The Contour and Meaning of Afrocentric Social Work

One of the consistent and disturbing features of my undergraduate and graduate training was the pervasiveness of academic theories that emerged from people who were not members of my cultural group. Regardless of the course, the textbooks used and theories discussed were almost exclusively written and developed by White people, especially White men. At first, I did not pay too much attention to this occurrence. However, as time went on and as I became exposed to knowledge that significantly underscored and illuminated my oppression as a Black man in White America, I became more conscious of the hegemony White people had over the knowledge validation and information dissemination process in academe. By the time I entered Howard University's School of Social Work to pursue an M.S.W. degree, my tolerance for social and psychological theories emanating exclusively from one cultural group was gradually waning. Although Howard and many other historically Black colleges and universities integrate alternative ideas, especially as they center around racial discrimination, the knowledge base (i.e., the textbooks, many of the required readings, and major theories or paradigms) is fundamentally Eurocentric. Thus, I became more frustrated with the Eurocentric hegemony of