Cultural Hegemony and African American Development

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Clovis Semmes extends Afro-centric social theory by formulating the problem of structured inequality for African Americans in terms of cultural hegemony. "Cultural Hegemony and African American Development" challenges oppositional and segmented analyses that look at Black inequality in terms of either economic dislocation or racial oppression, and introduces the idea that what is at stake are the issues of progressive cultural adaptation, cultural reconstruction and institutional development. What emerges is a new way of seeing and understanding the intellectual tradition and body of knowledge called Black, African American or Africana Studies. In chapter one, Semmes defines the relationship between cultural hegemony and the African American experience and establishes how this relationship creates distinctive and recurring problems for development. The following two chapters analyse the works by sociologists E. Franklin Frazier and Harold Cruse. Chapter four explores the role of legitimacy in psychological and social psychological adaptation, and inter- and intra-group relations. In chapter five, Semmes analyses the relationship between the political economy of the mass media and African American aesthetic and artistic production, and argues that the expropriation of African American cultural products is a structural problem contributing to cultural negation. Chapters six and seven examine two important institutional forms: religion and health. Next, Semmes looks at the significance of cultural revitalisation efforts which reveal the collectively-felt need to transcend destructive hegemony. He concludes with a chapter on factors affecting the production of knowledge in African American studies and the implications for cultural development. Sociologists and scholars in Ethnic and American Studies, as well as African American Studies, should find this study useful.

Reviews

A major contribution to the field of African American Studies as we enter its third decade of formal existence. The subjects, themes, and issues Semmes explores should be the foundation of any African American Studies enterprise.-The Western Journal of Black Studies
This is an excellent primer for anyone wishing to understand the dramatic developments in Afrocentric thought in the US since 1990. This book is a major work.-Choice
"This is an excellent primer for anyone wishing to understand the dramatic developments in Afrocentric thought in the US since 1990. This book is a major work."-Choice
"A major contribution to the field of African American Studies as we enter its third decade of formal existence. The subjects, themes, and issues Semmes explores should be the foundation of any African American Studies enterprise."-The Western Journal of Black Studies

Author Bio

CLOVIS E. SEMMES (Jabulani Kamau Makalani) is Professor of African American Studies at Eastern Michigan University. He has published widely in the areas of African American studies and sociology.