teaching, learning and work itself. Therefore, we require access to education that serves our collective interests, including assessments that address cultural excellence and a comprehensive approach to the interrelated health, learning and economic needs of African people.

9. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims, and the UNESCO World Education 2000 Report, issued in Dakar, Senegal, affirms that “education is a fundamental human right” and “an indispensable means for effective participation in the societies and economies of the twenty-first century.” We are morally obligated to “create safe, healthy, inclusive and equitably resourced educational environments” conducive to excellence in learning and socialization with clearly defined levels of achievement for all. Such learning environments must include appropriate curricula and teachers who are appropriately educated and rewarded.

10. African people are not empty vessels. We are not new to the study of and practice of education and socialization that is rooted in deep thought. We will not accept a dependent status in the approach and solution to our problems...