What is Black American Culture? (inspired by The Salon)

[Bawon Samedi]

Nope, that's not my logic at all..... cause Hatians do have their own true culture, and its the main reason why they were able to run them folks up outta Haiti......

This makes no sense.

Again by reading your argument(correct me if wrong), you said that AA's don't have a true culture because their direct African culture was lost during slavery. Same with Haitians. Do they not have a culture?

 

[HoloGraphic]

Its whatever we the people make it. Don't think that because your one person, you don't matter. You do. Even a king is just a man.

 

[King Poetic]

i honestly think black culture on a majority is gone.. we have tend to follow more of a american way of culture..

the 90's was the highest point and the end of the majority of proud black culture..

 

[IllmaticDelta]

But to be honest, black american culture

hip-hop
R&B
House
Techno
Blues
Jazz
Soul
Disco
Breakdancing
Graffiti

It's more than that


But how many of those do black people in America participate in en masse?[/quote]

as I've already pointed out, there has never been a singular practice or custom that all AfroAmericans shared outside of sacred music/church. Everything else was/is regional and then spread across black america.

Shyt, you talk to most young black people these days and they think house and techno is some white people stuff....which saddens and disappoints me to hear...especially as a devout fan of the music and the culture

House and techno were also regional, to Chicago and Detroit so many black people outside of those areas didn't even know the roots.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

i honestly think black culture on a majority is gone.. we have tend to follow more of a american way of culture..

the 90's was the highest point and the end of the majority of proud black culture..

There is no such thing as "black culture" nor "white culture". If so that would mean all blacks(or whites) around the world share a monolithic culture which is not the case. African-American culture is very well alive, especially in the south. Those who have southern roots know about "family reunions" which are big in AA culture.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

There is no such thing as "black culture" nor "white culture". If so that would all blacks(or whites) around the world share a monolithic culture which is not the case. African-American culture is very well alive, especially in the south. Those who have southern roots know about "family reunions" which are big in AA culture.

yep which is why I said..

We all know this isn't true but to make it clearer, one should tie specific customs/culture/folklore etc.. not to a race but more to an ethnicity and then it's race.

 

[Field Marshall Bradley]

This makes no sense.

Again by reading your argument(correct me if wrong), you said that AA's don't have a true culture because their direct African culture was lost during slavery. Same with Haitians. Do they not have a culture?

Haitians retained a lot more of their African roots than AAs by far......... I think people are taking an academic approach to this instead of a worldly one.... cause real talk, culture has an ultimate purpose, and I haven't seen anyone touch on it yet.....

 

[Bawon Samedi]

I use to prefer the term "Black-American" to "African-American" for good reasons, but @Supper once made a good point to me that "Black-American" is actually too general compared to "African-American". The term African-American is good, because its not a racial entity but an ethnic one. And because of ethnic, AA's have their own specific culture.

 

[*L*E*G*A*C*Y*]

It's more than that


But how many of those do black people in America participate in en masse?

as I've already pointed out, there has never been a singular practice or custom that all AfroAmericans shared outside of sacred music/church. Everything else was/is regional and then spread across black america.




House and techno were also regional, to Chicago and Detroit so many black people outside of those areas didn't even know the roots.[/QUOTE]
Yea...you right. Many of the house and techno producers of the 80s and 90s came from the black church (it's very easy to tell listening to the musicianmanship on those records)...but it was also in NYC and to a lesser extent, Philadelphia and Baltimore too. But it went global that's the thing...you can find house music in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, etc...

 

[Black Magisterialness]

this thread had a spark when it started.


Black/AA Culture is much more than music and food even though those are VERY large parts of it. People tend to negate the effects of lexicon and language on culture. In fact, now more than ever the evidence of black language and culture is visible in our media. "Bae", "Twerk", "You playin'" "Doe" hell a good 90% of the memes coming out nowadays are being created by black twitter and black instagram. Social media has made our culture even more evident. Hell even some of the small things we used to do as kids are totally cultural. Remember when "Grindin'" came out and every one in school was banging on their desks and lunch tables...that shyt DOESN'T happen in suburbia. Cats weren't joking on eachother in big ass circles or having dance/freestyle battles. Out there they weren't doing family reunions tough or bussin out the white linen short sets in the summer...thats all black people shyt.


I think thats a large part of it, some of the core beliefs of black people still haven't changed either. And smh at people not understanding the power that this culture has on the greater whole of popular culture.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Haitians retained a lot more of their African roots than AAs by far......... I think people are taking an academic approach to this instead of a worldly one.... cause real talk, culture has an ultimate purpose, and I haven't seen anyone touch on it yet.....

Yes indeed. Haitians retained a good number of some African cultural traits, but still a lot were lost during slavery and their culture is very unique compared to other African culture. One would think Haitian vodou is the exact same copy and paste of African Vodun, but its not Vodou actually has strong European Catholic influence along with African Vodun influence. If you go to the deep south AA culture retained significant amount of African cultural traits i.e the Gullah and see this thread. So if we are going to talk about Haitians retaining more of their African "roots" than AA's than we have to know which specific region in the south, because for example in some places in the south AA's still retained African based Martial Arts "Knocking and Kicking".

 

[*L*E*G*A*C*Y*]

i honestly think black culture on a majority is gone.. we have tend to follow more of a american way of culture..

the 90's was the highest point and the end of the majority of proud black culture..

TBH, I just think all culture has been sucked in to the mainstream/american/mall culture and just repackaged to younger generations.

That includes house/techno/rave culture (with the EDM & festival scene making hundreds of millions of dollars now when it was underground and barely even recognizable in the 90s), punk/metal/rock culture (hot topic), hip-hop, skate culture, sneaker culture, etc...it was unique back in the day especially when I was younger, but now with the internet and globalization the regional aspects and the cultural aspects that were unique are just disappearing entirely.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Point blank I think some of these characters who doubt AA's have a strong culture most not have families who are from the south. Every summer my maternal side of the family use to have big family reunions which are big in AA culture.

 

[Supper]

Yes indeed. Haitians retained a good number of some African cultural traits, but still a lot were lost during slavery and their culture is very unique compared to other African culture. One would think Haitian vodou is the exact same copy and paste of African Vodun, but its not Vodou actually has strong European Catholic influence along with African Vodun influence. If you go to the deep south AA culture retained significant amount of African cultural traits i.e the Gullah and see this thread. So if we are going to talk about Haitians retaining more of their African "roots" than AA's than we have to know which specific region in the south, because for example in some places in the south AA's still retained African based Martial Arts "Knocking and Kicking".

Point being there's nothing anything close to Haitian culture that's native to the Continent of Africa. It's is unique all on it's own just like African-American culture is. There are simply ties to a variety of cultures on the African continent because of the role of indigenous African ethnicities played in the ethnogenesis of Afr'ams as well as Haitians.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Yea...you right. Many of the house and techno producers of the 80s and 90s came from the black church (it's very easy to tell listening to the musicianmanship on those records)...but it was also in NYC and to a lesser extent, Philadelphia and Baltimore too. But it went global that's the thing...you can find house music in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, etc...

true but the origins got obscured because it went global and with so many white people making it, those who weren't aware of the roots and sounds in Chicago (House), Detroit (Techno) and New York/Jersey (Garage) took it for imported "white" music