The Role Of Fictive Kins In African American Culture

During the mid-1800s, it was challenging being a slave. Belonging to another human being instead of being free brought numerous hardships African Americans had to endure. It brought about unimaginable pain, frustration, disruption, and stress. In America, slavery was glorified, even though, families were separated and destroyed. Slavery made it tedious to have stability in families because of the effects it had on the African American people. After reading “How Affected African American Families” and “Narrative of Jenny Proctor,” slavery caused African American families to cope with separation, unfair marriage stipulations, horrible living condition, mistreatment and labor, and also the ending of slavery.

Social Imagination is something that everyone should learn how to use on a day to day basis. This is simply being able to think one way about something but while also being able to put yourself in someone else's shoes and think the same way they do. This helps to broaden your horizon on how you really look at things. You could use this to realize what is going on in the world and what is happening with people. There are plenty of different ways this can be used. For personal ways you can just look at a social event lets take the black lives matter protests and use a different perspective than you usually would weather that is in displeasure from it or approval. Another way is someone drinking an energy drink everyday some people would view this as not being very healthy at all while another person would see this and say this is helping that person build more energy to achieve whatever they have going on that day.

In this paper I discuss the African-American culture in regards to values, norms and beliefs.

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.

There are invaluable life lessons to be learned before one even reaches the age of eighteen; lessons that range of the difference between right and wrong, which friends are the right friends, and the importance of faith. But what influences the questions and answers asked and given during this critical beginning to an individual’s life? Family values built around the influence of the modern age, ethnic background and religion shape an individual and the values they will pass on to future generations.

Africans have, since the early settlement of America, has had a great influence in the nation’s growth. These contributions to the United States from enslaved Africans have been greatly portrayed in American culture. Varying from cuisine, to song and dance are not only portrayed today but it has a deep-rooted impact throughout the United States. During the middle passage, enslaved Africans were forced to abandon their everyday lives, their families and their homes and forced to adapt to a new lifestyle they knew nothing of. However, upon arrival into the New World, due to their prior knowledge and wisdom from back home, they were able to quickly adapt and custom themselves to this new lifestyle in order to survive with the hope of potentially one day returning back to Africa. Unfortunately, African contributions to the culture of the United States has received little to no recognition and it has been taken credit for by Europeans and Whites since the early establishment of the United States.

“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.

Everyone has a family of some kind. It may be the parents and siblings they were born with, or it could be the gang of six biologically unrelated elite drivers with an affinity for robbing banks at high speeds from Fast and the Furious. Ultimately, family is what people make of it, and it can be the ‘traditional’ two parents, one brother, one sister, and a dog named Spot, or it could be a woman and the kid she was left with. The term ‘traditional family' refers to the socially expected behaviors of each given role (for example, a mother taking her kid to the doctor,) in the family. Members of a traditional family in this case are either maritally or biologically related. Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees has many characters who would consider themselves, or be considered, part of different families. The Bean Trees addresses and deals with the fact that nontraditional families can be just as strong as what society has defined as a ‘traditional’ family.

The African American Culture and Traditions A Research Study and Facts That Will Take Us Into What Makes This Culture So Unique.

Families around the world consist of many variations. The traditional family includes a mother and father of the same racial background and their children. While this is the most acceptable type of family dynamic, today there are families that consist of countless different types of deviations. Many children grow up with one parent, gay parents, or with their grandparents. There are also families that consist of two parents that are of different races. Interracial families consist of relatives who are from diverse origins. Interracial families include families where the parents are of two different races or when the adopted children are of a different race than their parents.

Additionally, the family of choice consists of people one feels as obligated to as if one was of blood relation. These self-constructed families are no less real or less meaningful than conventional families. In fact, they are known as one’s fictive kin. The bond of this type of family can be formed through several ways. Natalie writes, “for some people, voluntary kinship filled a void left by death or estrangement from biological family, while for others the relationships were supplemental or temporary.” It can be a friendship that turns into a family or a group that one relates to as a family. Either way, the fictive kin family is a blossoming family type. Increasingly, people refer to this as their second family. Some choose it to be their first family when they feel

Alice Walker attempts to depict the different ways of viewing heritage and identity of an African American family. During the first read, the audience sides with the narrator and Maggie against Dee/Wangero. The reader can see Dee/Wangero antagonist of the story. However, this is not the only way to interpret “Everyday Use”. Walker has created a more complex story than just right and wrong. After further analysis, the reader comes to understand that Wangero view of her cultural heritage and identity as a black woman in America is different than the view that Maggie and the narrator have. Wangero values the quilts differently than her family, however that does not mean she is the enemy in the story.

Many African names reflect the composition of the family. Hence, they can reflect discontentment over gender imbalances among family offspring, family ancestry, and the family in extended form. Children are named after their forefathers so as to appease the ancestral spirits, given that dead ancestors of good reputation are believed to have become spirits who protect their descendants. The ancestral spirits are also said to be mediators, whereby they plead to God for protection and mercy toward their descendants. Because ancestral spirits protect their living descendants, they are carefully appeased through carrying out the proper observances and referring to them with respect. In many of the ethnic groups of the Bantu African mega group, the

I have traveled all over the world but I have never been down South. Being from New York has also given me a very narrow perspective of African American culture. The purpose of this research project is to gain some understanding of Black culture specifically in the South. College has exposed me to a lot of people who were born and raised in the South and some of my closest friends are southerners. By researching the history, culture, and demographic information of the South, I plan on becoming a more well-informed American.

In the celebration of the local holidays and traditions of our country, we get to experiences new things that we don’t know about and it provides memories that will last a lifetime. We also have more time with our family and friends. It contributes a sense of comfort and happiness. I know more things during the time I spend with my family on holidays. For instance, when I was six years old, there was a day that my parent takes the whole family visiting my relatives’ houses. My parent told me to say “Happy New Years and wish you have the best luck this year.” to that person and then they give me a red envelope. I don’t know the reason why. When I got home, I open it and see twenty dollars, I am so happy. I did it every year and I come to realize the reason, it’s because what I say makes them happy and they give me money so that throughout the year I will get lucky too. But that don’t last long because my family moves to America and they don’t do that here, it’s sad. Nevertheless, I still thankful that I got to know those things before I