By: Michele K. Lewis, Ph.D. | Professor, Psychological Sciences | Winston-Salem State University
In this Fall 2022 semester, I have begun another semester of teaching African-Centered Black Psychology (ACBP) to HBCU undergrad students. We are 4 weeks in. We just completed our first module, which aimed to distinguish the definition of African-Centered Black Psychology (ACBP) and interpret what it means to have an Afrocentric Worldview compared to a Eurocentric Worldview. We have also engaged in much dialogue about human connection, or rather, a lack of it today.
Prior to the 2020 pandemic, I had noticed and had been thinking about the growing social disconnect and its influence on our well-being. Then, the pandemic occurred, and mandatory social distancing pushed students into enveloping themselves even deeper into technological distractions of entertainment. So now, I’m constantly doing what I like to refer to as “Observations in Black: Human Connection”, as I walk about the campus or engage students in the classroom. This piece is just a snapshot of what I’ve seen and heard.
This semester, I revised the ACBP course to have more depth than breadth. I’ve learned from more recent past offerings that foundational discussions such as defining the field and understanding a person’s worldview, including the student’s own, must be given more time to click with students. But once and when they do, rich discussion can flow.
As you may imagine, current students don’t think much about the health benefits of real-world human connection, even as psychology majors. When they do, they often limit their discussion to social media as a barrier to it. Yes, most still feel human connection to their parents and siblings. But beyond that it can get tricky.
After we concluded module 1, I transitioned into showing them a few questions from an Africana Studies framework. One of the questions posed was, “In the year 2022, who are people of African descent to one another?” After a bit of reluctance to answer, one student eventually shared the response, “We are connected strangers.” This resonated with the class. In their view, it is nice to see other Black people in the majority at an HBCU because it feels comforting. It is nice to engage with other Black people on social media. But, their appreciation of these experiences does not equate to wanting to know and engage with other Black people via full human connection in the real world.
Dr. Marcus Du Bois Watson, in a recent Journal of Black Psychology article referred to their way of being as being half-connected. Though we know and feel this half-connect to be unhealthy, unfortunately, it is also normalized now. So. my follow-up question to the students was, since technology isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, what do you propose we should do to return to full human connection so that we can transition from being connected strangers to being connected family?
