Impact of the Blacks Culture on the American Society - Research Paper Example

African American Culture Introduction The very existence of human beings in the world is inherently associated with the notion of popular culture which comprises multifaceted elements like music, dance, literature, drama, film, poetry, language use, newspapers, radio and television, fashion, sports, and leisure activities. These elements are ingrained in the human beings and are communicated and brought on the global stage with the help of verbal as well as non-verbal symbols and means. They possess immense power of persuading, influencing and inspiring the human mind in general. Thus, popular culture is basically a day to day phenomenon which survives in every corner of the world and helps establish the foundations of innumerable fascinating cultures of human race. The African American popular culture is one of the popular cultures that have thrived throughout the history of the world and have sustained their existence through severe societal upheavals. The influence of the African American culture is highly influential on the American society and has several implications (Hamlet, 2011, p.27). This paper focuses on different aspects of the Afro American oral communication as part of the American popular culture and eventually emphasizes that the African American oral communication has its own stylized heritage, and bears a significant social importance in the development trajectory of the nation as a whole. African American Oral culture To start with, the power of the Afro American culture reflects in the fact that it has been highly significant in the way of resisting the racial oppression (not the only factor) in the American society and has generated highly innovative dynamics and platform which comes from the oral tradition. The same oral tradition has helped all other cultural forms evolve. It has been found that the Afro American oral tradition has remained an immensely innovative learning process for the K-12 students in the American schools. Thus, a glimpse of its significance necessitates more elaboration of its origin, its segregated forms, its development, and its implications in the society in an elucidated fashion (Hamlet, 2011, p.27). Robust nature of the oral tradition The tradition attached with the oral communication generally comprises the old sayings, proverbs and various other cultural products that have neither been archived nor recorded. The tradition or the enigma of the oral traditions is kept intact with the help of verbal communication across generations. The diverse forms of African American cultures and their archetypes teach lessons about the way of living. The oral tradition can be said to be one of the fundamental mechanisms for survival and cultural expression. The oral tradition is also predominant in the maintenance of the cultural heritage and reflection of the collective spirit of race. The tradition encapsulates a strong history dating back to the African pre slavery times (Hamlet, 2011, p.27). ‘Nommo’-chronicles of the pre slavery era Before the period of enslavement in America, the Africans used to reside in societies conjectured on the foundation that was encircled through stylized oral communication means as well as that of classy religious system. The then prevalent norm was regarded in the name of Nommo which points to the generative capability of the spoken word. They believed that Nommo was vehemently necessary for actualizing life as well as for providing mastery over various things. The prime notion of Nommo centers around the fact that all activities of human beings and their movement in the nature generally sits on the position which states that the productive power of the word is water, seed, heat as well as life which forces itself. Other underlying mechanisms of Nommo include force, commitment of the word, and awareness that the word alone alters the world. In the traditional African culture, it was considered that the newborn children had no existence or value unless their fathers named them and made them speak. It was believed that the elements which are highly useful for the human existence including medicine, potion, magic and such other things were ineffective until they were accompanied with words. The belief system of the Africans needed Nommo very strongly and necessitated that the craftsmanship must be well-accompanied with and driven by speech. The concept of Nommo was not restrained to the spoken word in public forums but was encircled around all communication circumstances. The culture was generally infused by the procedure of oral tradition. The cultural norms of people, their values and histories were transferred from one generation to another by the elderly who were known as griots and were believed to be excellent story tellers. The griots were rigidly involved in providing their listeners with an innovative milieu that were equipped with elements of realism and had an aura of enchantment for those who were familiar with them. The stories were narrated in an exclusively dramatic endeavor that reflected pure emotions. The satisfaction they had through story telling relished their eternal self, gave them comfort and pleasure, and a break from the chaotic experiences of daily life. The boost in Nommo accelerated the development of their social identity. Unfortunately, their culture was subjected to suppression and societal denunciation, of which racial discrimination was one of the most hazardous and shameful events that the Afro American people faced and whose traces are found to date (Hamlet, 2011, p.27). Nuance of the folk culture The black people or the African people came from the West Coast of Africa to America. They infiltrated into various regions and shared common cultural patterns that were highly embedded in traditional as well as folklore values. Majority of the transplanted African culture was expressed in oral literature, music and dance. The Western Africa was the hub of most American blacks some of whom originated from the East and South Africa. They had come from areas where different dialects were spoken. It can be said that they were devoid of a common language and were not able to speak English because of which, they were highly subdued by the dominant white people and faced subjugation of their rights, mockery, humiliation as well negative judgment by the white people. In spite of all these challenges, they have been successful in keeping their heritage intact. Their unique folk culture has been a perfect burlesque of unmatched extravaganza. Their folk culture was profoundly magnified in poetry, rhythmical songs, wise sayings, and oral folk stories through the utilization of stunning imagery, and figurative and metaphorical language along with the double-edged vocabulary as well as sentence construction. The folk culture represented different life conditions through which the Afro American people passed through in different phases of time. The stylistic part of the black American English dialect found in the black folk oral tradition generates a psycho-cultural process that supported and nourished the black speech during the American Negro slavery days. The black Americans formulated a system of stylized communication which could not be deciphered by the white master. The African Americans have not been able to develop a language with one meaning and the black African slave with a different significance. The black language is presented in the linguistic context or dialect as it is presented in the context of the Negro enslavement in America. Because of the experiences of oppression faced by the Black Americans in their history, the black speech has survived as an impeccable exposition of the language of the Black America. The language of the black Yolk oral tradition is found in the socio-psychological aspects of the black Americans. It is worth noting that several vocabulary words found within the black oral folk and traditions result from a reversal process which signifies that the meaning of words in the Black America is opposite to what they mean in the White America. The vocabulary words were first utilized as tools of coded language with the figurative usage as well as rhetorical power and have been functionally dedicated toward the survival trajectory of the Black Americans. Various stereotypical vocabulary words of the African American people are basically English terms which are destined to serve the cultural needs of the black people and can be identified with the same as parts of the American experience (Anderson, 1977, pp. 6-10). Bifurcations in the trajectory The unique folk culture of the black American literature incorporates the literary types which are basically oral such as the black folk tales, and black folk songs which includes the spirituals, blues, ballads, black sermons, black jokes black verbal and different kinds of rhetorical strategies, such as shucking, lying, running it down, signifying, sounding, copping a plea and rapping. Out of the three important traditions of the African American literature including the Folk Tradition, the Abolitionist Tradition, and the Plantation Tradition, the black American Palk oral literary, verbal and rhetorical Tradition is one of the most vital and oldest language legacy. This above mentioned Folk tradition represents the direct expression of the black American experience from the period of colonial days to the contemporary age. It represents different aspects of human conditions as well as universal appeal of all mankind through expression in outstanding ways. The black Polk oral Tradition reflects the underlying meaning of being black in America and highlights the gap between the actual existence of the blacks in the American society and the inherent meaning of their existence in America in the written form. The black American male has highly emphasized on the recognition and uniqueness of the Folk oral tradition. Majority of the racial and the ethnical groups have produced various anonymous music as well as literature at several times. The folk musical as well as literary forms are usually produced and transmitted orally from one generation to another. In the traditional stage, the literature and music may gain or lose various parts of their contents or substances. These so called anonymous productions or artifacts may vary from one place to another. Various versions of a particular incident oral or that of the literary forms may generate in various neighboring localities as well as clans. Lack of the various written literary forms lays the basis of different versions of any particular story as well as the literary form. The black folk literature finds its origin in the synonymous processes of the African and the black American folklore, legends, customs as well as traditions. At the place where such folklores were recorded, they were preserved to prevent them from being changed (Anderson, 1977, p.4). The Black folk versions in the black dialect were primarily developed in the 17th century and they were highly embedded with Biblical images, poetic language, and integrated the common place experience with the historical actions. They were highly characterized by allusions and symbolism. At the juncture of the American colonial period and the period of American Negro slavery, the black people also generated anonymous black folk songs like ballads, spirituals, non-religious or secular songs, and the blues that influenced the American culture. These specimens of highly innovative and rare creations of art reflect people's rhythmic endowments, sufferings, humor, faith, protest as well as endurance. The types of folk songs in the literature along with their unique and outstanding reflection of the oral poetry exhibited the spontaneous rhythmic patterns with ironical and metaphorical overtones. The musical features of the Afro American folk music includes the predominant usage of the percussion, polymeter, off-beat phrases of melodic accents and overlapping of call and response patterns (Hamlet, 2011, p.27-28). Aura of the Black spirituals The anonymous creation of the Black American spiritual compositions can be referred to as one of the most realistic and beautiful creationsin the black oral tradition. Examples include ‘Steal Away to Jesus’, ‘Deep River’, ‘Go Down Moses’, and ‘Nobody Knows De Trouble I See’ which were all developed in the period of slavery in the plantation areas for such purposes as protest, deep religious conviction, and expression of the life of Jesus and other outstanding Biblical figures in an accepted religious and lyrical form. These spirituals point toward bringing the Christian Bible alive within a sphere of vibrant symbolism, imagery, figurative language, black dialect and rhythm that reflected the thought of the slaves, their profound faith in religion, and their tremendous desire of freedom from the shackles of slavery (Anderson, 1977, pp. 6-10). Role of the church The church, the epitome of Christian religion has also acted as an omnipotent source of the African American culture. The terms and expressions in the Chruch were communicated through the sermons of the Afro American preacher as well as through the feedback delivered by the preachers to the audiences. This type of response was known as the call and response procedure, and the idea of the constant exchange between the narrator and the listener was a perfect requirement for the exposition of any real communication between them. The system was a simultaneous interaction between the speaker and the listener where the statements delivered by the speaker were punctuated by the responses from the listeners. It could be said that this mechanism was prevalent in the Black churches however the phenomenon could also be observed in the environment outside the church like in the academic classroom and the comedy, rap, rhythm and the blues concerts. The African American expressions have become a common response among the people of America irrespective of race and ethnicity. The expressions used in the hip hop, word, word up, word to the mother and similar phrases all originate from the value of speech and verbal artistry (Hamlet, 2011, p.28). Negation of the Euro-centrism The oral tradition of the African American people has been highly practiced and declared as brave agendas in raising the voice against the dominating Euro-centrism. With the adaptation of various processes, the African Americans risk their claim toward the English language simultaneously with the infusion of distinct African American cultural values that are in odds with the Eurocentric standards. It can be said that the semantic inversion, which is the assignment of opposite meanings to the words, has become one of the art forms for the artists of the African American origin. ‘Fat’ is a word which can be stressed in this case. In the hip hop culture, the word ‘fat’ is spelled as ‘phat’ and is used to refer to a person or thing which is excellent and desirable. This reflects the traditional cultural value that considers the human body weight a positive thing and points at the rejection of the Eurocentric thought that considers being skinny better than being fat. The other aspects of the African American oral tradition like such words as ‘testifying’, ‘signifying’ and 'trash talkin’ have found their way into mainstream American popular culture (Leonard, 2006, p.101). Music as a significant variable in the expositing power The musical expression of the African American people has been considered highly creative, thought provoking, and full of imagination as well as dynamic demonstrations (Huggins, 2007, p.xiv –xx). Music acts as an energizing mechanism for both its creators and its listeners. Embedded within roots of the African American culture, there is immense potential of learning. Their music like spirituals, blues, gospel, jazz, and hip-hop reflects stories of emotions, hardships, hope, determination and struggle of the downtrodden people against the societal domination. The pure messages which are delivered through their music reflect the hardcore social and cultural values of the society of any time. The very attributes of Nommo that are observed in today’s hip-hop culture particularly emphasize the realms of the rap music. Evolution of the hip-hop culture occurred as an amalgamation of the cultural exchange and the broader social and political conditions of the Black alienation and disillusionment. Within the Afro American society, the Black Youth sought identity and they wanted to find a way to claim to have a culture of their own. The tradition of hip-hop became a strong means and a new value system which would lead to the development of a means of self expression as well as creativity. The rap music also creates an important and interesting venue which can be basically attached to the social constructions of the black culture. The hip-hop culture has transfused into the American popular culture in a highly unprecedented manner. The hip-hop culture has been developed by the black youth operating on the periphery of the mainstream American culture but the culture has become common all over the globe and has become a social stereotype and a separate fashion identity. The hip-hop influence in the American culture is highly prominant and successful in the domination of the notion of marketing and advertising in the marketing arena as well as in the corporate boardrooms. The crossover appeal of the hip-hop culture has become one of the phenomenal identity developments among the several ethnic groups with the high potential of unifying the diverse populations (Hamlet, 2011, pp. 28-29). The Toast Within the vast domain of the Black poetry, The Toast is a popular poem that carries with it various significance and messages. The Toast can be said to be a narrative tale which is equipped with rhymed lines and poetic imagery that is usual, gutsy and sexual (Graham and Vard, 2011, p. 535). In this poem, the protagonist is a Black man who fights against all odds and survives. The character Stag-O-Lee in the poem was so bad that even the whites feared him and they believed that he could be killed by no one but God. Still the poem states that it took around 3,412 angels with 14 days, 11 hours and 32 minutes to carry the giant dead thunderbolt to the Lord. The hero in this poem can be symbolized as an animal “like the Signifying Monkey, who, though the underdog, outdoes the big, bad Lion (symbolizing the white man)” (Smitherman, 1973, p.13). Thus it can be seen that most of the oral traditions of the African Americans have been highly powerful and majority of them try to establish the freedom over dominance and suppression. They bear this unique identity which represents them. Implications of the oral tradition in the American society Education is a dynamic platform through which the oral tradition of the Black Americans has to be preserved as well as propagated in the true spirit. In the educational dimension, it can be said that secondary education is a place where students make high interconnection and it is the area where building connections between the present and the past are considered necessary for critical engagement and personal growth. Evaluation mechanism and identification of a way to explore and synthesize the past practices are highly connected to the contemporary practices which encourage the students to look at the past for proper understanding and inspiration. In this case, helping out the students in understanding the oral tradition is an indispensible part of encouragement of the African American culture and it needs to be done from the scratch. The schools and educational institutes should be well-synthesized with the African American oral tradition starting with the pre-slavery and continuing to the contemporary age. Students must be familiarized with the various cultural products which have originated from the African American oral tradition. The goal of the system should be incorporated in order to gain an understanding of the African American oral tradition. Students would demonstrate their knowledge through the creation of products which focus on different dimensions of the African American culture like the oral tradition, rap songs, spirituals, dances, sermons from the African American church, and folklore, etcetera. The students would demonstrate the usage of new media to communicate unique ideas which would also help the students analyze the role of culture in their own lives and communities. The students would be encouraged to demonstrate examples of the oral tradition of the African American culture. The influence of culture should be infused within the students for the creation of communication pattern (Hamlet, 2011, p. 28). Conclusion The paper discusses the African American culture with respect to oral communications. It can be seen that the Afro American oral culture has been embedded in the roots of the deep heritage and traditional values. Their oral communication through multifaceted forms has established a separate identity of cultural infusion which has a long drawn impact on the American society. The African Americans have been dominated and suppressed time and again by the White people but they have maintained their oral communication in a rigorous way. All forms of oral communications exposited by them reflect power, agony, protest, urge for freedom and strong opposition of the white domination. Despite the transfusion of the hip-hop culture by the African Americans, many evils of the society like the gang culture are still associated with the African Americans. However, such perceptions are misleading and absolutely false. The African American culture is an integral part of the American culture and it must be propagated and cultivated with right spirit. Education is the fundamental means that can be employed to achieve this. Annotated Bibliography Anderson, E. (1977). The Use of the Black Folk Oral Tradition and Other Black Rhetorical and Verbal Strategies in the Teaching of Composition. Retrieved on 2 August, 2012 from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED145425.pdf. The above paper deals with backdrop of the development of the folk oral culture in the Black American literature. Elucidation is imparted on several trajectories of the black literature that includes the folk tales, black folk sermons, black ballads, black American spirituals, black nonreligious or secular songs, black American blues, and Afro-American jokes. Various music cultures of the Black Americans are discussed in the text which reflects the immense oral culture and tradition of the African Americans and exposits a separate identity. It also focuses on the role of teachers in infusing the Black American culture within the framework of the American educational dimension so that it can be established as a separate identity, explored, and effectively implemented. Graham, M., and Ward, J. W. (2011). The Cambridge History of African American Literature. UK: Cambridge University Press. This book discusses the history of four hundred years of Black writing. The Cambridge History of African American Literature presents a brief view of the traditions of the Black American literature with the oral and print versions. The contributors drawn from the United States focus on the dual nature of each of the texts developed by an individual and focuses on revealing the events in American cultural, political, and social history. The book also looks ahead to suggest new approaches, new areas of study, and as yet undervalued writers and works. This book is a major achievement both as a work of reference and as a compelling narrative and will remain essential reading for scholars and students in years to come. Hamlet, J. (2011). Word! The African American Oral Tradition and its Rhetorical Impact on American Popular Culture. Black History Bulletin, 74(1), 27-31. This paper reflects the notion that the African American culture is one of the greatest traditional mechanisms in the American societal structures. It has also been stated that the Black Americans have been subjected to White domination for a longer period and for that reason, their cultures have also been subjected to several criticisms. However, through the maintenance of their culture and through their protests, they have been able to maintain their tradition and make a great mark of it on the American society. Also the paper directs toward the implementation of the Black American oral tradition in the educational institutions as a mandatory phenomenon. Huggins, N. I. (2007). Harlem Renaissance. New York: Oxford University Press. A finalist for the 1972 National Book Award summoned by The New York Times Book Review, this book was a milestone in the study of African-American life and culture. Acclaimed biographer Arnold Rampersad exposits a brilliant account of the creative explosion in Harlem during these pivotal years. With the blend of history, literature, music, psychology, and folklore, the author enlightens the thought and writings of key figures like Alain Locke, James Weldon Johnson, and W.E.B. DuBois and provides sharp-eyed analyses of the poetry of Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes. The prime objectives for Huggins in the whole book are pointing toward the attainment of a better grasping of America as a whole. Huggins did not want Harlem in the 1920s to be the center stage of the book as a lens through which the readers might visualize a moment which sheds light on the American character and culture, not just in Harlem but across the nation. Throughout the book, the author discusses the works of poets and novelists not only to the artists working in other genres but also on the economic, historical, and cultural forces in the culture at large. This superb reissue of Harlem Renaissance brings one of the great works in the African-American history to a new generation of readers and is indeed a landmark work in the field of American Studies. Leonard, D. J. (2006). Screens Fade to Black: Contemporary African American Cinema. USA: Greenwood Publishing Group The triple crown of Oscars given to Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, and Sidney Poitier on a single evening in 2002 seemed to mark a turning point for African Americans in the cinema. Certainly, it was hyped as such by the media, eager to overlook the nuance of this sudden embrace. In this new study, author David Leonard uses this event as a jumping-off point to discuss the current state of the African-American cinema and the various genres that currently compose it. Looking at such recent films as Love and Basketball, Antwone Fisher, Training Day, and the two Barbershop films all of which were directed by black artists, and most of which starred and were written by blacks, Leonard examines the issues of representation and opportunity in the contemporary cinema. In many cases, these films which walk a line between confronting racial stereotypes and trafficking in them made a great deal of money while hardly playing to the white audiences at all. By examining the ways in which they address the American Dream, racial progress, racial difference, blackness, whiteness, class, capitalism and a host of other issues, Leonard shows that while certainly there are differences between the grotesque images of years past and those that define today's era, the consistency of images across genre and time reflects the lasting power of racism, as well as the black community's response to it. Smitherman, G. (1973). The Power of the Rap: The Black Idiom and the New Black Poetry. Twentieth Century Literature, 19(4), 259-274. This paper deals with the poetry culture of the Black Americans as a significant manifestation in the past decade and an appropriate artistic counterthrust to Black Power. The thrust was basically a call at the black folk culture and the reevaluation of its experiences. The paper also focuses of the fact that the Black art must be essentially exhibited as a functional and structural notion of the struggles of the black people. The quest among the writers of the Black Arts is depicted in their roots of cultural sensibility which unfurls an aesthetic nature of the Black tradition. The cultural sensibility is the way through which the oral tradition of the Black Americans can be revealed and a special emphasis is being provided on the musical form of rap –a specialty of the Black Americans. Read More