Essay On African American Culture

Artwork has been an imperative part of Black culture, and many artist share their inspirations coming from African origins. From the beginning of slave societies to present day, African America artwork has contributed to large parts of United States artistic collection. Beginning in the early 1600 to 1800 “black art took the form of small drums, quilts, wrought-iron figures and ceramic vessels in the southern United States. These artifacts have similarities with comparable crafts in West and Central Africa.” The significance of the

Slavery began in the late 16th century to early 18th century. Africans were brought to American colonies by white masters to come and work on their plantations in the South. They were treated harshly with no payments for all their hard work. In addition, they lived under harsh living conditions, and this led to their resistance against these harsh conditions. The racism towards the African Americans who were slaves was at its extreme as they did not have any rights; no civil nor political rights.

Throughout American history, African Americans fought to establish their own culture. Even though they were silenced by white laws and stereotypes, African Americans created their own distinct culture, to a certain extent from 1800 to 1860. By mixing their African American traditions and Christian ideas, they formed a religion, their own version of Christianity. African American rebellions, though small and infrequent, were used to express their beliefs on slavery and add to their distinct culture. And, with the constant fear of being split up by being sold, African American families managed to form within plantations through marriages and children. Despite

Culture is not a fixed phenomenon, nor is it the same in all places or to all people. It is relative to time, place, and particular people. Learning about other people can help us to understand ourselves and to be better world citizens.

African American Studies is a very complex subject. To confuse African American studies with black history is a common occurrence. African American studies is much deeper and more profound than just Black history alone. There are many unanswered and unasked questions among the Black American culture which causes confusion and misunderstanding in modern day society. In unit one there were many themes, concepts, and significant issues in the discipline of Africana studies. Both W.E.B Du Bois and Vivian V. Gordan touched on many concerns.

As Americans, we are privileged with diverse experiences. With this comes a perceived understanding of many cultures and their influences but in fact full cultural literacy is impossible to achieve.

African Americans have open communication with family and friends about personal health (D’Amico & Barbarito, 2012). Due to this, the patient might not have open communication with healthcare professionals. If the patient allows, speaking with a family member this could revile additional information. African Americans dietary patterns include high-fat and fried foods. Due to this diet, the patient has an increased risk for non-compliance for a diabetic diet and decreased wound healing. Finally, African Americans do not see obesity as a concern. These facts are cultural considerations to consider when teaching an African American the need for proper diabetes control and proper wound healing (D’Amico & Barbarito, 2012).

As for the popular culture of Black Americans, we will be discussing the representation of these individuals in the media. Black individuals have never been treated as equally as Whites in the media. They are stereotyped as lazy, stupid, violent, and stupid in today’s society (Horton, Price, & Brown, 1999). These degrading stereotypes are reinforced by negative representation and portrayal of these individuals in the media. For example, it is not uncommon for a Black individual to be cast in a movie or television show as a criminal. These beliefs are not true and depict the entire population as bad even though only a small population of individuals fit into this category. In addition, news representation seems to represent Black criminals

One can say that we live in a country that under the constitution states that there is justice for all citizens, we are all granted equal protection under the law, and we have equality for all; but yet people are still fighting for equality. Blacks are being victimized by the system that causes them to be treated unfairly by the police which leads then to dealing with discriminatory sentencings for small crimes, and they would forever live in this vicious cycle that was created to put Blacks away. There are many laws, policies, and legislations that are set in place to keep certain groups of people oppressed without even openly stating which group of people would be oppressed. Race and crime, as two significant social phenomena, are

African Americans did not come to the Americas as immigrants, they did not collectively decide that they wanted a better life than the one they had in Africa by coming to be someone’s property. No African people were forced to the Americas with nothing but the clothes on their backs ripped away from their families,culture, and their traditions to go to a foreign land surrounded by people who did not speak their language. They had no way to communicate with anyone not even fellow Africans as different dialects and languages are shared all over West Africa. Yet somehow these strong human beings found a way to survive and while they were stripped of everything they owned there was something their captors could not take from them and that was their culture.

The perception of racism towards African Americans in the United States is shown through both current American novels and films. Nearly every novel and film made today portrays a sense of racism towards African Americans and continually has the African American gangster and the white man hero. Unfortunately, many African Americans are categorized compared to whites as less qualified, educated and trustworthy. More specifically, the novel Southland acknowledged a different racial perception of jobs towards whites and people of color in relation to being a police officer. White people are continually represented as the proper, social and economical power by what jobs they are given and the actions they take. Different novels, films and

seen the proof that the culture in a country that is well trained well prosper and work towards unity.

Scholars have dedicated their time and attention to furthering the discipline of African American Studies and can define the field with many different definitions. Through looking at the origins and development in the study we can see how it became a legitimate academic field. As we study the writings of the African American intellect, it will fully explain the importance of the discipline. Their work will justify the study of cultural and historical experiences of Africans living in Africa or the African Diaspora. When examining the scholar’s arguments we can develop our own intellectually informed rationalization of the field of African American Studies.

I chose this class because I wanted to know more about Black/African history. As we all know society seem to lack in that department when it comes to teaching about it. Black humanities sounded like a great class to farther increase my knowledge about African and Black people. I really don’t know what my expectation was to be honest. I just tried to go in with an open mind and hope I found something interesting. Also, I hoped that the history was treated with respect. I have experience before when Black/African history was brought up (not often of course) some teachers spoken about the subject with a condescending tones. Anyways, the class was ok. I did feel that the class was taught in a way to not offend the white people in the room. I felt

This chapter began with it was summertime 1999 in New York City platform. He didn't how to start conversation with this young, dreadlocked, in a baggy, charcoal gray jean suit. Somehow they stared conversation with gay people and god. Then he accused lesbianism and devil. He spoke in a assertively, artistically, and hurtfully, weaving language. There was was a young man in hip hop as hip hop artist, a feminist man and also lyrics composed. There is usually a man who is interested in hip hop but here was was a black woman who was also interested in hip-hop. On the subway platform this woman saw a bad side of hip-hop. Gender hip-hop has termed “femiphobia”. Hip-Hop is a masculine music. In this chapter it discuss about