The definitions of culture and race still are not outlined in the studies concerning African American people. The only existing lines are derived from illustrations and allusions of the African Americans. The media has played a role in the misrepresentation of the different cultural backgrounds, specifically the African American culture. This paper aims to discuss the African American culture in detail, its origin, and the viewpoint of different people on the culture as well as their life is in the USA. The previous post about trifles symbolism in a bird in trifles inspired me to write this one. 

The African Americans are said to have had an origin from the western part of Africa, popularly known as the Sub-Saharan Africa. The ancestries of the African Americans are said to have lived in America for hundreds of years as the first information about the dates the 1600’s. African-American culture does not consist of recent immigrations of Blacks into America, but the descendants of the people who were sold into slavery by their families from West Africa. The slaves were then sold to the Jewish slave traders who took them to the United States to be laborers. As a result of the struggle and the oppression between the slaves and the Americans, the slave trade was abolished though the death of most of the people who opposed the slave labor was common. The freed slaves formed the African-American culture; however, most of the current Blacks in the United States are immigrants from other countries and not descendants of the Sub-Saharan ancestry.

The cuisine of African Americans is known to be fried chicken, fruits such as watermelon, and their favorite drink grape soda, which has its origins in the central part of Africa. Watermelons are known to have a decent from central Africa. Although cornbread is popular in the southern part of America, it is not one of the most popular dishes of the African-American culture. Soul food, which is an African- American invention, includes pork, pie, fried fish and others. Although people express a lot criticism and have different views on the food of African culture, the last remains popular among the African Americans despite the fact that the Marxists consider that the African-American dishes are shameful and disgusting. African Americans, however, remain faithful to their eating habits despite the many criticisms that arise as a result of their attempts to preserve their culture.

Racism for the African Americans has been present from time immemorial. The media remains the main aid in the stereotyping and misrepresentation of African-American culture. The media view has most of the time led to the demonization of the African-American culture, with most of the time alluding to only the negative aspect of the culture and not focusing on the many positives that have come as a result of the African-American culture. Most times, the media has been portraying the African-American culture to be associated with subjects such as drug and crime. White racism is also viewed to be a major effect seen in the African-American cultures with most of the black problems leading to degraded cultural and family values.

Most of the African-Americans are known to be Christians mainly being Protestants. Although a significant number has converted to the Islam religion, most of the African-Americans are known to have the Baptist background. Those who converted to be Muslim did so due to the influence of black groups that preached Islamic practices. For instance, Malcolm X was the first person to lead an African-American movement that paid pilgrimage to Mecca, a holy journey each Muslim is expected to undertake once in the lifetime. Nowadays, there is still vilianalization of white Christianity due to the sole reason for speaking against the evils of slavery. Diverse religions have, however, slowly come to the same practice, and insignificant numbers have gradually joined the movements.

African-Americans are famous for their diversity in areas such as music, dialect, and fashion. The invention of Ebonics to depict criticism of the English language is just one of the many creative ways to express neutrality that the African-Americans have shown. Music born in the African-American cultures includes jazz, rap, techno, and scat singing. These types of music have different rhythm and beat and depict the unique rhythmical nature by the use of musical instruments such as guitars. The hate crime and the knockout games were some of the movements created by the African-American culture to stop the crimes against the Blacks in the United States. The campaigns were meant to be against ethnicity, gender biases, and different sexual orientations that were present in the United States. Some cultural activities have also seen the transformation of some whites who adapted to the black culture and became the part of it.

The growth of the African-American culture caused the growth of new identities of African Americans that led to the more intense sense of nationality; this resulted in the disappearance of most of the nationalities that were present among the Blacks. The feeling of nationality contributed to the significantly stronger bond and culture that clearly distinguishes in America at the time.

African Americans are known to be the third-largest culture in the United States. Despite many connections and affirmations to violence and negativities, the culture and the diversity of the African Americans remain to be one of the most outstanding. The culture aims to become the best in all aspects, from traditions to clothing and food. The media stereotyping and the campaigns against the African-American culture has led to various views and perceptions of the culture, but this has not affected the rich promises that the culture embodies. The African culture has resulted in the transformation of various parts of the American culture as a whole ranging from the change of music and food to even language.

The life of African Americans has not been easy in the United States, and they have always been portrayed as people suffering from economic disparity. Although they benefited from civil rights era, racial disparity is still a challenge. The public sector is a more vital source of jobs for Blacks than the private one. It is worth noting that the economic crisis had affected everyone regardless of race, but the media had disproportionately misrepresented African Americans. The representatives of this group currently live in metropolitan areas in the United States. New York and Chicago have the highest population of African American and the higher household income than many whites. The life expectancy of many African American is small compared to whites due to health-related issues such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes among others. Violence is also a factor to consider among African-American people since hoe victimization has significantly risen in comparison to their white counterparts’.

In conclusion, African-American history dates 1600 years ago, and the representatives migrated to America as slaves from Sub-Sahara. African-American culture has been under scrutiny, especially their diet as they did not abandon it. Although there is other religions and movements followed by African-American, most of them tend to be Christian due to the message against slavery that is preached.