African American Cultural Identity Analysis

However, this gave her a passion for social reform. Her social reforms ranged that there should be equal rights for gender, sex, African-American studies, social consciousness, and other philosophies. Davis later moved North and went to Brandeis University in Massachusetts while studying philosophy with Herbert Marcuse. Subsequently, as a graduated student at the University of California, San Diego, she adjoined various classifications, including the Black Panthers. But she spent most of her time working with the Che-Lumumba Club, which was all-black branch of the Communist Party.

The veil can be compared to “rose-colored glasses” that provide optimism for black people who choose not to see their oppression. Yet at the same time, it harms them by encouraging black people to ignore the circumstances in which they live. Double consciousness is the belief that the African American in the United States lives with two conflicting identities that cannot be entirely merged together. The first conflicting identity is the black identity and it is the most important to the black experience. This is something that every black person has and no other race can identify with.

African-American author Toni Morrison 's book, Beloved, describes a black culture born out of a dehumanising period of slavery just after the Civil War. Culture is a means of how a group collectively believe, act, and interact on a daily basis. Those who have studied her work refer to Morrison 's narrative tales as “literature…that addresses the sacred and as an allegorical representation of black experience” (Baker-Fletcher 1993: 2). Although African Americans had a difficult time establishing their own culture during the period of slavery when they were considered less than human, Morrison believes that black culture has been built on the horrors of the past and it is this history that has shaped contemporary black culture in a positive way. Through the use of linguistic devices, her representation of black women, imagery and symbolic features, and the theme of interracial relations, Morrison illustrates that black culture that is resilient, vibrant, independent, and determined.

Poets Claude Mckay and Langston Hughes are both well known for their literary contributions to the Harlem Renaissance. Roughly spanning from the 1910s to the 1930s, about two decades, the Harlem Renaissance is pinned as the intellectual, social, and artistic explosion of African American culture. At the same time, African Americans were treated as second-class citizens and dealt with a common consensus of disdain from the white folk. Authors and poets during this time were determined to write on the sufferings and strengths within the black culture. Through literary works such as "America" by Claude McKay and "Freedom" by Langston Hughes, the struggles encompassing the black experience are realistically portrayed through reoccurring themes

There are so many writers and people who do not write also that look up to him. He accepted the challenge of expressing the heart and soul of African Americans. Keenly aware of racism, Hughes visioned a nation where domestic problems could be realized. Hughes in his poetry, expressed his own reactions to incidents in his life and in the world at large. Langston Hughes left such a lasting impression on poetry , black culture, and the people in his life, that he changed the way they lived with the spirit and soul he put into his

“Your every grief like a blade shining and unsheathed.... my sorrow must be laid on your head like a crown” (Cullen, 25-27 & 30-31).The author is trying to say that others can cause grief and sorrow and the connection of one another. In conclusion, both poems are about human connections, but the differences are the topic of the poems, one being about race and the other is about grief and sorrow. The significance of these themes are that both connections of others during the Harlem Renaissance.

They send me to eat in the kitchen/ When company comes, / But I laugh, / And eat well, / And grow strong” (Hughes 2-7). Countee Cullen also points out the racism in society by using an example from his childhood: “I saw a Baltimorean / Keep looking straight at me.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Zora Neale Hurston quotes: “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman” (Hurston 104). Literature, in Hurston’s view, serves as a form of didacticism that helps readers learn life lessons. Furthermore, Hurston expresses her views of literature in her manifesto “The Characteristics of Negro Expression,” which primarily expresses her views on the function of literature. In “The Characteristics of Negro Expression,” Hurston emphasizes reasons for African-American writing.

Although depicted in various forms and caricatures, the complex identity of being a Black American can be derived from a concept introduced in W.E.B. DuBois’ book Ways of Black Folk— double-consciousness (DuBois, 6). In this, DuBois investigates how the intersectional identity of Black folks contributes to their lived experiences; he ultimately asserts that Americans will struggle in determining the role of Black people and overcoming the metaphorical color-line, the clear distinction in the treatment of Blacks and whites (DuBois, 6). This problem is manifested in historical examples found in Samuel D. Pollard’s documentary Slavery by Another Name (Pollard, 2012). In addition to validating DuBois’ concerns about the integration of Black people

Separatism is different than segregation. Black Separatism is a wish based on the needs of living in a separate homeland, the token of human equality with the necessities at hand without any intervening of the whites. Segregation is the distinction of submitting groups of people of a specific culture, religion and so forth, to be put in a space that is controlled by others, giving you no sense of human dignity nor ability. A sense of demonization. X proclaims this in an interview, “A segregated community is a Negro community.

The African American culture takes pride in cooking and food in general. Food is mostly provided or prepared for any occasion like family reunions, cook outs, holidays, and funerals. My mother and her cousin, Sherrie would decide who house to celebrate holidays or cook outs and each person would cook and prepare the food for any of our family gathers. My mother also prepared traditional southern meals in our home. Home cooked meals are a value in the family as well as the African American culture.

Their real name becomes irrelevant, and they now are "felicia". Words or phrases similar to those are spoken languages that a black person will understand. AAE is a another way for black people to express themselves, they might not know the meaning of certain words that people use on SAE, but the same goes the other way around. People who speak in SAE may not know much about AAE, but yet SAE is considered the proper language to speak in, they are discriminating against the way African- American speak because they do not understand it, that is why I believe that AAE should not be treated as a separate language.

Growing into the woman I am today I’ve learned that I am African American and very proud it. I also learned what comes with the title African American as well. Awareness of my culture started becoming apparent as well as the up and downs of being African

Privilege is a special right or advantage. Today’s society, have the right to explore their option on whatever privilege they think is right. People don’t have to follow the white, straight, or male privilege. In my opinion, I think white and black privilege is a myth, everyone should be receive equal privilege, and it shouldn’t matter on the color of your skin. Student have the right to accept any type of privilege, for example, the right for equal pay, the right of police protection and etc.

Being judged on your financial credentials alone is very soothing. Having a double consciousness as a black man and father is really a burden. Struggling financially due to finding odd and end jobs and caring for two sweet