African American Culture Research Articles

Religious Coping Styles Used by Young Black Women Who Experience DatingViolence.

Young Black women experience higher rates of dating violence victimization compared to their White peers. Religion is a cornerstone of African American culture, suggesting that Black women may use religious coping after experiencing trauma like dating violence. However, research has not explored the patterns of religious coping following dating violence experiences. The current study analyzed survey data from 481 young Black women aged 18-19 years on their religious coping behaviors, acceptance of violence beliefs, and dating violence victimization experiences. Results showed that victimization was positively associated with negative religious coping. Findings indicate that one way young Black women cope with dating violence victimization is through feelings of spiritual discontent, and they may see their victimization as a punishment from God.

Survival Politics and Sacrificial Transmediation: Liu Xiaobo and Signature Event Context

ABSTRACT This article interrogates the medial politics of 2010 Nobel Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo through a re-situation of Marc Abélès’s concept of “survival politics.” It understands Liu’s energetic self-representation in multiple media as an attempt to produce a usable Derridean signature, connections between texts and contexts that allow for cohesion inside endangered communities, as well as methods by which to contest dominant narratives. By reading Liu’s graduate thesis, “Aesthetics and Human Freedom,” alongside Derrida’s essay “Signature Event Context,” this article theorizes that minoritarian discourses that face erasure often choose vigorous transmedial production, self-sacrificially constraining their own freedoms in order to work toward the improbable appearance of signed texts. The article finishes by raising the possibility that the politics of authenticity and hypervisibility in contemporary African American intellectual culture are also interpretable through the lens of self-sacrificial hypermediation.

Jazz music: From black pride to political consciousness to social change in the United States

African Americans have been marginalised, discriminated against, and excluded from American society for centuries. First as slaves, but later when they gained emancipation, they remained relegated, differentiated, and discounted, in a range of areas, including in the political and economic spheres. Music has been a means to promote their greater inclusion in American society, drawing together and uniting all Americans through its power. While there have been links drawn between music and the African American struggle for equality, there has not been sufficient focus on the pivotal role that specifically jazz music has played in this regard. Jazz particularly has been a vehicle for promoting Black pride, political consciousness, and social change. This article argues that jazz has had a major effect on African American culture, society, and experience. Analysing the works of legendary jazz musicians James Brown, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, and The Temptations, this article shows that jazz is not only as a catalyst for, but a driving force in, the fight for political freedom, as well as for economic empowerment, which is arguably still ongoing today.

Transformational Learning Within African American Culture: What Does Financial Education That Addresses Systemic Inequalities Look Like?

Transformational Learning Within African American Culture: What Does Financial Education That Addresses Systemic Inequalities Look Like?

“African root and American fruit”: African American families and culture in college choice

PurposeResearch shows that family is influential to African Americans in college choice (Chapman et al., 2018; Chapman et al., 2020; Freeman, 2005; Hines et al., 2019; Lowry, 2017; Williams, 2018). However, it often overlooks unique, African-rooted characteristics of African American families and culture. This study aimed to explore whether and how these characteristics shape college choice for these students.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through semi-structured interviews with six, first-year African American students at an urban university. The data were analyzed using theoretical thematic analysis.FindingsThe major themes showed the influence of family, community and spirituality in shaping participants’ college choice decisions and perception of higher education.Originality/valueIn addition to identifying specific family members who were influential to African Americans in college choice, this work highlighted the role of communities as a whole in shaping these students’ decisions and creating supportive environments. It also showed the importance of these students’ relationship with God through the college choice process. The work can guide researchers and educators in considering African American families and culture as strengths in helping these students through college choice.

THE INFLUENCE OF JAZZ AND BLUES ON AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE

This research paper explores the profound influence of jazz and blues on African American literature, highlighting their role in shaping themes, narrative techniques, and cultural expressions. Jazz and blues, with origins rooted in African traditions and their evolution in the United States, serve as cultural symbols representing the resilience, creativity, and spirit of the African American community. The Harlem Renaissance marked a significant intersection of music and literature, with key figures such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ralph Ellison incorporating musical elements into their works to explore themes of identity, struggle, resilience, and community.Langston Hughes' poetry, notably "The Weary Blues," captures the rhythmic and emotional depth of blues, while Zora Neale Hurston’s novels, including "Their Eyes Were Watching God," integrate musical elements and African American folklore. Ralph Ellison’s "Invisible Man" employs jazz influences to explore themes of identity and cultural expression. These works demonstrate how jazz and blues have shaped the narrative structures and thematic depth of African American literature.Contemporary African American writers continue this tradition, drawing on jazz and blues to enhance their storytelling. Toni Morrison’s "Jazz" and Jesmyn Ward’s "Sing, Unburied, Sing" exemplify the ongoing influence of these musical genres, using them to deals complex themes and preserve cultural narratives.The paper concludes that the interconnectedness of music and literature in African American culture is a testament to the community's rich artistic heritage. Jazz and blues are integral to the African American narrative, providing a soundtrack to the community’s experiences and enhancing the emotional and cultural depth of their literature. This relationship celebrates the past and inspires future generations, ensuring the enduring legacy of jazz and blues in African American literary tradition.

Sensate focus: addressing potential preconceived notions of black sexuality

As researchers of African Americans, we realized there are few studies on Black sexuality and pleasure. Most do not focus on how stigmas and stereotypes regarding Black sexuality have influenced self and relational narratives associated with sex. Yet as seen in modern day Black American and mainstream culture, sex is often highlighted in the Black community, sending performative messages and unrealistic expectations on physical anatomy that limits expansion of mutual sexual pleasure. Using phenomenology and the Feedback Informed Treatment (FIT) Outcome assessment, we interviewed 10 African American participants, 7 female, 2 male, and 1 male-identifying. The focus was on participants understanding of good and meaningful sex to determine if any internalized stereotypical narratives of Black sexuality was present and the influence of a culturally sensitive workshop exploring the sensate focus approach. Through thematic analysis, five themes were found: (a) healthy communication, (b) mindfulness, (c) education and unlearning, (d) emotional connection, (e) mutual pleasure. Although identifying a limited amount of internalized racial and sexual stereotypes among the participants, researchers were able to determine a significant influence in participants understanding of what good and meaningful sex is following their experience attending a sensate focus workshop. Implications and future discussions to further understand internalized assumptions of Black sexuality is recommended for both clinical and research perspectives.

Koritha Mitchell. From Slave Cabins to the White House: Homemade Citizenship in African American Culture.

Koritha Mitchell. <i>From Slave Cabins to the White House: Homemade Citizenship in African American Culture</i>.

Life Goes on: Tupac Shakur’s Influence on Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give and African American Sneaker Culture

When analyzing African American sneaker culture’s ascension into American popular and global culture, one must consider its place in literature. How did sneaker culture go from the basketball courts and the bustling streets of urban America to the pages of books? In brief, the material circumstances of a society that subscribes to African American sneaker culture reflects in the literature the same society produces. For example, writers documenting the African American experience within urban environments, wittingly and unwittingly documented sneaker culture’s existence and manifestation. This is evident in Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give (2017). Is Angie Thomas the next Tupac Shakur? Heavily influenced by his work, her work too has entered academic settings. Will sneaker culture overcome the taboos surrounding it? The topics addressed in The Hate U Give (2017) are as controversial in today’s political climate as topics addressed by Shakur in the past. Furthermore, wrapping a tale of police brutality inside a text that glorifies sneaker culture is not tailored to the majority. Like “All Eyez On Me” Thomas’s text speaks to the plight of the African American.

Empowering African‐American museums: The vital role of black museum anthropologists in grantmaking

AbstractMany African American museums face financial constraints and need resources to preserve their collections, create exhibits, and offer educational programs. Grant funding is crucial for the sustainability of these museums. Black anthropologists are essential in grant writing because they provide their extensive knowledge of African American history and culture to help museums develop compelling narratives that resonate with grant funders. Additionally, Black anthropologists are needed as reviewers of grant proposals. By leveraging their unique insights from professional training and personal experiences, Black anthropologists can champion the cause of these museums in the grant‐making process. Their expertise allows them to assess proposals from a culturally sensitive perspective, considering the unique needs, goals, and challenges African American museums face. This essay highlights the significant contributions of Black anthropologists who have advocated for and strengthened grant applications from African American museums, ensuring that they align with the mission and vision of the grant‐making institutions. By helping African American museums secure grant support, Black anthropologists also convey the significance and value of other African American museums.

Scopes, Specula, the Speculative: Histories of Medical Experimentation and Looking in African American Art and Fiction

This article traces a speculative and critical engagement with histories of health care disparity and medical exploitation shared across fictions by Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison, and the artwork of Ellen Gallagher. It argues that insistent returns to racialized experimentation and scientific modes of looking form a significant interrogation of a wider set of US promises and attritions. Specifically, it asks how postwar African American culture takes up scopic questions to address dominant accounts of progress and the modern, both via reference to visual orders and technologies, and via formal choices regarding iteration, perspective and scale.

Protocol for a pilot study assessing a virtual mindfulness intervention for postpartum African American women

Elevated perinatal depressive symptoms are more common among disadvantaged African American women, and they are almost four times as likely to have postpartum posttraumatic stress compared to white women. For new mothers, depressive symptoms and posttraumatic stress can lead to negative parenting, poor mother-infant bonding, and delayed infant development. For African American women, a culturally adapted mindfulness-based intervention offers great potential as an acceptable approach to reduce psycho-behavioral symptoms and improve mother-infant interactions (i.e., bonding). Additionally, it is critical that mindfulness interventions consider time constraints of new mothers, provide accessible intervention delivery, address parenting, and consider the challenges of caring for an infant. Given these considerations, we describe a pilot research protocol in which we evaluate a culturally adapted mindfulness program: Mindfulness for African Americans Postpartum (MAAP). The intervention is based upon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program, but is adapted to include culturally relevant concepts of spirituality, inter-dependence, self-empowerment, and storytelling, which are salient to African American culture. To accommodate the needs of new mothers, a certified mindfulness interventionist delivers each session virtually using Zoom. The investigation uses a randomized controlled design in which African American women within 12 months of giving birth are randomized either to the MAAP intervention or to an Education Program. The primary aim is to determine the extent to which the MAAP intervention decreases maternal psycho-behavioral symptoms (perceived stress, depressive symptoms, anxiety, poor sleep, posttraumatic stress, and fatigue) and improves mother-infant bonding. A secondary aim is to explore the effects of MAAP on proinflammatory cytokines and oxytocin. Culturally adapted mindfulness interventions delivered virtually will make mindfulness more accessible and meaningful to populations, like African American new mothers, who are at higher risk for postpartum mood disorders and poor infant outcomes.

"So Rude and So Crude"

&#x0D; The purpose of this research is to highlight the impact that urban renewal had on African American communities in Charlotte, Borth Carolina between the 1950s and 1970s, specifically the Brooklyn community. The work identifies the numerous facets of culture that existed in the Brooklyn community, and how urban renewal led to the destruction of that culture. After establishing a socially inclusive definition of culture, this work portrays the existence of a strong and vibrant culture within the Brooklyn community and how urban renewal was used in the erasure of this culture. Previous research has examined the impact that urban renewal has had on inner cities, on different ethnic groups, and the ways in which white city leaders used urban renewal to continue residential segregation. My research differs by investigating the specific impact that urban renewal had on African American culture, analyzing the effect the destruction of the physical community of Brooklyn had on the community’s culture. This paper relies heavily on my analysis of an oral history project overseen by Dr. Karen Flint, which includes over forty interviews with former Brooklyn residents. My paper concludes that Charlotte’s white leaders’ inherent racism led to the destruction of Brooklyn’s physical community, which contributed to the forced displacement of residents and to the destruction of Brooklyn’s pre-displacement culture. This research is important both to recognize the strength and significance of the Brooklyn community’s culture and to understand how racism in Charlotte’s past has shaped the current residential landscape of Charlotte.

Why We Can’t Wait: A Guide for Black Student Achievement Programs

Black student achievement is vital. There must be a focused national effort to establish and sustain Black Student Achievement Programs (BSAPs). The development of BSAPs centers on African American history, culture, language, knowledge, and values. This article describes Black Student Achievement Program standards and the components of service design, curriculum and instruction, scholar identity development, and social and emotional needs, connecting the home and community for Black students in K-12th grade settings. Educators can play a vital role in the efforts to build and sustain BSAPs at their school sites and school districts.

Just in Time: Calling, Responding, and Making Music from the Soul

ABSTRACT Although Kairos in Greek mythology is often depicted as the winged son of Zeus who grants to those who lay hold of his single lock of hair their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, in traditional African American culture, particularly when it comes to speech, Kairos is essentially family. Given how much African American speakers depend on seizing the moment to invoke spiritual connections, emit laughter, and profess the truth, Kairos, or what we might call CPT (“Colored People’s Time”), can be summoned almost at will. One of the African American discourses this article will use to illustrate this point is Call and Response, a verbal exchange in which speakers and listeners attune to one another and to the timeliness of an event. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech was such an event, but it wouldn’t have been so were it not for the timely responding of his favorite gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson.

My Soul Looks Beyond in Wonder: Curating Faith, Freedom, and Futurity at the National Museum of African American History and Culture

This article offers a description and critical reflection upon two recent exhibits on display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC): Spirit in the Dark: Religion in Black Music, Activism, and Popular Culture and Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures. The article explores the interplay of mutually reinforcing themes of faith, freedom, and futurity that emerge when examining the exhibits together. This article also demonstrates the public significance of the curation of religion and culture in museums and other cultural spaces beyond the academy and religious institutions. It further shows how religion becomes a site of critical meditation upon and creative manifestation or materialization of Black futures. As such, this article contributes to more expansive discourses on the interplay between Black studies and the study of religion.

THE QUEST OF SELF-AWARENESS IN THE BLACK WOMEN’S IDENTITIES: THE ANALYSIS OF ZORA NEALE HURSTON’S THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD

African American literature establishes a great artistic field with diverse cultural and thematic experiences. Throughout history, African Americans have experienced many troubles, such as segregation and discrimination in various areas. However, their literature shows a significant resistance to all the troubles in history. Numerous writers and artists explore themes such as African American culture, racism, religion, slavery, and a sense of homelessness, one of whom is Zora Neale Hurston. Besides her race, she is also a woman, so she is both a woman and a colored person at the bottom of the social ladder. Thus, Their Eyes Were Watching God is not only a source of race but also gender. This paper sheds light on the importance of Zora Neale Hurston in African American literature, and the study will be supported by other famous Afro-American writers’ articles and statements. Why is she so important? From which perspectives did she contribute to African American literature? Why was her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God mostly criticized? This novel, being important in the field of Black Feminism, concerns the hardships of black women racially and sexually. This study will answer these questions with examples from Zora Neale Hurston’s autobiographical novel Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography (1984), Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), and Alice Walker’s article “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston” (1975).

“No Future to Be Had”: Journeying toward Death in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon

Abstract This article examines Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon (1977) by focusing on the way that the novel’s protagonist, Milkman Dead, rejects various traditional Euro-American formulations of “progress.” I argue that Milkman’s actions uncover a legacy of loss associated with African American culture and, relatedly, buried narratives of African American history. I take a cue from dance scholar Ann Cooper Albright’s attentiveness to what she terms “the cultural hegemony of the vertical” (37) in considering Milkman’s embodied resistance to existing paradigms of progress. By positing a vertical conceptualization of racial uplift ideology, the Dead family ancestry, and the journeys North and South between Michigan and Virginia in Song of Solomon, I demonstrate how Milkman’s very corporeality comes to signify the importance of African American cultural preservation and moving “counter-to” in re-visioning liberatory, counter-hegemonic routes of progress. My reading unfolds from a critical moment in chapter 2 of Song of Solomon; in this scene, the Dead family journeys northward in Milkman’s father’s Packard toward the wealthy white neighborhoods of Honoré, meanwhile Milkman demonstrates a remarkable preoccupation with what lies behind him. Situating Milkman’s embodied opposition to the journey’s progress as a point of departure, I examine how Morrison disrupts various paradigms of progress throughout Song of Solomon.

From Slave Cabins to the White House: Homemade Citizenship in African American Culture by Koritha Mitchell (review)

From Slave Cabins to the White House: Homemade Citizenship in African American Culture by Koritha Mitchell (review)

The Life and Art of Mary Parks Washington (Fall 2018)

This essay presents a critical biography of African American visual artist Mary Parks Washington, with an emphasis on her creative development from 1942 to 1979. Washington's extant art is discussed in the context of her educational background, social network, and political affiliations, as well as the history of activist curation in the wake of the Black Arts and Black Power movements. As an undergraduate at Spelman College in the 1940s, Washington was mentored by muralist Hale Woodruff, who encouraged her to continue her studies at the Art Students League of New York, Black Mountain College, and the Universidad Nacional de México. These experiences introduced Washington to key figures of the international and American avant-gardes, including Josef Albers, Diego Rivera, and Jacob Lawrence. In 1958, Washington settled down with her family in the Bay Area, where she met poet Sarah Webster Fabio, a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement on the West Coast. Washington and Fabio's collaborative friendship over two decades culminated in 1979's Offshoots of Roots Unknown, a series of “poem-paintings” that elegize Washington's family in early twentieth century Atlanta and, formally, deal with the technical (and ethical) problem of remembering and representing history. Drawing extensively on archival materials from the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, this essay recognizes Washington's contribution to post-WWII African American art and documents her unique artistic trajectory, traversing aesthetic, social, and political formations from pre-Civil Rights Atlanta to the post-Black Arts Movement Bay Area.