Self- Assessment

Coming into the University, I can honestly say that I had a limited perspective of Black History. Up until then, my black history came from school text books that of course gave water downed versions of black history and whatever new information I was lucky enough to learn during the month of February every year. It's very sad that this applies for many incoming college freshman from all different backgrounds. I do recall reading a book titled "Coming of Age in Mississippi" by Anne Moody that I stole from my brothers stack of books that he brought home during his summer break from UCLA which was really an eye opener for me and pushed me to read another of his books titled "The Autobiography of Malcolm X". These two books today are two of my favorite books after 12 years, for one, because they are amazing pieces of literature and two because they added so much more meat and sustenance to the limited information I was learning about my history. I recall many of my fellow black freshman talking about how they didn't need to take black study courses because they were black and already needed to know what there was to know about "being black". Others thought that it would be an easy A for the black students. All things considered, I had no idea what was in store for me when I entered Madison's Black Studies 1 course but both of those books were the reason I enrolled because I knew there was more. Madison definitely doesn't hold anything back in terms of African American history and my mind was completely blown. I learned so much in ten short weeks that I wanted more. Many black studies courses soon followed, yet there were 2 course (African American History with Woods and Blacks in the Media with Madison) that really made an impact on me and altered my perspective because I never knew how deep the negative portrayal of black in the media went and how it is ever present today.