African American Characteristics Paper Essay

Afri pot American civilization in the joined States refers to the cultural contri onlyions of Americans of African descent to the socialization of the United States, either as part of or clean-cut from American tillage. The distinct identity of African American refinement is rooted in the historical experience of the African American people. The culture is both distinct and enormously influential to American culture as a whole. black culture is rooted in Africa. It is a blend of chiefly sub-Saharan African and Sahelean cultures.Although thrall greatly restricted the ability of Americans of African descent to drill their cultural traditions, umteen practices, values, and beliefs beard and everywhere time look at modified or blended with European American culture. There are some facets of African American culture that were accentuated by the hard workerry period. The result is a unique and dynamic culture that has had and continues to have a profound shock on mainstream A merican culture, as swell as the culture of the broader world (Rydell, 2010).Learning Team B has chosen African Americans as the culturally diverse sort we pull up stakes focus on. The subjects in this paper will be African American history, family characteristics, parenting practices, words, and religion. Also, the primary quill characteristics of African Americans and how those characteristics impact their experience as a subculture in American Society will be a issuance. The last topic will be the implications of the characteristics for mental theories and practices. History African Americans are the posterity of Africans brought to America during the slavery era.Many were owned as property and laboured to work as sidereal day laborers in the fields or as servants in their owners homes. Others were allowed to work off their debts by universe bough and sold on the layover. An article titled The buckle down auction bridge of 1859 gives a brief account of what it was to be sold on the block The buyers, who were present to the number of about two hundred, clustered around the weapons platform while the Negroes, who were non likely to be immediately treasured, gathered into tragicomical groups in the background to watch the progress of the selling in which they were so sorrowfully interested.The wind howled outside, and through the open side of the building the campaign rain came pouring in the bar down stairs ceased for a short time its brisk trade the buyers lit fresh cigars, got expeditious their catalogues and pencils, and the first lot of human chattels are led upon the stand, not by a white man, only by a sleek mulatto, himself a slave, and who seems to regard the selling of his brethren, in which he so glibly assists, as a capital joke. It had been announced that the Negroes would be sold in families, that is to order a man would not be parted from his wife, or a mother from a very young child.There is perhaps as much policy as humani ty in this arrangement, for thereby umpteen another(prenominal) aged and unserviceable people are disposed of, who otherwise would not find a ready sale (New York Daily Tribune, 1928). remainder chair Abraham capital of Nebraska issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third category of civil war. The proclamation declared that all persons held as slaves within the contumacious states are, and henceforward shall be free. Despite this expansive wording, the Emancipation Proclamation was peculiar(a) in many ways.It applied only to states that had seceded from the summation, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It too expressly exempted parts of the confederacy that had already come under Northern control. Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory. History pages often claim President Lincoln as The Great Emancipator which intimately educated adults come to learn is an over ex aggeration. The general consensus is that Lincoln never freed a single slave, and only apply the proclamation as a means to get what he wanted from the states.Once freed most African Americans still experienced racial military unit and lived in fear for many years. In 1870 the fifteenth amendment was added to the constitution giving blacks the right to vote. Although blacks were free they were still segregated from the white people, made to go to different schools, stores, and even ride at the back of the bus. In 1954 the independent courts declared segregation in school unconstitutional due to the browned vs. The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. The civil right movement was at its peak during 1955-1965.Congress passed the Civil secures Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ensuring base civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race, after nearly a hug drug of nonviolent protests and marches, ranging from the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycotts to the student -led sit-ins of the 1960s to the huge March on Washington in 1963. In 1968 President Johnson signed the Civil Right act prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. Some of the most noteworthy leader of the civil right movement includes Martin Luther King Jr. , Thurgood Marshall, genus Rosa Parks and many others.Although civil rights were established many African American still struggled to be treated fairly in America. Affirmative exercise was established in 1978 by a ruling of the Supreme salute to ensure that minorities are given an opportunity that they may have miss because of their race. In 2008 Barack Obama was the first African American to be nominated for a major party nominee for president. He was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008, and sworn in on January 20, 2009. Family and Parenting Characteristics As with most cultures, African Americans place a high value on their families.In the United States African American familys leave-up 12. 9 percentage of the population according to the 2003 US Census. The US census also shows that for African Americans over the age of 15 there are 34 percent married, five percent separated, eleven percent divorced, seven percent widowed, and 43 percent were never married. According to the First Things First website, African Americans are the most un-partnered group in America (Medium, 2011, para. 4). One major design of African American families is communalism, which is very important for effective functioning ( manse, 2010).antechamber (2010) describes African American families as having three family types. The first type is the cohesive-authoritative that is explained to be a family with high cohesion along with being supportive, nurturing, and involved with their children (Hall, 2010). The guerilla type of family is the conflictive-authoritarian that is defined as families with conflict and the parents are controlling, critical, and express gloo miness with children (Hall, 2010). The last type of family Hall (2010) explains is the defensive- neglectful, that did not like other racial groups and also did not teach their children to be proud of being an African American.One significant trend that has been determined about the African American family structure is that the more interconnected the family is, the lower the rate of clinical depression in African Americans (Hall, 2010). Based on these findings, a program called Strong African American Families has been created in order to strengthen the relationships betwixt parents and children. According to Hall (2010), The Strong African American Families program also has been found to prune pre teenager risky sexual behaviors, preadolescent alcohol use, and parental depression among African American families (p.95).This kind of program has been very effective in keeping families cohesive and helping to improve the goal of communalism. Language Generations of hardships enforc e on the African American conjunction created distinctive language patterns. Slave owners often designedly mixed people who spoke different African languages to discourage communication in any language other than side of meat. This, combine with prohibitions against education, led to the development of pidginsimplified mixtures of two or more languages that speakers of different languages can use to communicate.Examples of pidgins that became fully developed languages include Creole, common to Louisiana, and Gullah, common to the sea Islandsoff the coast of South Carolina and Georgia (Rydell, 2010). It is sad to think that slave owners intentionally put Africans with people who did not speak their language to discourage communication, but is have been searched and proven to be true. Slavery is not the only element to African American culture, and it often seems that when discussing African American culture slavery is the main topic. even so, when discussing language the centu ries of slavery that they endured have everything to do with the evolution of Afro-American language. Now that we have covered the origin of African American language we can discuss the American perspective of where modern day African American language stands, and how this effects the culture. African American vulgar English (AAVE)also called African American English less precisely dusky English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular (BEV), or Black Vernacular English (BVE)is an African Americanvariety(dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of American English.Non-linguists sometimes call it Ebonics(a term that also has other meanings or strong connotations) or jive or jive-talk. Its orthoepy is, in some respects, common to Southern American English, which is spoken by many African Americans and many non-African Americans in the United States. There is subaltern regional variation among speakers of AAVE. Several creolists, including William Stewart, John Dillard, and John Rickfo rd, argue that AAVE shares so many characteristics with Creole dialects spoken by black people in much of the world that AAVE itself is a Creole dialect while others hold back that there are no significant parallels.As with all lingual forms, its usage is influenced by age, status, topic and setting. There are many literary uses of this variety of English, particularly in Afro-American literature (Rydell, 2010). Of course this selective information does not imply that all African Americans speak a stochastic variable of AAVE, only that it is very common and prevalent throughout the modern day African American culture. Religion In the African American community religion plays an extremely significant role. The story of African-American religion is a tale of variety and creative fusion.Enslaved Africans transported to the New World beginning in the fifteenth century brought with them a wide range of local sacred beliefs and practices. This diversity reflected the many cultures and linguistic groups from which they had come. The majority came from the West Coast of Africa, but even within this area religious traditions varied greatly. Islam had also exerted a powerful presence in Africa for several centuries before the start of the slave trade an estimated twenty percent of enslaved people were practicing Muslims, and some retained elements of their practices and beliefs well into the nineteenth century.Preserving African religions in North America proved to be very difficult. The harsh circumstances under which most slaves livedhigh death rates, the separation of families and tribal groups, and the concerted effort of white owners to eradicate ethnic (or non-Christian) customsrendered the preservation of religious traditions difficult and often unsuccessful. Isolated songs, rhythms, movements, and beliefs in the curative powers of roots and the efficacy of a world of spirits and ancestors did survive well into the nineteenth century.Historically during t heir most difficult times the African American relied on their religious beliefs to endure. During the civil rights movement black churches were often the target of racial violence because that was a place that African Americans dog-tired most of their time. This was a place where they often held meetings to discuss their civil rights efforts. African Americans practice a number of religions, but Protestant Christianity is by farther the most prevalent. Some African and African American also appraise the Muslim and Judaism.According to Fife, Kilgour, Canter and Adegoke (2010), African spiritual traditions have historically held a central place in African American communalism (Mbiti, 1990) and were life-sustaining to survival during the time of slavery. In African and African American culture the concept of spirituality is inseparable from all other aspects of human experience. The spiritual and the physical are indistinguishable (Mbiti, 1990). A deep connection exists between hu mans, God, family, and group (Barrett, 1974).Spirituality is not compartmentalized into systematized beliefs and practices but woven into occasional experience (Boyd Franklin, 1989). The Black church is the primary means through which many African Americans express their religious and spiritual beliefs and values (Richardson & June, 1997). This institution is a central force in African American childhood and adolescent identity and helps to shape ideas about what comprises community. Many African American children have christen ceremonies for they can even walk or talk.African American families generally spend a substantial amount of time within their places of worship. Conclusion For review, the big questions the above research addressed were What are the primary cultural characteristics of this selected group? How do the characteristics of this group impact its experience as a subculture in American society? How might the cultural aspects of this group be applied to traditional mental theory? What are the implications of these characteristics for psychological theory and practice?We have found that the primary cultural characteristics of the African America culture are their history of slavery in America, distinct family and parenting practices, slavery based evolution of their language, and their dedicated religious beliefs. The characteristics of this group impact its experience as a subculture in American society by enticing others in to the culture and sparking curiosity around the world. African Americans make up a small percentage of the minority in America. However African American culture dominates the world of music, fashion, and professional sports.The cultural aspects of the African American group can be applied to traditional psychological theory when considering family dynamics, cultural perspectives, and how these aspects influence mental health. The implications of these characteristics for psychological theory and practice would focus on h ow the African American history of slavery in America influences their world view, how family and parenting practices mold their ideals of what a family should be, how religion influences their beliefs and actions, and how language distinguishes them from others and what psychological impact this has on them as a whole.For many years African-American culture developed separately from mainstream American culture, both because of slavery and the assiduity of racial discrimination in America, as well as African-American slave descendants desire to create and maintain their own traditions. Today, African-American culture has become a significant part of American culture and yet, at the same time, remains a distinct cultural body. References Fife, J. , McCreary, M. , Kilgour, J. , Canter, D. , & Adegoke, A. (2010). self-importance Identification Among African American and Caucasian College Students. College Student Journal, 44(4), 994. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.Hall, G. C. N. (2010). Mul ticultural psychological science (2nd ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ Pearson/Prentice Hall. Medium. (2011). First Things First. Retrieved from http//firstthings. org/page/research/african-american-family-facts New York Daily Tribune, March 9, 1859 reprinted in Hart, Albert B. , American History Told by Contemporaries v. 4 (1928). Retrieved from http//eyewitnesstohistory. com Rydell, R. J. , Hamilton, D. L. , & Devos, T. (2010). NOW THEY ARE AMERICAN, NOW THEY ARE non VALENCE AS A DETERMINANT OF THE INCLUSION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE AMERICAN IDENTITY. Social Cognition, 28(2), 161-179. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.