Defining the "African-American"

B

Bawon Samedi

Good bye Coli
Supporter
Hall of Fame
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
42,413
Reputation
18,635
Daps
166,496
Reppin
Good bye Coli(2014-2020)
Lately on here I've seen a lot of controversy on who is AA or what it means to be AA, blah...blah...blah...

Of course in this thread I will be referring to AA's as an ethnic entity and not a racial one. IMO its simple to define what it is to be AA and that is having ancestral family roots in the American South pre-jim crow... Simple.
great_migration_1916-1930.jpg


Think of the Great Migration like the Bantu migration from Africa. Think of the American south of the African-American ethnic/cultural homeland, but then they expanded out and soon developing their own unique culture and "styles" and they also mingled with different groups they came in contact with from their perspective new region(northeast blacks and Puerto Ricans, Southwest blacks and Mexicans, Northwest Blacks and Asians, you get the picture) this is the same with the Bantu Migration. But all those African-Americans ALL trace their family roots back to the American South whether you're from New York, California, Illinois, Michigan, etc. Just like all Bantu's "supposedly" trace their origins back to Cameroon; whether they be from Central, South or East Africa.

I'm part AA due to my family having ancestral roots in North Carolina pre-Jim Crow. So they are actually "indigenous" American Blacks who traces their roots back to slavery in America and not being descendants of new black immigrants.

I hope this thread solves this controversy.
 
Last edited:
B

Bawon Samedi

Good bye Coli
Supporter
Hall of Fame
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
42,413
Reputation
18,635
Daps
166,496
Reppin
Good bye Coli(2014-2020)
Yagirlcheatinonus said:
Most of my fam from NC also google is a good tool as well if you google your last name it'll tell you more about your background if your people haven't been married multiple times.
Click to expand...

Google is not good for me since my surname is not English/American. Heh...:no:

So I have to use my grandmothers surname.
 
Y

Yagirlcheatinonus

Icon Poster
Joined
May 26, 2012
Messages
9,806
Reputation
-277
Daps
16,052
Reppin
NULL
KidStranglehold said:
Google is not good for me since my surname is not English/American. Heh...:no:

So I have to use my grandmothers surname.
Click to expand...
Im black but my surname is the 7th most common in the US. I could and probably should begin making a family tree for my family reunion alot of records is public and I think you can get them for a dollar or something. Im just thinking how far can I go back to?
 
IllmaticDelta

IllmaticDelta

Veteran
Joined
Jun 22, 2014
Messages
28,877
Reputation
9,491
Daps
81,271
KidStranglehold said:
I'm part AA due to my family having ancestral roots in North Carolina pre-Jim Crow. So they are actually "indigenous" American Blacks who traces their roots back to slavery in America and not being descendants of new black immigrants.

I hope this thread solves this controversy.
Click to expand...


Just to quote an older post of mine


IllmaticDelta said:
One thing people must remember is the full blown modern AfroAmerican identity came about due to the struggle and jim crow laws. Before that, you had people with regional flavors culturally and you had different classes of AfroAmericans or what came to be Black Americans.


Origins of African-American Ethnicity or African-American Ethnic Traits


The newly formed Black Yankee ethnicity of the early 1800s differed from today’s African-American ethnicity. Modern African-American ethnic traits come from a post-bellum blending of three cultural streams: the Black Yankee ethnicity of 1830, the slave traditions of the antebellum South, and the free Creole or Mulatto elite traditions of the lower South. Each of the three sources provided elements of the religious, linguistic, and folkloric traditions found in today’s African-American ethnicity.30


http://essays.backintyme.biz/item/19
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
IllmaticDelta

IllmaticDelta

Veteran
Joined
Jun 22, 2014
Messages
28,877
Reputation
9,491
Daps
81,271
KidStranglehold said:
Think of the Great Migration like the Bantu migration from Africa. Think of the American south of the African-American ethnic/cultural homeland, but then they expanded out and soon developing their own unique culture and "styles" and they also mingled with different groups they came in contact with from their perspective new region(northeast blacks and Puerto Ricans, Southwest blacks and Mexicans, Northwest Blacks and Asians, you get the picture) this is the same with the Bantu Migration. But all those African-Americans ALL trace their family roots back to the American South whether you're from New York, California, Illinois, Michigan, etc. Just like all Bantu's "supposedly" trace their origins back to Cameroon; whether they be from Central, South or East Africa.

I'm part AA due to my family having ancestral roots in North Carolina pre-Jim Crow. So they are actually "indigenous" American Blacks who traces their roots back to slavery in America and not being descendants of new black immigrants.

I hope this thread solves this controversy.
Click to expand...

There are North Eastern Afram's who have no roots in the South and are descendants of Northern slaves. A little known or talked about segment of Afram history, Afro-Dutch Americans


Afro-Dutch Folklore and Folklife

Despite the fact that the Dutch played a central role in the seventeenth-century slave trade, little attention has been paid until recently to the Dutch slaves in New York and New Jersey. Most studies of slavery in the Americas have dealt with the Caribbean, South America, and the American South. Few scholars have tested whether conclusions developed from these other areas hold true for New York and New Jersey. Even fewer scholars have used folklore as a source of information about the culture of slaves. The problem with most interpretations of the Dutch slave system is that they deal only with the New Netherland period from 1624 to 1664. The Dutch and their slaves did not disappear from New York and New Jersey after the English conquest. In fact, the institution of slavery did not begin to flourish until the eighteenth century.

Although English law applied, it is a mistake to think of the Dutch and their slaves as part of the English slave system. There is evidence in their folklore and folklife that a distinct free black and slave culture developed in the Dutch culture area of New York and New Jersey. This regional culture consisted of a synthesis of African cultural survivals with Dutch culture traits. This creole culture and the people who participated in it I term Afro-Dutch, in much the same way that Afro-American refers both to the culture and the people. Afro-Dutch culture was a regional subculture of African-American culture. In many ways it was similar to the creole cultures of South America and the Caribbean.

Included in this essay are the following topics: the Jersey Dutch dialect, the Pinkster celebration, the "Guinea Dance," a fragment of a slave song, a "Negro Charm," the Paas celebration, and an African-American cigar-store Indian from Freehold, New Jersey.
Click to expand...

http://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Afro-Dutch

http://www.academia.edu/3726524/Afro-Dutch_Folklore_and_Folklife
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top