The Case for Black Studies Coursework in General Education

Overview & Synopsis

This article explores the function and value of considering Black Studies coursework as part of the general education curriculum. In the current cultural antiracist moment, it is important to consider the role academia plays not only in historicizing its own complicity in institutions of racism but also in offering contemporary solutions to such. Thinking of Black Studies as central to the mission of higher education centers the institution as a method of social justice and an avenue toward increasing the importance of marginalized American communities. General education curricula implies an inherent value of certain specific academic material ubiquitously applied to every student's educational experience. Positioning Black Studies coursework in that existent paradigm acknowledges a current void in systemic higher education and works to equalize previously imbalanced notions of just cultural education.