African American Characteristics Paper Essay

African the Statesn finale in the United States refers to the heathen contributions of Americans of African descent to the assimilation of the United States, either as part of or distinct from American culture. The distinct identity of African American culture is rooted in the historic experience of the African American people. The culture is both distinct and enormously influential to American culture as a whole. African-American culture is rooted in Africa. It is a blend of chiefly sub-Saharan African and Sahelean cultures.Although slavery greatly restricted the ability of Americans of African descent to practice their cultural traditions, some(prenominal) practices, values, and beliefs pop offd and over time welcome modified or blended with European American culture. There argon some facets of African American culture that were accentuated by the slavery period. The result is a unique and self-propelling culture that has had and continues to have a profound impact on mainst ream American culture, as intumesce as the culture of the broader beingness (Rydell, 2010).Learning Team B has chosen African Americans as the cultur tout ensembley divers(prenominal) group we will focus on. The subjects in this paper will be African American hi horizontal surface, family characteristics, pargonnting practices, lyric, and religion. Also, the primary winding characteristics of African Americans and how those characteristics impact their experience as a subculture in American Society will be a topic. The last topic will be the implications of the characteristics for psychological theories and practices. History African Americans are the descendants of Africans brought to America during the slavery era.Many were owned as property and force backd to work as xx-four hour period laborers in the fields or as servants in their owners homes. Others were allowed to work off their debts by being bough and sold on the block. An article titled The Slave Auction of 1859 g ives a instruct account of what it was to be sold on the block The buyers, who were present to the number of about two hundred, flock around the platform while the Negroes, who were non likely to be immediately treasured, gathered into sad groups in the background to watch the progress of the selling in which they were so sorrow to the full interested.The wind howled outside, and by the uncovered side of the building the driving rain came pouring in the bar down stairs ceased for a short time its brisk trade the buyers lit fresh cigars, got ready their catalogues and pencils, and the first lot of humane chattels are led upon the stand, not by a white man, but by a crafty mulatto, himself a slave, and who seems to regard the selling of his brethren, in which he so glibly assists, as a seat of government joke. It had been announced that the Negroes would be sold in families, that is to say a man would not be separate from his wife, or a m opposite from a very young child.Ther e is perhaps as a good deal policy as humanity in this arrangement, for thereby umpteen aged and unserviceable people are disposed of, who otherwise would not find a ready sale (New York Daily Tribune, 1928). President Abraham capital of Nebraska issued the Emancipation proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of civilized war. The proclamation say that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states are, and henceforward shall be free. Despite this expansive wording, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways.It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the firm border states. It as well as expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control. closely important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory. History pages often claim President Lincoln as The dandy Emancipator which most educated adults come to learn is an over e xaggeration. The general consensus is that Lincoln neer freed a single slave, and only used the proclamation as a means to get what he wanted from the states.Once freed most African Americans still experienced racial violence and lived in fear for many years. In 1870 the fifteenth amendment was added to the constitution giving blacks the serious to vote. Although blacks were free they were still segregated from the white people, make to go to different schools, stores, and even ride at the back of the bus. In 1954 the supreme courts declared segregation in school unconstitutional due to the Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. The civil set movement was at its peak during 1955-1965.Congress passed the Civil properlys Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ensuring basic civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race, after nearly a decade of nonviolent protests and marches, ranging from the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycotts to the student-led sit-ins o f the mid-sixties to the huge edge 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 famous leader of the civil right movement includes Martin Luther King Jr. , Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks and many others.Although civil rights were established many African American still struggled to be treated fairly in America. Affirmative Action was established in 1978 by a ruling of the Supreme Court to ensure that minorities are given an opportunity that they may have missed because of their race. In 2008 Barack Obama was the first African American to be nominated for a study 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 make -up 12. 9 percent 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). unrivalled major goal of African American families is communalism, which is very important for effective functioning (Hall, 2010).Hall (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 on with being supportive, nurturing, and involved with their children (Hall, 2010). The second type of family is the conflictive-authoritarian that is defined as families with conflict and the parents are controlling, critical, and express gloominess with children (Hall, 2010). Th e last type of family Hall (2010) explains is the defensive- neglectful, that did not like other racial groups and also did not acquire 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 depression in African Americans (Hall, 2010). establish on these findings, a platform yelled Strong African American Families has been created in order to strengthen the relationships in the midst of parents and children. According to Hall (2010), The Strong African American Families program also has been found to reduce preadolescent 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 oblige on the African American c ommunity created distinctive language patterns. Slave owners often intentionally blend people who spoke different African languages to discourage communication in any language other than English. This, combined with prohibitions against education, led to the development of pidginsimplified mixtures of two or more languages that intercommunicateers of different languages can use to communicate.Examples of pidgins that became fully genuine 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 withdraw that slave owners intentionally put Africans with people who did not speak their language to discourage communication, but is have been interrogationed 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.However, when discussing language the centuries of slaver y that they endured have everything to do with the evolution of African-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 tongue English (AAVE)also called African American English less precisely opaque 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 pronunciation 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 little regional variation among speakers of AAVE. Several creolists, including William Stewart, John Dillard, and John Rickford, 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 maintain that there are no significant parallels.As with all linguistic forms, its usage is influenced by age, status, topic and setting. There are many literary uses of this variety of English, curiously in African-American literature (Rydell, 2010). Of course this information does not imply that all African Americans speak a version 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 phantasmal beliefs and practices. This diversity reflected the many cultures and linguistic groups from whic h 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 severe. The harsh circumstances under which most slaves livedhigh death rates, the time interval of families and tribal groups, and the concerted effort of white owners to eradicate heathen (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 their 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 spent 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 far the most prevalent. Some African and African American also follow the Muslim and Judaism.According to Fife, Kilgour, Canter and Adegoke (2010), African uncanny traditions have historically held a central place in African American communalism (Mbiti, 1990) and were vital 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 humans, God, family, and group (Barrett, 1974).Spirituali ty is not compartmentalized into systematized beliefs and practices but woven into everyday 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 loosely 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 handed-down psychological theory? What are the implications of these ch aracteristics 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 ground 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 how the African American history of slavery in Ameri ca 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 persistence 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 Identification Among African American and Caucasian College Students. College Student Journal, 44(4), 994. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.Hall, G. C. N. (2010). Multicultural psychology (2nd ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ Pea rson/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 NOT VALENCE AS A DETERMINANT OF THE INCLUSION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE AMERICAN IDENTITY. amicable Cognition, 28(2), 161-179. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.