The 7 Stages of Ethnic Studies

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

“Put the children first. A loose rein — but not too loose — works with children (and horses). Love them totally and unconditionally. Make a few sacrifices for the common good. Remember that different generations don’t like the same music.” — Anonymous, If I knew Then: Advice on Careers, Finance, and Life from Harvard Business School’s Class of 1963, page 19.

Sometimes, I am so wrong about race.

Thanksgiving dinner came and I was primed for racial conflict over Black Lives Matter, racial dogma and my book, Letters in Black and White: A New Correspondence on Race in America (co-authored with Jennifer Richmond). Maybe, we’re all getting up in age and the prospect of battle over the thanksgiving turkey no longer appeals.

I don’t know.

The conflict was more low-grade. I wore my typical Brooks Brothers polo shirt which I have worn most days since the 1980s and my days in law school. My Mom-in-Law came dressed for the Woke occasion with a black shirt proclaiming JUSTICE. What else, dear readers? What else would she wear? My older son came adorned with Kente Cloth on his sweatshirt. My older son is a Race Man and that’s cool. I wonder if he knows that Kente Cloth was worn with pride by Ashanti royalty who traded slaves from West Africa? I guess wearing the royal cloth of the slave trader makes one a Race Man nowadays. https://humanities.pitt.edu/research/ghosts-fanteland (Here, the elite Asante were among the most powerful and wealthiest in West Africa, but they were also the main slave traders in Ghana. In the 18th century, their brilliant Kente cloth was woven with threads of silk, cotton, and wool— textiles imported from abroad and often paid for in human lives.”), https://www.gateway-africa.com/tribe/asante_tribe.html (“Aside from the small seating chairs which they are famous for, the Asante are best known for their other royal arts, which include staff and umbrella finials, lost wax cast gold jewellery, and brass gold weights. Kente cloth is a high-prestige textile that was originally woven from imported silk and now is woven of rayon and other synthetics. Kente cloth has been worn in Ghana by rulers and since independence by commoners as well, and it has also become an important African-American cultural symbol, despite the fact that basically all slaves to the North Americas were sub-tribes sold by the Asante to the Arab Hausa and Mande slave traders. They in turn sold the slaves to the Europeans.”), https://www.pbs.org/wonders/Episodes/Epi3/3_cultr2.htm (“Much more than just an ordinary fabric, kente cloth has been worn by Ashanti kings, queens, and important figures of state in Ghana since the 12^th century and has evolved into the prime representative of many principals of African culture. Now made from cotton or silk, the first cloth was woven from raffia fibers, and the designs were so similar to basket weaving patterns that the cloth was given the name "kente," a derivative of "kenten," the Ashanti word for basket.”), https://www.pbs.org/wonders/Episodes/Epi3/3_wondr1.htm#:~:text=In%20exchange%20for%20guns%20and,they%20prospered%2C%20Ashanti%20culture%20flourished (“By the early 19^th century, Ashanti territory covered nearly all of present-day Ghana, including the coast, where the Ashanti could trade directly with the British. In exchange for guns and other European goods, the Ashanti sold gold and slaves, usually either captured in war or accepted as tribute from conquered peoples. As they prospered, Ashanti culture flourished. They became famous for gold and brass craftsmanship, wood carving, furniture, and brightly colored woven cloth, called kente.”), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Ashanti_Empire (“Perbi states that the Ashanti Empire was the largest slave owning state in the territory of modern Ghana during the Atlantic slave trade.^[17] ")

It is like mice wearing feline royal garb or deer wearing jackets of hunters or teenagers repurposing Klan hoods or black face.

Give me my Brooks Brothers polo shirt any day of the week.

Now, black families are nuanced and complex, a strange concept to Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robin Di Angelo and Ibram X. Kendi. We actually enjoyed our meal together as a nuclear, intact family and suppressed our racial differences. As we joked and laughed and I bite our tongue when the black hip hop/rap music is played, we dined underneath diplomas of our family’s academic journey — University of Virginia, Yale, University of Arizona, Harvard, Morristown Normal College (Class of 1919), University of Southern California. The music my older son insisted on playing, Poetry (Intimate) by Devin Kennedy, was horrific to my ear.

I assume the singer was black from his voice and music. I asked for the name of the song and the artist. And you know what? I was totally, totally wrong. Never assume anything about one’s race. I should know better. Also, different generations like different music.

My son is a Race Man, more like his grandfather and grandmother than his Dad. An Alpha Phi Alpha man, he wore an Afro-Tech shirt underneath his Kente cloth sweatshirt. What I love about this story is the inherent nuance and complexity. I was wearing the Brooks Brothers shirt but it was my son who was friends with potential movers and shakers in the world. He shared bartending tales with his friend who is quite remarkable — native of West Africa, boarding school in London, life experiences throughout the world, associate experience at a Big Deal law firm. My son’s friend is the opposite of oppressed which I appreciate since I like black achievement.

How do we make it work as a family? When he was young, my son once said I was the Thomas Lancaster DuBois character from the television show The Boondocks. And that was a fair characterization since, like DuBois, I was a lawyer and anxious while my son was growing up. My son grew into a different sense of self as a Race Man and that is fine. Every individual has to be true to oneself.

And now on to the issue for today, the Ethnic Studies course in California.

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My friend is terribly concerned about Antisemitic Bias in her child’s Ethnic Studies Class. I suspect she is losing sleep over the heavy-handed indoctrination in her child’s classroom. Although I no longer have children in California schools, I too am impacted by the miseducation of the young in the Golden State. These students are my neighbors, the kids working summer jobs down at the Harbor, the clerks behind the counter at Starbucks. If these kids are learning loopy ideas about race, those lessons impact me too.

As I understand the Ethnic Studies assignment, students are being manipulated to understand the world as political narratives, dominant narrative and counter narrative. Hamas is presented as a “group,” not a blood thirsty terrorist operation. That depiction is wrong in and of itself and disqualifies the whole scheme in my view. But there is more.

The assignment presents a color picture of a Hamas hang glider preparing to land on the ground and preparing for slaughter of human beings. Query whether Jewish students in high school would appreciate this image in their course work. Doesn’t seem too sensitive to me.

Frankly, the more I read the more I objected. Narratives are political. People can disagree about politics and yet there is this strange insistence on teaching all of the past through the cynical lens of dominant and counter narratives. Dominant narrative is defined as an explanation or story that is told to benefit the dominant social group interests and ideologies. Suppose the past is better understood as a story of individual duty and striving? Suppose we should avoid ideology in lieu of understanding?

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I believe the Ethnic Studies Coursework my friend shared lacks creativity. After watching a You Tube podcast The 7 Stages of AI — AI Uncovered, it occurred to me that the creativity emergent in artificial intelligence could be applied to the world of Ethnic Studies in California.

How so?

I contend there are seven (7) stages of Ethnic Studies. California is stuck at Stage 1 to the detriment of its students and the broader public.

Stage 1 Rule Based Intelligence Systems

This stage of Ethnic Studies is mired in a single rule, dominant narrative versus counter narrative. This simple framework facilitates working memory. It is easy to memorize dominant versus counter. Kind of like memorizing oppressor versus oppressed. This pre-defined set of rules, or algorithm, is given to students by their programmers, otherwise known as teachers. Teachers are programmers in the classroom.

What is the result of a rule-based intelligence system? The intelligence of students is severely limited. Decisions are based purely on the rules provided. Students are unable to handle scenarios not pre-programmed by the programmers. For example and to illustrate the point, a close family member once said to me that her grade school only taught her about slaves. She was unaware of over half a million free blacks before the Civil War, let alone the historical centers of black enterprise in Durham, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; or Harlem.

Stage 2: Context — Awareness Systems

This stage of Ethnic Studies represents a step above the rule-based system in Stage 1. The emphasis is on reasoning and interpretation in the classroom, not programming,. The emphasis on reason represents a significant evolution in the intelligence level of students.

Students are encouraged to remember historical events and incidents outside of the dominant narrative/counter narrative framework. The point is to learn from past events and interactions, regardless of where the past moment can be placed on the dominant narrative/counter narrative spectrum. Stage 2 represents a quantum leap from the Stage 1 rule-based classroom. The aim is to understand context, to retain information.

As a result, a student in a Stage 2 Ethnic Studies classroom is self-confident. They can handle the broader context of information and data points from the past. If there are over 40 million black Americans, there over 40 million life stories, experiences and perspectives.

Students can perform like Chat GPT-4 in the classroom. Teachers provide prompts and students provide answers.

Stage 3: Mastery Systems

At this stage of development, a student in an Ethnic Studies class will develop a mastery into a particular domain. The idea is to become a concrete, specific expert in say, free blacks in Charleston, South Carolina between 1790 to 1860, Bishop Richard Allen and the Rise of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, the first generation of college-educated black Americans before 1860, the generation of pioneer black lawyers before 1860, the Rise of Howard University between 1926 to 1960.

We are not creating abstract generalists but concrete masters of a domain. The result would be a desirable deeper understanding of a particular topic, like a junior thesis. Students should leave Stage 3 with the ability to (1) analyze a large amount of information, (2) identify patterns, and (3) demonstrate a sophisticated grasp of a particular area.

The programmer of yesteryear has left the building.

Stage 4: Thinking and Reasoning Systems

At this stage of development, the aim is to develop thinkers and reasoners, not parrots of dogma. Students are rewarded for not following the rules. Instead, students are rewarded for challenging and critiquing the dominant narrative/counter narrative framework. Students are expected to understand how history is always nuanced and complex, not simple and slogan-based. (Like why do young Black people wear the cloth of the enslaver and slaver trader at graduation ceremonies? See also the deep and profound meaning of a slave mentality over generations — https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/magazine/18WWLNlede.t.html)

Students are rewarded for nuance and complexity, for generating creative ideas. The more ideas generated, the higher the grade. As a result, deep learning will emerge in the classroom. Teachers are now reflective philosophers intent on guiding the creative process for everyone.

Stage 5: The Birth of a New Mind

By this stage of development, Ethnic Studies has been transformed into an exponential learning curve. Students are understanding, learning and applying knowledge across all domains of history. Creative associations in the classroom are de rigueur. Students are making decisions based on profound understanding and learning. The teacher arrives in the classroom and the students are processing with self-awareness, consciousness, and drive.

The ability to understand and navigate the world as a human has emerged. The “Ethnic” in Ethnic Studies has been replaced with “Human” as in Human Studies.

Stage 6: Super Intelligence

The cognitive skills far surpass current Students enrolled in Ethnic Studies. Students are doing everything faster, better and more efficiently.

The insights into Black Consciousness are beyond our understanding. There is a risk of unintended consequences like loss of a racial soul. The very nature of racial intelligence and consciousness comes into play. See Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race by Thomas Chatterton Williams. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Portrait_in_Black_and_White

Stage 7: The Singularity of Trans Racialism

By this final stage in the development of Ethnic Studies, the teacher is no longer of importance. The growth in racial intelligence is exponential.

The singularity means racial rules as we know them break down. We have grown from Ethnic Studies to Post-Ethnic Studies to Human Studies to Trans Racialism. There is an explosive acceleration in advancement of consciousness. There is a massive disruption of race categories beyond the year 2050.

The end of Race and Ethnicity is nigh.

Conclusion: These are my thoughts. I don’t like programmers in our public classrooms. And I am not alone. Before any of us were assigned a race at birth, we were individual souls in our mother’s wombs. And we will return to that place beyond race when we pass away. May the Ethnic Studies programmers in California aspire to a higher level of instruction than a rule-based Stage 1.

Thomas Lancaster DuBois The Boondocks character