What jumped out at me the most in this reading was when the author was saying that the fight for black rights, for things like more black teachers and students and books writen about them, were just small parts of a bigger picture, a “larger democratic movement.” And the fact that these small things helped black people strive toward being able to “…participate in the crucial process of defining the good, the true, and the beautiful in our society…” Because at that point, white people had all the power, so they were defining all the good, true and beautiful things in their own ideal way.

The reading said “The struggle for Black Studies…was an attempt to open the arena, to say that there is more to American history than white-defined history, more to American liturature than white-established canons, more to “the American People” than a collection of blond and blue-eyed Norman Rockwell creations.” For some reason, this reminded me of the “Nuclear Family” in that these ideas of American history, and literature and people are very “normal” and clean cut and contained, like the nuclear family. And the black people fighting for their rights and trying to get a say in these “norms” were like the urban world that the suburban families tried to close themselves off from.

Anyway, do you guys think that black people have successfully gotten say in American history and all that other stuff, and the ”larger picture”? Or are they still struggling, because young children are taught that “there was segregation” and not many of the details are explained. And any other thoughts you have, about stuff i didn’t mention, write em. :D