The Evolution of African American Identity

The Identity of African American Men: How has it been displayed in the Media; negatively or positively?

Still between 1865 and 1876, there was a culture identity crisis for African Americans. We cannot explain the roots of African American culture without

“The soul was the body that fed the tobacco, and the spirit was the blood that watered the cotton, and these created the first fruits of the American garden” (Coates 104). In Between the World and Me,” and within this quote alone, Ta-Nehisi Coates argued not only the importance of black identity, but also how and why black identity was so deceivingly shaped in response to the dark history behind it. Through Coates’ recollections and fair warnings to his son, the relationship between black identity and “The Dream” becomes clearer. In spite of the “white supremacist” trademark that comes stamped upon “The Dream,” Coates provides impermeable evidence as to why black identity is not only more invested in history than white identity, but more importantly why it is the investment to be made in “The American Dream.”

Africa had undergone many difficulties within their nation. I believe the more smartest thing the Europeans could have done before proceeding would be to think about the transitions and the aftermath of their actions before they took action. If only they put to mind that their real goal was to get the independence these nations needed, the transition would have been so much more simple, it would have helped a lot with the process. If they were to thoroughly think it through, they could have put a huge impact on the rise of education so that the people CAN get more involved with the government, and with that would mean a rise in economy. With proper education means everything, because the more educated africans, the more they could have placed

Race is a socially constructed term that society uses to distinguish and categorize people by the color of their skin. With race, unfortunately, comes stereotypes, a distorted image of a particular person or group of people that is widely known and unconsciously recognized throughout society. The strongest stereotypes of Blacks in society are that they are unfriendly, dangerous, or are criminals. There is a correlation between the relationship with race and crime. The stereotype that will be discussed is, African Americans as criminals.

Thus, slavery began in the new land. The once Europeans wanted these slaves to be different from them so there was some sort of distinction, so they captured Indians, and brought in captured Africans to get the job done. Indians became difficult to in-slave and some did not agree with the decision so Africans became the figure for slavery. During the first years and colonies in America, there was not many captive slaves, and those who were slaves worked with servants sharing the duties. Many slaves would also have the option for freedom at their master’s discretion, which would usually be after several years working for them.

Alain Locke wrote “Enter the New Negro,” and Marcus Garvey’s speech on Negroes in the early twentieth century interconnects on “new” Americans and new cultural Politics. Psychological and social traits were examined deeply about “new negroes,” and how their emergence in society was different from when their ancestors manifested.

Thirty years following the abolishment of slavery in American, life was still harsh for those of African descent. African Americans began searching for a way out of the South; thus the cause of the Great Migration, the largest exodus of people in American history. With them, African Americans carried their hopes, dreams, and culture in hope of finding their own self-realization. The Emancipation Proclamation did not live up to the expectations America had hoped for, people were not truly free. Freedom, identity, claiming one’s citizenship were all the goals hoped to be achieved through the migration. The migration led many to New York where African Americans could be the people they had always imagined themselves to be. Here, they sought opportunity that had never been available. This was one of the most artistically fertile periods in African American history, known as the Harlem Renaissance. Races could commingle in ways that were illegal in much of the country.

Over the years, the African American race has greatly evolved from having a lack of individual freedom to having their own sense of individuality. There have been many different events in America that has played some part in the evolution of the black race. After the Civil War, most of the races in America were seen to have separate freedom, but as the years progress African Americans were one of the many to stand up and obtain their individuality. In the process of obtaining individual freedom, there were many events that played important roles in this particular process. The African American race was seen to evolve during slavery, Civil Rights, and modern day. Each of these significant times, African Americans’ went from the struggle to becoming successful in the end.

When it came to major changes after the war, the biggest change had to be the brief freedom that African Americans experienced. When the 13th amendment was passed by Abraham Lincoln, You could see the change amounts African-Americans. They started leaving the Lands they worked on and started traveling not having to worry about the patrollers or the pass system which had stop many African Americans from going anywhere. With their new found freedom to go anywhere, many African Americans abandoned old clothing and names to start a new. In the brief time slaved really experienced freedom, they created churches, more than 4,000 schools, and provided over 9,000 teachers with the help of the Freedmen's Bureau.

In 1925, philosopher and leading black intellectual Alain Locke published the short essay The New Negro. In this essay, Locke describes the contemporary conditions of black Americans, and discusses the trajectory and potential of black culture to affect global change in its historical moment (Locke 47). Locke wrote this essay in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance, a period in which black artists and intellectuals sought to reconceptualize black lives apart from the stereotypes and racist portrayals of prior decades (Hutchinson). The New Negro and the discourse around Locke’s work attempted to push forth a bold project: that of reshaping the cultural identity of black America with respect to the existent structures of American culture, as

The author Eddy L. Harris was talking about search for his identity as a black American through the South of American. He fined an older women starting to ask her questions about how the people was treating. Because Harris was still stuck in the past such as slavery, lynching and toilets for coloreds only. So the women inform him that she move on to the future and not thinking about the past. That black people have to be positive and keep holding on to they can find a way around the barriers that the people was make.

The African American community has sat at the end of a discriminatory lens from the moment they set foot in the United States. For that reason, black communities have undergone the process of community building to ensure that all members feel a sense of belonging.

In exploring the problem of identity in Black literature we find no simple or definite explanation. Nevertheless, it is generally accepted that it is rooted in the reality of the discriminatory social system in America with its historic origins in the institution of slavery. One can discern that this slavery system imposes a double burden on the Negro through severe social and economic inequalities and through the heavy psychological consequences suffered by the Negro who is forced to play an inferior role, 1 the latter relates to the low self-estimate, feeling of helplessness and basic identity conflict. Thus, in some form or the other, every Negro American is confronted with the

The term “African-American” is very controversial to black Americans. There is a large debate over "the meaning of the African-American experience and who is (and isn’t) part of it" (Berlin). In the magazine article, “The Changing Definition of African-American: How the great influx of people from Africa and the Caribbean since 1965 is challenging what it means to be African-American”, author Ira Berlin raises the “not my history” phenomenon which entails the idea that labelling someone as African-American is more of an ethnicity title rather than an actual race. Similarly, in the article, “Where I'm From”, author Aisha Harris gets across that “the term African-American doesn't quite suit [her] identity” but at the same time she comes to a conclusion that when people asked about her ethnicity, “black wasn't a sufficient answer” immediately laying out a constant struggle she faces with her ethnicity as well as showing many black people do not accept the simple answer of being black for ethnicity (Harris).