Black Culture Influence On American Culture

The American culture is define to everyone in their own way. Everyone grows up differently in a particular community that shares the same languages, values, rules, and customs. The American Culture on that is consider to be a “melting pot”, because of all the different cultures that reside inside of it making it so diverse. Race in this country has never been a great topic throughout history. African Americans play a huge role into defining what our culture is as a whole, as well as being a part of racism for the past 250 years.

Music is a creative art form that allows the artist to construct something that expresses a purpose. It evolves over time and changes as the world changes, taking on many different motivations behind the melody and lyrics. In today’s society, anger, oppression, racism, and negative opinions rule the media and popular culture. I believe that African Americans need to show their self worth and not let white people hold them back. With the music in white culture often mocking African American culture and portraying negative stereotypes, African Americans have to find ways to gain respect. In acknowledgement of the negative portrayal of their culture, African Americans respond by creating songs and videos that express their pride in their culture and heritage, react to white oppression, and communicate their independence.

Chris Rock’s documentary, Good Hair, investigates the notion of what good hair is. Dominant society views good hair as straight or essentially caucasian hair. This is not only problematic to the self-esteem and confidence of black women, but it can also cause black women to appropriate Asian culture. Black women unfortunately take advantage of Asian culture in search of what society believes is good hair. Many black women wear weaves in order to align to what society believes is good hair. However, when they buy this hair, they do not realize what Asians go through. Likewise, Asians who give up their hair do not know where or who this hair will be going to. Thus, this desire for good hair further perpetuates the lack of understanding that black

African American influence in music has been an ever present and controversial subject in American history. Stemming from many different cultures, religions and backgrounds, large portions of American music was introduced by, and credited to African Americans. Although in many cases, this music was used for entertainment by the masses or majority, contrary to popular belief, black music served a greater purpose than just recreation. Dating all the way back to the beginning of slavery in the U.S. during the 17th century, music has been used to make a statement and send a message. As African American music progressed over the years, there were common themes expressed as the genres evolved. It has been an open letter to the world, documenting and protesting the ongoing oppression faced by blacks in the United States, as well as an outlet for frustration. For many African Americans, the music gave them the only voice that couldn’t be silenced by their oppressors.

The Unites States is a true melting pot of ethnicities and cultures. For many members of minority groups a certain hybridity is readily adopted, but for others, cultural assimilation can be quite difficult. Chicana author, Sandra Cisneros described this phenomenon as “always straddling two countries… but not belonging to either culture” (Doyle. 54). African American author, Alice Walker shared Cisneros’ sentiment, but focused her attention on the assimilation of black cultures and subcultures within the United States. Cisneros and Walker make the same poignant statement about the strains of cultural assimilation, with reconciliation of split identities as the goal, in their respective works, 1991’s “Woman Hollering Creek,” and 1973’s “Everyday Use,” yet their unique ethnic perspectives allow them to make it in surprisingly different ways.

Inmy research paper I will be defining African American Culture and I also will be discussing things such as slavery, family relations, hairstyles, art forms, food, heath issues, symbolism, traditional beliefs and also why this topic is relevant to today culture and how this information can benefit Black American in today society. African American Culture in the United States refer to the cultural contributions of African ethnic groups to the culture of the United States, either as part of or distinct from American Culture.   African

This event forever changed the face of the Modern World. The Atlantic Slave Trade was

What movement changed the world and created many traditions, movements, and even lifestyles? Hip-Hop. This is a name for four elements, created in the late seventies, which includes turntablism, emceeing, graffiti, and break dancing. Hip Hop attained widespread popularity in the 1980s and ’90s. Today, many view this as just “Rap,” but Hip Hop is not just music, it is a cultural movement that influenced America in positive ways. These influences can be seen in the traditions, fashion, art, music, and lifestyles of America. It is important to recognize the voice of an otherwise underrepresented group and how it influenced lifes.

Since the early 1900s, Black women have had a fascination with their hair. More explicitly, they have had a fascination with straightening their hair. The need to be accepted by the majority class has caused them to do so. Though the image of straight hair as being better than coarse hair still hasn’t left the Black community, there has been a surge of non straight hairstyles since the nineteen sixties. Wearing more natural hairstyles, which ironically enough include ‘weaves’ and ‘hair extensions’ has been considered to be more empowered and more enlightened. However, this image comes with a price, and though it appears the ‘natural’ hairstyle movement has advanced Black women, it has actually set

The African American slave influence in the beginnings of American culture and technology and Native Americans of the North American Continent were significant in creating America. By revealing the different ways this achieved, we can see the work and techniques that drove the new country and how this created by the political, as well as ideological ramifications of their labors. With all of these contributions to the new country of the United States, we see that the formation of the world power built on the principles that the early settlers created in their work.

A new day and a new dawn for the American people as new decade was upon them and it brought new feelings into the United States. It was a time for a change in America and many felt it coming. While this time period is known for changing the course of history it happens to be one of the most important time periods for certain individuals and certain ideals. Martin Luther King Jr, John F. Kennedy, and Malcolm X were among those new individual rising to the top bring new politics into the white house and bringing new power to the streets of Chicago, North Caroline and beyond. With changes from president to civil right leaders and war consuming the world, politics and power had seemed to have a large influence on what would happen.

As professors teaching Black Studies today will tell you, the socialization of blacks into the American traditional culture failed. We have failed to bring the vast majority of the offspring of the slaves into the culture of Western Civilization, the culture of Abraham Lincoln. While part of the black community is Christian and has been socialized for years, the dominant black majority in America is led by the Democratic Party and rejects Western Civilization.

A fraternity and a sorority at UCLA were suspended in 2015 for throwing a “Kanye Western” themed party in which the students were accused of wearing blackface as part of their costumes. Obviously, there is a zero-tolerance policy to those kinds of antics at a university, however, it only shows that today’s culture is far from distancing itself from one of the oldest and most severe forms of racism. Blackface minstrelsy was one of the first American forms of entertainment and it provided a lens through which white America began to view black America in a harmful way. Decades later, hip hop emerged as a way to express resentment towards social oppression, it gave black people a sense of identity and culture through music. Although hip hop

One negative consequence of globalization: The alienation of African secular culture in relation to dating and sex.

While America was being formed it was influenced by three different cultures, early native Americans, explorers, and imperialist and the colonists. Each of them treasured different things. The native Americans cared more about nature and supernatural things, while colonials cared more about religion and unity.