Some people really don’t want us to observe Black History Month or KNOW Our History, Part 1

Welcome to Black History Month. We’re in it, and we will know our history. We will learn our history. We will teach Black history to our children. Period.
Sadly, there seems to be a continued effort underway to make it as if Black History Month is not important and is insignificant. Helping to lead that charge is Donald Trump. Donald Trump has allegedly urged the U.S. State Department to downplay Black History Month.
Donald Trump is starting his second term in office with little regard for levity or transition, as a number of his executive orders have already caused much controversy. One of them relates to the January 6 attack– but another point of outrage is how he rolled back on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) offices in government agencies and revoked a 60-year-old executive order that prohibited discrimination of race and gender in government employment processes. Now, according to a Monday (January 27) directive (reportedly) obtained by The Wall Street Journal, the convicted president is taking this bigotry to the State Department.
Moreover, the directive reportedly advised the State Department to prioritize the “spirit” of Donald Trump’s executive orders in its public remarks, which many pointed out as a warning to the department that they should not publicly observe Black History Month. While Trump’s move does not outright “cancel” or outlaw this observance, it does put it in further danger and opens it up to government blowback and social upheaval.
While all this upheaval is swirling around–here in Philadelphia, on the campus of Temple University, Dr. Molefe Asante, a distinguished scholar and professor at Temple, remains embattled with certain leaders at the school.
Molefe Kete Asante is a Professor in the Department of Africology at Temple University in Philadelphia. He is the President of the Molefe Kete Asante Institute for Afrocentric Studies. Asante is Professor Extraordinarius at the University of South Africa. He was the Founding Editor of the Journal of Black Studies, serving for 53 years. Selected as the first director of UCLA’s Center for Afro-American Studies, he established the interdisciplinary MA program and set up the UCLA Center’s African American Library.
Asante, often called the most prolific African American scholar, has published over 100 books–among the most recent are The Perilous Center, or When Will the African Center Hold; Radical Insurgencies; The History of Africa, 3rd Edition; An Afrocentric Pan Africanist Vision; The African American People: A Global History; Erasing Racism: The Survival of the American Nation; Revolutionary Pedagogy; African American History: A Journey of Liberation; African Pyramids of Knowledge; Maulana Karenga: An Intellectual Portrait; Facing South to Africa, and, the memoir, As I Run Toward Africa.
Asante has published more than 500 articles and is considered one of the most quoted living African authors as well as one of the most distinguished thinkers in the African world. He has been recognized as one of the 10 most widely cited African scholars. Asante has been recognized as one of the most influential leaders in education. He has been named a history maker with an interview in the Library of Congress. In 2019, the National Communication Association named him an NCA Distinguished Scholar, its highest honor, saying that his writings were “spectacular and profound.” He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, at the age of 26 and was appointed a full professor at the age of 30 at the State University of New York at Buffalo. At Temple University, he created the first Ph.D. Program in African American Studies in 1988. In 2021, he initiated and conceptualized Temple’s Center for Antiracism Research. He has directed more than 140 Ph.D. dissertations, making him the top producer of doctorates among African American scholars. He is the founder of the theory of Afrocentricity, The Cheikh Anta Diop Conference, and the think-tank, The Molefe Kete Asante Institute for Afrocentric Studies in Philadelphia. Asante wrote the mandatory African American History course for the Philadelphia School District.
With a resume the likes of what Dr. Asante has, you would think he’d be treated with the utmost respect and given all the full authority of a senior tenured professor at Temple University. However, that’s not the case.
The main stumbling block is the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Richard Deeg.
Here’s some of Dr. Mole’s story, with his ongoing talks with Temple University. Dr. Asante stated, “You know how at institutions, you can have one or two people whose agendas are different from the agenda of the institution? I believe that at Temple University, in the College of Liberal Arts, I believe the Dean of the College, Richard Deeg, has an animus toward the department, or he has an agenda of his own, which is basically to eliminate the Department of African American Studies. That’s what I believe. I don’t have all the evidence to back up my beliefs, but let me tell you what he has done. Dean Deeg essentially gave me a letter indicating that he was putting me on discipline. I’m his most published scholar in the College of Liberal Arts. Nobody in the College of Liberal Arts at Temple has published 104 books–except Molefe Asante. Dean Deeg has decided that I should have nothing to do with the promotion and personnel matters of junior faculty members who are coming up for tenure and promotions. To get rid of me from that process, Dean Deeg has put me on “discipline.” That means I’m a full professor. I’m a senior professor, but Deeg is not allowing me to be involved in any of the personnel matters of the department. Of course, I’m fighting this through the University and through arbitration. Oddly, the arbitration meeting keeps getting pushed back.”
Dr. Asante says while all of this is going on, there’s a movement underway to get rid of all the people that Asante hired while he had that power. Dr. Aaron Smith was the first one they went after. Dr. Aaron Smith has published two books with University presses. He is a very active scholar, with speaking engagements all over the place. They want to get rid of him at Temple, basically saying that he should not be reappointed because allegedly, he has not done enough scholarly work. It’s all a lie. It’s all fake, said Dr. Molefe Asante.
Temple University’s Department of African American Studies is a large part of what has helped Temple gain some national and international notoriety and influence in the Black community.
Dr. Molefe continues to teach at Temple University as of now. However, the classes he’s teaching, let’s just say his brilliant brain and skills as an educator, are being undermined.
Next week, we’ll share some of what Dr. Aaron Smith has to say about his treatment at Temple University.
Even with all of this, we will not give up on Black History and teaching Black History, no matter what anyone says, including Donald Trump.