Black Culture Research Paper

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.

Rap music has become one of the most distinctive and controversial music genres of the past few decades. A major part of hip hop culture, rap, discusses the experiences and standards of living of people in different situations ranging from racial stereotyping to struggle for survival in poor, violent conditions. Rap music is a vocal protest for the people oppressed by these things. Most people know that rap is not only music to dance and party to, but a significant form of expression. It is a source of information that describes the rage of people facing growing oppression, declining opportunities for advancement, changing moods on the streets, and everyday survival. Its distinct sound, images, and attitude are notorious to people of all

“Cooning” was a TV show or Film usually they act like idiot behavior that misrepresents African American culture. I think idiot because that shows a deliberate act. Many people called “coons.” Yes, I saw some examples today’s culture some white people still discriminate black people. Some white people were enjoying it, and that seems to some people they insulted African- American behaves. African-American got angry. It was not fair at all that behavior. All are good examples.

Black History Month is a very important month which, occupies a very important place in history. We remember and celebrate the contributions of many heroes for giving us hope and a remarkable history. We honor their accomplishments and determination to give us freedom. I am thankful and joyful for this month as it is a time of rejoicement of those individuals who gained rights for their race. A period of time when these heroes stood up for what they believed was right was during the period of racial segregation.

Caramel, mocha, chocolate, dark chocolate, butterscotch, brownie, honey. Terms of endearment for the Black race can sound so inviting and sensually stimulating; why then, was I not welcomed with a loving embrace into my own community? An understated problem within the Black community today is that of internalized racism. Should a Black person stray from the status quo and main stream perception of American citizens from African descent as having violent-tendencies and being intemperate, then we are marginalized, and what is worse, we marginalize one another. I have first-hand experience with such marginalization from my peers. I have spent the preponderance of my academic career in a predominantly white community, which has greatly swayed my

Three terms used to describe Black subculture are African-Americans, Blacks and Afro-centricity. The term African-American is used to describe American born blacks only. The immigrants and foreign-born black may or may not identify with the term African-American. I understand how they may feel because I don’t think the term really fit all of the American born blacks. Our ancestors were not from just one place, but from many. Why is it not understood that we are Americans? Why do we have to be called African-American and not just Americans? Who made the determinations that African will be the be dominant name that is used for every black person born in America? Many Black immigrants come from various part of the world, for example, Africa,

Hip-Hop is an extensive and a broad conglomerate of various artistic forms that ultimately originated in the South Bronx and then quickly spread throughout the rest of New York City among African-Americans and other African-American youth mainly from the Caribbean and from Jamaica during the 1970’s. Over the course of decades and recent years, controversy surrounding Hip-Hop and rap music has been the vanguard of the media. From the over hype of the East and West Coast rivalry to the deaths of Tupac, Biggie, and even Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, it seems that political and broadcasting groups have been injudicious to place essentially the blame on rap and Hip-Hop music for a superficial trend in youth violence.

Hip hop has a long political engagement and Hip Hop almost starts as a political movement. Political Hip Hop is a subgenre of Hip Hop music, developed in 1980 and a way of turning rap music into a call of action. Inspired by political preachers in 1970, like The Last poets, Gil Scott-Heron and Public enemy was the first political hip hop group. Political hip hop is also the use of hip hop music to send political messages to inspire actions or to convince the listener of a particular worldview. There is no encompassing political hip hop ideology. Rather they range from Libertarianism

As circumstances of social inequalities are becoming more prominent in the social media and news sources, the appearance of political rap is also becoming more prevalent. It’s very common to hear rappers rap about their struggles and injustices, not only with present day artists but also older groups. For example, N.W.A, Tupac Shakur, Public Enemy, and Nas, who were popular in the late 80’s and throughout the 90’s, were known for their politically charged music and critiques of the American media. Present day artists such as Kendrick Lamar and Joey Bada$$, keep this type of music alive and continue to address inequalities. The ultimate goal of this type of music is to bring attention to the actions and policies of the government as well

Despite political rap’s largely underground presence, Hip-hop has learned to exist within the mainstream of a culture it actively opposes. While Political artists maintain an image that is true to self or representative of African-American /Black life in American society,

Rap music is an urban genre that grew from the hip-hop movement which started in the 1970s. It mashes up instrumental tracks created by a DJ with rhyming lyrics of an MC also known as a rapper. Rappers express their ideas of feelings on politics, sexual exploits, conditions of daily life and their characters. Many critics consider rap the greatest example of postmodern music because it adapts so well the fast and constant self-promotor that is television. Unlike television, however, rap gives African-Americans a voice to speak freely for political dispute. For rap music to be seen as frightening to some listeners adds to its political insult. In a comedy stand up starring Chris Rock he goes on to say, “You have to defend rap music. Because people always say, ‘That’s not music, that’s not art, that’s garbage! How can you listen to that garbage? How can you listen to that trash?’ And in the old days, it was easy to depend rap music. It was easy to defend it on an intellectual level. You could break it down, intellectually, why Grandmaster Flash, Run-D.M.C. and Whodini was art in music” (Chris). When listeners hear the works of these well respected artists they should be aware of the ethnocentric and where they came from.

Rap music industry had an astonishing change in the last few years, becoming the most popular and influencing music genre. The immense growth of rap music brings people from different classes and background together, causing the boundaries between black people and white people converge. Moreover, it provides a platform for artists to express themselves through their artistic creativity delivering individualism and cultural background to certain audience that shares the same culture and beliefs.

“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” This profound statement from English writer, Aldous Huxley, demonstrates the importance that music obtains in today’s society. Simply, music is a form of expression, not limited to any specific genre. Although this expression is not limited to one genre, there is one that seemingly obtains the title of most controversial. The Rap/Hip-Hop genre has been harshly criticized for the topics of discussion in which many songs entail, and the various projected images. Everything has its pros and cons; many people have lost

Persuading people that rap music is violent is damaging to the reputation of the African American community. In Joan Morgan’s “The misogyny of rap” she does not mention any form of positive rap music. This shows her focus is a specific problem in certain types of rap music and not that all of rap is violent. If rap music is violent then most categories of music must also label as violent. For example, Grammy-winning country artist such as the Dixie Chicks, Garth Brooks, and Dwight Yokum, all have popular songs about murder: “Good Bye Earl”, “Papa Loved Momma” and “She Wore a Red Dress’. Regardless of its many popular violent songs, still country music is not labeled as violent. Just like country music, rap music has many positive styles: Christian, love and conscious rap. Therefore, this shows there is a captious double-standard when it comes to classifying African American rap as a treacherous form of music. Philip Bump, a national correspondent of the Washington Times, cross-referenced violent crimes, and explicit rap popularity from 1980 to 2005 to show that the popularity of explicit rap music has had a sharp increase while the number of violent crimes per 100,000 Americans continues to decrease. Additionally, the United States sentencing commission reports show that black male offenders received sentences on average 19.1 percent longer than similarly situated White male offenders. Regardless of the Civil rights Act, Stereotyping and statistics prove the inequality of America.

Music is increasingly emerging as a form of modern-day activism that is used in voicing the concerns that different segments of the society may have. Through music, the artists can highlight the social problems that are facing the oppressed section of the community. Music is a powerful tool owing to the more significant address that it can reach and its reliance on the millennial relation. The activism that is intended for addressing the police brutality and the small steps that are undertaken by the authorities to solve the social problems have been crucial in addressing the concerns of the modern-day society. The killing of the blacks and the black rights have been some of the issues that are facing the black community. Hip Hop music has