: Your Final Paper for AA 388 (10 – 12 Pages, Double-Spaced)
(I realize that all of you are probably very familiar with the expectations of a critical, academic paper. I am only summarizing the points below for updated clarity.)
You should develop an academic essay, an argument, based on a clear thesis, drawing on primary materials as textual evidence, as well as from critical outside source. Use strong sentences and transitions between paragraphs, etc. and quotes from specific references as supporting evidence. Your objective with this paper is to write a clear, concise convincing essay.
Your paper must have a specific title. It should include the following sections:
1.(a)An introduction with a clear thesis statement that reveals to the reader your specific claim/angle on the subject matter, that is what you will prove/demonstrate in the paper.
(c)2.Content/Analysis/elaboration, illustration and/or support for your thesis, your claim, around the issue. This is the body of the paper and includes your actual argument with outside sources, quotes of support, etc. interwoven into the discussion.
(d)3.Conclusion: What is your final “take” on your topic? Conclusions can re-invoke the thesis and restate the argument made to support it. Be careful, though. Remember, our conclusion is more than just your complete paper re-articulated in one or two paragraphs. This is your chance to stress the importance of your work…refocus the larger question and leave the reader with ideas for reflection.
(e) 4. You must also document/cite the sources of all claims/statements made inside your paper (in internal citations) and include a “Works Cited” or “References” page at the end. This must include all of the sources that you cited in your paper, listed alphabetically according to MLA, APA or Chicago documentation style.
AA 388. PER YOUR REQUEST, SOME IDEAS/TOPICS FOR THE FINAL PAPERS. THESE ARE EXAMPLES, ONLY. THERE ARE MANY MORE IDEAS.
As a HUB course, AA 388 focuses heavily on Critical Thinking. In this regard, “Discourse analysis” (written and visual) is of primary concern. This approach to critical thinking follows logically from the one on perspective. Thus, the object of this assignment is for you to apply, through close readings of texts: written and visual, the scholarly approach to analyzing representations of Black Radicalism and black agency in its many manifestations, in confrontation and contest with white imperialist and supremacist ideologies and structures.
1.music & performance
a.An analysis of Black Radicalism in the music of Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, J. Cole, or Others (You choose the person): musical performer/rapper, Reggae, Souk, High Life, visual artist(s), dancer, cartoonist, filmmaker, etc. Through a close reading of these albums of (……….) I examine the ways in which (……….) uses his/her music as a platform for depicting the black liberatory struggle through a performative analysis of the force of capitalism as a tool of Anti-Blackness oppression (or other focus).
- Scholarship, literature and other writings
Applying a critical analysis/close reading of ………., this paper will elaborate the Black Radical vision, ideology, theory, acts/actions, etc. explained or depicted in the text(s) of……examples:
- Cedrick J. Robinson’s Critique of Marxism and Black Radicalism, Decolonizing the African Mind by Ngugi Wa’Thiongo, and others
- Critique of the Black Radicalism of Franz Fanon, Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass, Eldridge Cleaver (Soul on Ice), Maurice Bishop (Grenada), through an analysis their text(s), speeches, political platform, etc.
- Revolutionary Black Feminism, Black Radicalism in Black Women’s writings, performance, activism
- Black radical acts/actions/initiatives
This paper will engage in unpacking the complexities of Africana/Black resistance, particularly its most “radical” elements, expressed through collective or/and individual activities and thought. The paper argues for the vital importance of identifying and mapping the traditions that inform and challenge their praxis. The paper highlights points of continuity and discontinuity (from organization to organization and/or from theorist to theorist) in order to point out mainstream society’s distortions of the expressed objectives of these organizations/persons relative to justice, equality & freedom: Examples:
- Explorations of Black Fugitivity and or Maroonage and their meaning as liberatory acts
- Elaboration of the agenda of Black Radical organizations, ex: Republic of New Africa, the ANC, etc.
- Re-examination of Black Rebellions, nationally & internationally (Africa, Caribbean, USA)
- 1968 – 1970’s political perspectives of “an internal black colony” anti-colonialists solidarity
This essay is a critical evaluation of the theory of the internal colony as a political perspective, its use and circulation within militant movements against racial oppression during the long 1960s, and its cultural and theoretical resonances today. In examining the platforms of The Black Panther Party, the National of Islam, The Republic of New Africa (RNA), the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) were the embodiment of Black Radicalism. I argue that a reevaluation of the theory of the internal colony in the context of contemporary calls for Reparations, Black Lives Matter, Mass incarceration and Police reform in the United States reveal a remapping of international solidarities in struggles against anti-black racism and Black dispossession today.
