Changes

In response to the demands of black students in the 1970s, many universities established academic programs in "black studies" or "Africana Studies." These programs were structured as conventional departments that offered majors, master degrees and even doctorates in the field. Specialized journals reported on their scholarship and research. However, as a part of the [[Black Lives Matter movement]]movement, black students are demanding new programs in "anti-black racism", mandatory training in "anti-racism" during new student orientation and even for-credit mandatory classes in anti-racism. This raises the logical question whether these demands are an implicit rejection of the prior black studies programs as ineffective or illegitimate. For example, will the student's demands be satisfied if the new graduation requirement was to take one of a number of classes offered by an area studies or Africana Studies program? What is the value of an Africana Studies major's degree awarded over the past fifty years now that the current academic fashion has embraced anti-racism? It is unclear how anti-racism studies differs from black studies or Africana studies.