During the mid-19th century, popular culture dramatically changed, where tensions over social class and race were the main causes. This essay will demonstrate how the upper and lower class had distinct definitions of what a good person should be as well as what Christmas should be. New forms of culture arise through the influence of Phineas T. Barnum shows. Envy between working whites and blacks caused conflict and the creation of blackface for entertainment purposes. Overall culture changes in Industrial America, but class conflicts were not mediated only revised. Victorians, lower class and African Americans all played an influence on pop culture in the 19th century, but that did not solve any conflicts between them. The rise of cities …show more content…
They were able to take control and transform it into something of their own. This was a free space where they were able to encounter popular culture in anyway they chose. Such thing was widely celebrated, but to some it seemed like they were taking control of central form of Anglo-American culture. One of the main performers, William Alexander Brown created a Play called The Drama of King Snotaway (or the insurrects of the Caribs) a play in which slaves revolt against their owners in the Caribbean. Culture in the North was beginning to change white theaters were becoming more segregated. And the birth of segregation in the North began. Popular culture attempted to use race to mediate class tension but the use of black face in entertainment, did the opposite. The anti-slavery white middle-class was going through a sentiment movement and wanted to show caring feelings for slaves, but the use of blackface was spreading since the working class found it funny to mock and laugh at whites impersonalizing African Americans. In the film Everybody sings, Judy Garland sings Swing Low Sweet Chariot in blackface, she makes it seem as if slaves were happy in Alabama, the song is even transformed into an upbeat happy song instead of what it truly is about deaths occurring because of slavery. In entertainment using blackface used to adopt the face of African Americans and then make fun of them, and stereotype
The minstrel show is considered by many as the first American form of musical theatre (Bordman, 2010). However, the tradition of minstrelsy, in various forms, dates back to well before Thomas Dartmouth Rice first jumped Jim Crow. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, it was common for actors to darken their faces for dramatic effect, as illustrated by Shakespeare’s Othello (Strausbaugh, 2010). It could be said that minstrelsy continues to be alive and well today, in the form of reality television and hip-hop culture. While opinions on what may be considered minstrelsy today may differ, there is no denying that Rice revolutionized how the centuries old tradition of blackface was used to create a new art form, the minstrel show.
The Effects of African American Culture Appropriations on the Minority Black Culture The black culture is the minority culture in this instance and in most cases, it is dominated by the white culture which has imposed its ideas on them (Stuckey, 2013). When two different cultures come together, different types of cultural appropriations occur. These include transculturation, cultural dominance, and cultural exploitation. The appropriation between the white and black cultures, resulting in the African American culture, is defined by cultural dominance and exploitation.
The United States, possibly more than any other country, was not very welcoming during the early 1900s. Foreigners, who were uneducated about America’s customs, were unable to find jobs or prevent swindlers from causing their already insufficient wealth to subside. Because of this, Jurgis and his family’s economic and social lives changed drastically. For insta...
With African Americans being apart of the fashion industry, they faced many hardships. However, they created a distinctive voice in the history of fashion. Throughout the early twentieth century, Blacks designers influenced the fashion industry in America, having, “a system and structure for maintaining their particular type of fashion.” African American fashion was very popular and caught the attention from the media. Department stores held successful fashion shows, screened fashion movies, and staged fashion pageants. Fortunately, African Americans were allowed to attend these events, yet they were not welcomed. Fast-forward to today, the fashion industry has opened up several doors for African American designers, stylist, and models. However,
Several popular country and jazz singers were the part of the minstrel shows. Minstrel shows was also one of the first live performed stage shows in the United States at that time. According to Michael E. Starr, “ The Minstrel show is the only form indigenous to the United States and was the most popular form of public entertainment in the nineteenth century” (Starr 72). Minstrel show was popular among audiences due to its exaggerated depictions of black stereotypes. However, minstrel shows also gained popularity around Europe due to the diversified collections of entertainment forms. The striking attraction of minstrel shows was the facial expression of the artists. Artists of minstrel shows darkened their face with cork, and left their upper chin and lips normal, which depicts the black people with thick and ugly lips. Minstrel shows artists allegedly portrayed themselves as inferior, uncivilized to make white audiences feel superior and sophisticated to black people. The expressions of the mouth and lips were conspicuously noticeable. Some of the performances of minstrel shows were classical and praiseworthy. For instance, Al jolson, one of the famous artists of minstrel shows, sung several jazz songs, and also presented various witty and engaging comedy gags. In one of his song- Mammy, he expressed his feeling towards his mother, and conveyed his willingness to go back. The song satirically showed how Africans Americans longing for Africa. This song explicitly forced black people to go back to their country, and no longer interfere in white people’s interests. Minstrel shows used the superiority theory to suppress and humiliate black population to convey white supremacy. Such features of minstrel shows made minstrel shows appealing to the white audiences at that
...owledge is unavailable to an individual such as a language barrier or rare interaction with one another, television provides society with images that influence and shape their perceptions. The higher the exposure, the more people are inclined to recall what they have viewed and apply it to their everyday lives and scenarios. Bill Cosby stated in 1994 that blacks in the media tended to be “menacing, untidy, rebellious, disrespectful, buffoonish, sexual, immoral, hopeless, untrained, uneducated and noisy” (Punyanunt-Carter 243). He concluded that most black roles were negative and stereotypical. These damaging –portrayals that do not shed a positive light on African Americans often focus on reaffirming harmful racial stereotypes.
Women have gone through so many problems and hardships throughout their history. Black women in particular have had to face many more challenges throughout their history. Not to take away from the white women and the hardships they faced, black women have dealt with the same and more issues due to their race. Throughout the history of women, they have not gotten paid as much as men, were targeted more for sexual violence, were not treated with equal respect, and were not treated fairly at all. Black women, on top of all of those hardships, had to deal with their race and the issues that their race brought upon them. Black women during the Black arts movement, faced even more hardships. They were held back, used by their body image to be disrespected, were
For as long as I could remember plenty of races are being stereotyped, but African Americans are one of the most frequent racial groups stereotyped against. African Americans have been portrayed on television and other forms of media unfairly and unrealistically. Movies and TV shows have played a major role in stereotyping African Americans, mostly reflecting them as being less intelligent, more vulgar, poor, uneducated, and more violent than other ethnic groups. African Americans have been perceived to be someone they are not in the media, history, and in everyday life. Although some stereotype portrayals made about Africans Americans may have some truth to them many on the other hand are harmful and inaccurate. Africans Americans are mainly in the spotlight of the news, when involved in crimes. When an African American becomes successful they are glorified, and seen as the person who made it and got out the “hood”, as if all black people are poor and living in rundown neighborhoods. Television networks depict whites as the perfect family with no problems and blacks with a household with only one parent and a long list of problems. Many African Americans believed that in order to be successful in the media industry they had to portray themselves as being idiotic and lazy. African Americans are mainly portrayed in the media as a pleasing aspect. Rather than focusing on the positive and good side to African Americans, the media would rather on the negatives. One of the main reasons why it is so easy to target an African American is because; it is so much harder to point the finger at a more dominant power ethnic group, Caucasians. I think this alone tells us a lot about where our society is and that racism still does exist.
Pop culture in the 1950s and 1960s began to spread and infest the nation from front to back through radio shows, books and magazines, television programs, and even motion pictures. Whether it is culture in terms of political affairs, clothing or the latest musical sensations, the United States has always played the dominant role when it came to who knows what is best, first. Some cases of Americanizati...
Whips and chains have played an important role in Black American’s oppressive history. In the days of slavery, chains were used to dehumanize us, restrain us and keep us from escaping our oppression, while whips were used to reinforce the oppression and our inferiority as a race. Today, literal whips and chains no longer represent the oppression of Black Americans; they have been replaced with the drive to obtain modern day “whips and chains”, or simply put, material possessions- a new, slightly self-imposed slavery. This is evident in the unifying factor of hip-hop music, which glorifies a lavish lifestyle sometimes at the cost of morals, values, and self worth.
As Martin Van Peebles describes, “Outside of being required to mug it up, the Negro entertainers were encouraged to do their routines, strut their stuff, to sing and dance their hearts out.” Many early Hollywood films included music that had its roots
The 1920’s was a period of rapid growth and change in America. After World War I, American’s were introduced to a lifestyle of lavishness they had never encountered before. It was a period of radical thought and ideas. It was in this time period that the idea of the Harlem Renaissance was born. The ideology behind the Harlem Renaissance was to create the image of the “New Negro”.
Phillis Wheatley and Elizabeth Freeman’s actions influenced the American Revolution. Wheatley through her literature, which included poems sent to George Washington and a poem written in regards to King George the third, was able to set an example of how African Americans are intelligent and equal human beings of the American colonies. Elizabeth Wheatley went against all odds to obtain her freedom by suing her slave owner and winning the case in court. Phillis Wheatley and Elizabeth Freeman’s actions during the American Revolution affected what liberty rights they would obtain years after the American Revolution ended.
Being a resident of South Carolina, African-American Culture was chosen as part of the applied learning project for the Intercultural Nursing class, because African-Americans make up more than a quarter of this state’s population. According to the 2010 United States Census Bureau, the total population for South Carolina (S.C.) is 4,625,364, with 27.9% being of African-American descent. The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding and sensitivity to issues and cultural variances or phenomena that are unique to the African-American Culture. Another goal is to identify nursing interventions that are important for the nurse to consider in caring for this population. These phenomena’s include variances in social organization, communication, space, perception of time, environmental control, and biological variations associated with the African-American culture. (Giger, 2013 and South Carolina minority, n.d.)
As I reflect on who I am and which culture I identify with, I am met with reservation. My parents are both Black Americans, they were both born and raised in the United States, their parent were also born and raised in the US. It is obvious that we derive from African descent; our skin color and physical features yet I find it difficult to relate or identify with my African heritage as slavery has played a pivotal role in separating us from our African origin. African enslavement left us devoid of a way to define ourselves. It severed familial ties and deprived us of any viable opportunity to reclaim them.(www.huffpost.com) We are descendants of African slaves but when I speak to someone who was born in Africa or research African culture, I