Black Lives Matter: An African American Experience

• In Event: A Call to Re-IMAGINE Mixed-Methods Research in the Black Lives Matter Era

Abstract

This presentation will provide a historical context for BLM. The main objective is to explain the history of Black people from an African and American perspective. The African perspective will focus on the impact of African culture on the Black experience (Asante, 1987). This American perspective will examine the influence of American culture on the Black experience (Cross, 1991, 1994; Ongiri 2009). Through these analyses, participants can IMAGINE an anti-racist MMR agenda through the development of Blackness vis-à-vis the interrelated perspectives of Africanness and Americanness.

The theoretical framework for this presentation is critical race theory. Critical race theory analyzes the roles of race and racism in America (Crenshaw et al., 1996). Drawing from this context, the presenter asks, “How did race shape Black people’s development into African American people?”

Four tenets of critical race theory will address this inquiry. The first tenet shows the intersection of racism and BLM across the “Becoming African American” experience for Black people. The second tenet shows how BLM refutes the idea of neutrality, colorblindness, and meritocracy as being the foundation of the existence of Black people. The third tenet will be used to explain Black peoples’ “Becoming African American” experience in the context of Black people’s history in America. The fourth tenet explains why Black people’s “Becoming African American” perspectives are different from the White experience.

Overall, the presentation is designed to provide a multifaceted understanding of BLM. Specifically, the aim is for participants to facilitate long-term understanding of BLM through the following historical dimensions: (a) There is an African experience and an American experience that have historically shaped the Black existence in America (Asante, 1987; Ongiri 2009). (b) Black people have a heritage of sharing the African experience and American experience within and among generations of Black people (Corrigan, 2020; Cross, 1991, 1994). (c) Over time, history and heritage have created a racial identity development experience that is unique to Black people (Cross, 1991, 1994; Dierenfield, 2008).

In other words, Africanness is the heritage that anchors Blacks’ existence in America. Americanness is indicative of Blacks’ pursuits of the rights to the freedom and equality promised to all Americans. It also reflects the Black struggle to exist in America without disowning their African heritage. The resulting history, heritage, and identity make BLM a collective, unique African American experience.

An important step to IMAGINE an anti-racist MMR agenda is calling attention to the presence and lack thereof of African heritage in MMR, in general, and in mixed methods researcher positionality, in particular. This paper offers a context and frame for recognizing the African American Experience.

Author

• Mack T. Hines, Mack Hines Consulting, LLC