What is Black American Culture? (inspired by The Salon)
- Thread starter OfTheCross
- Start date
K.O.N.Y
Superstar
AfroAmerican is our ethnicity...USA/American is our nationality and our race is black
Yes, it's so similar that white UK dropped their own culture (British Isles, the same roots for Anglo-celtic america) for AfroAmerican music and created the British Invasian
simply put, this is what American (white) music would have sounded like w/o AfroAmericans...just like their ancestors in the British Isles
If you cant tell the difference between that and AfroAmerican music, I don't know what to tell you
But African Americans used European instruments
Oceanicpuppy
Superstar
I was just reading a book about African American folklore, Its sad many AA's today don't know these stories or they are not celebrated. The more I study AA cultural the more i find out.
I made a thread on Afram genealogy aloofness and cultural awareness that comes from researching family trees and some folks claimed there was already enough information out and it's not a big problem. White people talking about we should only care about reality and the now in that thread. The fact that AA don't know of the depth of their culture and whats out there ( they think they do but don't) is sickening.
Thats why people claim there is no Afram culture.
I made a thread on Afram genealogy aloofness and cultural awareness that comes from researching family trees and some folks claimed there was already enough information out and it's not a big problem. White people talking about we should only care about reality and the now in that thread. The fact that AA don't know of the depth of their culture and whats out there ( they think they do but don't) is sickening.
Thats why people claim there is no Afram culture.
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In theory, people working in their self interest are suppose to take stewardship of their culture in order to preserve, propagate, and and market it to member outside their culture for profit, which can become a really big deal when you talk about as I've said before with the entertainment and tourism industries by exploiting people's natural attraction towards the exotics. African-Americans have abysmally failed in this regard.
Both Afr'Ams and the Japanese have massively influential cultures on a global level. But, the difference is that the Japanese act as militant ambassadors of their culture and take ownership of it to the full extent, to the point where no "westerner" would dare to try and openly claim anime or karate as "western culture" simply because it's popular in the West for fear of the ensuing swarm of Japanese who would certainly jump down their throat in defense of their culture. They make sure patrons of their culture pay financially and pay dues. Whereas if some white person were to claim Jazz, Electro-Techno, or Rock & Roll music as apart of "western culture", you would probably have some AAs who would be right there nodding along with them. And even if they knew deep down that it was wrong they wouldn't have the intellectual wherewithal to know how to effectively pick apart these fallacies and crush them, because of, how you say, cultural unawareness.
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@Canadadry
Agreed and good post! And the AA's that say " there was already enough information out and it's not a big problem", those are those hotep street corner people who are more focused on Ancient Egypt. Now I'm not going to lie I use to sorta be like that(of course not spreading pseudo-history) ignoring AA history/culture and mostly focusing on past African civilizations like Egypt, Mali, Songhai,etc. While I still do have deep vested interest in Ancient Egypt(and African history in general), I find myself now studying more on AA history than history that is not "directly" mines. Because again like you stated not much is even known about African-American culture or history. Which is why you have some characters in this thread believing in the very foolish thing that AA's do not have a culture. My research on early African nile valley civilizations like Egypt and Nubia are almost at its peak, while there is still more for me to learn about early African-American history and culture. Hell most of us didnt even know about these!!!
http://www.thecoli.com/threads/the-...-a-war-oblivious-to-african-americans.210547/
http://www.thecoli.com/threads/what-if-i-told-you-blacks-ended-the-civil-war.285608/
@Supper
Like Canadadry good post! Especially about the Japanese actually OWNING their culture whereas African-Americans don't even care for their culture or history to even make money off of it. Very good comparison of AA and Japanese culture both being influential, but unlike AA's the Japanese are so militant about their culture. Going back to @Canadadry about AA's not knowing about their culture, its one of the reasons why the African-American martial arts "Knocking and Kicking" is not much known, because blacks in the USA don't care to study their culture in depth. I want to learn more about K&K, but there's hardly any AA scholars, historians or even teachers teaching the fighting style. The only person who did a real in depth study on the fighting style was TJ Desch Obi and he's not even AA iirc, but Nigerian. Other than his book, "Fighting for Honor", info on K&K is very scarce.
Now if AA's did more research on K&K they could make money off it like the Japanese do with Jujutsu. Instead it would be known as the "black martial arts". Think about it the BLACK MARTIAL ARTS. Our OWN martial arts that we can share with the world, but we OWN IT like the Japanese OWN Jujutsu. Afro-Brazilians have their Capoeira. Unlike AA's they actually took the time to not only study Capoeira, but LIVE Capoeira in their veins and it became popular.
The mistake Afro-Brazilians made is that they do not own it where its specifically Afro-Brazilian culture and that they make MONEY off of Capoeira. Instead its the white-Brazilians making loads of money off of Capoeira and they don't even give credit to the black Brazilians(or its African origins) and instead say its "ALL OF BRAZILIAN CULTURE and not just Afro-Brazilian culture". Hell you'll find many hard-nosed Eurocentric white Brazilians arguing tooth and nail that Capoeira had nothing to do with Africa, and its not just apart of black Brazilian culture but all of Brazilian culture. I had to myself educate these Brazilians.
The Afro-Brazilians failed in that they did not act as the ambassadors of Capoeira and so white-Brazilians stole it and banked off of it. If AA's were to start practicing K&K, we can't let that happen.
Agreed and good post! And the AA's that say " there was already enough information out and it's not a big problem", those are those hotep street corner people who are more focused on Ancient Egypt. Now I'm not going to lie I use to sorta be like that(of course not spreading pseudo-history) ignoring AA history/culture and mostly focusing on past African civilizations like Egypt, Mali, Songhai,etc. While I still do have deep vested interest in Ancient Egypt(and African history in general), I find myself now studying more on AA history than history that is not "directly" mines. Because again like you stated not much is even known about African-American culture or history. Which is why you have some characters in this thread believing in the very foolish thing that AA's do not have a culture. My research on early African nile valley civilizations like Egypt and Nubia are almost at its peak, while there is still more for me to learn about early African-American history and culture. Hell most of us didnt even know about these!!!
http://www.thecoli.com/threads/the-...-a-war-oblivious-to-african-americans.210547/
http://www.thecoli.com/threads/what-if-i-told-you-blacks-ended-the-civil-war.285608/
@Supper
Like Canadadry good post! Especially about the Japanese actually OWNING their culture whereas African-Americans don't even care for their culture or history to even make money off of it. Very good comparison of AA and Japanese culture both being influential, but unlike AA's the Japanese are so militant about their culture. Going back to @Canadadry about AA's not knowing about their culture, its one of the reasons why the African-American martial arts "Knocking and Kicking" is not much known, because blacks in the USA don't care to study their culture in depth. I want to learn more about K&K, but there's hardly any AA scholars, historians or even teachers teaching the fighting style. The only person who did a real in depth study on the fighting style was TJ Desch Obi and he's not even AA iirc, but Nigerian. Other than his book, "Fighting for Honor", info on K&K is very scarce.
Now if AA's did more research on K&K they could make money off it like the Japanese do with Jujutsu. Instead it would be known as the "black martial arts". Think about it the BLACK MARTIAL ARTS. Our OWN martial arts that we can share with the world, but we OWN IT like the Japanese OWN Jujutsu. Afro-Brazilians have their Capoeira. Unlike AA's they actually took the time to not only study Capoeira, but LIVE Capoeira in their veins and it became popular.
The mistake Afro-Brazilians made is that they do not own it where its specifically Afro-Brazilian culture and that they make MONEY off of Capoeira. Instead its the white-Brazilians making loads of money off of Capoeira and they don't even give credit to the black Brazilians(or its African origins) and instead say its "ALL OF BRAZILIAN CULTURE and not just Afro-Brazilian culture". Hell you'll find many hard-nosed Eurocentric white Brazilians arguing tooth and nail that Capoeira had nothing to do with Africa, and its not just apart of black Brazilian culture but all of Brazilian culture. I had to myself educate these Brazilians.
The Afro-Brazilians failed in that they did not act as the ambassadors of Capoeira and so white-Brazilians stole it and banked off of it. If AA's were to start practicing K&K, we can't let that happen.
Selling Japan: How Much Is a Nation's Culture Worth?
"Via the billion-dollar Cool Japan Fund Inc, Japan is aiming to become one of the world’s dominant culture forces. But can a national culture be commodified so easily?"
Looks like the Japanese are turning up the heat, trying to over take western/european's cultural hegemony on the global stage.
Meanwhile us: "We don't have a culture, because our ancestors from Kemet/Nubia were stripped of it. We gotta go back to that. BLACK POWER!"
"Via the billion-dollar Cool Japan Fund Inc, Japan is aiming to become one of the world’s dominant culture forces. But can a national culture be commodified so easily?"
Looks like the Japanese are turning up the heat, trying to over take western/european's cultural hegemony on the global stage.
Meanwhile us: "We don't have a culture, because our ancestors from Kemet/Nubia were stripped of it. We gotta go back to that. BLACK POWER!"
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
I think it's harder to do because AfroAmeicans aren't a nation/country. With Japanese culture, at the end of the day we know what country this stuff is coming from which also happens to be very homogenous whereas as AfroAmericans originated/grew up in a nation where we're just a small group in a sea full of white people plus other ethnic groups. What this does, is that whatever we come up with, it gets appropriated by the masses and then becomes standard American pop culture for everyone and then it can often obscure (to many people) the origins. With white people being the masses and controlling most of the media..there is almost no way for AfroAmericans to avoid what happens like what happened to Rock N Roll
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
AfroAmerican culture is very vast which is why I laugh when people keep acting like Afram culture starts and ends with HipHop. Aframs who aren't from the gulf coast or mid west probably don't know there is a modern ongoing Black Cowboy/Rodeo culture and people who aren't AfroAmerican probably have no idea period on the existence of Afram cowboy culture.
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This is pretty damn interesting. Currently watching the second video.
"Most people don't know there were black cowboys." PLEASE, people don't know that black largely influenced the WHOLE cowboy culture.
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
Basically the African-American version of Capoeira. It was developed during slavery. Here are some demonstrations of it.
Posted a ton of info on it in this thread.
http://www.thecoli.com/threads/refu...merican-music-culture-is-europeanized.280978/
On the internet there aren't many "stylish" or master level demonstrations if the fighting style like with Capoeira.
what are you trying to say here?
As an immigrant I find I have seen no perceptible difference between 'African-American' customs and other Americans.what are you trying to say here?