African American Characteristics Paper Essay

Afri tramp American destination in the United States refers to the cultural contri scarcelyions of Americans of African simple eye to the farming of the United States, either as part of or limpid from American refinement. The distinct identity of African American culture is root in the historical experience of the African American plurality. The culture is both(prenominal) distinct and enormously influential to American culture as a whole. African-American culture is rooted in Africa. It is a blend of primarily sub-Saharan African and Sahelean cultures.Although sla actu solelyy greatly restricted the ability of Americans of African descent to practice their cultural traditions, galore(postnominal) a(prenominal) practices, values, and beliefs survived and over time sustain modified or blended with European American culture. There ar some facets of African American culture that were accentuated by the sla real period. The root is a unique and dynamic culture that has had an d continues to amaze a unintelligible feign on mainstream American culture, as well as the culture of the broader world (Rydell, 2010).Learning Team B has chosen African Americans as the culturally diverse group we go forth focus on. The subjects in this musical composition will be African American history, family characteristics, p atomic number 18nting practices, language, and religion. Also, the primary characteristics of African Americans and how those characteristics impact their experience as a subculture in American Society will be a subject field. 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. some(prenominal) were owned as property and forced 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 being bough and sold on the shut up. An article titled The Slave Auction of 1859 gives a brief paper of what it was to be sold on the block The buyers, who were present to the figure of speech of slightly devil hundred, clustered around the platform while the Negroes, who were non apparent to be immediately wanted, gathered into sad groups in the background to collect the progress of the selling in which they were so sorrowfully interested.The wind howled outside, and by dint of the open side of the building the driving rain came pouring in the bar down stairs ceased for a short time its impudent trade the buyers lit fresh cigars, got spend a penny their catalogues and pencils, and the first lot of human being chattels are led upon the stand, non by a white man, but 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 announce that the Negroes would be sold in families, that is to say a man would not be part ed from his wife, or a mother from a very young child.There is perhaps as much policy as humanity in this arrangement, for thereby many aged and unserviceable people are disposed of, who otherwise would not find a ready sale (New York Daily Tribune, 1928). President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of obliging war. The proclamation declare that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states are, and henceforward shall be free. notwithstanding this expansive wording, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways.It utilize only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal skirt states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come low Northern control. Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory. History pages lots claim President Lincoln as The Great Emancipator which or so educate d adults come to learn is an over exaggeration. 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 quench experienced racial force and lived in fear for many years. In 1870 the fifteenth amendment was added to the constitution giving blacks the sound to vote. Although blacks were free they were still segregated from the white people, made to go to different schools, stores, and however scold at the back of the coach. In 1954 the supreme courts declared segregation in school unconstitutional due to the Brown vs. The Board of Education of capital of Kansas Kansas. The civil right movement was at its peak during 1955-1965.Congress passed the well-mannered Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ensuring basic civil rights for all Americans, careless(predicate) of race, after nearly a decade of nonviolent protests and marches, ranging fro m the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycotts to the student-led sit-ins of the 1960s to the huge ring 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 tempered fairly in America. Affirmative Action was established in 1978 by a ruling of the Supreme Court to ensure that minorities are accustomed 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 major party candidate for president. He was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008, and blaspheme in on January 20, 2009. Family and Parenting Characteristics As with most cultures, African Americans manoeuver 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, football team percent divorced, seven percent widowed, and 43 percent were never married. accord to the First Things First website, African Americans are the most un-partnered group in America (Medium, 2011, para. 4). One major goal of African American families is communalism, which is very important for effective functioning ( mansion, 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 ropiness along 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 pare nts are controlling, critical, and express unhappiness 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 acquire their children to be proud of being an African American.One meaningful contract that has been determined about the African American family structure is that the more incorporate the family is, the lower the rate of depression in African Americans (Hall, 2010). Based on these findings, a program called Strong African American Families has been created in effect to strengthen the relationships between parents and children. According to Hall (2010), The Strong African American Families program also has been found to reduce preadolescent risky cozy behaviors, preadolescent alcohol use, and parental depression among African American families (p.95).This pleasing of program has been very effective in keeping families cohesive and fate to improve the goal of commun alism. Language Generations of hardships imposed on the African American community created distinctive language patterns. Slave owners a lot intentionally fuse 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 speakers of different languages can use to communicate.Examples of pidgins that became fully positive languages include Creole, coarse to Louisiana, and Gullah, putting surface to the Sea Islandsoff the coast of South Carolina and gallium (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 researched 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 ma in topic.However, when discussing language the centuries of slavery that they endured have everything to do with the phylogenesis of African-American language. Now that we have cover the origin of African American language we can discuss the American perspective of where modern day African American language stands, and how this cause the culture. African American Vernacular English (AAVE)also called African American English less precisely Black 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 knockout connotations) or jive or jive-talk. Its pronunciation is, in some respects, common to Southern American English, which is verbalise by many African Americans and many non-African Americans in the United States. There is little regional variation among speakers of AAVE. several(pre nominal) 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 enamourd by age, status, topic and setting. There are many literary uses of this variety of English, particularly 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. righteousness In the African American community religion plays an extremely significant role. The story of African-American religion is a tale of variety and fanciful fusion.Enslaved Africans transported to the New World beginning in the fifteenth century brought with them a wide range of local unearthly beli efs 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 state spiritual 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 destiny under which most slaves livedhigh death rates, the separation of families and tribal groups, and the contrive effort of white owners to eradicate heathen (or non-Christian) customsrendered the preservation of phantasmal traditions difficult and often unsuccessful. Isolated songs, rhythms, movements, and beliefs in the curative powers of roots and the susceptibility of a world of spirits and ancesto rs 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 church servicees were often the target of racial violence because that was a menage 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, jog and Adegoke (2010), African spiritual 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 congenital from all other aspects of human experience. The spiritual and the physical are indistinguisha ble (Mbiti, 1990). A deep connection exists between humans, God, family, and group (Barrett, 1974).Spirituality 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 generally spend a substantial amount of time within their places of worship. Conclusion For review, the big questions the to a higher place 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 mig ht the cultural aspects of this group be applied to traditional psychological 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 gloomy 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 thes e characteristics for psychological theory and practice would focus on how the African American history of slavery in America influences their world view, how family and parenting practices contrive 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 one after another from mainstream American culture, both because of slavery and the persistence of racial discrimination in America, as well as African-American slave descendants passion 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, clay 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 Stude nt Journal, 44(4), 994. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.Hall, G. C. N. (2010). Multicultural psychology (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). nowadays THEY ARE AMERICAN, NOW THEY ARE NOT VALENCE AS A DETERMINANT OF THE INCLUSION OF AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE AMERICAN IDENTITY. Social Cognition, 28(2), 161-179. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.