Essay On Naim Akbar

The life and Times of Nai’m Akbar
By: Ahmed Samara Nai’m Akbar, previously known as Luther benjamin Weems Jr, was born on April 26, 1944 in Tallahasee, Florida. Like most of the southern United States at the time, Akbar's community was extremely segregated, and open, systematic, racism was still the cultural norm. His childhood was so segregated, that he never had any direct personal interaction with white people until he started college. Naim grew up in a very unique environment. Schools were still segregated, African Americans were still not treated as equals by the education system or American society in general, and especially in the American south racism was still rampant. However, Naim’s parents both had college degrees, and between
There was a defined norm, the way that the majority behaved, and that was how every other healthy person was expected to act. Because the ‘majority’ behavior was formed from a completely Eurocentric viewpoint, the behavior of anyone from any other culture could easily be considered ‘deviant’. Akbar’s work was the beginning of “Black Psychology”, where the behavior of African Americans was considered in the context of African American culture. Without this context-view, any non-caucasian could arbitrarily and unfairly be considered mentally
He taught Morehouse college's first course on Black psychology, and eventually expanded that class into an entire Black psychology program. This was the first Black Psychology program at Morehouse, and one of the first ones in the country overall. Much of what was covered in these courses expanded and built upon what he had learned during his graduate school career. There were fundamental differences in how people of different cultures viewed the world, and because there would always be a eurocentric slant to most mainstream psychological studies, he considered the creation of this black psychology program to be an essential part in the empowerment of African