1971BLACK NEWS SHOW
TV SHOW, BLACK JOURNAL, WITH HOST LOU HOUSE, COVERAGE OF ISSUES CONCERNING BLACK AUDIENCE
Black Journal #40: Take Back Your Mind (I)
Initial Broadcast Date: November 23, 1971
Black Journal #41: Take Back Your Mind (II)
Initial Broadcast Date: November 30, 1971
30 minutes – Color
Black Journal presents a two-part survey of Black Studies programs, which it calls the institutional guardian of the new black value system born from the struggle for freedom. According to Black Journal executive producer Tony Brown, “This institution is in trouble, for it has failed to define itself and the system it guards.”
“Black administrators don’t seem to understand that we’re being loved to death, sort of kissed out of existence,” say Dr. Milton White, director of Black Studies at the University of California, as he voices objection to the compromises forced on blacks who work within the white academic structure. Dr. White is one of many black administrators, teachers, and students questioned by Black Journal.
Discussing the difficulties in Black Studies, he points to the recruitment of “old Negro history teacher types” who teach young blacks about Crispus Attucks and Malcolm X but fail to relate them to the present struggle. He also disparages the presence of those establishment prone blacks “thoroughly endowed with white middle class values.”
Other blacks offer their view of the Black Studies programs and of the new value system:
• One UCLA student laments the fact that her African languages teacher is a white professor.
• Leroy Higginbotham of UCLA is shocked to find that many of his black students are actually afraid to go into Watts.
• Dr. Hoard Fuller of Malcolm X Liberation University [Greensboro, NC] accuses many blacks of claiming to be Africans while viewing Tarzan as a typical African male.
• Federal City College (Washington, DC) students in a “psychology of the ghetto” class engage in a heated discussion over the meaning of revolution, the participation of middle-aged blacks, and the symbolism of an “Afro” haircut and traditional socio-psycho definitions.
In scanning these colleges, Black Journal finds that a new set of black values has not been clearly defined and that the meaning of Black Studies varies greatly from campus to campus.
At California Polytechnic in Pomona, it is a confidence-building phenomenon, while at Federal City College in Washington, DC, it is a destroyer of white nationalism (educational) myths. At UCLA Black Studies reaches into the black community, instructing black students to learn and apply what is functional to the community; and at the University of California in Santa Barbara it is viewed in terms of radicalism and activism – an institution which should be bringing about constant change, gaining and redefining new footholds.
Participants in this Black Journal study include Frank Satterwhite of Nairobi College, Dr. Nathan Hare of Black Scholar magazine, Dr. Joseph Paige of Federal City College, Don Warfield of California Polytechnic and Dr. Arthur Smith of UCLA.
The information below is specific to Take Back Your Mind, Part I
Melvin Van Peebles’ play, ”Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death,” is the subject of this week’s “Grapevine” segment. In continuing Black Journal’s ongoing study of black art, it reviews the critiques of Peter Bailey of Jet and Clayton Riley of the Amsterdam News and the New York Times on Van Peebles’ play.
Both are in agreement over the play, seeing it as “effective,” “deeply moving,” and indicting “everyone who sits by and watches the degradation extant in this country without becoming outraged and moved to action.”
“Black Journal,” a production of NET Division, Educational Broadcasting Corporation
Executive producer: Tony Brown
Black Journal #40: Take Back Your Mind (I)
Initial Broadcast Date: November 23, 1971
Black Journal #41: Take Back Your Mind (II)
Initial Broadcast Date: November 30, 1971
30 minutes – Color
Black Journal presents a two-part survey of Black Studies programs, which it calls the institutional guardian of the new black value system born from the struggle for freedom. According to Black Journal executive producer Tony Brown, “This institution is in trouble, for it has failed to define itself and the system it guards.”
“Black administrators don’t seem to understand that we’re being loved to death, sort of kissed out of existence,” say Dr. Milton White, director of Black Studies at the University of California, as he voices objection to the compromises forced on blacks who work within the white academic structure. Dr. White is one of many black administrators, teachers, and students questioned by Black Journal.
Discussing the difficulties in Black Studies, he points to the recruitment of “old Negro history teacher types” who teach young blacks about Crispus Attucks and Malcolm X but fail to relate them to the present struggle. He also disparages the presence of those establishment prone blacks “thoroughly endowed with white middle class values.”
Other blacks offer their view of the Black Studies programs and of the new value system:
• One UCLA student laments the fact that her African languages teacher is a white professor.
• Leroy Higginbotham of UCLA is shocked to find that many of his black students are actually afraid to go into Watts.
• Dr. Hoard Fuller of Malcolm X Liberation University [Greensboro, NC] accuses many blacks of claiming to be Africans while viewing Tarzan as a typical African male.
• Federal City College (Washington, DC) students in a “psychology of the ghetto” class engage in a heated discussion over the meaning of revolution, the participation of middle-aged blacks, and the symbolism of an “Afro” haircut and traditional socio-psycho definitions.
In scanning these colleges, Black Journal finds that a new set of black values has not been clearly defined and that the meaning of Black Studies varies greatly from campus to campus.
At California Polytechnic in Pomona, it is a confidence-building phenomenon, while at Federal City College in Washington, DC, it is a destroyer of white nationalism (educational) myths. At UCLA Black Studies reaches into the black community, instructing black students to learn and apply what is functional to the community; and at the University of California in Santa Barbara it is viewed in terms of radicalism and activism – an institution which should be bringing about constant change, gaining and redefining new footholds.
Participants in this Black Journal study include Frank Satterwhite of Nairobi College, Dr. Nathan Hare of Black Scholar magazine, Dr. Joseph Paige of Federal City College, Don Warfield of California Polytechnic and Dr. Arthur Smith of UCLA.
The information below is specific to Take Back Your Mind, Part I
Melvin Van Peebles’ play, ”Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death,” is the subject of this week’s “Grapevine” segment. In continuing Black Journal’s ongoing study of black art, it reviews the critiques of Peter Bailey of Jet and Clayton Riley of the Amsterdam News and the New York Times on Van Peebles’ play.
Both are in agreement over the play, seeing it as “effective,” “deeply moving,” and indicting “everyone who sits by and watches the degradation extant in this country without becoming outraged and moved to action.”
“Black Journal,” a production of NET Division, Educational Broadcasting Corporation
Executive producer: Tony Brown
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