Describe the Africentric perspective

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The Africentric perspective acknowledges African culture and expressions of African beliefs, values, institutions, and behaviors. It recognizes that African Americans have retained, to some degree, a number of elements of African life and values. It holds that the application of Eurocentric theories to explain the behavior and ethos of African Americans is often inappropriate. Eurocentric theorists have historically vilified people of African descent and other people of color. Such theorists have explicitly or implicitly claimed that people of African descent are pathological or inferior in their social, personality, or moral development. The Africentric perspective seeks to dispel the negative distortions about people of African ancestry by legitimizing and disseminating a worldview that goes back thousands of years and that exists in the hearts and minds of many people of African descent today. It also seeks to promote a worldview that will facilitate human and societal transformation toward moral, spiritual, and humanistic ends and that seeks to persuade people of different cultural and ethnic groups that they share a mutual interest in this regard.
The Africentric perspective rejects the idea that the individual can be understood apart from others in his or her social group. It emphasizes a collective identity that encourages sharing, cooperation, and social responsibility. It also emphasizes the importance of spirituality, which includes one's moral development and attaining meaning and identity in life. The Africentric perspective views oppression and alienation as the major sources of human problems in the United States. The Africentric perspective has been used to provide explanations of the origins of specific social problems. It values a more holistic, spiritual, and optimistic view of human beings.