The Importance Of Black Culture

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.

Culture is such a broad and complex term that can be defined in numerous ways. It is said that in part is the integrated pattern of human knowledge, communication, belief, art, literature, and music one acquires upon learning and transmitting characteristics from previous generations. Culture is symbolic communication, and its symbols are learned and carefully perpetuated in a society through its institutions. In Black Culture and Black Consciousness by Lawrence W. Levine, he carefully attempts to uncover Afro-American culture during the antebellum and postbellum periods. More often than none, historians like to emphasize the things that get lost in the culture of Afro-Americans when they are taken from Africa and forced to live as enslaved people in North America. However, in Levine’s book, we discover that he carefully

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.

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.

However, Professor Muggins is, of course, far more concerned with Black America than with Black Africa, and here his journal is much more persuasive. He is right to point out that all forms of social and cultural achievement among the slaves - such as the black family, black Christianity and black speech, music and dance - can be shown to be essentially black achievements. Far from being parodies by inferior beings of white models, these were heroic achievements, constructed and maintained in the face of white attitudes that ranged from condescending amusement through indifference to outright hostility. They preserved, for the Afro-American people, individual and collective self-respect, and prevented them, as Professor Huggins rightly emphasizes, from being mere victims. Furthermore, they contributed to American culture in general some of its most vital, characteristic and creative achievements - hence the paradox that no Americans are more American than the black slaves and their descendants, who were excluded from full membership of American society, North or South.

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.

The purpose of this research is to identify the uniqueness and diversity of people and practices of the African American culture. Each culture in life has some similarities and some differences. The similarities and differences that are present in a culture is what make the culture what it is. When dealing with a culture, race, ethnicity, of a people or religion it has a history of where it originates and or a heritage that that culture or people can relate to and always go back to, because this is what sets a

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.

History can be defined as the past events and happenings within the human race. Of course, as events pass, history changes. In accordance with these changes, things regarding history must change content as well. The study of the human race does not only include one group of people or race. Just like any other history course, African American Studies courses’ content has changed over the years as well. There have been various stages of African American Studies throughout the years. The platform for African American studies was essentially set by the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History (ASALH.) According to Robert L. Harris Jr., in Section A, Chapter One of

There is no doubt that African Americans have a rich cultural background and history like the many different ethnic groups who settled in the New World, whose origins lie in another country. For this reason, America was known as the melting pot. However, the backgrounds of each of these cultures were not always understood or, in the case of African Americans, accepted among the New World society and culture. Americans were ignorant to the possibility of differences among groups of people until information and ideas started to emerge, particularly, the African retention theories. This sparked an interest in the field of African culture and retention in African Americans. However, the study of African American culture truly emerged as a result of increased awareness in America, specifically through the publication and findings of scholarly research and cultural events like the Harlem Renaissance where all ethnicities were able to see this rich historical culture of African Americans.

Historical archives discovered by Dorman show that colorism had tangible boundaries within the African American community during the 1920s (47). It is stated that blacks often divided themselves into four subcategories which consisted of “black”, “brown”, “light brown”, and “yellow” Negros (Dorman 47). The above ranking would be listed in a hierarchy from “black” being at the bottom of the socially accepted hierarchy to the “yellow negro” being the most revered and desired socially.

For many years, African-American culture developed separately from Westernized culture, both because of slavery and the persistence of racial discrimination in America. As a result, African-American slave descendants desired to create and maintain traditions of their own. Today, African-American culture has become a staple facet of American culture while still maintaining its individuality. African Americans who remained in the South have carved out their own path that continuously influences the socioeconomic and

There are many questions that a researcher can explore to paint a grander depiction of this racial group. This research paper will be examining three aspects of African American culture by evaluating and analyzing three distinct questions, that all simultaneously relate to the prejudice mentality, stereotyping and discrimination of African American people in the United states of America. The

The lifestyle of African Americans reflects the influence of cultural traditions that originated in Africa but at the same time reflects the uniqueness of the African-American in the United States ("Black American").