Amos Nelson Wilson (February 23, 1941 (or 1940) — January 14, 1995) was an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

theoretical

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

, social theorist,

Pan-African Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement exte ...

thinker, scholar, author and a professor of psychology at the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

Our Time Press ''Our Time Press'' began publishing in February 1996. ''Our Time Press'' was co-founded by David Mark Greaves and Bernice Elizabeth Green and owned by DBG Media, publishers of Our Time Press, Inc. a privately held company. The newspaper has a cir ...

, ''Dr. Amos Wilson: Why We Do The Things We Do'', February 26, 201

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Early life and education

Born in

Hattiesburg, Mississippi Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County, Mississippi, Forrest County (where it is the county seat and largest city) and extending west into Lamar County, Mississippi, Lamar County. The city popu ...

, in 1940 or 1941, Wilson completed his undergraduate degree at the

Morehouse College , mottoeng = And there was light (literal translation of Latin itself translated from Hebrew: "And light was made") , type = Private historically black men's liberal arts college , academic_affiliations ...

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, master's degree at The New School of Social Research, and attained a PhD degree from

Fordham University Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...

in New York. Wilson worked as a psychologist, social caseworker, supervising probation officer and as a training administrator in the New York City Department of Juvenile Justice. As an academic, Wilson also taught at City University of New York from 1981 to 1986 and at the College of New Rochelle from 1987 to 1995.

Views on power and racism

According to

AALBC.com AALBC.com, the African American Literature Book Club, is a website dedicated to books and film by and about African Americans and people of African descent, with content also aimed at African-American bookstores. AALBC.com publishes book and fi ...

, "Wilson believed that the vast power differentials between Africans and non-Africans was the major social problem of the 21st century. He believed these power differentials, and not simply racist attitudes, was chiefly responsible for the existence of

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

, and the continuing domination of people of African descent across the globe—white people exercise racism because they have the power to do so." As a scholar of Africana studies, Wilson felt that the social, political and economic problems that Blacks faced, the world over, were unlike those of other ethnic groups; and thus, he argued that the concept of "equal education" ought to be abandoned in favor of a philosophy and approach appropriate to their own needs. Wilson argued that the function of education and intelligence was to solve the problems particular to a people and nation, and to secure that people and nation's biological survival. Any philosophy of education or approach which failed to do so was inadequate. Wilson further argued that the mythological notion of progress to which many Blacks subscribe, was a false one; that integration could only occur and persist, as a social-economic reality, so long as the U.S. and global economies continued to expand. If such an economic situation were ever to reverse, or change for the worse, then the consequences which would follow could end up resulting in increased racial conflict; thus he urged Blacks to consider disintegration as a realistic possibility — to prepare for all hypothetical scenarios — with the understanding that integration was not guaranteed to last forever. Wilson also believed that racism was a structurally and institutionally driven phenomenon derived from the inequities of power relations between groups, and could persist even if and when more overt expressions of it were no longer present. Racism, then, could only be neutralized by transforming society (structurally) and the system of power relations.

Books

* ''The Developmental Psychology of the Black Child'' (1978)Editors: Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck; Esposito, John L.; ''Muslims on the Americanization Path?'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

(2000), p. 255,

(Retrieved 29 March 2019) * ''Black-on-Black Violence: The Psychodynamics of Black Self-Annihilation in Service of White Domination'' (1990) * ''Understanding Black Adolescent Male Violence: Its Remediation and Prevention'' (1992) * ''Awakening the Natural Genius of Black Children'' (1992) * ''The Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness: Eurocentric History, Psychiatry and the Politics of White Supremacy'' (1993) * ''Blueprint for Black Power: A Moral, Political and Economic Imperative for the Twenty-First Century'' (1998)Liburd, Sean, ''Awaken the Mind: Communion with Sean Liburd'', Xlibris Corporation (2008), p. 168, * ''Afrikan-Centered Consciousness Versus the New World Order: Garveyism in the Age of Globalism'' (1999) * ''The Developmental Psychology of the Black Child — Second Edition'' (2014) * ''Issues of Manhood in Black and White: An Incisive Look at Masculinity and the Societal Definition of Afrikan Man (2016)'' * ''The Psychology of Self-Hatred and Self-Defeat: Towards a Reclamation of the Afrikan Mind Paperback – (January 1, 2020)''

References

External links

"Dr. Amos Wilson’s Last Interview (1995)"
African Blood Siblings. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Amos African-American philosophers People from Hattiesburg, Mississippi African-American psychologists 20th-century American psychologists Black studies scholars African-American writers American pan-Africanists 1941 births 1995 deaths Fordham University alumni Morehouse College alumni The New School alumni Philosophers from Mississippi Philosophers from New York (state) Academics from Mississippi 20th-century American philosophers 20th-century African-American people