Slavery: The Role Of Cultural Resistance In America

“Cultural resistance is the practice of using meanings and symbols, that is, culture, to contest and combat a dominant power, often constructing a different vision of the world in the process.” (Duncombe 1) Cultural resistance can be expressed in a multitude of ways to convey the oppression and injustice that people at times fail to recognize. Significance through art is a way for cultural resistance to blossom and in turn bring awareness to the importance of the cause. The famous phrase out of sight and out of mind is a perfect example as to why cultural resistance is needed. It is easy to be unaware of something that hasn’t been brought to your attention.

Our great nation was built with the notion and end goal of a democracy in which

all men are created equal. In theory, this great democracy would be an example for all other nations and have a government for the people by the people. Hundreds of years later and throughout our nation’s history it has been proven that with every democracy lies its faults. There are systems within our government that are unjust, corrupt and made in such a way to keep a specific type of population oppressed. The woes of the oppressed are commonly depicted through the arts of cultural resistance. The objective of the research paper is to find cultural resistance in various forms of art from literature to visual art and provide evidence to validate its role in the cultural resistance movement.
The art forms that will be analyzed are unique and different in their own right but throughout the research process prove to have out right or provide symbolism of cultural resistance. Cultural resistance has been around for centuries but the items I will analyze are content published within the last one hundred years. The examples that I will be using in regards to literature are in the form of scholarly articles and encyclopedia entries that vary in both time period and analyzation of subject matter. Other than works found through academic databases, there are multiple photographs being examined. These photographs also vary in time period and subject matter but are more similar than they are different. Cultural resistance can be found in every culture and throughout the years of civilization.
Found in the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, Cultural Resistance by Stephen Duncombe states that “the modern theory of cultural resistance, however, was first articulated in the mid-nineteenth century by Matthew Arnold. Arnold wrote his famous essay Culture and Anarchy at a time when his England was undergoing massive change: industrialization, urbanization, and an extension of the franchise to the working classes.” Cultural resistance isn’t a new idea nor is it exclusive to the trying times of today’s society. It is a term that can be applied to every situation of political and social unrest.
The entry also includes the idea in which cultural resistance has played a part in religion. “The practice is as old as history. The Hebrew Scriptures, for example, were a cultural means with which to create Jewish identity and then hold on to that identity in the face of Roman oppression. The stories of Jesus and Mohammed served similar functions.” (Duncombe 1) The purpose of creating such works of stories and lessons to not only preserve them but the culture that they embody shows that cultural resistance can be hidden within works of literature that no one would originally think were there.
An online article provided by the Understanding Slavery Initiative delves into the cultural resistance that existed within colonial slavery.

“In the Caribbean and in many slave societies in the Americas, one of the most important aspects of resistance to slavery was the retention of African culture or melding African, American and European cultural forms to create new ones such as the Kweyol languages (Antillean Creole).” (“Resistance and Rebellion”) Despite the forcing of European culture on slaves, most of if not all of the of African culture of colonial slaves has been preserved and passed on through the generations. “The importance of African culture – names, craftsmanship, languages, scientific knowledge, beliefs, philosophy, music and dance, was that it provided the psychological support to help the captives resist the process of enslavement. The act of enslavement involved attempts to break the will and ignore the humanity of slaves in what was known as ‘seasoning’. (“Resistance and

Rebellion”)
“Obvious examples would be the use of Vodun (voodoo) religious beliefs in the Haitian Revolution and the employment of Obeah to strengthen the Jamaican Maroons in the struggles against the British. Rebel leaders such as Nanny in Jamaica and Boukman and Mackandal in St. Dominigue (Haiti) were also religious and spiritual leaders. Religious beliefs should perhaps be seen as also providing the enslaved Africans a way of understanding the world and giving them simultaneously a whole belief system, a coping mechanism and a means of resistance.” (“Resistance and Rebellion”) Although most African culture was retained, European customs such as the belief in Christianity and Catholicism has still managed to be passed down. In Haitian culture today, there are many practice both Voodoo and another Christian denomination. The cultures have blended together and show that even though cultural resistance took precedence, enslavement still had an effect on the culture that exists today.
The photograph pictured above is dated from the time of the Holocaust named the Unarmed Jewish Resistance. The Holocaust was a devastating time in world history where Nazi Germany succeeded in cleansing Germany of over six million Jews and five million others. The photograph is of a group led by Emmanuel Ringelblum who was a Jewish Polish historian. Ringelblum “carried out spiritual and cultural resistance within the Warsaw ghetto by recording details of every aspect of life and conditions. After the war they would be able to use the archive the were creating to help tell their stories.” (“Unarmed Jewish Resistance”) This photograph shows how important it was during such a troubling time to preserve all that they could through writing so that their stories could still be told for generations to come and live on forever.
“Resistance in many ways, was near impossible for Jews, and it was also extremely difficult for citizens in the occupied countries. There was little access to weapons, almost no ability to move about freely, and a majority of the population that for various reasons was uninterested in resisting the Nazis. Furthermore, open conflict was not a wise alternative, since it most often resulted in death for oneself and others.” (“Resistance During the Holocaust”) During the Nazi regime, resistance took on a different meaning that wasn’t traditional. Their form of resisting wasn’t towards the Nazis themselves but more so towards the conditions that they faced because of them. They had to find a way to combat their struggles because attempting to go against the Nazis was logically not in their best interest and not their focus.
“Cultural and spiritual resistance took place within the ghettos, but the extent varied from ghetto to ghetto. Some of the activities were secretive, held at the initiative of underground organizations: they included literary evenings, gatherings to mark the anniversary of a Jewish artist, and concerts. Jewish authors, directors, and poets produced works in the ghettos, and there were secret libraries. Some of the cultural activities were based on works written before the war; others drew on the situation in the ghetto. Other examples of resistance included creating schools; printing and distributing underground newspapers; maintaining religious customs; drawing, painting, or secretly photographing observed events; keeping records of ghetto life and hiding them in hope that they would be discovered after the war.” (“Resistance During the Holocaust”) This quote embodies all that was done in the name of cultural resistance during the times of Nazi Germany and explains why Jewish people took such precautious measure at that time.
In the scholarly article About Education through Theater and Cultural Resistance by Silvia Osman, the author questions whether or not theater can be used as a learning tool for cultural resistance. Within the article, the short play Catastrophe by Samuel Beckett is used because it is seen as a “real manifesto of cultural resistance. The short play was first written in French in 1982 because Samuel Beckett was commissioned to write a play to depict the aberrant abuse for the Theater Festival in Avignon. Catastrophe was written as a dedication to Beckett’s
peer Vaclav Havel who was a writer, poet, essayist and playwright who at the time was jailed by the Check communist regime.” (Osman 1)
“Catastrophe can be seen as an allegory depicting totalitarianism and the constant struggle against it, a true lesson of liberty and class solidarity. It becomes a modern educational tool which speaks to the young generations about the values of true authentic democracy, civic attitude, solidarity among peers, the dangers of mass manipulation through the media, about resistance and truth.” (Osman 1) With such underlying themes present within the short play, it is easy to understand the complexity of Samuel Beckett’s logic. He used the platform of theater to express the troubling government of his time and the importance of sharing his peer’s story to open minds to the harsh reality.
Another scholarly article under examination is the Art of Cultural Resistance by Gemma Galdon Clavell.

This article focuses on the idea of cultural sabotage.” Cultural sabotage is used to describe any form of guerilla communication that confuses and/or distorts the message transmitted by the mass media. The central idea is that advertising has taken popular culture to remold it and give it back to society as packaging for one central idea: the answer to consume.” (Clavell 1) The article quotes the book Publicité et Societé by publicist Bernard Cathelat and states “Advertising is not only a commercial word, but also a political word, a social word, a moral word and an ideological discourse. It is the dominant language of the culture, and without doubt, the most important information system in

history.”
The article also touches upon the idea of subvertising. “Subvertising is the practice of making parodies of corporate and political advertisements in order to make an ironic statement.
According to Adbusters, a good subvert should “imitate the image and meaning of the target advert, generating the classic ‘delayed reaction’ as the viewer realizes they have been tricked. Subverts create a cognitive dissonance. They pierce the hype and ostentation of our mediated reality and for a moment, reveal a more profound truth.”” (Clavell 1) With tactics such as subvertising, it is understandable that people can identify or have the ability to read between the lines to learn the underlying message posed by it. Subvertising is a great way to manipulate an idea and with being in the age of technology it is even easier to construe an image to someone’s particular liking and send a particular message.
The photograph pictured above is called the Blue-Eye Soul Brother taken by James R. Reid on February 26, 1968. The title of the piece stems from the sign that the young gentleman in the picture are holding and was taken during the Memphis sanitation strike of 1968. “The workers were the main leaders for this uprising of the urban poor. Guided by T. O. Jones, a sanitation worker fired for his union activities, the sanitation men had been asking the city for recognition of their union and for a resolution of their many grievances since 1963. These workers lived below the poverty level while working fulltime jobs, and 40 percent of them qualified for welfare to supplement meager salaries. They received virtually no health care benefits, pensions, or vacations, worked in filthy conditions, and lacked simple amenities as a place to eat and shower.” This photograph is a physical representation of the struggle that those sanitation workers went through to receive equal treatment. It embodies cultural resistance because it represents an oppressed people and the route they chose to take to combat their oppression. It stirs emotions and serves a reminder of the lack of rights and unfair disadvantages that people of color faced only sixty years ago. The times of equality among all races has yet to see the light but has improved within the last fifty or so years.
The photograph included above is a part of the Rise of Black Lives Matter article from CNN.com and was taken at a Black Lives Matter protest. In correlation with cultural resistance the Black Live Matter Movement is based on the unjust legal system and lack of civil servant prosecutions in the cases involving police and unarmed black men and women. The stereotypes that portray those in the black community as violent, disorderly, or thugs in mass media create an image that is hard to change. The idea of cultural sabotage and subvertising come into play with the manipulation of these stereotypes. Within the photograph, protesters hold signs that say stop police brutality. The history of police brutality with the black community in the United States is a disturbing one. It is hard to grasp that after so much time that people of color feel as though that they are not seen as equal to their white counterparts.
From viewing the photograph, it is easy to understand how it alone is so impactful. An image such as this creates the picture of an oppressed people that are aware of their oppression and willing to do anything within peaceful means to change it. Along with the oppressed, are those who are not and are willing to acknowledge the faults in our system. It is no secret that the justice system wasn’t created to get justice for any and every one. Laws have been amended throughout the years but its original purpose was to serve a particular type of people.
In conclusion, cultural resistance can be/ has been represented in various art forms throughout different decades. The idea that a system or power could be unjust or corrupt is a very real notion. There is proof such as the Black Live Matter photograph included within the research paper that people have noticed the unfair treatment of the oppressed. Forms of cultural resistance are needed to continue to show the faults within corrupt systems and spread the idea that the oppressed will no longer tolerate being oppressed. With my research, I have concluded that it is very important for artists to not only continue their works of cultural resistance but to study the past works of those who have had the same vision. In the theory of a perfect world, things such as cultural resistance wouldn’t need to come to fruition but nothing in life is perfect or without fault. When dealing with people or systems that are corrupt, it is necessary to find the cause of the corruption and hold those accountable for their actions. If that doesn’t happen, the population is split and the oppressed people become their own category.