African-American culture,[1][2] also known as Black American culture or Black culture in American English,[3][4][5][6][7] refers to the cultural expressions of African Americans, either as part of or distinct from mainstream American culture. African-American culture has been influential on American and global worldwide culture as a whole.[8][9][10]
A relatively unknown aspect of African American culture is the significant impact it has had on both science and industry.Some elements of African American culture come from within the community, others from the interaction of African Americans with the wider diaspora[25] of people of African origin[26] displaced throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, and others still from the inner social and cultural dynamics of the community.
Before the Civil Rights Movement, religious and spiritual life[27] dominated many aspects of African American culture, deeply influencing cultural expression. Since the Movement, which was a mere 60 years ago—effectively just two generations—African Americans have built on the foundation of resilience and advocacy established during that era. This legacy has catalyzed significant progress, enabling African Americans to achieve success across every field of American life.[28]
African-Americans have faced racial biases throughout various periods since arriving in the United States. These systemic injustices have included, but are not limited to; enslavement, oppressive legislation like discriminatory Jim Crow laws, societal segregation, as well as overt denial of basic human Civil Rights. Racism has caused many African-Americans to be excluded from many aspects of American life during various points throughout American history and these experiences have profoundly influenced African-American culture,[29][30] and how African Americans choose to interact with the broader American society.[31][32]
^Brown, Angela (October 2013). "Cultural Perspective on African American Culture"(PDF). The International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies. 1 (2). Archived(PDF) from the original on September 7, 2024. Retrieved March 8, 2023 – via AIAC.
^Washington, Harriet A. (2008). Medical apartheid: the dark history of medical experimentation on Black Americans from colonial times to the present. New York, NY: Anchor books. ISBN978-0-7679-1547-2.
^Rediker, Marcus (2008). The slave ship: a human history. A Penguin book History African-American studies. New York, NY: Penguin Books. ISBN978-0-14-311425-3.
^Woodward, C. Vann (2002). The strange career of Jim Crow (Commemorative ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-514689-9.
^Anderson, James D. (1995). The education of Blacks in the South, 1860 - 1935 (Nachdr. ed.). Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina Press. ISBN978-0-8078-4221-8.
^Baradaran, Mehrsa (2019). The color of money: black banks and the racial wealth gap (First Harvard University Press paperback ed.). Cambridge London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN978-0-674-23747-6.
^Alexander, Michelle (2012). The new Jim Crow: mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness (Revised paperback ed.). New York: New Press. ISBN978-1-59558-643-8.