Being Black In America Summary

On November 16th four esteemed doctors of Shippensburg University held a panel titled “Being Black in America”. This panel was held by Dr. Raymond Janifer a professor of English, Dr. Stephanie Jirard a professor of Criminal Justice, Dr. Cheryl A. Slattery a professor of Teacher Education, and Dr. Jamonn Campbell a professor of Psychology. The panel’s presentation was on what it meant to be an African American in today’s America and discussed the problems and obstacles that African Americans often encounter. Each of the four doctors spearheaded their own section of the presentation which included their own unique titles. Dr. Jirard’s section of the presentation was entitled “Youth Activism 1955-2015”. This section provided a lot of detail …show more content…
Janifer’s section was entitled “The 21st Century: Blackness Still Matters”. This section focused on how African Americans are still in today’s society viewed differently as opposed to a part of the overall collective. Dr. Janifer stated that there is no such thing as race and reinforced this notion by discussing Marshal Mather, better known as Eminem. Dr. Janifer explained how when Eminem was first introduced to the rap industry he wasn’t always liked because it seemed as though he was trying to appropriate African American culture. It was only after he was found to be a very good artist that African Americans began to accept him into the culture and there is even records of other famous artist and professionals stating that he must be half black or black but just really light skinned. This is similar to the article covered the start of the year by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar which discuss how other famous people from other cultures such as Paris Hilton, Justin Timberlake, Jared Leto, and David Beckman have acted or dressed in certain manners that are associated with African American culture. The article stated that there is a fine line between paying homage to a culture and racist and stereotypical acts and when is that line being