I find it somewhat funny to ask the question above. For me being a person of African-American descent, allegedly; it’s always interesting to observe myself as an individual and myself as a person who is part of a culture. When you see my appearance I look like someone who is Black, yeah it’s pretty apparent. My skin is pretty dark like milk chocolate candy and my hair is a dark brown. Though people who are not of color often think my hair is black. Hair not only signifies me as a person but as a member of some culture. I remember when I was in the third or fourth grade I had to cutout a paper girl who resembled me. She had the darkest skin like black cardboard paper and then I had to attach pieces of yarn to represent hair on my cutout. I always …show more content…
remember when I reached for the dark brown piece of yarn and my teacher told me that I was wrong. That my hair was not brown but black. Yes, she was an Anglo-Slakan woman and did not know she was in the wrong, or maybe she did.
I responded that my hair is brown, it may appear black indoors but it was brown I assured her. She persisted and so did I. Long story short, she did not allow me to decorate the paper cutout with brown yarn and since then I’ve realized how as a Black person that my culture is not assimilated nor acculturated but erased. If my culture was acculturated then I would have some attachment to some African country through food, music, literature, history, fashion or some facet that connected me to my “roots”. Nor have I assimilated, because my culture has not been formally presented to me and then infringed on. Through my own personal dress and style, I’ve started to dress in connection to my prescribed heritage. Certain body modifications that I’ve used recently to make my hair more natural and ethnic is my personal beginning process of un-erasing myself. In the media now, high end designers and even entertainment stars have been showcasing Black art or expression under a new sentiment. These pieces are not ghetto or afrocentric anymore, no they are high fashion and invigorating when they’ve been part of a culture that I’ve been taught was
mines. I’m trying to understand if I’ve been in a state or acculturation or assimilation my whole life because Black culture is not simply Black culture. It involves European culture, Afro- culture, Island culture, Slave culture (because there were other people that were enslaved that were not Black) and many other playmates in the creation of what we refer to as “Black culture”. So I would say that many members of the Black community have never known their culture on a firsthand account, as in a relative passing down ancient generational teachings, and for that fact we are not acculturated or assimilated people; we’re just trying to un-erase our own history as it pertains to the presentation of culture through tangible means such as fashion, hair, artifacts, and other colorful dimensions of culture.
The Effects of African American Culture Appropriations on the Minority Black Culture The black culture is the minority culture in this instance and in most cases, it is dominated by the white culture which has imposed its ideas on them (Stuckey, 2013). When two different cultures come together, different types of cultural appropriations occur. These include transculturation, cultural dominance, and cultural exploitation. The appropriation between the white and black cultures, resulting in the African American culture, is defined by cultural dominance and exploitation.
Everyone is raised within a culture with a set of customs and morals handed down by those generations before them. Most individual’s view and experience identity in different ways. During history, different ethnic groups have struggled with finding their place within society. In the mid-nineteen hundreds, African Americans faced a great deal of political and social discrimination based on the tone of their skin. After the Civil Rights Movement, many African Americans no longer wanted to be identified by their African American lifestyle, so they began to practice African culture by taking on African hairdos, African-influenced clothing, and adopting African names. By turning away from their roots, many African Americans embraced a culture that was not inherited, thus putting behind the unique and significant characteristics of their own inherited culture. Therefore, in an African American society, a search for self identity is a pervasive theme.
In my personal experience I grew up in small town, Tolono, where most of the people are Caucasian and speak English. In third grade we received a new girl to our school and whenever a new student joined our class I was always very welcoming. The new young lady spoke English but was from a different culture. One day in the library I was reading a book with the new girl and some other friends; it was a book on the body and health. The book had all sorts of interactive fold out pages with actual examples. I picked up one of the hair piece examples to show everyone in the group. The hair piece that I picked up that I thought was from the book turned out to be a removeable dread lock from the new girls’ hair that had fallen out. At that time for me I had no clue what a dread lock was or how it could have possibly come from her hair. I am sure my body language and facial expression was an expression of shock and puzzlement,
African-American is a politically correct term used to refer to blacks within the United States. The roots of many African-American rites can be traced back to African cultural rites. However, it is important to note that not all blacks in America identify with African cultural roots. Therefore, some of the rites found within what many in the United States call African-American culture stem from Caribbean and other cultural traditions. For this reason, when making end of life decisions or funeral arrangements the “cultural identification, spirituality and the social class” the individual identifies with must be taken into account. The black majority within the United States identifies with Afrocentric traditions and perspectives. For this reason the term African-American will be used within this paper to denote the black population found in America as comparisons are made regarding how end of life decisions are viewed and made by African-American culture verses the traditional western European beliefs of American culture (Barrett, 2002).
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.)
I wanted to wear brand clothes/shoes they did, I wanted to do my hair like them, and make good grades like them. I wanted to fit in. My cultural identify took a back seat. But it was not long before I felt black and white did not mix. I must have heard too many comments asking to speak Haitian or I do not look Haitian, but more than that, I am black, so I always had to answer question about my hair or why my nose is big, and that I talked white. This feeling carried on to high school because the questions never went away and the distance between me and them grew larger. There was not much action my family could take for those moments in my life, but shared their encounters or conversations to show me I was not alone in dealing with people of other background. I surrounded myself with less white people and more people of color and today, not much has
Modern culture, especially that perpetuated on MTV, has given many suburban white kids the idea that they are oppressed by some business-like aristocracy. That may be true in a way, but in another, it is puzzling that the reaction has been for many middle-class Caucasian youth to adopt black culture as their own. And as far as media perception of black people, I really don't fit that mold. I am very in touch with my culture, heritage and race. And I take a great deal of pride in it. But because I don't fit the stereotype that even white kids are now trying to emulate, it sometimes puts me at odds with my own perception of my race.
Africanisms in America are a highly surveyed topic for the black community. Joseph E. Holloway describes Africanisms as “those elements of culture found in the New World that are traceable to an African origin” (Holloway 2). I believe, that africanisms are the traditions and cultural behaviors of African Americans that resemble the some of the same traditions and cultures in Africa. Which makes you ponder about what current elements does our culture use that ties back to Africa. Which in fact there are several africanisms that still exist. African Americans have retained an essence of Africa in their speech, hair care, clothing, preparation of foods, and music by over centuries of separation from the Dark Continent.
There is a consensus that hair types are another way that colorism–the preference for lighter skin‒permeates the community. Women with a 3b/3c hair texture have a loose, ringlet, or spiral curl pattern and are often praised and more widely accepted in comparison to women who have a 4b/4c texture with a coarser, kinky, or zig-zag curl pattern. This notion highlights how Eurocentric standards of beauty can still influence pro-black spaces like the natural hair community, but it also shows how there is a pressure within the black community to adapt and conform to whatever style or aesthetic is deemed as “acceptable” at the time. This is where the “good hair” controversy comes into play. Whitney Bellinger studied a group of young African-American women to talk about their sentiments towards their hair in her piece WHY AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN TRY TO OBTAIN GOOD HAIR. When she asked the group of women to describe good hair, terms like “long”, “silky”, “fine”, and “healthy” were commonly used (Bellinger 68). While these terms are not exclusive to one hair type or texture, it doesn’t specifically describe a kinky or curly hair type and in turn alludes to a favorability towards non-black textures. Also in the interview, the young women discuss how their mother 's decisions on hair styles growing up impacted their current hair preferences (Bellinger 69). There was a direct relationship between the women who had relaxers growing up and who are still relaxed, as well as the women who were natural growing up and are currently natural (Bellinger 70). On the other hand, there was a smaller group of women who had switched their affiliations on the matter. It is interesting to note that there seem to be feelings of guilt evident with women who went from being natural to being relaxed. The women almost felt like they were denying some of the “racial pride” they previously held and that
...nce is that blacks aren't trying to make me to be black. They just want to make sure that I don't forget about that side of me.
Despite the restrictions imposed by slavery, African Americans have made significant contributions to American culture in music, literature, and cuisine.
In the textbook, African American Art and Artists, which was written by Samella Lewis, described the biography of African artists and introduced the changing roles of them. There are three aspects changing between them, their status in America, their expression of African culture, and their technique of creating arts.
Almost 250 years of slavery and anti-blackness within the United States has created a divide in what type of hair is acceptable. According to Cynthia L. Robinson, “Black hair texture is graded” (Robinson 2011). Precisely, this means that a Black woman has either good hair or bad hair. Good hair has a resemblance of European hair texture, meaning straight and wavy curls. Good hair also diminishes the look of African ancestry. Bad is the complete opposite. The texture is kinky, coiled, and thick, giving the appearance of short hair (Robinson 2011). Hair that bears a resemblance to Eurocentric beauty standards is more beautiful and makes the individual with that hair type more beautiful as well (Robinson
As I reflect on who I am and which culture I identify with, I am met with reservation. My parents are both Black Americans, they were both born and raised in the United States, their parent were also born and raised in the US. It is obvious that we derive from African descent; our skin color and physical features yet I find it difficult to relate or identify with my African heritage as slavery has played a pivotal role in separating us from our African origin. African enslavement left us devoid of a way to define ourselves. It severed familial ties and deprived us of any viable opportunity to reclaim them.(www.huffpost.com) We are descendants of African slaves but when I speak to someone who was born in Africa or research African culture, I
Hair is not just a part of you, hair is also a way for people to judge you. When Ifemelu cut her hair, people asked her if it “meant anything, like something political” (p211), or if she became “a lesbian” (p211). The way of wearing one’s hair has influence on people, good or bad. In Americanah, wearing an Afro may probably not make it easier to get a job. In a conference, Adichie said: “If Michelle Obama had natural hair, Obama would not have won [the presidency of the United States]”. Indeed, the image people would have had of Michelle Obama and thus of Barack Obama could have been different, as if something might have been “wrong” with