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Reflections on Anthropology and the Black Experience 1
Author(s) -
Drake Clair
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
anthropology and education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1548-1492
pISSN - 0161-7761
DOI - 10.1525/aeq.1978.9.2.04x0741m
Subject(s) - mainstream , sociology , multiculturalism , applied anthropology , race (biology) , gender studies , ethnic group , politics , sociocultural anthropology , anthropology , political science , law , pedagogy
The author discusses the forces that operated before World War II in the United States to limit the number of black anthropologists and the factors that ultimately led to increased participation of black students and professors in the discipline. As one of the less than a dozen “pioneers,” the author uses his own career as an atypical case study to illuminate certain significant facets of the history of anthropology. He discusses the image that anthropology had among Afro‐Americans as well as its role in the early development of race relations theory and multicultural practice. Mainstream anthropology is viewed as an institutional subsystem of an educational subsystem within a political‐economic system that conditions its approach to race and ethnicity.