Overview of African-American Culture

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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.) “At a time when people are seeking to become more culturally aware it is important to note distinctions which make cultures different and unique from one another” (Giger, 2013, p. 163). “Culture involves much more than race, ethnic background, and language” (Smith, 2013, p. 32). Culture is a combination of learned behaviors, beliefs, and values that are reinforced through exposure to social interactions within one’s immediate social group or surrounding society. A personal interview was conducted with Andrea Sinkler, is an African-American female, whose culture influence is mainly attributed from her association with family and social interactions. It must be noted that for the purpose of avoiding redundancy, the author has chosen to use the terms African-American and black synonymously to reference the culture, which... ... middle of paper ... ...yst in the effort to eliminate health disparities and thus improve long term outcomes for the African-American culture. Works Cited Giger, J. (2013). Transcultural nursing: Assessment and intervention. (6 ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby. Opala, J. (n.d.). The Gullah: Rice, slavery, and the Sierra Leone-American connection. Retrieved from http://www.yale.edu/glc/gullah/06.htm Sinkler, A. (2014, February 12). Interview by L.S. Shaw. Smith, L. (2013). Reaching for cultural competence. Nursing 2013, 43(6), 30-37. doi: 10.1097/01.NURSE.0000429794.17073.87 South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, Office of Minority Health. (n.d.). South Carolina’s minority population. Retrieved from website: http://www.scdhec.gov/images/dhec_logo.gif The African slave trade and South Carolina. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.sciway.net/hist/chicora/slavery18-2.html

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