African American Culture Essays (Examples)

1000+ documents containing “african american culture”.
Sort By:
By Keywords
Reset Filters

Example Essays

Essay
African-American Culture
Pages: 2 Words: 677

African-American Culture
Culture comes into existence with the development of various beliefs and values shared by people living together. Many cultures take part in shaping and molding the life practices of people and construct a framework, which serves as a guidance in many aspects. A culture is what creates an identity of people, gives them a name to be known by people and delivers the characteristics solely attributed to that specific group of people. A culture is also responsible for shaping the religious beliefs of a person. In true sense the religious practices, health practices and other relating practices combine to grow into cultures, which eventually distinguishes them from other people of unique culture (Purnell, 2009). In the book Guide to Culturally Competent Health Care written by Larry Purnell there are various cultures discussed with respect to their health behaviors and nutrition. For this research paper, African-American culture has been made…...

mla

References

Fabre, G., & O'Meally, R. (1994). History and Memory in African-American Culture. London: Oxford University Press.

Nichols, C. (2006). African-American Culture. Vero Beach, Fla.: Rourke.

Purnell, L.D. (2009). Guide to Culturally Competent Health Care. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Co.

Essay
African-American Culture & My Family
Pages: 4 Words: 1477


SIX: How does your family culture affect the formation of gender roles? There are many families in the African-American community that consist only of a mother. It is no secret that in a large number of Black families, the father is gone. I am blessed because my parents have pretty much shared responsibilities for the home and our income; we have no gender issues.

SEVEN: Is a language other than English used in your household? No

EIGHT: Give examples of nonverbal communication that you can trace to your culture. Typically African-Americans make strong eye contact with each other. Certainly in my family they do. Culturally it is true that African-Americans use more eye contact when they are talking and less when listening. Also, African-Americans touch or hug on greeting.

NINE: How does your family trace its roots? My family knows our roots and we learn all we need to know from our grandparents;…...

Essay
African-American Culture Has Evolved Significantly
Pages: 8 Words: 3517

Without a doubt, the behavior of the basketball stars in the nineties heightened the reputation of the African-American community, and brought basketball into mainstream prominence. They proved their black masculinity through both leadership and statesmanship, and paved the road for the players of today's NBA.
Despite the exceptional standards that the players of the nineties set, the basketball culture in the new millennium seems to differ drastically. The Kobe generation of athletes desire individual achievement and personal glory rather than communal empowerment. These players hunger for basketball to validate their identity and crown their greatness. Dr. Mohammed of the University of Irvine argues that this modern generation of players ignores the contact hypothesis (Mohammed 13) because they perceive their black masculinity as innately tied to racial exclusion. These players want to revert to a more stereotypical definition of black masculinity, represented by street basketball and street jargon. The new black…...

mla

Vitale, Dick. "Declaring is fine, but too many stay in draft." ESPN. 11 May 2005. 10 June 2005  http://espn.go.com/dickvitale/vcolumn050511-underclassmen.html .

Walton, Bill. "Who's the most indispensable Laker?" ESPN. 14 Mar. 2004. 10 June 2005  http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=walton_bill&id=1755812 .

Walton, Bill. "Kobe, Shaq and the disease of conceit." ESPN. 27 Dec. 2004. 10 June 2005  http://proxy.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=walton_bill&id=1952828 .

Essay
African-American Culture
Pages: 3 Words: 1064

connect the African cultural roots and the Black experience in America. hat experience would you gain from viewing a traditional African community in modern America that retains strong cultural roots? (South Carolina!)
To view a traditional African community, such as exists in South Carolina, within the context of an America environment, is not simply to see a remnant in what is, to many African-Americans, a lost part of their past or a foreign culture. Rather it is an illustration to the culture at large, given the profound cultural differences of this community, that 'black' that is experience of color is not a seamless cloth. The African-American experience of slavery is a unique and profound one, of history and the overcoming of struggle. However, unlike, for instance, the experience of American Jews, or Africans, as illustrated at the Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles, the experience of a cohesive immigrant group, however…...

mla

Works Cited

The African-American Museum of Philadelphia: Exploring Africa." Temporary Exhibit, Feb. 2004.  http://www.artcom.com/Museums/nv/mr/45384-05.htm http://culture.ohio.gov/project.asp?proj=afro

The National Afro-American Museum Wilberforce, OH: Permanent Exhibit: From Victory To Freedom: Afro-American Life in the Fifties and Temporary Exhibit: The Legacy of American Slavery." August 2004.

Seminole Reservation (Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum) Museum: Hollywood Florida.  http://www.aampmuseum.org/ 

Simon Weisenthal Center for Tolerance. 2004.  http://www.wiesenthal.com

Essay
African American Hair Care and Culture
Pages: 8 Words: 2369

Introduction African American hair care and culture has evolved over the past century in spectacular ways, particularly thanks to an infusion of pop stylings from the arts and entertainment world where hair care and culture have created new looks meant to express individuality, creative energy and so on. However, going back in history one can see that African American hair care and culture was similar yet different from what it is today. White and White showed that in the 1830s Negro quarter of a plantation in the South, the men could be found shaving the women “arranging their frizzy hair, in which they take no little pride, or investigating the condition of their children’s heads” (45). In other words, it was the same then as now with respect to hair care and culture—the only things that have changed are the styles. This paper will discuss the history of African American hair…...

mla

Works Cited

Byrd, Ayana, and Lori Tharps. Hair story: Untangling the roots of Black hair in America. Macmillan, 2014.

Candelario, Ginetta. \\\\"Hair race-ing: Dominican beauty culture and identity production.\\\\"  Meridians 1.1 (2000): 128-156.

Hebdige, Dick. Subculture: The meaning of style. Routledge, 2012.

Patton, Tracey Owens. \\\\"Hey girl, am I more than my hair?: African American women and their struggles with beauty, body image, and hair.\\\\" NWSA Journal (2006): 24-51.

Rooks, N. Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1996.

Tate, S. “Black beauty: Shade, hair and antiracist aesthetics.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 30.2 (2007): 300 319.

Thompson, Cheryl. \\\\"Black women and identity: What\\\\'s hair got to do with it.\\\\" Michigan Feminist Studies 22.1 (2008).

White, Shane, and Graham White. \\\\"Slave hair and African American culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.\\\\" The Journal of Southern History 61.1 (1995): 45-76.

Essay
African American Culture
Pages: 5 Words: 1495

African-American people from a qualitative perspective. The literature review will provide a brief background on African-American people and leading health problems they face along with a brief inclusion of census data to create a general picture of health from the perspective of an African-American person. One African-American man was interviewed. His answers provide a means of generating a construct that will be used to draw conclusions for nursing practice and standard of care development.
African-American People: Literature Review

A website called: 'Dimensions of Culture', examines cultural patterns existent in many African-American communities. Those that recently immigrated from Africa show an even different culture compared to African-Americans that have lived in the United States for generations. One common cultural pattern experienced by African-Americans is the 'Black' Experience, which is diverse, representing a wide array of skin tones and backgrounds. The next is the social structure. The social structure often takes on a matriarchal…...

Essay
African-American in the Third Chapter
Pages: 2 Words: 665


2.

In keeping with the theme of individuality highlighted above, each of the main characters in the assigned readings struggle to define his or her identity in terms of the dichotomies in the society they observe. Each point-of-view differs according to the person's stage of life and background, and each person seeks to establish an identity by means of the cultural and social tools they have at their disposal. At times these tools comprise family members, friends, or teachers, and at others they are something much more focused and personal, such as the intellect or determination.

Sylvia, the main character of "The Lesson," establishes her identity in terms of the financial contrast between her own social construct and those who can spend $1,000 on a toy. For her, the concept of financial security provides a platform for constructing an identity. Her determination to contend with the rich for a place in the…...

Essay
African-Americans & Hispanic-Americans Are Currently
Pages: 8 Words: 2189

As the vast majority of African-Americans do not know where their ancestors came from, it is difficult to trace one's roots back to the African continent. At the same time, the United States, while certainly the nation that nearly every African-American would consider to be home, has hardly been hospitable to African-Americans throughout history. Even today, nearly a quarter of all African-American families in the United States live below the poverty line.
Nation plays a more prominent role in Hispanic-American communities, as these communities tend to organize themselves around national heritage. For example, the Puerto ican community in the United States is distinct from the Mexican-American community.

It should be kept in mind, however, that both Hispanic-Americans and African-Americans tend to identify their national heritage with the United States of America - despite their troublesome relationship with their home country over the centuries.

Institutional Networks

Institutional networks continue to play a vital organizational…...

mla

References

Boddy-Evans, a. (N.D.) the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Retrieved December 1, 2007 from African History web site:  http://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa080601a.htm 

Davis, R. (N.D.) Surviving Jim Crow. Retrieved December 1, 2007 from the History of Jim Crow web site: http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/surviving.htm

Educational Broadcasting Corporation (2002). The Great Migration. Retrieved December

1, 2007 from African-American World web site:  http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/reference/articles/great_migration.html

Essay
African-American Movement of the Later
Pages: 8 Words: 2400

Racial identity plays a strong role in the definition of self; Lorde recognized the importance of racial identity even in the struggle for gender equality. Her argument implicitly supports Jones' assertion that racial equality is "prior" to the cause of gender equality for African-American women. The implicit argument is that feminism could not be a united force because white women did not have the ability through their institutionalized advantages to cogently appreciate the tribulations of African-American women. As a result, there could never have been unity in the first place. In understanding this key point, the justification for African-American unity and the subjugation of the black feminist movement appears to be a more appealing strategy.
A final poignant comparison and relationship between the greater struggle for racial equality and black feminism rests in the internal conflict within African-American culture. One of the greatest ironies of the Civil Rights movement is…...

Essay
African-American Women Who Have Lost
Pages: 17 Words: 7688


However, conventional beliefs that there is low rate for African-American involvement in suicidal activities, there exists minimal focus on learning the possible suicide patterns among African-Americans. Social workers are not aware of the risks and protectiveness among African-Americans. This gives room for misinterpretation of facts concerning self-destructive activities of African-Americans. The research further stresses the importance of social workers to the study of suicide among African-Americans. They also have the capacity for influencing national policies and strategies for the mitigation of suicidal cases. Through the research, it was evident that there exists extremely little information about the empirical knowledge of social workers practicing in this sector with regard to the works featured by the social work researchers.

With the evidently increasing need for social workers, it is necessary to study the capacities of knowledge of social workers regarding issued of suicide. This is relevant to the increase of social workers in…...

mla

References

Anderson, J.A. (2010). Clinical research in context: Reexamining the distinction between research and practice. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 35(1): 46-63.

Andrews, P.W. (2006). Parent-Offspring Conflict and Cost-Benefit Analysis in Adolescent

Suicidal Behavior: Effects of Birth Order and Dissatisfaction with Mother on Attempt

Incidence and Severity. Human Nature, 17(2), 190-211. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Essay
African-American Women
Pages: 10 Words: 3118

Women
The impact of slavery on the sexuality of African-American women has been largely overlooked for many years. In addition, the negative manner in which African-American Women are portrayed in the media has been a topic of debate in recent years.

The purpose of this discussion is to explore how the experience of slavery shaped the development of African-American women's sexual identity and self-esteem. In addition, we will examine how the larger American public views and portrays black women in the media.

How the experience of slavery shaped the development of African-American women's sexual identity and self-esteem

How slavery impacted the Family Unit

The Slavery in America is one of the most heinous events in history.

What many fail to realize is that the experience of slavery has fashioned the way that African-American women view their sexuality and body image. efore we can fully understand the impact that slavery had on African-American Women, we must…...

mla

Bibliography www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=90463624

Bay, Mia. The White Image in the Black Mind: African-American Ideas about White People, 1830-1925. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

A www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001371362

Davis, Olga Idriss. "A Black Woman as Rhetorical Critic: Validating Self and Violating the Space of Otherness." Women's Studies in Communication 21.1 (1998): 77+.

A www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001392059

Essay
African-American Comedians Richard Pryor and His Influences
Pages: 2 Words: 755

ichard Pryor was one of the most influential comedians of the 1970s and 80s. He rose to prominence in the early1970s, bringing a style that echoed elements of Dick Gregory and edd Foxx, while serving as a counterpoint to Bill Cosby. Pryor's use of harsh language was heavily influential on the trade, and his style fit well with the social attitudes of the 70s.
Pryor grew up in the 1940 and 1950s in Illinois and had a troubled childhood in a racially-segregated part of the country. This influenced Pryor significantly, and by the time the civil rights movement gained steam he was in New York working on his standup. An early influence was Dick Gregory, who approached social issues in his comedy, and sough to change stereotypes of black people that existed in white America. A further influence during the 1960s was Bill Cosby, whose approach was more inclusive than confrontational,…...

mla

References

Haggins, B. (2007). Laughing Mad: The Black Comic Persona in Post-Soul America Pescataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Pryor, R. (2013). Richard Pryor -- comedic influences. YouTube. Retrieved November 18, 2013 from  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX5KB5yNcRU

Essay
African American and Counseling
Pages: 11 Words: 3343

Morgan's Case Study
Morgan is a bi-racial 16-year-old adolescent male whose mother is Japanese-American and the father is African-American. His parents divorced when he was 3 years old and have negative feelings towards each other even though they both love him. Morgan's parents have remarried and have children. He has very good relationships with his father, stepmother, and younger sisters but has struggled to have a good relationship with his mother after she remarried. The family situation is quite stressful since it's difficult for Morgan to see his mother who relocated to another state while the father lost his job and the family is experiencing tremendous financial challenges. While Morgan has developed feelings for one young woman in his social group, he is skeptical of asking her out on a date for fear of rejection. In the past year, he has demonstrated behavioral changes including identifying himself as African-American instead of…...

mla

References

Counseling Staff. (2015, June 1). Five Counseling Theories and Approaches. Retrieved from The Family Institute at Northwestern University website:  https://counseling.northwestern.edu/five-counseling-theories-and-approaches/ 

Han, H.S., West-Olatunji, C. & Thomas, M.S. (2011). Use of Racial Identity Development Theory to Explore Cultural Competence among Early Childhood Educators. SRATE Journal, 20(1), 1-11.

Ivey, A. E., D'Andrea, M. J., & Ivey, M. B. (2012). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy. A multicultural perspective. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc.

Jones-Smith, E. (2012). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: an integrative approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Inc.

Essay
Demise of the African American Unity in the 1980s
Pages: 2 Words: 695

African-American Culture in the 1980s
An article in the peer-reviewed journal Progressive deals with the political and social culture of the African-American community in the 1980s. It was a peer-reviewed article that reported that "…large numbers of African-American elites were elevated…" into corporate executive position, into the "federal judiciary" and also were elected to state legislatures across America (Marable, 1991). However, the 1980s were also a time when AIDs was becoming a major medical scourge and many African-Americans believed that AIDs was a conspiracy in order to "systematically destroy" the black culture (Marable, 18).

The thesis of this article by Manning Marable -- the late professor of public affairs, African-American studies and history at Columbia University in New York City -- is that there was a "crisis in the black political culture" and a belief that AIDs was a "white supremacist medical conspiracy." Moreover, his thesis was that there was overt anti-Semitism…...

mla

Works Cited

Marable, Manning. "Black America in Search of Itself." Progressive, 55.11, 18-23. 1991.

Essay
African-Americans History and Culture the False and
Pages: 3 Words: 987

African-Americans History And Culture
The false and misleading notion that "African-Americans created themselves" completely ignores and invalidates the rich history of those whose ancestry lies in the great African continent. While African-Americans have adopted and incorporated many cultures into their own (not unlike any other cultural group in America) that in no way signifies that African-American's have no culture or history of their own.

"Black people have no history, no heroes, no great moments," this was told to a young Arthur Schomburg by his 5th grade teacher. Schomburg, with both African and Puerto ican ancestry went on to become a great historian and curator of African-American history; helping to dispel the very "truth" that his teacher tried to feed him about his own history and culture many years prior. The statement that "African-Americans created themselves" simply means that the Black American is devoid of history and a culture to call his own.…...

mla

References

Bascom, L.C. (1999). A renaissance in Harlem: Lost voices of an American community. New York, NY: Bard.

Painter, N.I. (2006). Creating Black Americans: African-American history and its meanings, 1619 to the present. London: Oxford University Press.

Q/A
What historical significance does Crenshaw hold in Los Angeles?
Words: 442

Crenshaw holds significant historical importance in Los Angeles as it has been a center of African American culture and community in the city for many decades. It has been home to various influential figures, institutions, and events that have played a major role in shaping the social, cultural, and political landscape of the city.

Crenshaw is known for its rich history of activism and civil rights movements, with organizations such as the Black Panther Party and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) being active in the area. The neighborhood has also been a hub for African American businesses, arts, and culture,....

Q/A
How did the cultural movements of the Roaring Twenties impact society\'s views on traditional norms and values?
Words: 580

The cultural movements of the Roaring Twenties, such as the Jazz Age, the Harlem Renaissance, and the rise of flappers, had a significant impact on society's views on traditional norms and values. These movements challenged and often subverted long-held beliefs and customs, leading to a shift in attitudes towards issues such as gender roles, race, sexuality, and the role of government.

One of the most noticeable changes during this time was the shifting attitudes towards gender roles. The rise of the flapper, who was characterized by her independence, bold fashion choices, and embrace of new social freedoms, challenged the traditional image....

Q/A
How did the cultural movements of the Roaring Twenties impact society\'s views on traditional norms and values?
Words: 694

The Roaring Twenties: A Catalyst for Social Transformation

The Roaring Twenties, a vibrant and transformative decade that unfolded after the cataclysmic horrors of World War I, witnessed an unprecedented surge in cultural movements that profoundly impacted society's entrenched views on traditional norms and values. These movements challenged established conventions, promoted individualism, and fostered a spirit of liberation that reverberated throughout the social fabric.

The Rise of Modernism

Modernism, a multifaceted movement encompassing art, literature, and design, emerged as a radical departure from the ornate and sentimental past. Modernist artists favored abstract forms, geometric shapes, and fragmented perspectives, seeking to break free from traditional....

Q/A
How has internal migration shaped the cultural landscape of English-speaking countries?
Words: 590

## Internal Migration and the Cultural Landscape of English-Speaking Countries

Internal migration, the movement of individuals within a country, has played a pivotal role in shaping the cultural landscape of English-speaking countries, leaving an enduring impact on their demographics, social dynamics, and cultural tapestry.

Demographic Shifts:

Urbanization: Internal migration contributed to the growth of cities as people moved from rural areas to urban centers seeking employment and opportunities. This urbanization led to the concentration of population and the emergence of distinct urban cultures.
Demographic Diversity: Migration from different regions within a country or from abroad brought together individuals with diverse backgrounds, ethnicities,....

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now