ktmeng/mec huggingface dataset:
Topic: family

Also, imagine the emotional aspects of the child. The child would be thinking about how their birth parents were able to give them away. My husband and I talked over the financial aspect over it, and decided with help from various family members that we could survive. We would just have to make sacrifices within our everyday lives. During my sonogram appointment when I was four months pregnant I received another dose of bad news. At first the doctor saw what he thought were cysts on the brain. The doctor then told me that I should terminate the pregnancy because of the difficult life the child was about to go through.
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I thought long and hard about what the doctor was saying. I felt like I had a strong support system that would help me get through any obstacle that life throws my way. Finally, the birth of my youngest takes place, and she was diagnosed with Lissencephaly. Lissencephaly is the condition of having a smooth cerebrum without convolutions(Merriam-Webster). Before we were discharged from the hospital, my husband and I were told to take her home, and treat her as if she is normal, and not to expect her to live past three months old. My daughter just had her third birthday May 5.
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This is why I have a deontology view on abortion. The deontology view is compatible to the abortion pro-choice decision. Utilitarianism really does not have a lot to say on this issue because there are too many other issues tied into the ethical issue. They would probably have arguments about if the fetus is a person or even if someone has the right to determine what goes on in their own body. They would also argue about if it were okay to kill a baby why not an adult. In my opinion, these are two different topics. We would assume through virtue ethics that killing a human adult is wrong.
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Don’t get me wrong killing an adult human is wrong because that is life that has already been birthed, and established. Abortion should be a choice that we are able to make on our own. This is my body I should be able to freely decide what to do with it. We are able to freely tattoo and pierce our bodies without any type of interference from the government. So why can I not make a decision to end a pregnancy that I carefully tried to avoid. I also feel that abortion when done early on in the pregnancy would not cause any harm to the fetus.
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According to pregnancy. rg a fetuses nervous system does not develop until after five weeks into the pregnancy. After that period the baby has already began to develop major organs and the nervous system. An egoist view on abortion would be based on one question. According to socyberty. com, an egoist would focus on what will be in her best interest. This would not mean the woman is selfish or self-centered. For example, maybe the women would be in a predicament where she would be a single mom. On the other hand, maybe she has not emotional of financial support to help er care for the child. In her case, her best interest would be to abort the child because it is in her best interest.
Topic: family

What is there is a complication early in the pregnancy that requires complete bed rest or hospitalization. If this were to happen, where would her income come from? She would have to drop out of school. She would then have six months to get back into school or she would have to begin the repayment of her student loans. How can she do any of this without financial support? There are several ethical views on abortion. All the different views would explain why or why not to have an abortion. Abortion can be a controversial ethical topic. No one person will ever have the same stance on the topic. It is one of those topics when you just have to agree to disagree. You will just have to respect and listen to the opinions that others have on this ethical issue.
Topic: family

When you compare Louis Erdrich’s story “The Red Convertible” and James Baldwin’s story “Sonny’s Blues”, they seem like completely different stories. “The Red Convertible” is about two brothers, Lyman and Henry, who grow up on a Native American reservation in North Dakota. The two brothers share a strong bond that is personified through their love for a certain red car that they share. They go through an amazing Journey and discover a lot about each other. On the other hand, “Sonny’s Blues” is also about two brothers, however their Journey goes a completely different oute than Lyman and Henry’s.
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The growth of a relationship is an important factor in true brotherhood. An example of the two brothers taking a step in the right direction is when they meet after Sonny is let out of prison. It has been a while since they have spoken last, and the older brother narrates, miet, when he smiled, when we shook hands, the baby brother I’d never known looked out from the depths of his private life, like an animal waiting to be coaxed into the light.
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We can see here that the other brother is seeing that Sonny is trying to let himself “into the light”, or trying to finally get himself to a better place in life. The turning point in the story where Sonny’s love for music gets truly understood by his brother, is at the end of the story when he is playing his gig. The older brother states, “For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness. (Baldwin, 324) This statement by Sonny’s older brother shows that he has finally opened up his heart to accept that his little brother is getting better and expressing himself through music. Like in “Sonny’s Blues”, Henry and Lyman go through a similar Journey in “The Red Convertible”, where they discover their own Journey through brotherhood. Unlike Sonny’s progression of his relationship with his brother, Henry and Lyman’s relationship starts out very strong but dies out in the end. Although the two stories have different outcomes, the core theme of brotherhood is the same.
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In “The Red Convertible”, Henry and Lyman are best friends, and spend every moment hanging out with each other. They are inseparable, until Henrys decision to Join the army for three years tears them apart. When Henry returns, Lyman is concerned as he remembers the “times we’d sat still for the whole afternoon, Henry always had a Joke, then, too, and now you couldn’t get him to laugh” (Erdrich, 74). Lyman is realizing that his brother nas changed and is disassociated wit n his tormer selt. Lyman is pain stricken because the strength of their brotherhood was slipping through his fingers.
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Overall, both stories express the motivation and strength that a brotherhood can give. Despite their similarities in overall theme, the two stories are different regarding the symbols that connect the brothers. In “Sonny’s Blues”, the factor that allowed Sonny and his brother to break the barrier between them was his music. Living in Harlem, there isn’t many ways to express yourself or let yourself be heard, so music was an escape. Through Sonny’s infatuation with music, his brother was able o see beyond his drug addiction and begin to start the re-birth of their relationship.
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At the end of the story, Sonny’s brother was watching him play, “But Just before they started playing again, Sonny sipped from it and looked toward me, and nodded” (Baldwin, 326). At this point, it is as if Sonny’s brother accepted him through the music and finally feels that connection that only brothers can share. Music is a central symbol in “Sonny’s Blues” and creates a stepping stone for the two brothers’ relationship to grow. On the other hand, we have “The Red Convertible”, which has a uch different object that directs the story.
Topic: family

In “The Red Convertible”, Henry and Lyman’s relationship is driven by their love for their red car they had bought together. The red flashy car resembles the boys’ resilient and carefree view on life, and the strength of the bond they shared in the beginning of the story. However, after Henry returns from Vietnam, he is a changed man and according to Lyman, “The change was no good. ” (Erdrich, 72) Lyman hopes that “the car might bring the old Henry back somehow’ (Erdrich, 75), but is let down when Henry shows no interest in he car.
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Ironically, Henry ends up destroying the car which, symbolically, destroys the relationship between the two brothers as well. Like the music in “Sonny’s Blues”, the red car in “The Red Convertible” was a symbol for the change in the brothers’ relationship. The relationship between two brothers can be transitive, whether it starts distant and grow close like in “Sonny’s Blues”, or the other way around as we saw in “The Red Convertible”. While each story may have different symbols and storylines, we still see the theme of both – the true nature of brotherhood.
Topic: family

The case of six-year old Adam Walsh is perhaps one that will never leave the minds of anyone initially horrified by its details. In 1981 young Adam was kidnapped from a local mall and regardless of tireless efforts by his parents John and Reve Walsh, volunteers, and law enforcement; Adam fell victim to murder. Two weeks after the boy went missing, his decapitated head was located, but his body was never found. This prompted his father John Walsh to start a campaign and legislature policy submission toward more stringent accountability for child crime offenders.
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“The murder transformed John Walsh’s life, turning him from a middle-class hotel marketing executive into one of country’s best known advocates for missing children” (Thomas, 2008). In this paper, the initial legislative policy signed into law by President George W. Bush and the current policy addition initiative sought by Mr. Walsh is examined. The Scope of the Initiative With the signing of the initial policy by President Bush in 2006, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act became law.
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Those in opposition of the provision above were such because the wording of the provision seemingly protected the federal government instead of the child. The popular point of the second provision remains unopposed. “In addition, they cannot draw down funds for a child placed in a foster or adoptive home where the child abuse and neglect registry check is not conducted within that State, or requested of another State as required under the new law” (Miller, 2007) One would think the second of the two provisions to the 2006 law would be automatically assumed however, this particular law would come to face even more provisional changes its future. Issues Presented for Provisionary Inclusion Sex Offender Registration Act (SORNA) The Adam Walsh act has several other provisions including Title I, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act or (“SORNA”).
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In sum, both the civil commitment provision and the failure to register provision implicate the question of whether legal federal custody over a person may, without more, serve as the basis of future federal jurisdiction over that person (Morse, 2009). Citing the implications above Congress is considering an impending change to the provisions in the Walsh act that would remove all question of misinterpretation of wording These impending changes would ensure that no violations of civil rights, state rights or federalism are contained therein.
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Also, “One scholar has argued the wording of § 2250(a) (2) (B) is not sufficiently tailored to support SORNA’s constitutionality under the Commerce Clause” (Morse, 2009). According to the Legal Dictionary, the Commerce Clause is defined as “The provision of the U. S. Constitution that gives Congress exclusive power over trade activities among the states and with foreign countries and Indian tribe”. The aforementioned obviously pertains to the location of the registered offender, and that he or she must register regardless of where they are, if they are a student, on a tribal reservation, or in a foreign country.
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This as mentioned in the cited Morse document, coincides with what Morse goes on to say in regard to the regulation of criminal activity. Morse states “Because the regulating criminal activity is primarily the responsibility of the states, many scholars perceive the rapid expansion of the federal criminal law as clashing with federalism values” (Morse, 2009). To date the original funding of all aspects of the Adam Walsh Act is still in place and is to be revisited and potentially revised in 2014. Those who declare portions of the act unconstitutional, such as in Morse’s report cited, now have the opportunity to voice concerns and suggestions.
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The Adam Walsh Act while regulatory and legislative, still requires changes before all parties affected stand united in approval. Whereas Congress could use its spending power to encourage state compliance, not all states would view this as constitutional. There is much to do concerning this act, but the outcome is unpredictable. Current filings to repeal or revise the entire Adam Walsh Act exist such as by Citizens for Change in America, represented by Michael R. Handler. The repeal document cites the AWA as being draconian and going against Due Process and the Bail Reform Act of 1984.
Topic: family

The most critical stage in a life of a person is in the period of adolesence.  It is a specifically turbulent as well as a dynamic period of any person’s life. It is also a period of “strorm and stress” characterized by moodiness, inner tormoil and rebellion.  This is a period of transision from childhood to adulthood.  This transition involves biological,  social, and psychological changes, though the biological ones are the easiest to measure objectively.”Adolescence” is a modern cultural and social phenomenon and therefore its endpoints are not easily tied to physical milestones .
Topic: family

Family conflict is more common during adolesence than during other period of development.  Puberty appears to play a central role in initiating this conflict.  Adolesence of both sexes have significantly more conflicts with their mothers than with their fathers.  Probably because mothers are more involve in regulating the everyday details of family life.  Parents are often torn between the necessity of maintaining the family system and allowing their child increasing jurisdiction over his or her behavior.  Childhood even with intact families is never troubled free.  The fact that the most important emotionla structure in the childhood’s life is the parents’ marriage.  Ends in failure becomes forever embeded in that child’s history.
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In order to pass from childhood to adulthood the adolesence must solve a number of problems.  He must develop heterosexual interest, become free from home supervision, make new emotional and social adjustments to reality.  They should evolve a philosophy of life, achieve economic and intellectual independence and learn how to use their leisure time profitably.  If they fail of these any achievements, he fails to gain full maturity.  Because adolesence are caught between two worlds, one of the dependence, the other of the responsibility.  They would like the power to decide for themselves, but are not certain they want to increased responsibility that accompanies adulthood.
Topic: family

Individual differences in Innovativeness People differ greatly in their readiness to try new products. In each product area, there are “consumption pioneers” and early adopters. Other individuals adopt new products much later. Time of Adoption of New Innovations The five adopters groups have differing values. Innovators are venturesome—they try new ideas at some risk. Early adopters are guided by respect—they are opinion leaders in their communities and adopt new ideas early but carefully.
Topic: family

Being an only child or living with siblings… what’s better? Let’s talk about the positive and negative aspects. Being an only child can be positive because you have all the attention of your parents only for you, parents do everything for you. You get the best education, the best toys, trips and parents have more money to spend on you. You don’t have to share anything. Likewise, you don’t have to fight for your room, food, gifts and for your parents love.
Topic: family

Moreover, only child can sometimes feel lonely and bored. On the other hand having siblings has some advantages. First of all, there are many members in the family to be around with, play, eat and at the end of the day there is always someone to talk with. In addition, whenever you have a difficulty there is always a sibling who would defend you. Besides when you live with siblings you can borrow things and learn to get along with others in a better way, practice the values of sharing, tolerance, love and caring.
Topic: family

In contrast to this, there are also disadvantages in having siblings; most of the time there is no privacy for you. You must share your room, toys, clothes and food because it is very expensive to raise many children at the same time. Furthermore, child with other siblings spend most of the time fighting and arguing. Besides, when parents have more than one child the responsibility is bigger and they are always tired. However, being and only child or not as long as you have a family that takes care of you and loves you is what matters the most. Krizia Gomez
Topic: family

Although slavery greatly restricted the ability of Africans in America to practice their cultural traditions, many practices, values and beliefs survived and over time have incorporated elements of European American culture. There are even certain facets of African American culture that were brought into being or made more prominent as a result of slavery; an example of this is how drumming became used as a means of communication and establishing a community identity during that time. The result is a dynamic, creative culture that has had and continues to have a profound impact on mainstream American culture and on world culture as well.
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After Emancipation, these uniquely African American traditions continued to grow. They developed into distinctive traditions in music, art, literature, religion, food, holidays, amongst others. While for some time sociologists, such as Gunnar Myrdal and Patrick Moynihan, believed that African Americans had lost most cultural ties with Africa, anthropological field research by Melville Hersovits and others demonstrated that there is a continuum of African traditions among Africans in the New World from the West Indies to the United States.
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The greatest influence of African cultural practices on European cultures is found below the Mason-Dixon in the southeastern United States, especially in the Carolinas among the Gullah people and in Louisiana. African American culture often developed separately from mainstream American culture because of African Americans’ desire to practice their own traditions, as well as the persistence of racial segregation in America. Consequently African American culture has become a significant part of American culture and yet, at the same time, remains a distinct culture apart from it.
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From the earliest days of slavery, slave owners sought to exercise control over their slaves by attempting to strip them of their African culture. The physical isolation and societal marginalization of African slaves and, later, of their free progeny, however, actually facilitated the retention of significant elements of traditional culture among Africans in the New World generally, and in the U. S. in particular. Slave owners deliberately tried to repress political organization in order to deal with the many slave rebellions that took place in the southern United States, Brazil, Haiti, and the Dutch Guyanas.
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African cultures,slavery,slave rebellions,and the civil rights movements(circa 1800s-160s)have shaped African American religious, familial, political and economic behaviors. The imprint of Africa is evident in myriad ways, in politics, economics, language, music, hairstyles, fashion, dance, religion and worldview, and food preparation methods. In the United States, the very legislation that was designed to strip slaves of culture and deny them education served in many ways to strengthen it.
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In turn, African American culture has had a pervasive, transformative impact on myriad elements of mainstream American culture, among them language, music, dance, religion, cuisine, and agriculture. This process of mutual creative exchange is called creolization. Over time, the culture of African slaves and their descendants has been ubiquitous in its impact on not only the dominant American culture, but on world culture as well. Oral tradition Slaveholders limited or prohibited education of enslaved African Americans because they believed it might lead to revolts or escape plans.
Topic: family

Hence, African-based oral traditions became the primary means of preserving history, morals, and other cultural information among the people. This was consistent with the griot practices of oral history in many African and other cultures that did not rely on the written word. Many of these cultural elements have been passed from generation to generation through storytelling. The folktales provided African Americans the opportunity to inspire and educate one another. Examples of African American folktales include trickster tales of Br’er Rabbit and heroic tales such as that of
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John Henry. The Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris helped to bring African American folk tales into mainstream adoption. Harris did not appreciate the complexity of the stories nor their potential for a lasting impact on society. Characteristics of the African American oral tradition present themselves in a number of forms. African American preachers tend to perform rather than simply speak. The emotion of the subject is carried through the speaker’s tone, volume, and movement, which tend to mirror the rising action, climax, and descending action of the sermon.
Topic: family

Often song, dance, verse and structured pauses are placed throughout the sermon. Techniques such as call-and-response are used to bring the audience into the presentation. In direct contrast to recent tradition in other American and Western cultures, it is an acceptable and common audience reaction to interrupt and affirm the speaker. Spoken word is another example of how the African American oral tradition influences modern American popular culture. Spoken word artists employ the same techniques as African American preachers including movement, rhythm, and audience participation.
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Rap music from the 1980’s and beyond has been seen as an extension of oral culture. Harlem Renaissance [pic] Zora Neale Hurston was a prominent literary figure during the Harlem Renaissance. Main article: Harlem Renaissance The first major public recognition of African American culture occurred during the Harlem Renaissance. In the 1920s and 1930s, African American music, literature, and art gained wide notice. Authors such as Zora Neale Hurston and Nella Larsen and poets such as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen wrote works describing the
Topic: family

The Nation of Islam, a notable Islamic religious movement, also began in the early 1930s. African American cultural movement The Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s followed in the wake of the non-violent American Civil Rights Movement. The movement promoted racial pride and ethnic cohesion in contrast to the focus on integration of the Civil Rights Movement, and adopted a more militant posture in the face of racism. It also inspired a new renaissance in African American literary and artistic expression generally referred to as the African American or “Black Arts Movement. The works of popular recording artists such as Nina Simone (Young, Gifted and Black) and The Impressions (Keep On Pushin’), as well as the poetry, fine arts and literature of the time, shaped and reflected the growing racial and political consciousness. Among the most prominent writers of the African American Arts Movement were poet
Topic: family

Natural hairstyles, such as the afro, and African clothing, such as the dashiki, gained popularity. More importantly, the African American aesthetic encouraged personal pride and political awareness among African Americans. Music [pic] Men playing the djembe, a traditional West African drum adopted into African American and American culture. The bags and the clothing of the man on the right are printed with traditional kente cloth patterns. African American music is rooted in the typically polyrhythmic music of the ethnic groups of Africa, specifically those in the Western, Sahelean, and Sub-Saharan regions.
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African oral traditions, nurtured in slavery, encouraged the use of music to pass on history, teach lessons, ease suffering, and relay messages. The African pedigree of African American music is evident in some common elements: call and response, syncopation, percussion, improvisation, swung notes, blue notes, the use of falsetto, melisma, and complex multi-part harmony. During slavery, Africans in America blended traditional European hymns with African elements to create spirituals. Many African Americans sing Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing in addition to the American national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, or in lieu of it.
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Written by James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson in 1900 to be performed for the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the song was, and continues to be, a popular way for African Americans to recall past struggles and express ethnic solidarity, faith and hope for the future. The song was adopted as the “Negro National Anthem” by the NAACP in 1919. African American children are taught the song at school, church or by their families. Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing traditionally is sung immediately following, or instead of, The Star-Spangled Banner at events hosted by African American churches, schools, and other organizations.
Topic: family

, jazz, blues, and swing also became popular overseas, and the 1920s became known as the Jazz Age. The early 20th century also saw the creation of the first African American Broadway shows, films such as King Vidor’s Hallelujah! and operas such as George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Rock and roll, doo wop, soul, and R;B developed in the mid 20th century. These genres became very popular in white audiences and were influences for other genres such as surf. The dozens, an urban African American tradition of using rhyming slang to put down your enemies (or friends) developed through the smart-ass street jive of the early Seventies into a new form of music. In the South Bronx, the half speaking, half singing rhythmic street talk of ‘rapping’ grew into the hugely successful cultural force known as Hip Hop.
Topic: family

Hip Hop would become a multicultural movement. However, it is still important to many African Americans. The African American Cultural Movement of the 1960s and 1970s also fueled the growth of funk and later hip-hop forms such as rap, hip house, new jack swing and go go. African American music has experienced far more widespread acceptance in American popular music in the 21st century than ever before. In addition to continuing to develop newer musical forms, modern artists have also started a rebirth of older genres in the form of genres such as neo soul and modern funk-inspired groups. Dance [pic]
Topic: family

The Cakewalk was the first African American dance to gain widespread popularity in the United States. [pic] African American dance, like other aspects of African American culture, finds its earliest roots in the dances of the hundreds of African ethnic groups that made up African slaves in the Americas as well as influences from European sources in the United States. Dance in the African tradition, and thus in the tradition of slaves, was a part of both every day life and special occasions. Many of these traditions such as get down, ring shouts, and other elements of African body language survive as elements of modern dance.
Topic: family

In the 1800s, African American dance began to appear in minstrel shows. These shows often presented African Americans as caricatures for ridicule to large audiences. The first African American dance to become popular with White dancers was the cakewalk in 1891. Later dances to follow in this tradition include the Charleston, the Lindy Hop, and the Jitterbug. During the Harlem Renaissance, all African American Broadway shows such as Shuffle Along helped to establish and legitimize African American dancers.
Topic: family

African American dance forms such as tap, a combination of African and European influences, gained widespread popularity thanks to dancers such as Bill Robinson and were used by leading White choreographers who often hired African American dancers. Contemporary African American dance is descended from these earlier forms and also draws influence from African and Caribbean dance forms. Groups such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater have continued to contribute to the growth of this form. Modern popular dance in America is also greatly influenced by African American dance.
Topic: family

American popular dance has also drawn many influences from African American dance most notably in the hip hop genre. Art [pic] Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City by Henry Ossawa Tanner 1859-1937 From its early origins in slave communities, through the end of the twentieth century, African-American art has made a vital contribution to the art of the United States. During the period between the 1600s and the early 1800s, art took the form of small drums, quilts, wrought-iron figures and ceramic vessels in the southern United States. These artifacts have similarities with comparable crafts in West and Central Africa.
Topic: family

In contrast, African American artisans like the New England–based engraver Scipio Moorhead and the Baltimore portrait painter Joshua Johnson created art that was conceived in a thoroughly western European fashion. During the 1800s, Harriet Powers made quilts in rural Georgia, United States that are now considered among the finest examples of nineteenth-century Southern quilting. Later in the 20th century, the women of Gee’s Bend developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional African American quilts with a geometric simplicity that developed separately but was like that of Amish quilts and modern art.
Topic: family

After the American Civil War, museums and galleries began more frequently to display the work of African American artists. Cultural expression in mainstream venues was still limited by the dominant European aesthetic and by racial prejudice. To increase the visibility of their work, many African American artists traveled to Europe where they had greater freedom. It was not until the Harlem Renaissance that more whites began to pay attention to African American art in America. [pic] Kara Walker, Cut, Cut paper and adhesive on wall, Brent Sikkema NYC.
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During the 1920s, artists such as Raymond Barthe, Aaron Douglas, Augusta Savage, and photographer James Van Der Zee became well known for their work. During the Great Depression, new opportunities arose for these and other African American artists under the WPA. In later years, other programs and institutions, such as the New York City-based Harmon Foundation, helped to foster African American artistic talent. Augusta Savage, Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Mailou Jones, Romare Bearden,
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In the 1950s and 1960s, there were very few widely accepted African American artists. Despite this, The Highwaymen, a loose association of 27 African American artists from Ft. Pierce, Florida, created idyllic, quickly realized images of the Florida landscape and peddled some 50,000 of them from the trunks of their cars. They sold their art directly to the public rather than through galleries and art agents, thus receiving the name “The Highwaymen”. Rediscovered in the mid-1990s, today they are recognized as an important part of American folk history.
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Their artwork is widely collected by enthusiasts and original pieces can easily fetch thousands of dollars in auctions and sales. The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s was another period of resurgent interest in African American art. During this period, several African-American artists gained national prominence, among them Lou Stovall, Ed Love, Charles White, and Jeff Donaldson. Donaldson and a group of African-American artists formed the Afrocentric collective AFRICOBRA, which remains in existence today.
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The sculptor Martin Puryear, whose work has been acclaimed for years, is being honored with a 30-year retrospective of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York starting November 2007. Notable contemporary African American artists include David Hammons, Eugene J. Martin, Charles Tolliver, and Kara Walker. Literature [pic] Langston Hughes, a notable African American poet of the Harlem Renaissance. African American literature has its roots in the oral traditions of African slaves in America. The slaves used stories and fables in much the same way as they used music.
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These stories influenced the earliest African American writers and poets in the 18thcentury such as Phillis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano. These authors reached early high points by telling slave narratives. During the early 20th century Harlem Renaissance, numerous authors and poets, such as Langston Hughes, W. E. B. Dubois, and Booker T. Washington, grappled with how to respond to discrimination in America. Authors during the Civil Rights era, such as Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about issues of racial segregation, oppression and other aspects of African American life.
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This tradition continues today with authors who have been accepted as an integral part of American literature, with works such as Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, and Beloved by Nobel Prize-winning Toni Morrison, and series by Octavia Butler and Walter Mosley that have achieved both best-selling and/or award-winning status. Museums The African American Museum Movement emerged during the 1950s and 1960s to preserve the heritage of the African American experience and to ensure its proper interpretation in American history.
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Museums devoted to African American history are found in many African American neighborhoods. Institutions such as the African American Museum and Library at Oakland and The African American Museum in Cleveland were created by African Americans to teach and investigate cultural history that, until recent decades was primarily preserved trough oral traditions. Language Generations of hardships imposed on the African American community created distinctive language patterns. Slave owners often intentionally mixed people who spoke different African languages to discourage communication in any language other than English.
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This, combined with prohibitions against education, led to the development of pidgins, simplified mixtures of two or more languages that speakers of different languages could use to communicate. Examples of pidgins that became fully developed languages include Creole, common to Haiti,and Gullah, common to the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. African American Vernacular English is a type variety (dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of the American English language closely associated with the speech of but not exclusive to African Americans.
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While AAVE is academically considered a legitimate dialect because of its logical structure, some of both Caucasians and African Americans consider it slang or the result of a poor command of Standard American English. Inner city African American children who are isolated by speaking only AAVE have more difficulty with standardized testing and, after school, moving to the mainstream world for work. It is common for many speakers of AAVE to code switch between AAVE and Standard American English depending on the setting. Fashion and aesthetics [pic] A man weaving kente cloth in Ghana.
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Attire The cultural explosion of the 1960s saw the incorporation of surviving cultural dress with elements from modern fashion and West African traditional clothing to create a uniquely African American traditional style. Kente cloth is the best known African textile. These festive woven patterns, which exist in numerous varieties, were originally made by the Ashanti and Ewe peoples of Ghana and Togo. Kente fabric also appears in a number of Western style fashions ranging from casual t-shirts to formal bow ties and cummerbunds. Kente strips are often sewn into liturgical and cademic robes or worn as stoles. Since the Black Arts Movement, traditional African clothing has been popular amongst African Americans for both formal and informal occasions. Another common aspect of fashion in African American culture involves the appropriate dress for worship in the Black church. It is expected in most churches that an individual should present their best appearance for worship. African American women in particular are known for wearing vibrant dresses and suits. An interpretation of a passage from the Christian Bible, “… very woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head… “, has led to the tradition of wearing elaborate Sunday hats, sometimes known as “crowns. ” Hair Hair styling in African American culture is greatly varied. African American hair is typically composed of tightly coiled curls. The predominant styles for women involve the straightening of the hair through the application of heat or chemical processes. These treatments form the base for the most commonly socially acceptable hairstyles in the United States.
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Alternatively, the predominant and most socially acceptable practice for men is to leave one’s hair natural. Often, as men age and begin to lose their hair, the hair is either closely cropped, or the head is shaved completely free of hair. However, since the 1960s, natural hairstyles, such as the afro, braids, and dreadlocks, have been growing in popularity. Although the association with radical political movements and their vast difference from mainstream Western hairstyles, the styles have not yet attained widespread social acceptance.
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Maintaining facial hair is more prevalent among African American men than in other male populations in the U. S. In fact, the soul patch is so named because African American men, particularly jazz musicians, popularized the style. The preference for facial hair among African American men is due partly to personal taste, but because they are more prone than other ethnic groups to develop a condition known as pseudofolliculitis barbae, commonly referred to as razor bumps, many prefer not to shave. Body image
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The European aesthetic and attendant mainstream concepts of beauty are often at odds with the African body form. Because of this, African American women often find themselves under pressure to conform to European standards of beauty. Still, there are individuals and groups who are working towards raising the standing of the African aesthetic among African Americans and internationally as well. This includes efforts toward promoting as models those with clearly defined African features; the mainstreaming of natural hairstyles; and, in women, fuller, more voluptuous body types.
Topic: family

Religion While African Americans practice a number of religions, Protestant Christianity is by far the most popular. Additionally, 14% of Muslims in the United States and Canada are African American. Christianity [pic] A river baptism in New Bern, North Carolina near the turn of the 20th century. The religious institutions of African American Christians commonly are referred tocollectively as the black church. During slavery, many slaves were stripped of their African belief systems and typically denied free religious practice.
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Slaves managed, however, to hang on to some practices by integrating them into Christian worship in secret meetings. These practices, including dance, shouts, African rhythms, and enthusiastic singing, remain a large part of worship in the African American church. African American churches taught that all people were equal in God’s eyes and viewed the doctrine of obedience to one’s master taught in white churches as hypocritical. Instead the African American church focused on the message of equality and hopes for a better future.
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Because of this, African American pastors became the bridge between the African American and European American communities and thus played a crucial role in the American Civil Rights Movement. Like many Christians, African American Christians sometimes participate in or attend a Christmas play. Black Nativity by Langston Hughes is a re-telling of the classic Nativity story with gospel music. Productions can be found a African American theaters and churches all over the country. Islam [pic] A member of the Nation of Islam selling merchandise on a city street corner.
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Despite the popular assumption that the Nation represents all or most African American Muslims, less than 2% are members. Generations before the advent of the Atlantic slave trade, Islam was a thriving religion in West Africa due to its peaceful introduction via the lucrative trans-Saharan trade between prominent tribes in the southern Sahara and the Berbers to the North. In his attesting to this fact the West African scholar Cheikh Anta Diop explained: “The primary reason for the success of Islam in Black Africa… onsequently stems from the fact that it was propagated peacefully at first by solitary Arabo-Berber travelers to certain Black kings and notables, who then spread it about them to those under their jurisdiction” Many first-generation slaves were often able to retain their Muslim identity, their descendants were not. Slaves were either forcibly converted to Christianity as was the case in the Catholic lands or were besieged with gross inconviences to their religious practice such as in the case of the Protestant American mainland.
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In the decades after slavery and particularly during the depression era, Islam reemerged in the form of highly visible and sometimes controversial heterodox movements in the African American community. The first of these of note was the Moorish Science Temple of America, founded by Noble Drew Ali. Ali had a profound influence on Wallace Fard, who later founded the Black nationalist Nation of Islam in 1930. Elijah Muhammad became head of the organization in 1934. Much like Malcolm X, who left the Nation of Islam in 1964, many African American Muslims now follow traditional Islam.
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A survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations shows that 30% of Sunni Mosque attendees are African Americans. African American orthodox Muslims are often the victims of stereotypes, most notably the assumption that an African American Muslim is a member of the Nation of Islam. They are often viewed by the uneducated African-American community in general as less authentic than Muslims from the Middle East or South Asia while credibility is less of an issue with immigrant Muslims and Muslim world in general. Other religions
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Aside from Christianity and Islam, there are also African Americans who follow Judaism, Buddhism, and a number of other religions. The Black Hebrew Israelites are a collection of African American Jewish religious organizations. Among their varied teachings, they often include that African Americans are descended from the Biblical Hebrews (sometimes with the paradoxical claim that the Jewish people are not). There is a small but growing number of African Americans who participate in African traditional religions, such as Vodou and Santeria or Ifa and diasporic traditions like Rastafarianism.
Topic: family

Some African Americans have created new rites of passage that are linked to African traditions. Pre-teen and teenage boys and girls take classes to prepare them for adulthood. They are typically taught spirituality, responsibility, and leadership. Most of these programs are modeled after traditional African ceremonies, with the focus largely on embracing African ideologies rather than specific rituals. To this day, some African American couples choose to “jump the broom” as a part of their wedding ceremony.
Topic: family

Although the practice, which can be traced back to Ghana, fell out of favor in the African American community after the end of slavery, it has experienced a slight resurgence in recent years as some couples seek to reaffirm their African heritage. Funeral traditions tend to vary based on a number of factors, including religion and location, but there are a number of commonalities. Probably the most important part of death and dying in the African American culture is the gathering of family and friends. Either in the last days before death or shortly after death, typically any friends and family members that can be reached are notified.
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This gathering helps to provide spiritual and emotional support, as well as assistance in making decisions and accomplishing everyday tasks. The spirituality of death is very important in African American culture. A member of the clergy or members of the religious community, or both, are typically present with the family through the entire process. Death is often viewed as transitory rather than final. Many services are called homegoings, instead of funerals, based on the belief that the person is going home to the afterlife. The entire end of life process is generally treated as a celebration of life rather than a mourning of loss.
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This is most notably demonstrated in the New Orleans Jazz Funeral tradition where upbeat music, dancing, and food encourage those gathered to be happy and celebrate the homegoing of a beloved friend. Cuisine [pic] A traditional soul food dinner consisting of fried chicken, candied yams, collard greens, cornbread, and macaroni and cheese. The cultivation and use of many agricultural products in the United States, such as yams, peanuts, rice, okra, sorghum, grits, watermelon, indigo dyes, and cotton, can be traced to African influences. African American foods reflect creative esponses to racial and economic oppression and poverty. Under slavery, African Americans were not allowed to eat better cuts of meat, and after emancipation many often were too poor to afford them. Soul food, a hearty cuisine commonly associated with African Americans in the South (but also common to African Americans nationwide), makes creative use of inexpensive products procured through farming and subsistence hunting and fishing. Pig intestines are boiled and sometimes battered and fried to make chitterlings, also known as “chitlins. Ham hocks and neck bones provide seasoning to soups, beans and boiled greens (turnip greens, collard greens, and mustard greens). Other common foods, such as fried chicken and fish, macaroni and cheese, cornbread and hoppin’ john (black-eyed peas and rice) are prepared simply. When the African American population was considerably more rural than it generally is today, rabbit, possum, squirrel, and waterfowl were important additions to the diet. Many of these food traditions are especially predominant in many parts of the rural South. Traditionally prepared soul food is often high in fat, sodium and starch.
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Highly suited to the physically demanding lives of laborers, farmhands and rural lifestyles generally, it is now a contributing factor to obesity, heart disease, and diabetes in a population that has become increasingly more urban and sedentary. As a result, more health-conscious African-Americans are using alternative methods of preparation, eschewing trans fats in favor of natural vegetable oils and substituting smoked turkey for fatback and other, cured pork products; limiting the amount of refined sugar in desserts; and emphasizing the consumption of more fruits and vegetables than animal protein.