Mr. Crispin Cole | August 24, 2005
The Challenges of Black Acculturation in the United States
Written By: Crispin R. Cole
Even though African Americans have been among the earliest ethnic groups to join the cultural diversity in the United States yet, after centuries of history in the New Land they still have not been satisfactorily integrated into mainstream society. This paper will set out to selectively examine some of the factors responsible for the continued alienation of the African American. It will also consider some ways by which the negative racial profiling of the African American can be reversed.
It may not be far from the truth to suggest that the African American, or the Black Race is perhaps the most hated, feared and misunderstood in the North American multi-culture today. Since the founding of America by Columbus, bridges have been spanned across almost all the nations of the world. It has however been easier for Caucasian immigrants to blend into the mainstream culture than people of colour. The Irish or Jewish immigrant will become perfectly acculturated by the second generation, irrespective of his or her performance and contribution to national development.
Children of Caucasian immigrants born in the United States are very seldomly viewed as minorities. As a matter of fact unless they opt to identify or associate with their ethno-linguistic grouping, hardly anyone will notice that they are descendants of immigrants, especially if their accent does not betray them. This type of racial classification that puts the black man always at the fringe of society will forever remain a sore point in mainstream America. Cose (2000) states the following:
American identity itself was inextricably wrapped up in the mythology of race. The nation's first naturalisation act (passed during the second session of the first Congress in March 1790) reserved the privilege of naturalisation for 'aliens being free white persons.' Only after the civil war were blacks allowed to present themselves for citizenship.
In 1922 in a ruling against a high caste Aryan Hindu becoming a citizen of America, high court judge, Justice Sutherland declared the following:
"It may be true that the blond Scandinavian and the brown Hindu have a common ancestor in the dim reaches of antiquity, but the average man knows perfectly well that there are unmistakable and profound differences between them today... it cannot be doubted that the children born in this country of Hindu parents would retain indefinitely the clear evidence of their ancestry.
If that were the view towards a light complexioned Hindu, then one would dare say that the level of racial prejudice against blacks would continue to be a great huddle to jump over. In as much as the laws have to a large extent been amended today in favour of the equality of all races, yet the deeply engraved prejudices against blacks in America continue unabated. It should be considered that in the annals of American history the main stream held and accepted the following views in different eras. In the English heritage era, "Blackness was evil in the sight of God". In the colonial America era; " Black animalistic nature needs control". In the pre-civil war era, it was believed that slavery was good for the development of the nation and that it was a means of protecting uncivilised and dependent blacks" (Axelson, 1999, p. 112).
Even though no other race has laboured so hard as the black in America, particularly in the pre-industrialised era, yet they have not been recompensed by society for their contribution. The black in America has gone a long way to strive towards cultural assimilation. It would however seem that the harder they try, the further the goalpost is removed from the goal. Unlike other non-western European immigrants, blacks have always been treated with suspicion. They have largely been criminalised by mainstream society. They have inherited racial profiling as lazy, undependable, irresponsible, and violent. It would appear that while Caucasian immigrants are readily accepted and most often treated with respect on the basis of the common dignity of humanity, the African American and black immigrant is at best tolerated. He or she is accepted only when he or she conforms to the caricature of what the white mainstream deems as acceptable. Most of those that would benefit from mainstream acknowledgement are the black middle class who has succeeded to penetrate either the academic or corporate world. Other exceptions are the very successful entertainers from Hollywood, sports or music world.
Apart from the deep-seated racial prejudice still existing in America, blacks have been psychologically maimed by slave subservience. They have been programmed in general to serve as slaves for the white. Undoubtedly the question will be posed as to why should this be true so long after the abolition of slavery. As all psychological dysfunction, it runs deep, and it runs transgenerational also. Asante (1998) contributes to this debate by saying:
Africans in the Americas have always faced a rather difficult identity problem, largely because of how we came to be domiciled in the Americas in such large numbers. The displacement of Africans from the African continent to the Americas was not a voluntary act. No African decided to move to the Americas as a matter of course. There were no political, cultural, or commercial imperatives that would have called for the voluntary migration of Africans.
The fact that most African Americans cannot remotely identify with their
homogenous habitat, Africa, has factored in an ethno-social void of identity crisis. Whereas the American Chinese or Indian may be able to easily trace their lineage in their country of origin, the African American finds himself in an identity limbo. He or she does not know how to get back home, nor is he or she made to feel at home in the country of sourjon.
Though the Japanese will always be seen outside the American mainstream yet there is an aura of respect and cultural esteem meted out to the American Japanese, or the casual Japanese tourist in America. One would like to attribute this to what this writer would refer to as a positive home base. This is very much absent from the African home front. Africa continues to carve for itself an image of doom and gloom, where long after independence, Western countries continually receive SOS messages from African countries buckling under the yoke of political maladministration. This weakness has been persistently exploited throughout history.
It may perhaps be a pipe dream to expect mainstream, the custodian of the national treasury and power, to stoop down to the terms of the minority groups. (It should be noted that minority and mainstream does not necessarily bear any relationship with numeric strength). The quid pro quo of the socio-economic and socio-political world unfortunately is the survival of the fittest. To be recognised and respected one needs to enter and impact either the political or techno-industrial mainstream. The veracity of this can be attested by the fact that Caucasian senior citizens have been relegated to minority group status. Simply because they are no longer deemed productive and powerful.
The survival and health of African America one may submit, is inextricably linked to the health of Black Africa. It must be recognised that complete acculturation has hardly been a pursuit of most minority groups of non-Caucasian descent. The exception may probably be the Jews who for religious reasons have always maintained their peculiar identity. Asian Americans as well as Latin Americans as examples, while recognising that they would never perfectly blend into the host American culture and society have maintained healthy links with their land of origin.. According to the Catholic Legal Services (Jones, 2000) 81% of farm workers in the USA are foreign born. These people send home $30 billion annually to families poorer than themselves.
The African American's relationship to Africa is ostensibly quite different, since the majority of them cannot identify with Africa. Nevertheless it is true that were Africa a stable, prosperous and secure continent, cultural tours and educational interactions might have been of more frequent occurrence. This freedom of choice of the degree of acculturation, which one believes is healthy, is unattainable with the African American. His or her alternative culture is the development of a sub-culture within the culture. The mainstream as well as other minority groups have often misunderstood this need to retreat from the pressures of mainstream.
The internal problems that bedevil Africa are not on the road to mend, Adeleke (1999) quoting Richburg notes:
The tendency among leading Black Americans due to their fascination with Africa, to excuse, de-emphasise and at times outrightly ignore the failures of, atrocities, inhumanities and crime perpetrated by, the African leaders with whom they fraternised at the summit conferences. These veterans of civil rights struggles in the United States, who have built reputations for opposing violations of human rights and anti-democratic policies, particularly when perpetrated by Whites against Blacks, suddenly relapsed into a state of complacency when confronted with similar atrocious conditions, perpetrated by other Blacks, in this case, Africa..
Until Africa develops and the negative images are transformed the African American will continue to face innumerable acceptance challenges. This leads this writer to the factor of an African American renaissance. By this, one means an educational revolution that would qualify the African American to compete in a level playing field for good and well paying jobs. The value of education needs to be instilled in the attitude of young African American. The change process which will gradually kick-off it is hoped, will usher in a new and dynamic sub- culture which will carve for itself a positive niche other than the traditional ones. In this process the guiding question is what can the African American do equally well and even better than the other races, other than sports and entertainment? It is imperative that an answer be found to this question as an important starting point. Serious reflection must be given to these hard issues with a view to setting up appropriate programs giving the African American a more competitive niche.
While it is true that the African American has strove so hard to conform to the Caucasian norms, yet the gap continues to widen. Unless new solutions are found the frustration of the African American would lead them (especially the young and marginalised) to reject mainstream with serious consequences. It is indeed true that the race factor and negative stereotyping unfairly militate against Blacks in America. If Africa was more positive in image, it could have served as a mediating bastion in the acculturation process. As things stand at present the best bet for African Americans in addition to crying down discrimination and insensitive treatment is for them to better equip themselves through education from which base they could ascend to areas of influence.
References:
Adeleke, T. (1999, Summer). The Colour Line as a Confining and Restraining
Paradigm: Keith Richburg and his Critiques Analyzed. The Western Journal of Black Studies. 23(2) p97. Retrieved September 17, 2000 from Info Trac database on the World Wide Web: http:// Web1.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/ infomark
Asante, M. (1998, Winter). The African American as African. Diogenes. p 39. Retrieved
September 17, 2000 from Info Trac database on the World Wide Web: http:// Web1.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/ infomark
Axelson, J. A. (1999). Counseling and Development in a Multicultural Society.
Brooks/Cole publishing company.
Cose, E. (2000, September). What's White, Anyway. Newsweek. 136(12) p 64-65.
Jones, A. (2000, September) Work without Justice. National Catholic Reporter, Kansas
City. 36(38) p4 . Retrieved September 24, 2000 from Proquest database on the World Wide Web: http:// proquest..umi.com/pqdweb?rqt
Written By: Crispin R. Cole
Even though African Americans have been among the earliest ethnic groups to join the cultural diversity in the United States yet, after centuries of history in the New Land they still have not been satisfactorily integrated into mainstream society. This paper will set out to selectively examine some of the factors responsible for the continued alienation of the African American. It will also consider some ways by which the negative racial profiling of the African American can be reversed.
It may not be far from the truth to suggest that the African American, or the Black Race is perhaps the most hated, feared and misunderstood in the North American multi-culture today. Since the founding of America by Columbus, bridges have been spanned across almost all the nations of the world. It has however been easier for Caucasian immigrants to blend into the mainstream culture than people of colour. The Irish or Jewish immigrant will become perfectly acculturated by the second generation, irrespective of his or her performance and contribution to national development.
Children of Caucasian immigrants born in the United States are very seldomly viewed as minorities. As a matter of fact unless they opt to identify or associate with their ethno-linguistic grouping, hardly anyone will notice that they are descendants of immigrants, especially if their accent does not betray them. This type of racial classification that puts the black man always at the fringe of society will forever remain a sore point in mainstream America. Cose (2000) states the following:
American identity itself was inextricably wrapped up in the mythology of race. The nation's first naturalisation act (passed during the second session of the first Congress in March 1790) reserved the privilege of naturalisation for 'aliens being free white persons.' Only after the civil war were blacks allowed to present themselves for citizenship.
In 1922 in a ruling against a high caste Aryan Hindu becoming a citizen of America, high court judge, Justice Sutherland declared the following:
"It may be true that the blond Scandinavian and the brown Hindu have a common ancestor in the dim reaches of antiquity, but the average man knows perfectly well that there are unmistakable and profound differences between them today... it cannot be doubted that the children born in this country of Hindu parents would retain indefinitely the clear evidence of their ancestry.
If that were the view towards a light complexioned Hindu, then one would dare say that the level of racial prejudice against blacks would continue to be a great huddle to jump over. In as much as the laws have to a large extent been amended today in favour of the equality of all races, yet the deeply engraved prejudices against blacks in America continue unabated. It should be considered that in the annals of American history the main stream held and accepted the following views in different eras. In the English heritage era, "Blackness was evil in the sight of God". In the colonial America era; " Black animalistic nature needs control". In the pre-civil war era, it was believed that slavery was good for the development of the nation and that it was a means of protecting uncivilised and dependent blacks" (Axelson, 1999, p. 112).
Even though no other race has laboured so hard as the black in America, particularly in the pre-industrialised era, yet they have not been recompensed by society for their contribution. The black in America has gone a long way to strive towards cultural assimilation. It would however seem that the harder they try, the further the goalpost is removed from the goal. Unlike other non-western European immigrants, blacks have always been treated with suspicion. They have largely been criminalised by mainstream society. They have inherited racial profiling as lazy, undependable, irresponsible, and violent. It would appear that while Caucasian immigrants are readily accepted and most often treated with respect on the basis of the common dignity of humanity, the African American and black immigrant is at best tolerated. He or she is accepted only when he or she conforms to the caricature of what the white mainstream deems as acceptable. Most of those that would benefit from mainstream acknowledgement are the black middle class who has succeeded to penetrate either the academic or corporate world. Other exceptions are the very successful entertainers from Hollywood, sports or music world.
Apart from the deep-seated racial prejudice still existing in America, blacks have been psychologically maimed by slave subservience. They have been programmed in general to serve as slaves for the white. Undoubtedly the question will be posed as to why should this be true so long after the abolition of slavery. As all psychological dysfunction, it runs deep, and it runs transgenerational also. Asante (1998) contributes to this debate by saying:
Africans in the Americas have always faced a rather difficult identity problem, largely because of how we came to be domiciled in the Americas in such large numbers. The displacement of Africans from the African continent to the Americas was not a voluntary act. No African decided to move to the Americas as a matter of course. There were no political, cultural, or commercial imperatives that would have called for the voluntary migration of Africans.
The fact that most African Americans cannot remotely identify with their
homogenous habitat, Africa, has factored in an ethno-social void of identity crisis. Whereas the American Chinese or Indian may be able to easily trace their lineage in their country of origin, the African American finds himself in an identity limbo. He or she does not know how to get back home, nor is he or she made to feel at home in the country of sourjon.
Though the Japanese will always be seen outside the American mainstream yet there is an aura of respect and cultural esteem meted out to the American Japanese, or the casual Japanese tourist in America. One would like to attribute this to what this writer would refer to as a positive home base. This is very much absent from the African home front. Africa continues to carve for itself an image of doom and gloom, where long after independence, Western countries continually receive SOS messages from African countries buckling under the yoke of political maladministration. This weakness has been persistently exploited throughout history.
It may perhaps be a pipe dream to expect mainstream, the custodian of the national treasury and power, to stoop down to the terms of the minority groups. (It should be noted that minority and mainstream does not necessarily bear any relationship with numeric strength). The quid pro quo of the socio-economic and socio-political world unfortunately is the survival of the fittest. To be recognised and respected one needs to enter and impact either the political or techno-industrial mainstream. The veracity of this can be attested by the fact that Caucasian senior citizens have been relegated to minority group status. Simply because they are no longer deemed productive and powerful.
The survival and health of African America one may submit, is inextricably linked to the health of Black Africa. It must be recognised that complete acculturation has hardly been a pursuit of most minority groups of non-Caucasian descent. The exception may probably be the Jews who for religious reasons have always maintained their peculiar identity. Asian Americans as well as Latin Americans as examples, while recognising that they would never perfectly blend into the host American culture and society have maintained healthy links with their land of origin.. According to the Catholic Legal Services (Jones, 2000) 81% of farm workers in the USA are foreign born. These people send home $30 billion annually to families poorer than themselves.
The African American's relationship to Africa is ostensibly quite different, since the majority of them cannot identify with Africa. Nevertheless it is true that were Africa a stable, prosperous and secure continent, cultural tours and educational interactions might have been of more frequent occurrence. This freedom of choice of the degree of acculturation, which one believes is healthy, is unattainable with the African American. His or her alternative culture is the development of a sub-culture within the culture. The mainstream as well as other minority groups have often misunderstood this need to retreat from the pressures of mainstream.
The internal problems that bedevil Africa are not on the road to mend, Adeleke (1999) quoting Richburg notes:
The tendency among leading Black Americans due to their fascination with Africa, to excuse, de-emphasise and at times outrightly ignore the failures of, atrocities, inhumanities and crime perpetrated by, the African leaders with whom they fraternised at the summit conferences. These veterans of civil rights struggles in the United States, who have built reputations for opposing violations of human rights and anti-democratic policies, particularly when perpetrated by Whites against Blacks, suddenly relapsed into a state of complacency when confronted with similar atrocious conditions, perpetrated by other Blacks, in this case, Africa..
Until Africa develops and the negative images are transformed the African American will continue to face innumerable acceptance challenges. This leads this writer to the factor of an African American renaissance. By this, one means an educational revolution that would qualify the African American to compete in a level playing field for good and well paying jobs. The value of education needs to be instilled in the attitude of young African American. The change process which will gradually kick-off it is hoped, will usher in a new and dynamic sub- culture which will carve for itself a positive niche other than the traditional ones. In this process the guiding question is what can the African American do equally well and even better than the other races, other than sports and entertainment? It is imperative that an answer be found to this question as an important starting point. Serious reflection must be given to these hard issues with a view to setting up appropriate programs giving the African American a more competitive niche.
While it is true that the African American has strove so hard to conform to the Caucasian norms, yet the gap continues to widen. Unless new solutions are found the frustration of the African American would lead them (especially the young and marginalised) to reject mainstream with serious consequences. It is indeed true that the race factor and negative stereotyping unfairly militate against Blacks in America. If Africa was more positive in image, it could have served as a mediating bastion in the acculturation process. As things stand at present the best bet for African Americans in addition to crying down discrimination and insensitive treatment is for them to better equip themselves through education from which base they could ascend to areas of influence.
References:
Adeleke, T. (1999, Summer). The Colour Line as a Confining and Restraining
Paradigm: Keith Richburg and his Critiques Analyzed. The Western Journal of Black Studies. 23(2) p97. Retrieved September 17, 2000 from Info Trac database on the World Wide Web: http:// Web1.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/ infomark
Asante, M. (1998, Winter). The African American as African. Diogenes. p 39. Retrieved
September 17, 2000 from Info Trac database on the World Wide Web: http:// Web1.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/ infomark
Axelson, J. A. (1999). Counseling and Development in a Multicultural Society.
Brooks/Cole publishing company.
Cose, E. (2000, September). What's White, Anyway. Newsweek. 136(12) p 64-65.
Jones, A. (2000, September) Work without Justice. National Catholic Reporter, Kansas
City. 36(38) p4 . Retrieved September 24, 2000 from Proquest database on the World Wide Web: http:// proquest..umi.com/pqdweb?rqt