Gloria talks with Dr. Naim Akbar
Dr. Naim Akbar is a celebrated lecturer, author, scholar, teacher and theologian who travels thousands of miles each year to meet the spiraling demands for his combined talents. He has been lauded throughout the continental United States, the Caribbean, Africa and Europe for a few African-American oriented, humanistic and thoroughly holistic approaches to human development.
Dr. Akbar is currently, (at time of first release), in residence at Florida State University as a Clinical Psychologist in the Department of Psychology and the Black Studies program... for two years. Dr. Akbar served as director of the office of Human Development for the formerly called American Muslim Mission. In this position, he also served as an aide to Iman W. D. Mohammed, the former leader of this influential religious and social movement.
In this book, "black children, their roots, culture, and learning styles, black males are said to be judged by their physical attributes, rather than their mental capacity and ability to know and apply that they do know... "The Black Male must become proficient in several areas... walk, called the "pimp" or the "dirty bop", athletic prowess, sexual competence, and streetwiseness", according to Virginia Young, 1970.
"One of the challenges the black males must face is the conflicting images of masculinity that predominate in the broader society", stated Janice Hale.
Because of the duality of our society, Dr. Akbar has to hold his career as a secondary priority... "my secondary position which I hope will soon become my primary position is... trying to develop my own Consulting Company which is geared toward motivational development and positive self awareness, primarily for African Americans, addressing some of the unique kinds of motivational problems we have as a people of this black community", said Dr. Akbar.
Dr. Akbar has served on the Board of Directors of several important organizations including several terms on the Board of the National Association of Black Psychologists to which he was elected to serve as President for 1987 through 1988.
He is also listed in the who's Who in Black America, and has received the prestigious Community Service Award from the National Association of Black Social Workers. In 1986, the Mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey proclaimed a "Naim Akbar Day" in recognition of his expertise in the field of Black Psychology.
In 1986, he was the recipient of a McKnight Foundation Development Grant, which afforded him eight years sabbatical for research and writing...
He served as columnist for the international circulated Muslim journal newspaper... he was interviewed on several episodes of Tony Brown's Journal, Dennis Wholey's Late Night America and most recently, the Phil Donahue show.
Blacks have often had to work 15 to 20 years or more for the general society, obtaining survival and seed-business money before building a business around their dream.
... "In many ways, I have become somewhat disenchanted with the main stream traditional university teaching position... First of all, I think it's very restrictive on the one hand you can do many things but on the other hand you can't... It stifles my creativity. It doesn't let me produce the way that I would really like to produce", said Dr. Akbar in reference to his eight years old position at Florida State University. Dr. Akbar has been a psychologist for about 17 years. In many ways it is very limiting yet it is very secure--9-5 with a good salary, good benefits, could ensure, and all those kinds of things... it gives you that. So I'm assured that I can feed my children ever really... we have good insurance, but in terms of what I can be as a real contributor to society as a whole, I think it is very limiting," responded Dr. Akbar.
"I thought this was what I wanted to do. However, I think it had a lot to do with the fact that there just weren't a lot of alternatives of what we do... we couldn't think beyond getting a salaried position. So the idea of independent business development is something we didn't dream of 20 years ago... as a community.
