'Black' Cultural Diversity

This essay explores the influence of 'black' culture on social and political welfare in the US. It analyzes the lifestyle and political representation of African Americans and their contribution to music, fashion, and dance. It also explores the issue of racial discrimination and the potential of 'black' culture to help resolve it.

Running head - ‘BLACK’ CULTURAL DIVERSITY
‘Black’ cultural diversity
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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‘BLACK’ CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Introduction
Culture have been demonstrated as an influencer that influences parameters of diversities
such as social interaction, race, gender and other social aspects. Culture also refers to the
characteristics pattern that attributes toward values, belief and behaviors that is shared within a
society by the members. At the time when immigrants reach to settle in a new land, the old
customs of their society merges with the inhabitant cultures. The traditionally rich aspects of
African culture where combined with American society when they were brought from their
brought from their home land on the purpose of slavery. The main purpose of the essay discusses
about the ways ‘black’ culture have brought changes in the social and political welfare in the
United States of America. In this regard, the lifestyle of the people of America, especially that of
the African American is looked in to at detail. Moreover, their political representation in the
country is also analyzed. The essay concludes with the burning issue that is, if the ‘black’ culture
has the power to help resolve the problem of racial discrimination.
Discussion
‘Black’ is the term used to denote the background or origin of a person that have
ancestral origin from Africa. In circumstances such as social and political struggle, ‘black’ is
signified as non-white persons in population minority. ‘Black’ people have shared a wide range
of ethnic, social and cultural background in the society of US.
‘Black’ people that resides in US are mostly the descendants of slaves, African people
that were brought from their homeland forcefully to work. The rights of these were very limited,
economic, social and political process were denied to them in United States. However, ‘black’
people have contributed a significant amount of portion in the social and political field in US

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Jazz has been recognized worldwide as major contribution by the American in the music
world. However, the musical segmentation got a make-over when it was combined with the
musical heritage of ‘black’ people. A new form of jazz immerged that was played in night clubs
of New Orleans, New York and Chicago (Bilby, Kenneth, 2018).
Key factors that drives the popularity among the rapidly increased globalization and
internet, the millennial that are from ‘black’ descendent are on the feeling of ownership. At the
current upgrading fashion tastes, the ‘black’ people have played major role in blossoming it.
Despite the fact that style could be superficial, sometimes it could be demonstrated as an
expression to reveal a specific social, cultural and political realities. Fashion sense have been
embedded in the uprising popular culture. Inside it, ‘black’ style have been seen as innovative
and is widely influencing the sense of fashion in the US. Music players such as Cab Calloway
spread the baggy zoot suit that got popularized throughout the country. ‘Black’ women started
the trend of outing flowers in their hair that was later symbolized as a major fashion upgrade
(Kennedy Benson, Samii, and Eulanda A. Sanders, 2018).
New dance form known as Charleston was introduced by ‘black’ youth in the 1920’s
which achieved fame on Broadway. Dresses were turned with bare ankles and claves being
visible which in turn become free and loose for better shimmy and shake at dancing (Su, Yi-
Huang, 2018).
Black culture has become a part of American mainstream. Harlem Renaissance have
shaped U.S by pitting together artists, musicians, and poets that have significantly contributed in
enriching the cultural heritage in U.S (Sites, William, 2018).

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The politics of the United States of America have been shaped largely based on the
Constitution of the country. The founding fathers of the Constitution of America enshrined the
principles of right to equality and right to freedom, in order to guarantee to the people their
rightful liberty (Edelman, Benjamin, Michael Luca, and Dan Svirsky 2017). This also meant that
everyone within the country had an equal opportunity to contest elections and vote for their
candidates, unless they were barred for some legal or constitutional reasons. As a result, all the
differing populations inhabiting the country had equal political right. However, this came under
severe contention when the ‘black’ population living within the United States came to the fore.
In the words of Cruse, earlier, the political position of the ‘black’ population was quite pitiful.
The fact that they came in to the country as slaves during the eighteenth and the nineteenth
century was taken for granted by the native ‘white’ population of the county (Carliner, Hannah,
et al. 2016). The saw the ‘black’ people in the same image as they did years back and hence, the
discrimination that exists among the population is a result of this image.
The ‘black’ population is severely under represented within the country of United States
of America. The first African American President of the country was Barack Obama. Before his
tenure, all the Presidents were ‘white’ skin tone and belonging to the Native American race. This
shows that it took nearly two centuries for the American population to put their faith in the hands
of a ‘black’ person, expecting him to lead (Hudson, Darrell L., et al. 2016). The tenure of Barack
Obama is quite interesting. He managed to put America on the path of greatness, achieving new
heights and measures which earlier were thought to be idealistic in nature. For instance, Obama
gave a new meaning to the term of diplomacy, choosing to negotiate with the people who had
negative intentions against the country. Thus, the political scenario climbed new heights during
the rule of an African American.

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There is a belief that the solution to the problem of racial discrimination as faced within
the territorial boundary of the United States of America (Sanchez, Delida, and Germine Awad
2016). This is because since they are the ones against whom the prejudice is done, they are well
aware of the sociological and psychological implications of such discriminations. The firsthand
experience within the system makes the ‘culture’ an ideal one to deal with the problem of racial
discrimination and help to eliminate it.
Conclusion
In conclusion it is observed that the ‘black’ culture has been severely undervalued by the
entire human community. Its rich cultural heritage, its customs and traditions. Their values
should be imbibed within the society and they should be given their rights without any
discrimination.

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References
Bilby, Kenneth. "Is Reggae to Black British Music as Blues is to Jazz? Caribbean
Roots/Routes in Imaginings of Black British Jazz." Black British Jazz: Routes, Ownership and
Performance (2016): 63.
Carliner, Hannah, et al. "Racial discrimination, socioeconomic position, and illicit drug
use among US Blacks." Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology 51.4 (2016): 551-560.
Edelman, Benjamin, Michael Luca, and Dan Svirsky. "Racial discrimination in the
sharing economy: Evidence from a field experiment." American Economic Journal: Applied
Economics9.2 (2017): 1-22.
Hudson, Darrell L., et al. "Racial discrimination, John Henryism, and depression among
African Americans." Journal of Black psychology 42.3 (2016): 221-243.
Kennedy Benson, Samii, and Eulanda A. Sanders. "Black fashion designers matter: A
qualitative study exploring the experiences of Black female fashion design entrepreneurs."
(2018).
Sanchez, Delida, and Germine H. Awad. "Ethnic group differences in racial identity
attitudes, perceived discrimination and mental health outcomes in African American, Black
Caribbean and Latino Caribbean college students." International Journal of Culture and Mental
Health 9.1 (2016): 31-43.
Sites, William. "The Roots of Urban Renaissance: Gentrification and the Struggle Over
Harlem." (2018): 162-164.

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Su, Yi-Huang. "Metrical congruency and kinematic familiarity facilitate temporal binding
between musical and dance rhythms." Psychonomic bulletin & review 25.4 (2018): 1416-1422.