Black Studies Background

     My journey at UCSB began in the fall of 2009.  I had transferred here from West Los Angeles College after previously flunking my 1st year of college at California State University East Bay.  I'll never forget having solid CC grades but none that were good enough for Berkley or UCLA when i was applying to transfer.  My history and African American Studies professor at West LA, Dr. Richard Olivas, told me it was in my best interest to appeal UCLA's decision and see if they would grant me admission as an African American Studies Major.  "Nah doc, I don't really want to study that," was my response to that.  I had gotten into UCSB and was going to come here and complete a degree in Political Science (which I still am) and become an attorney somewhere in the US like my older sister (which I still am).
   I remember not having any classes coming in that fall.  One of the open classes was Dr. Akudinobi's 126 class.  I took it and received a solid grade but at the time I was only taking it because it would count as one of my elective units for when I graduate.  However, my roomate Christopher Burton kept pitching the idea of getting this Black Studies minor or major along with my degree in Political Science.  I continued to turn him down until the end of that fall quarter when he dragged me into Toni's office.  She pretty much told me I was going to be a Black Studies major.  There's the end of that story.
  The next quarter I was in Dr. Lipsitz's Black Studies 6 class and Dr. Banks' Black Studies 106 class.  Needless to say, when I got back my first test from Dr. Banks, it was a real emotional night.  However, when I started visiting her office hours, she began to show me the importance of retaining information, thinking about it critically and making the important connections.  I received another solid grade but more importantly, her class showed me that I could excel in any class at this school, something I needed as a relatively new transfer.
   The classes in the Black Studies Department that have had the most profound effect on me are BLST 6, 106, 124, 122 and an independent research project I did for Dr. Lipsitz on housing.  What these classes did for me was give me the language to express certain feelings that I already had towards things I've noticed since a young child.  In addition to language, these classes replaced my ignorance with factual information.  As a black man, it was always so easy for me to laugh at my own people with one of those "come on, you know it's true" statements.  These classes forced me to look critically at these social issues (black body, black education, housing, creation of race etc.) and recognize that there is a long history that went into creating some of these circumstances and a vehicle behind them.  The major has made me better at analyzing text, situations and given me more security in my own skin if you can actually believe that. 

As a kid who was an average student in high school and flunked his 1st year of college, it's pretty funny how convinced I was that Political Science was the only way to get where I needed to go.  It's also funny how I didn't appeal to UCLA for the Af-Am major because I didn't want to study it.  How times have changed.  I never would have thought in Septemeber of 2009 that Black Studies would be the discipline that i enjoyed the most while learning the most all while preparing me the most for my future endeavours.