The African-American Subculture

Hip Hop also plays a very important role in modern culture and society of African-Americans. After the abolition of slavery, African-Americans

Racism is a prominent issue or a serious problem in the American society since the beginning and the Americans are still struggling to eradicate this problem from their land. American soil has witnessed civil rights movements concerning this issue in the past. However in 1920, a movement got initiated to promote black identity known as Harlem Renaissance. It was also a fine arts movement that led to an increase in black confidence, literacy rate, and black culture. Writers wrote about their roots and the current society.

The keys to artistic revolution and authentic expression, some intellectuals felt, would be found in the cultures of “primitive races,” and preeminent among these, in the stereotypical thinking of the day, were the cultures of sub-Saharan Africans and their descendants. Early in the 20th century, European avant-garde artists had drawn inspiration from African masks as they broke from realistic representational styles toward abstraction in painting and sculpture. The act of such experiments caused black people to look on their African heritage in a different way and in many cases with a desire to reconnect with a heritage long despised or misunderstood by both whites and blacks. That is how the harlem renaissance has helped shape African American

Even though African Americans were free to travel after the emancipation of slavery, it was more likely for an African American male to travel than an African American female. Rainey directly challenged this norm through the content of her songs and influenced the African American females in her audience to do the same. In an interview about the audience reactions of her song “Traveling Blues” Rainey expressed, “Then I sing. You could just see them jigs wanting to go some place else” (Davis 74). This line exposes the longing to travel that some African American females in Rainey’s audience felt, but might have not acted on because it was not viewed as acceptable.

He wanted to tell the stories of his people in ways that reflected their actual culture, including both their suffering and their love of music, laughter, and language itself. In Hughes 's poetry, he uses the rhythms of African American music, particularly blues and jazz. This sets his poetry apart from that of other writers, and it allowed him to experiment with a very rhythmic free verse. Hughes 's second volume of poetry, Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927), was not received well at that time of its publication because it was too experimental. However, many critics believe the volume to be among Hughes 's greatest

Reverberating the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. of the Civil Rights movement, Black Lives Matter calls for further equity, attempting to deconstruct institutional racism in America. The revival of movements for black empowerment has brought back a civil unrest to the public that needs answers. The presence of racism never left America, it hid in the shadows and stayed silent for decades. For these reasons, in order to fully stop racism in America, the public must be ready to awaken itself to a reality of negligence. Silence allowed ignorance, but with the rise of social media and technology, America at large can no longer keep its eyes closed and must confront the issue at

with protest, organizing, and together (unity) will bring about social change and justice. The two (2) speeches of Malcolm X and Savio were delivered to different types of audiences and both speeches dissimilar in pretexts and meaning. Malcolm X articulated how essential it was for African Americans to demand a resolve for the racial and discriminatory laws and social injustices in America. Government and its operatives were malevolence in its intent and obligations: they must exit to uphold racism and unfair practices.

(Bois, 2005 [1903]) But, much of their identity was pressurised by feeling the need to assimilate and conform to religious structures and certain standards in the Anglo-Saxon (Solomos, 2005) society to which they belonged. (Bois, 2005

Asagai also wants to share his culture and try to convert other assimilated blacks like Beneatha to support his traditional Nigerian culture. This is very controversial, especially since Nigerian culture is commonly thought to be constructed on living in “grass huts”. Like the Youngers, Asagai is fighting against the common black culture of Chicago and wishes for more blacks to embrace what he sees as the true culture of the blacks. The only person who really wants to embrace the black culture that Asagai professes is Beneatha and even she has misconceptions of what Nigerian culture truly is. This shows that the culture of the blacks’ ancestry has been forgotten and has not been taught.

Unlike Rodriguez, Douglass would have been seen as a danger because educated slaves could bring on a revolution and would be seen as an abolitionist with crazy ideas. However, Rodriguez believed that one should immerse oneself into the American way of life which included giving up one's cultural identity for a new and better one. In contrast Frederick Douglass did not want to give up his rich cultural heritage because he understood that without it people would forget the horrors committed to them in the white man’s world. Frederick was an advocate of his heritage and taught others to read and write so he could inform them.

The black community at that time had to follow set rules, and had different rights than white people. Even further, the white community was divided as well, by religion and place of birth. Only "true" white Americans could create, and distribute their music into the public. Because of that, music created by oppressed groups was rebellious, calling to arms, and denying the current system of racism. Even till now, there are rebellious messages hidden in the texts.

Additionally, the more specific choice to use African Americans as slaves was because of “the impossibility of using Indians and the difficulty of using whites, the availability of blacks offered in greater and greater numbers by profit-seeking dealers in human flesh, and with such blacks possible to control because they had just gone through an ordeal” (Zinn 1). The settlers decided to use what was most convenient to them, again, a selection they made. Finally, their treatment of the African American slaves as cruel and ruthless, for instance packing a large amount of them in a boat for transportation,, further shows the decisions they made for their convenience, showing how racism is not

Since the 18th Century Transatlantic Slave Trade, Africans Americans have been confined to a box full labor, mistreatment, and abuse. Countries all over the world slowly understood that having a skin color other than white does not mean that you are less valuable as a human being. However, in the United States of America the idea of African Americans being equal to whites was unreal. Leaders, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist minister, the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and key leader during the Civil Rights Movement after World War II, fought so blacks and whites could coexist and so the future could be brighter even if he was not in it. On MLK’s famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” MLK speaks with

leadership. The Civil Rights Acts and Voting Rights Act formed a legal basis to end the segregation and discrimination that has been happening in the United States. Malcolm X influenced disparate wings of the black movement. King influenced the non-violence act to the younger African-American generation to show them that violence just causes more of a problem. The radical faction of the "Black Power" movement accepted his positions on African identification, neocolonialism, black control of the political economy of black communities, and Afro-American self-defense.

After the Underground Railroad, moral code came into question, and with the Constitution demanding all people be equal, the people in the North could no longer bear to uphold slavery. The Underground Railroad was risky and dangerous, but it furthered racial equality by creating a coalition against slavery and by freeing African