Negative Effects of the Harlem Renaissance Self Hatred * Critics of the Harlem Renaissance view it as a movement fueled by self-hatred. It appears to some that the African Americans of the Harlem Renaissance attempted to escape the history and culture of their ethnicity by trying to create a new one that was more white or European in nature. Renaissance revolutionaries often copied white culture by adopting their style of dress, manners, etiquette and values. Dependence on White Culture * Many critics have accused the literary and musical revolutionaries of the Harlem Renaissance of tailoring their work to appeal to white audiences. The intent of the Renaissance was to create more equality for African Americans at white publishing houses, but this came with the cost of the inability to express them despite what white audiences thought.
In the Kitchen The narrative “In the Kitchen” by Henry Louis Gates details the lengths at which African Americans in the 1950’s and 60’s would go in order to straighten their hair, and the importance hair played in how you were perceived by the rest of the African American community. Throughout this essay, hair was used to represent the identity of the African American community during a period where major social changes were taking place. Throughout the textual form, figurative language, idiom, register and tone were used. Gates was able to explore the standards of that time, and how they affected the African American community and in turn how it affected him as an adult. Throughout the text, languages featured by Gates made it clear that the African Americans during that era felt the need to straighten their hair in order to receive acceptance from the Caucasian Americans.
Slaves can gain freedom if they worked out their term of being an indentured servant. But because African servants have dark skin the colony soon see black only as slaves, so it became a custom for the white colonials to have slaves. They were first brought to the colonies for planter’s plantation manual labor. As the staple crops in the colonies commercial markets increased so did
First of all, Madam C.J. Walker invented hair products for African – Americans. She made hair products when there were only a few hair products made for them. Ms. Walker’s own hair was falling out so she found products that helped her, and then took a job selling them to others. Later, she decided to make her own products.
“In some regards the ragtime craze was a descendent of minstrelsy.” (Starr & Waterman, 2010) The simplified elements taken from African American musical styles were beneficial to the white musicians. They were inserted into their music to make it livelier. Through the racial barriers during this time, ragtime style of music began to make black songwriters more noticed and accepted. Ragtime music definitely helped advanced the causes of African Americans. Negative effects also came with advances.
The African tradition of decorating the body both enhances one’s beauty and gives a person a higher status in their tribe” (African). Although African body art and scarification fuels many prejudices about the African people from the outside world, body art has existed as an important aspect of African history that allows self-expression in various tribes because forms of body decoration have existed for over five thousand years. Body art has existed as an important aspect of African history because of the many styles of body decoration that exist. Africans use scarification, body paint, mud coloring, body piercing, and lip disks to embellish their bodies. Scarification, also known as “The Proud Mark”, describes the art where a person marks his or her skin in decorative patterns.
That’s why I support (BBSA) Black Beauty Supply Store Association trying to take back what we should rightfully have, the black hair care industry. The black hair care industry was controlled by African Americans in the 1900’s. Madam C.J. Walker was one of the first to own a manufacturing and distributor company of black hair care products. The social journal reports that between the 1940’s and 1950’s the black hair care industry arose as a black organization.
The story in the book is about how did African American people were treated badly at that time. Why I’m Black, Not African American of John McWhorter is talking about how do the black people want to call themselves. He is telling why did people start to call people who has dark skin, ‘black’. The author is
Around the late 1800’s many African slaves came to the new world, Africans became slaves either because of debts or of a religious conflicts. However, slaves were granted certain rights such as education, parenthood, and slaves could eventually work their way out of slavery. In 1492 slavery was legalized in Europe, which lead the people to trade slaves for goods or gold in Africa. Unfortunately later on a technique came upon, it was use to transport slaves to different places which was known as the Middle Passage. The middle passage lead to the death of many slaves, since slaves were being place in ships at the very bottom.
But by the nineteenth century, slaves no longer identified themselves as Ibo, Ashanti, Yoruba, and so on, but as African-Americans. Slave culture drew on the African heritage. African influences were evident in the slaves’ music and dances, style of religious worship, and the use of herbs by slave healers to combat disease. Unlike the plantation regions of the Caribbean and Brazil, where the African slave trade continued into the nineteenth century and the black population far outnumbered the white, most slaves in the United States were American-born and lived amidst a white majority. Slave culture was a new creation, shaped by African traditions and American values and