More handpicked essays just for you.
African american cultural history summary
Cultural Heritage and Identity essay
Cultural Heritage and Identity essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Black culture is the epitome of what defines America’s understanding of cool. It is difficult to define what it means to be cool without stating the influence or impact of the culture. The idea of cool developed as a social attitude implemented by black men during slavery which they used as a defense mechanism in order to cope with exploitation and injustice. It is now spread by hip hop culture which has integrated itself into mainstream society. As a result, black culture continues to play a vital role in America due to its innovative and creature nature. As hip hop culture became prevalent in pop culture, so did black culture. Hip hop stems from black struggle. Their vernacular, songs, and spiritual ways were different from what whites were used to. Their different lifestyle of “living on the edge” was intriguing yet inaccessible for the whites living among them. Thus, this initiated America’s fascination with the culture. It became about what people assume and perceive about black people rather than what they actually are. In essence, an essential to cool is being on the outside, looking in. In the media and celebrities today, …show more content…
They have become more infatuated with the novelty and difference in lifestyles rather than the issues black people face. The media takes advantage of this attraction, and treats the culture as entertainment, demeaning black creations while not really caring about the people who make up the culture. Many individuals love the idea of black culture but do not want to face the real and uncomfortable conflicts associated with black identity such as police brutality, racism, colorism, and intersectionality. If white people are able to partake in something so essential to black identity such as music or hairstyles, why should they feel limited to speak on real and current
Hip-Hop became characterized by an aggressive tone marked by graphic descriptions of the harshness and diversity of inner-city life. Primarily a medium of popular entertainment, hip-hop also conveys the more serious voices of youth in the black community. Though the approaches of rappers became more varied in the latter half of the 1980s, message hip-hop remained a viable form for addressing the problems faced by the black community and means to solve those problems. The voices of "message" hip...
Are black people that different than white people? This is both a question and concern society focuses much attention on today, is there cultural assimilation in the United States or does the country still remain segregated? Realistically, America has a long way to come before saying it fully integrates both races equally. Donnell Alexander, author of “Cool Like Me” approaches the topic of the prejudices whites have of blacks, arguing that there exists no cultural integration and the United States is still separated. With many lucid examples using expressive tones and personal examples, he compares the coolness of himself to the coolness of other blacks and other cultures in order to get the reader to identify “cool” and relate it as a black quality and observe it in American culture as a style and a way of thinking.
Since the early to mid 90’s, hip-hop has undergone changes that purists would consider degenerating to its culture. At the root of these changes is what has been called “commercial hip-hop". Commercial hip-hop has deteriorated what so many emcees in the 80’s tried to build- a culture of music, dance, creativity, and artistry that would give people not only something to bob their head to, but also an avenue to express themselves and deliver a positive message to their surroundings.
In black media today the hip hop culture is often referred to when defining what it means to be a black person in society. In particular the
The cool-pose culture of young black men is gratifying. These young men are dependent on this life style of imitating hip-hop culture. The positive of adopting “cool pose” is the fact that it gives the individual a sense of belonging, confidence and success. Unfortunately the positives are derivative of the negatives. Though, much of the confidence and belonging comes from being a part of a group of people ...
First I want to speak in unambiguous and unequivocal terms: I repudiate all the rappers promoting failure through their rhymes about selling drugs, abusing women, and abandoning their responsibilities as men. You are all lost and a shame upon our people. Your values are decrepit; your values are out of sync with the norms of society. It amazes me how you promote a lifestyle that only leads to incarceration, broken families, and mass ignorance yet the youth still gravitates towards your message like it's the blue print to success. A lot of our men are a shadow of what they should be. A lot our men have failed their women, failed their daughters, failed their sons and most importantly failed themselves. Not all black men are walking zombies with dicks but at times it seems that good black men are outnumbered by these buffoons. What of the black woman who gives birth to multiple children with different fathers? She has been an accessory to a culture of "baby mammas," child support experts, and extreme mismanagement of money. Black men who are noble and becoming of kings you must wrestle the reigns of your people from the lost, if you won't we will continue to succeed as individuals but fail as a people. They can do you know harm, they aren't as smart as you, nor do they live longer than you. I do not jettison teaching and educating but we are in a perilous state in which we might not have time for niceties. Black men in America are two moves away from being checkmated and when our women abandon us en mass then the final piece will be played. The white man is not to blame, our fate always was, always is and always will be in our own hands. One day, I do not know the exact minute or the hour, we stop being lions, we stop being the ligh...
Hip-Hop is a cultural movement that emerged from the dilapidated South Bronx, New York in the early 1970’s. The area’s mostly African American and Puerto Rican residents originated this uniquely American musical genre and culture that over the past four decades has developed into a global sensation impacting the formation of youth culture around the world. The South Bronx was a whirlpool of political, social, and economic upheaval in the years leading up to the inception of Hip-Hop. The early part of the 1970’s found many African American and Hispanic communities desperately seeking relief from the poverty, drug, and crime epidemics engulfing the gang dominated neighborhoods. Hip-Hop proved to be successful as both a creative outlet for expressing the struggles of life amidst the prevailing crime and violence as well as an enjoyable and cheap form of recreation.
In Stuart Hall’s “What is This “Black” in Black Popular Culture?” the historical implication of popular culture in the U.S is examined and the influence that blackness has in it is deconstructed. According to the text, the departure of European concepts of culture after WWII sparked a hegemonic shift as the United States emerged as a world power. Due to this, the U.S. became the epicenter of global culture production. However, since America has always had a large ethnic population due to slavery, the true face of American popular culture was black American vernacular traditions. Even today, slang that emerge from black ghettos and communities become highly popular with people of other races. In fact, much of black culture is not just our culture,
However, that is not the case. White artists are taking the styles and genres of African Americans and turning them into a mockery, and on top of all that, they are being rewarded for it. When said they turn these styles into mockery, it means that they change up the style into something completely different than what it originally was. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are prime examples of artists appropriating hip-hop. “During the 2013 MTV’s Video Music Award, artists Macklemore and Ryan Lewis won an award for best hip-hop video, beating popular African American hip hop artists. Two white men won an award for appropriating hip-hop. Hip hop originated from African Americans, and having a two white artists win an award for misusing our culture’s music is not acceptable” (Cadet). In hip hop, African American artists talked about their plight as African American men and about the struggles growing up. However, these white artists won an award for just taking the style and talking about anything important. They do not talk about their plight because they do not have one comparable to African Americans. They do like musicians did in the past: take the music from African Americans, and then take away the color. “But we cannot blame individual white artists for the inequitable way they are received by the American public—the way their performance of black cultures is
The article discusses the fact that hip hop “provides a lens [through which white students and faculty at institutions] interpret Black culture” and that because of this not only is the Black female’s view of herself being manipulated, but black males expect what is being promoted by hip hop culture from them, and so does every other person (Henry, West, & Jackson 238). A professor at North Carolina Central University spoke about how he dislikes how hip-hop has influenced the way his students dress, he said “ They look like hoochie mamas, not like they’re coming to class” (as cited in Evelyn
In his novel: Hip-hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap, Jeffrey Ogbonna Green Ogbar addresses the traditional themes of Hip hop music. There are the traditional minstrel stereotypes caused from “the marketing of hip-hop” (Ogbar 2007: 41), the dehumanization of women in hip-hop culture where they must have a persona of “soft femininity or being one-of-the-boys” (103), and the “thug life” theme where violence against the police and gangs is deemed satisfactory in this way of life (156). Brother Ali similarly addresses these issues but the other way around. Instead of praising and accepting these common lyrical practices, he counters them by calling out the problems and promoting ways to fix them. By making this music, he also potentially setting an example for the black culture in the
Hip hop has permeated popular culture in an unprecedented fashion. Because of its crossover appeal, it is a great unifier of diverse populations. Although created by black youth on the streets, hip hop's influence has become well received by a number of different races in this country. A large number of the rap and hip hop audience is non-black. It has gone from the fringes, to the suburbs, and into the corporate boardrooms. Because it has become the fastest growing music genre in the U.S., companies and corporate giants have used its appeal to capitalize on it. Although critics of rap music and hip hop seem to be fixated on the messages of sex, violence, and harsh language, this genre offers a new paradigm of what can be (Lewis, 1998.) The potential of this art form to mend ethnic relations is substantial. Hip hop has challenged the system in ways that have unified individuals across a rich ethnic spectrum. This art form was once considered a fad has kept going strong for more than three decades. Generations consisting of Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and Asians have grown up immersed in hip-hop. Hip hop represents a realignment of America?s cultural aesthetics. Rap songs deliver a message, again and again, to keep it real. It has influenced young people of all races to search for excitement, artistic fulfillment, and a sense of identity by exploring the black underclass (Foreman, 2002). Though it is music, many people do not realize that it is much more than that. Hip hop is a form of art and culture, style, and language, and extension of commerce, and for many, a natural means of living. The purpose of this paper is to examine hip hop and its effect on American culture. Different aspects of hip hop will also be examined to shed some light that helps readers to what hip hop actually is. In order to see hip hop as a cultural influence we need to take a look at its history.
In an article from history its talks about how the black culture was become more involved. In this article it says, “ Locke’s “New Negro” transformed “social disillusionment to race pride.” During this time the African American people took much pride in their culture. They felt that they should make their music and writings into the way they talked. They did not want to feel like they were having to be set on standards such as the whites thought they should. Again in the same article it keeps talking about the same thing. It says, “Langston Hughes put it, the “Expression of our individual dark-skinned selves.” They were finally sticking up for themselves and they wanted to express how they were equally important as the
Being a resident of South Carolina, African-American Culture was chosen as part of the applied learning project for the Intercultural Nursing class, because African-Americans make up more than a quarter of this state’s population. According to the 2010 United States Census Bureau, the total population for South Carolina (S.C.) is 4,625,364, with 27.9% being of African-American descent. The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding and sensitivity to issues and cultural variances or phenomena that are unique to the African-American Culture. Another goal is to identify nursing interventions that are important for the nurse to consider in caring for this population. These phenomena’s include variances in social organization, communication, space, perception of time, environmental control, and biological variations associated with the African-American culture. (Giger, 2013 and South Carolina minority, n.d.)
From its conception in the 1970's and throughout the 1980's, hip hop was a self-contained entity within the community that created it. This means that all the parameters set for the expression came from within the community and that it was meant for consumption by the community. Today, the audience is from outside of the community and doesn’t share the same experiences that drive the music. An artists’ success hinges on pleasing consumers, not the community. In today's world, it isn’t about music that rings true for those who share the artists' experiences, but instead, music that provides a dramatic illusion for those who will never share the experiences conveyed. This has radically changed the creative process of artists and the diversity of available music. Most notably, it has called in to question the future of hip hop.