Navigating Distant Shores: A Historical Overview By Dr. Ronald Doris

Published by Tapestry Press and copyrighted by Xavier University of Louisiana in 2007, Perspectives In African American History And Culture: An Introductory Reader edited by Dr. Ronald Doris, contains a multitude of articles by several authors. All works center on African American history, culture, art, and philosophy. This particular critique will address “Navigating Distant Shores: A Historical Overview” by Dr. Ronald Doris. This article offers a well organized, structured overview of the life of the Africans, from the early 17th century to modern day 21st century who were kidnaped from their motherland and transported across the Atlantic to involuntary build a country. This work guides the reader along a path of history that is often misconstrued

Dr. Doris approaches the history of the kidnapped African in America through the lens of social construction. This idea of social construction becomes one of the several frameworks of this article, adding to the overall structure of the work. Through setting up the fact that American history has been built on the foundation of social construction; Dr. Doris provides insight to conceptualize the devision between what is socially constructed as “white” and what is socially constructed as “black.” The first section of the article is particularly good at giving a excellent base in which the rest of the article will build upon. The article flows in a chronological order, building off past events moving down the timeline of history. Through the use of historical context in relation to the lives of African people and their civilizations before European contact, the author gives context for the reader to understand why even though the Africans had physical chains around them they were able to resit actually being “enslaved.” This happens through a telling of the philosophy of the “circular framework of reference.” The author provides context dating back to ancient Egypt to allow the reader to understand the philosophies of the Africans who were

The article hits at the major points without adding much extra material that does not contribute to the flow of history and the work itself. Because of this tone, there is not much room for the author to include his own unique use of language. The language through the work remains very formal and static. The work follows a relatively funnel shaped construction, focusing on broader topics, ideas or locations then narrowing down on more specific details. This is first noticed when the author beings to focus on the life of Africans brought in through the Gulf of Mexico into what was the territory of Louisiana. A large portion of the article pertains to how Louisiana changed through the control of several several countries and how this impacted not only the kidnapped Africans under social constructed “slavery” but the Europeans who adopted the idea of “whiteness.” Although the author follows a funnel shaped pattern in his work, when the territory of Louisiana is initially brought up, the vast amount of dates presented to the reader in such a sort frame may be jarring at first. Consequently, the reader may lose himself/ herself amongst dates and lose the precious context that is framed by the dates which act as pinpoints on the timeline. Although this is not particularly damaging to the flow or structure of the work, the transfer of the territory of Louisiana through the hands of France, Spain, and finally the United States is