Johnson, V. (2003). "A Comparison Journal

820). This view is contradicted by the great number of different cultures that existed in Africa prior to European involvement in the continent, and the many cultures that still remain in one form or another on the continent today. It also overlooks the massive cultural changes that have necessarily come about in the African Diaspora through the variety of experiences and dramatically changed lifestyles experienced by Africans and people of African descent living in non-African countries. According to Johnson's own argument about the inaccuracies and fallacies that arise from the unempirical grouping of different cultural groups together, such an oversimplification of the African/African-American experience is necessarily misleading and ultimately detrimental to the goal of student development.

Johnson's assertions in whole and in part could be made more valid and more reasonable to her readers if she employed any empirical evidence whatsoever in this article. Her assertions of the shared values of African-American students and the larger African community (including those living in Africa and those of African descent), for instance, require actual evidence from carefully conducted studies; one could just as easily provide an abundance of anecdotal evidence that different groups and individuals in the African/African-American community hold highly different values and worldviews from each other, and could even question the very existence of a pan-African community and culture. Without real measurement and objectivity, the assertions made in this article are simply opinions -- opinions obviously shared by other scholars, but without the amount of evidence and rationalization that are necessary for the purposes of scientific advancement.

One could of course argue that the very notion of scientific advancement is itself a European/European-American notion, stemming from a Eurocentirc worldview.This is likely quite true, but there is nothing in African culture as defined by Johnson that would allow for the making of blanket assertions based simply on feeling or casual observance -- neither the assertion of nor the belief in unity shows its actual existence, and the assertion that the quality of unity and the other six principles identified by Johnson are already "a part of African-American life" is something that requires true evidence, not simple repetition (pp. 827). While it is likely -- almost necessary -- that African-American students come to college with different outlooks, experiences, and developmental needs than European-American students, establishing these outlooks and needs requires true observation, not broad and ungrounded sociological and cultural assertions.

Conclusion

Johnson is not necessarily incorrect in her ultimate assessment that traditional student development programs and procedures are under-serving African-American students. It is likely that different methods ought to be developed, perhaps from completely different cultural perspectives and worldviews, in order to meet the needs of these students. Johnson does not provide an accurate or empirical understanding of the differences in either the needs of these students or the potential methods for addressing and meeting these needs, however, and this makes her article hugely unscientific and essentially meaningless. Her oversimplified view of the situation is self-defeating according to her own arguments; greater empirical observation and scientific rigor is necessary to make her ideas and conclusions more valid and more clearly necessary and applicable......