443140
2012
CRS0010.1177/0896920512443140Pratt-ClarkeCritical Sociology
Article
Building a Foundation for
Africana Sociology: Black
Sociology, Afrocentricity,
and Transdisciplinary Applied
Social Justice
Critical Sociology
1­–11
© The Author(s) 2012
Reprints and permission:
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DOI: 10.1177/0896920512443140
crs.sagepub.com
Menah A. E. Pratt-Clarke
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Abstract
African American women are continually engaged in challenging invisibility, marginalization, and
exclusion. Africana Sociology has the potential to support these efforts by incorporating key
conceptual models and constructs from Black Sociology, Afrocentricity, and Transdisciplinary
Applied Social Justice (TASJ©). Africana Sociology should recognize the role of intersectionality
and socially-constructed and intertwined race, class, and gender identities; it should acknowledge
the importance of African-centered thought, including the role of Ma’at; and it should reflect a
commitment to praxis – using theory to transform social institutions and thus, social outcomes.
With this conceptual foundation, Africana Sociology can serve as a theoretical, methodological,
and practical approach for implementing transformative change in the experiences of African
Americans, and African American women, in particular.
Keywords
Africana sociology, Afrocentricity, Black sociology, intersectionality, Ma’at, transdisciplinary
applied social justice
Introduction
The current challenges, barriers, and obstacles faced by people of color and by women of color, in
particular, require comprehensive transdisciplinary approaches that acknowledge the role of intertwined, socially-constructed identities, such as race, class, and gender. In addition, creative and
strategic efforts should recognize the powerful influence of interlocking social structures and hegemonic ideologies. Africana Sociology can play a critical role in addressing these challenges by
Corresponding author:
Menah Pratt-Clarke, Department of African American Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 601 East John
Street, Champaign, IL 61801, USA
Email: [email protected]
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demonstrating the contributions that African-centered and gender-informed theories play within
sociology to address issues of inequality and injustice.
One of the key opportunities for Africana Sociology lies in exploring its theoretical and methodological linkages with other areas. Imbo (1998) recognizes the importance of connections and
intersections in his exploration of African, African American, and feminist philosophies. He
notes that each of these social and political forms of thought can be seen ‘as a struggle against
colonialism, domination, and marginalization’ (Imbo, 1998: 124). The connections between
these three forms of thought relate to deconstructing and challenging the dominant narratives,
traditions, frameworks, institutions, languages, cultures, and structures of power. Each has a
commitment to create new perspectives in order to facilitate liberation and a movement to the
center from the margins in the thoughts, experiences, and ideologies of people of color and
women of color (Imbo, 1998: 124–5, 139).
Similarly, Black Sociology, Afrocentricity, and Transdisciplinary Applied Social Justice have
significant connections with each other, and as such, offer important contributions to Africana
Sociology. The value and potential for Africana Sociology lies in its ability to incorporate relevant
concepts and approaches from these areas. These concepts include a recognition of the importance of socially-constructed and intertwined race, class, and gender identities; an acknowledgment of the prominence of African-centered thought and theory; and a commitment to praxis and
transforming social institutions through the use of multiple disciplines. These concepts provide
a strong foundation for Africana Sociology to serve as a theoretical, methodological, and practical approach for implementing transformative change in the experiences of traditionally marginalized and disenfranchised populations, including African American women.
Black Sociology
Black Sociology provides a strong foundation for Africana Sociology. Several scholars have
explored the impact and influence of Black Sociology on mainstream sociology. The initial scholarship was very critical of mainstream sociology’s treatment of race and race relations. Watson
(1976: 121) argued that mainstream sociology tended to focus on social control and a gradual
change in race relations through regulation by existing institutional structures. Mainstream sociology also assigned responsibility to the oppressed for their own oppression, rather than to the effects
of institutional racism and classism. In addition, it focused on interpreting data objectively without
values or beliefs attached to them (Watson, 1976: 121).
This criticism of mainstream sociology was echoed by Taylor (1999). Prior to the emergence
of African American studies, he argued that mainstream sociology’s analysis of race relations
focused on adaptation, adjustment, and normative consensus based on the order-equilibrium
model. In this model, ‘society is a structural arrangement made up of interdependent parts, each
contributing to the equilibrium of the system’ (Taylor, 1999: 518). As a result, ‘any phenomenon
that upsets this equilibrium is regarded as problematic and must be resolved so that the system
may be restored to its homeostatic state’ (Taylor, 1999: 518). In relation to African Americans,
this approach ‘emphasized the reactive and pathological in African American life, denied that
African Americans possessed any inherited culture of their own, lacked the capacity to act effectively in their own interests, and aspired to be assimilated and to disappear as a racially distinct
population’ (Taylor, 1999: 519). This approach further assumed that prejudice, discrimination,
and institutional racism would disappear without conflict or disorder. The discipline defined itself
as one focused on detachment, objectivity, and value neutrality (Taylor, 1999: 519).
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In response to the shortcomings of mainstream sociology, and as Black Studies was developing
in response to the Black Power and civil rights movement, the discipline of sociology was also
evolving in its approach to race. Black Sociology emerged as a response to the 1960s with the
objective of correcting ‘the dominant myths, stereotypes, and misinterpretations of the African
American experience presented in the sociological literature’ and developing ‘definitions, concepts,
and theories that better reflected that experience’ (Taylor, 1999: 520).
In an early look at Black Sociology, Watson (1976) explored the meaning of the term Black
Sociology and identified core themes. He noted that ‘Black Sociology raises questions about the
bearing of (1) inequalities in the distributions of political and economic privilege, (2) social
conflict, and (3) race-related social identities on the conduct of sociological inquiry in a society
deeply influenced by institutional racism’ (1976: 121). He emphasized that ‘the ideal type of
Black sociology’ (1976: 121) involved research by a Black sociologist that had a major focus on
Black social behavior and included a commitment to the liberation of Black people from social
oppression. Watson identified three consistent areas of research emphasis:
(1) Identifying factors that contribute to an understanding of Black people’s behavior including
determinants of social oppression, which when eradicated will facilitate the release of Black people from
race-related social oppression; (2) racial- and class-based analyses of intergroup relations, especially
focusing on social conflict and social change; and (3) critical perspectives in analyses of ‘established’
social institutions with a focus on identifying racist survivals in the structures and social effects of existing
organizations. (1976: 121)
More recently, Wright and Calhoun (2006) identified similar principles of Black Sociology based,
in part, on the Atlanta University monographs. They define Black Sociology as
an area of research, which may be performed by Black or White scholars, that is focused on eliminating
Blacks from social oppression through objective scientific investigations into their social, economic, and
physical condition for the express purpose of obtaining data aimed at understanding, explaining, and
ameliorating the problems discovered in the Black American community in a manner that could have
social policy implications. (2006: 16)
This definition is based on five fundamental principles of Black Sociology. These principles are
that the research should be conducted primarily by African American scholars; the research should
focus on the experiences of African Americans; the research should be interdisciplinary; the findings, if possible, should be generalizable beyond African Americans; and the findings, if possible,
should produce data that have implications for social policy (Wright and Calhoun, 2006: 16).
In comparing Black Sociology to mainstream sociology, Wright and Calhoun (2006) have concluded that there are no differences in methodological techniques or theoretical assumptions. They
do, however, emphasize that Black Sociology has a ‘more focused line of inquiry into the social,
economic, and physical conditions affecting Black Americans and the production of findings
that may be utilized for social policy purposes’ (Wright and Calhoun, 2006: 16). A key strength of
Black Sociology, then, is its commitment to changing the lived experiences of African Americans
through theoretically-informed strategies. This focus on praxis is an important distinguishing
characteristic between Black Sociology and mainstream sociology.
The American Sociological Association (ASA) recognized this shortcoming of mainstream
sociology, noting that ‘sociology as a discipline has never fully developed its promise to apply the
tools and knowledge of sociology beyond the academy’ (ASA Task Force Report, 2005: 2). In
response to this reality, the Task Force on Institutionalizing Public Sociologies was created in 2004
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and it issued a report in 2005. In defining public sociology as ‘a sociology that seeks to bring
sociology to publics beyond the academy, promoting dialogue about issues that affect the fate
of society’, the Task Force sought to emphasize the importance of encouraging research that
addresses ‘social problems, conveys sociological insights, and applies sociological knowledge to
solving social problems’ (ASA Task Force Report, 2005: 3, 15). According to the Task Force, public sociology links ‘sociology to other academic disciplines, to the communities affected by the
particular social problem, and to the decision makers in key positions to bring about positive
changes in addressing the pressing issues’ (ASA Task Force Report, 2005: 11). Despite the controversy associated with the Task Force Report on public sociology (Clawson et al., 2007), the report
raised real concerns about the theoretical application of sociological research and the relevance of
the discipline to social problems. Africana Sociology has the potential to respond to these concerns
by incorporating Black Sociology’s focus on praxis and integrating an Afrocentric approach.
Afrocentricity
As defined by Asante (Pellebon, 2007: 171), ‘Afrocentricity is a mode of thought and action in
which the centrality of African interests, values, and perspectives predominate. In regards to
theory, it is the placing of African people in the center of any analysis of African phenomena.’
Four pervasive goals of Afrocentricity include exposing and resisting White racial domination;
redirecting African Americans toward their cultural center; converting African Americans to an
ideology rooted in values, spirituality, and rituals; and analyzing traditional disciplines from an
Afrocentric perspective (Pellebon, 2007: 171). He (Asante, 2006: 248) asserts that ‘Afrocentrists
seek to examine the conditions for harmony and stability by analyzing social conditions, asserting
rhetorical metaphors, determining human possibilities, and reorienting, if necessary, the quest for
definitional and textual power’. Asante emphasizes the ‘primacy of the classical African civilizations, namely Kemet (Egypt), Nubia, Axum, and Meroe’ (Asante, 1990: 14; Graham, 1999).
Pellebon (2007: 174) asserts that Asante ‘presents Afrocentricity as a worldview, paradigm, theory,
and ideology of thought and action in which the centrality of African interests, values, and perspectives predominate’. As a theoretical perspective, Afrocentricity can be seen to have three
pyramidal elements: grounding, orientation, and perspective (McDougal, 2011). Grounding
focuses on African history and experiences; orientation focuses on the needs and concerns of
African-descended people; and perspective focuses on the emancipation and empowerment of
African-descended people (McDougal, 2011).
Viewing Afrocentricity as both theory and movement enlarges its potential as an instrument
for transformation: ‘As a theory and movement, Afrocentricity challenges the defining principles
of the European supremacist domination of African people and other majority peoples of the
world’ (Gwekwerere, 2010: 110). As both a theory and a movement, Afrocentricity is ‘about remembering the dis-membered, re-connecting the dis-connected, re-orienting the disoriented, and
emancipating the enslaved’ (Gwekwerere, 2010: 118). In particular, it focuses on liberation of
spaces and ‘information, images, concepts, definitions, and symbols from European hegemonic
control’ (Gwekwerere, 2010: 110). Asante (2006: 658) affirms the importance of praxis in
Afrocentricity asserting that ‘Afrocentricity is characterized by its commitment to a political
program in conformity with the idea that theory is not disconnected from practice’.
Afrocentric scholars, then, are charged with a dual responsibility of being both scholars and
activists. As scholar-activists, they are expected to commit themselves to using their knowledge
and training to improve their communities (Mazama, 2001). Du Bois (Rabaka, 2007: 8) recognized
the comprehensive responsibility and role of an Africana scholar:
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accenting and highlighting classical African contributions to culture and civilization with an eye toward:
first, confronting and combating the white supremacist theses of, of course, white superiority and black
inferiority and, also, blacks’ purported lack of history and culture; second, providing contemporary
Africana people with classical Africana cultural paradigms and traditional motifs; and, finally, offering a
caveat to continental and diasporan Africans that their task is not so much to give the definitive Africana
message to the world (something, on second thought, that may never really be possible), but to contribute
to and continue the Africana struggle for freedom and justice in their age and leave a legacy for succeeding
generations.
Du Bois’s conceptualization of the role of an Africana scholar highlights the centrality of praxis
in race, racial identity, and race relations. While this emphasis on praxis related to race is critical,
it also illustrates an important void of both Black Sociology and Afrocentricity: a silence about
the role of gender.
Africana Sociology has the opportunity to address this silence. It has the opportunity to avoid
being subject to the criticism leveled at the treatment of gender in Africana Studies (Aldridge,
2003). Aldridge (2003: 187, 191) argues that the joint pursuit by men and women of liberation
through Africana Studies became separated into a Black male hegemony as the ‘major scholarship,
theories, and orientation of the field became dominated by males’, thereby ‘excluding, minimizing,
or distorting the reality of Africana women’. Combating this criticism requires acknowledging that
Africana women have always played a critical role in African society.
Monges (1993: 562) emphasizes the critical role of women in the success of Ancient Kemet
and the relevance of gender equity for African people to reach their full potential: ‘the Kemetic
mythology informed the Kemetic society that the merits of both genders were vital and necessary’.
A critical component of Kemetic mythology was the concept of Ma’at. Martin (2008: 951) noted
that:
Maat is a comprehensive construct that existed throughout ancient Egyptian civilization. In its cosmological
sense, maat is the principle of order that informs the creation of the universe. In its religious sense, maat is
a goddess or neter representing order or balance. Last, in its philosophical sense, maat is a moral and
ethical principle that all Egyptians were expected to embody in their daily actions toward family,
community, nation, environment, and god.
Ma’at was the original ‘Lady Justice’. On the familiar Egyptian funerary scene of the weighing
of the scales, Ma’at was often shown at the top of the scale. Her scope and power was immense.
Ma’at was institutionalized in ancient society as an organizing principle for individuals, social
structures, and laws. Ma’at ‘was established as the fundamental concept, power, and practice for
the organization, maintenance, and development of human society’ (Karenga, 1984: 4). Black
scholar and social philosopher Oba T’Shaka’s explanation captures the comprehensive scope and
application of the role of Ma’at: ‘It is the cosmic, earthly, ethical, and social law that invisibly
guides the heavens and the earth.… Maat is the way of harmony, truth, justice, balance, and right
order’ (Aldridge, 2003: 173).
As a ‘modern moral principle’ (Kiros, n.d.), Ma’at presents the opportunity to replace the morals, values, and ideology of the White capitalist patriarchy, and its accompanying racism, classism and sexism, with a different counter-ideology. An alternative ideology is suggested by Oba
T’Shaka’s theory of the African Mother Principle of Male and Female Equality (Reed, 2001). The
‘African Mother Principle’, as an ideological approach, is grounded in the equality of males and
females. It is in the area of gender, then, that Ma’at offers a valuable contribution to Africana
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Sociology. It encourages recognition of gender equality and a realization of the critical importance
of gender and women in society and in social movements.
Africana Sociology, then, in its incorporation of Africalogy, as both a theory and movement,
should ensure that it recognizes the complexity and intersectionality of socially constructed
identities, including race, class, and gender. This recognition will broaden its impact, influence,
and relevance as an approach for addressing critical social issues. The use by Africana Sociology
of the Transdisciplinary Applied Social Justice model as a gender-informed, African-centered
approach to justice and praxis can further this objective.
Transdisciplinary Applied Social Justice (TASJ)
TASJ is ‘the application of concepts, theories, and methodologies from multiple academic disciplines to social problems with the goal of addressing injustice in society and improving the life
experiences of marginalized individuals and groups’ (Pratt-Clarke, 2010: 27). It requires the
recognition of the importance of race and gender; it places individuals, their narratives, and their
experiences in the center of the analysis; it emphasizes praxis, outcomes, and transformation; it
acknowledges the role of social institutions in influencing society; and it reflects the prominent
influence of ideologies, values, and beliefs. As such, TASJ enhances the potential of Africana
Sociology to serve as an instrument for transformative change for African Americans by integrating theory, method, and praxis.
The TASJ model is an analytical tool for engaging in social justice activism. The TASJ model
has three components: a theoretical foundation; a methodological approach; and an emphasis on
praxis (Pratt-Clarke, 2010). This model promotes a comprehensive examination of social problems
involving race, class, and gender from a transdisciplinary lens. It incorporates multiple disciplines
in its theoretical foundation; it uses discourse analysis as its methodological approach; and it pulls
from social movement framing theory to inform ideas related to praxis.
The foundation for the TASJ model is the life experiences of individuals and groups. These
individuals are often on the margins because of their intersecting, socially constructed identities
and their multiple status memberships in traditionally disenfranchised groups. Ken (2008) has
created a uniquely comprehensive perspective and metaphor about race, class, and gender as
products. She notes that they ‘encompass categorization schemas, processes, sets of embedded
relations, histories, structural locations, practices, social institutions, distortions, products of
discourse, elements of symbolic representations, structural arrangements, tropes, dimensions of
identities, and opportunities to express power, get produced, occasionally in isolation but usually
in interconnected ways’ (Ken, 2008: 153). Holvino (2001) encourages us to ‘reconceptualize
the intersections of race, gender, and class as simultaneous processes of identity, institutional
support, and social practice in order to support new theory-making, research, and practice
in organizational studies’. The complexities of how race, class, and gender operate in society
demonstrate the necessity of the TASJ model since these identities often determine life chances,
life opportunities, and access to resources. Individuals are at the center of the TASJ model in recognition of the centrality of identity in experiences of oppression and activism (Pratt-Clarke, 2010:
39). In addition to these identities, the experiences of individuals are influenced by the operation
of power domains (Collins, 2009).
As a comprehensive construct from sociology and Black feminist thought, power domains
provide a conceptual framework for analyzing the experiences of individuals as a precursor for
implementing effective social justice activist strategies. Collins (2009: 274) encourages us to see
power ‘not as something that groups possess, but as an intangible entity that circulates within a
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particular matrix of domination and to which individuals stand in varying relationships’ (Collins,
2009: 274). Collins discusses the four power domains – hegemonic, structural, disciplinary, and
interpersonal. The hegemonic domain is the domain of ideas, attitudes, beliefs, values, and ideologies (Collins, 2009). As Collins (2009: 284) notes, ‘the significance of the hegemonic domain lies
in its ability to shape consciousness via the manipulation of ideas, images, symbols, and ideologies’.
Racism, sexism, classism, capitalism, patriarchy, colonialism, and imperialism reside in this
domain. The ‘White supremacist capitalist patriarchy’ (hooks, 2004) is a concept which reflects
the integrated power of the hegemonic domain to combine multiple ‘isms’ into a powerful and
dominant ideological construct that legitimates and justifies oppression and discrimination. The
hegemonic domain is often the foundation for the ideology that undergirds and informs the operations in a majority of social institutions.
These institutions are part of the structural domain. The structural domain provides an organizational framework for power and includes large-scale, macro-level interlocking institutions
and systems, such as the education system, the legal system, the economic system, the political
system, the media, family, and religious institutions. It includes the larger systems and structures,
as well as their manifestations, such as schools, courts, banks, and governmental bodies (Collins,
2009: 295–9). What is important to recognize with this domain is that the systems and structures
are integrated and entangled in a complex web. What affects one system affects others. Thus, a
banking crisis will affect the financial market, which will affect the housing market and the
employment market. Understanding the intertwined relationships is critical for undertaking and
developing social justice initiatives to change these often permanent and long-standing institutions.
These institutions operate through the disciplinary domain.
The disciplinary domain ‘is designed to perpetuate, advance, and institutionalize relationships
of power, privilege, dominance, and advantage’ through bureaucratic and internal control structures, such as policies, procedures, and practices – some written and many unwritten (Pratt-Clarke,
2010: 31). This domain also includes laws, statutes, rules, and regulations. This domain defines
consequences for conduct that could threaten, impede, and undermine the permanence of existing
social structures or organizations (Collins, 2009: 299–302). Policies and procedures of the disciplinary domain are implemented and enforced through individual interactions and relationships in
the interpersonal domain.
The interpersonal domain is the micro-level, day-to-day interactions and relationships. It is
through these everyday relationships and interactions that oppression is both perpetuated and
challenged (Collins, 2009: 306–7). An oppressor in one interaction may be a victim in another.
The fluidity of the nature of interactions in this domain must be recognized. It is also important to
acknowledge the varying levels of authority accorded individuals on the basis of their identities
and memberships in certain groups – some with more privilege and power than others. The role of
gatekeepers, leaders, and managers is critical in this domain in order to determine whether an
individual is in a position to be an instrument of transformation and an ally, or when they are an
impediment and obstacle.
Understanding each domain’s interplay with other domains is necessary in order to use the
TASJ model to its fullest potential. Not only does the theoretical foundation of the TASJ model
incorporate sociology and Black feminist thought, as a transdisciplinary approach it is also influenced by the legal concepts and ideas of critical race theory (CRT) and critical race feminism
(CRF). CRT and CRF are integral to the foundation of TASJ. CRT challenges the ‘historical
centrality and complicity of law in upholding White supremacy (and concomitant hierarchies of
gender, class, and sexual orientation)’ (West, 1995: xi). CRT has two common interests: understanding the role of the law in perpetuating White supremacy and racism; and a commitment to
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the action required to liberate and change the experiences of people of color (Crenshaw et al.,
1995). CRF expands CRT to emphasize the role of gender and the intersectionality of race and
gender in the experiences of women of color in the law. It incorporates feminist theory and race,
class, and gender studies (Wing, 2003: 2–7). CRT and CRF both acknowledge the role of narrative
and storytelling in understanding the experiences of injustice of African Americans and African
American women, in particular. They also recognize the importance of using multiple disciplines,
such as sociology, political science, and history to study and analyze the legal experiences of
traditionally and historically marginalized individuals.
TASJ’s comprehensive theoretical foundation requires an equally comprehensive methodological
approach. Discourse analysis is a multi-disciplinary, qualitative, methodological approach that
‘focuses on the structure of arguments, the categories constructed, the meaning involved, and the
historical context in which the text was produced’ (Pratt-Clarke, 2010: 33). Its flexibility enables it
to be used to study political, educational, legal, media, and policy discourse (Pratt-Clarke, 2010:
34). Its use in policy discourse facilitates the advancement of social justice and social policy.
Policy discourse analysis is ‘designed to respond to … policy problems, solutions, and images,
and the ways in which discourses shape and reproduce subject positions’ (Allan, 2008: 54). Policy
discourse is both passive and active. It can be used retrospectively to analyze existing policy and
prospectively to create new policy. Policy discourse is an ideal methodology as its use enables
analysis of the operation of each of the power domains. In the hegemonic domain, it questions
ideas, attitudes, values, beliefs, and ideologies. In the disciplinary domain, it challenges policies,
procedures, rules, and regulations. Policy discourse analysis places individuals and their experiences in the interpersonal domain at the center of the analysis because it uses their narratives to
understand the impact of policies on their lives within particular social structures and institutions
in the structural domain. Policy discourse analysis, as a methodological tool, helps connect theory
with praxis.
A critical strategy in policy debates involves ‘understanding how groups and individuals define,
describe, and frame their group interests in order to achieve political and social objectives’ (PrattClarke, 2010: 36). The focus on outcomes and praxis is the third component of the TASJ model.
The social movement concepts of frames and framing provide the glue for the model by connecting method, theory, and praxis. Social movement collective action frames ‘are ways in which
individuals and groups interpret, explain, and organize issues and concepts to achieve a particular
outcome’ (Pratt-Clarke, 2010: 36; Snow and Benford, 2000). They are the ‘result of combining the
methodological tool of discourse analysis with the theoretical lenses from different disciplines’
(Pratt-Clarke, 2010: 37). A critical component of collective action is recognition of the importance
of mobilizing individuals to engage in action. This mobilization often draws upon ‘available
cultural themes by using and redefining existing images, institutions, and beliefs in the hegemonic
domain’ (Pratt-Clarke, 2010: 37; McCammon et al., 2007). It also requires an understanding of
the operation of the structural, interpersonal, and disciplinary domains. Ultimately, any change
through social movements is rooted in a sensitivity to discourse: what is said; how it is said; and
who it will influence and affect (Pratt-Clarke, 2010: 37).
The goal of TASJ, then, ‘is to understand the manner in which the life experiences of individuals
and groups are entangled and influenced by the operation of systems of power with the objective
of designing effective intervention strategies’ (Pratt-Clarke, 2010: 38–9). TASJ seeks to determine
an effective strategy that can impact and reverse the operations of particular domains on the experiences of individuals. TASJ reveals that social justice projects should be informed by recognition of
the power of ‘institutions, conceptual schemes, and their texts’ (Harding and Norberg, 2005: 2011).
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This finding was demonstrated by the use of the TASJ model to analyze the 1991 Detroit Male
Academy initiative (Pratt-Clarke, 1997, 2010).
As a short background, the Detroit Public School system created three all-male academies. In
response to a federal gender discrimination lawsuit, a settlement agreement set aside 136 seats out
of 560 for girls. Only 36 girls enrolled. A TASJ analysis revealed that the outcome was the result,
in part, of the use of Black nationalistic and sexist discourse which created a climate and environment in Detroit that marginalized, minimized, blamed, and stereotyped Black women in
their roles as mothers, teachers, and students. The low enrollment of girls was influenced by the
way in which race, class, and gender were socially constructed in the discourse resulting in Black
males being constructed as victims and Black women as the victimizers and oppressors. In addition, the TASJ analysis illustrated the interlocking role of social institutions at the micro and
macro levels, including the education system, the legal system, the political system, and the family; the power of hegemonic discourse to legitimate and perpetuate ideologies of patriarchy,
nationalism, and sexism; and the powerlessness of White civil rights organizations (American
Civil Liberties Union) and feminist organizations (National Organization for Women Legal
Defense and Education Fund) to be effective advocates for the interests of Black women and
girls. As such, the TASJ model demonstrated that effective social justice strategies for Black
women must be theoretically-grounded and intersectionality-based.
The TASJ, model, then, provides a comprehensive tool for the discipline of Africana Sociology
with its integration of theory, method, and praxis; its incorporation of Afrocentricity and Africancentered principles; its use of Black Feminist thought, sociological concepts, and social movement theory; and its recognition of the role of intersecting identities of race, class, and gender.
The TASJ model is consistent with Fanon who urges the ‘creation of new principles, new definitions, and new agendas’ and the finding of unique values, methods, and styles to move away
from European hegemony (Gwekwerere, 2010: 110).
Conclusion
The potential of Africana Sociology lies in its ability to incorporate concepts from Black Sociology,
Afrocentricity, and TASJ. The complex and intertwined conditions affecting people of color and
women of color through the operation and the manifestation of White patriarchal capitalist hegemony can only be addressed through comprehensive counter and oppositional approaches.
Incorporating the key principles can enable Africana Sociology to serve as a more nuanced, comprehensive, and integrated approach for the study of the experiences of African Americans and
African American women, in particular. It also allows Africana Sociology to build upon African
American scholarship in sociology which has reconfigured conventional sociological, theoretical
constructs in order to highlight important areas of the African American experience within social
movement literature and race, class, and gender scholarship (Taylor, 1999).
As such, Africana Sociology can realize its full potential by recognizing intersections and connections with Black Sociology and African-centered thought; acknowledging the role of transdisciplinary approaches to transform interconnected social institutions; appreciating the critical
importance of gender equity as symbolized by Ma’at; and encouraging a commitment to praxis
and justice. These intersecting and overlapping themes demonstrate the value and potential for
Africana Sociology to serve as a theoretical, methodological, and practical tool for implementing
transformative change. Africana Sociology’s ability to integrate, theory, method, and praxis
create the possibility for transforming our society and our experiences as African Americans and
African American women, in particular.
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