"Afrocentric Escapism" by Thomas Sowell.

Essay by jollynandetCollege, UndergraduateA+, June 2007

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Detecting the Author's bias in Afrocentric Escapism

Does studying about the past prevent people from preparing for the future? After reading Afrocentric Escapism by Thomas Sowell several times, I realized his point of view is that the interest of the African Americans in their history is a means of escape which is phoney, and preventing them from preparing for the future.

To prove his point of view that African-Americans are not preparing for the future, he gives evidence of the problem of drugs, violence and social degeneration in the ghettos. He goes on to prove that the traditions and history African-Americans identify with are phoney distractions, by mentioning that the African Americans celebrate Kwanza as an African tradition, meanwhile it originated in Los Angeles; they claim that slavery was created by white people for black people, when slavery actually existed among Africans before whites started going to Africa. He adds that African Americans learn Swahili words, meanwhile the ancestors of most Black Americans came from West Africa, and also that they claim the Jews enslaved the black ancestors, meanwhile Jews held slaves and were slaves themselves which was the same case with the blacks.

I believe that the Author's evidences are factual because chapter one and two of the African-American Odyssey confirm that slavery and slave trade had existed before the white man came to Africa, and that the ancestors of most African Americans came from West Africa and not from South Africa. In addition, I am from Africa, but only heard about Kwanza in the U.S, and also saw evidences from the Internet that confirmed that Kwanza celebration originated in California by Dr Karenga - an African American, and the name Kwanza is a Swahili word, meanwhile most African Americans came from West Africa.

I think that the Author...