CMV: "Black Culture" doesn't exist and isn't a helpful term
Disambiguation:. My use of "Black Culture" within this context refers specifically to the expressions and creation of culture within America that is associated with blackness.
My understanding of culture (the arts, beliefs, customs of a people) is that cultures are themselves generally specific to a region, not a skin color. We wouldn't say that Nigerian culture is a part of "black culture", even though many Nigerians are black.
So what are we describing when we say "Black Culture"? If culture is regional, how useful is the term "Black Culture"?
Another problem I have with the term is it centers the culture around the skin color. However, referring to my example above, this is a misnomer, Black Culture doesn't exist as a form of culture tied to a skin color, but rather it is a form of culture tied to a lived experience of that skin color within a state that has previously conducted racialized chattel slavery, as well as apartheid. Therefore, "Black Culture" is better understood as "American Blackness Culture", as it is specific to a region (America), and reflects an embodiment of the lived experiences of those individuals who are defined by their skin color within a systemic racial class hierarchy that holds blackness as being intrinsically less valuable than whiteness.
This, I believe, is a much more useful term, and describes reality in a more cogent way, than black culture, which again, I don't believe can be said to exist, at least not without some agreed upon context that would simply reproduce the reality of the term I have used (an American culture that produces a shared experience along a shared lived reality, embodying blackness, IE: American Blackness Culture)
Further, the term is also useful because I don't believe white culture can be said to exist either, (sorry Richard Spencer, you are still an idiot) however, I do think American Whiteness Culture does. Consider the cultural trope of the Black Mammy.
The Black Mammy is usually characterized as a larger ("comfortable"), older, motherly or grandmotherly black woman, who is usually either a house slave or paid servant, depending on the time frame represented. She takes care of the "Master" of the houses children, and is generally seen as more "mothering", (performing the emotional labor characteristic of our definition of 'mother') than the children's biological mother. Common examples might include Gone With the Wind's Mammy, Deadwood's Aunt Lou, and Forrest Gump's Louise. The Black Mammy is an aspect of American Whiteness Culture, in that it was originally produced for, and consumed by, people embodying whiteness, for the purposes of evincing a kind of "safe" "neutered" portrayal of black femininity.
My preference for American Blackness Culture over 'Black Culture', is it regionalizes the subject while casting it as an experience of the embodied skin color, rather than the skin color itself. This represents a further disambiguation that also serves to call to count the racialized systemic hierarchy still present through much of American society.
Maybe you are with me, maybe you think I'm being overly pedantic. Maybe you completely disagree and have a strong argument as to why not. Lay it on me and I will consider it.
Posted Nov 12, 2018, 8:08 PM UTC
Let's be very clear here. "Black culture" typically refers to American Blacks and/or African-Americans. Blacks in America who can trace their lineage back to Africa. It does not usually refer to Africans directly.
The term isn't tied to color has the name implies.
Okay you're clarifying your own earlier statement to what's commonly understood already.
White culture exist it's just not a culture that's defined by color. Usually it's German, Polish, Irish, British culture. Or American... as you mention earlier.
I believe your overall argument is poor. "Black culture" is usually attributed to the American Black/African-Americans. Very rarely do Africans consider themselves Black in the American-sense nor do American Blacks consider themselves African in your sense.
Which is what I said in the beginning.
I would argue the term implicitly ties itself to skin color rather than the experience of skin color within a racialized class hierarchy, which are functionally different.
I do address this in "whiteness culture". I wouldn't intrinsically classify British or German culture as 'white', because it wasn't always a product of whiteness culture. Whiteness culture is reliant on a racialized hierarchy, and the current racialized hierarchy based upon skin color is itself a very recent creation, being a product of the colonization of the world by the old powers of Europe. Thus, German culture can't be said to be intrinsically white, but it can be used by people wishing to argue for the preservation of a racial hierarchy by appealing to "German Whiteness".
Further, if black culture refers to black people in America but not black people in Africa, then why does "white culture" refer to various European countries with a wide variety of unshared cultural traditions? How can you argue black culture doesn't exist in Africa but then argue white culture does exist in Europe? I'm not sure i understand why Europe is special.
I'm not sure you have understood my argument. My argument is that a racialized culture can only exist within a racialized class system, thus it is not the skin color that shapes the culture, but rather a shared experience of embodying that skin color within the wider society that creates the culture. Thus the term Blackness Culture is a less ambiguous term than Black Culture. This is why Africans don't consider themselves black in the same way, because either they didn't exist under a racialized hierarchy, or that hierarchy was constructed in a different fashion. That's my point entirely. "Blackness" only exists within a racialized hierarchy.
The other side of my argument, is that if a country has a long history without a racialized class hierarchy based upon skin color, it's very likely the culture consumed and produced by citizens of different skin tones would likely be more homogenous.
Let me clarify white culture is usually Caucasian. Meaning white people in America trace their culture to their European origins. Likewise, Black culture traces there lineage to Africa.
White culture isn't usually called "white culture" or "Caucasian culture" it's usually attributed individual European countries. IE, Irish, German, Polish.
I think the point your trying to convey is entirely semantic. To be "black", "black culture" and/or "blackness" are not mutually exclusive. One could refer to black as Black America, or Black culture as in the culture of Black Americans, or Black as in racial feature.
I agree that not all Africans grew up with the hierarchy but in the same sense most Africans don't consider themselves Black as in Black Americans. But they will also consider themselves black as in the color of their skins. The term is not mutually exclusive.
In many colonial African Nations the form of racism implemented by the colonizers was partially based on skin color, but also had a lot of basis in tribal identification, wherein Africans from different tribes were held as more or less valuable to the society. IIRC this was very much the system the Dutch Afrikaaners utilized to devastating effect.
I admit my point is mostly semantical in nature. It may simply be an exercise in pedantry. I still think it's a meaningful distinction, but you have given me something to think about.
More specifically, African American refers to the descendants of sub-Saharan African slaves. So, African American in my opinion (and it could be wrong) are both a racial group (black) and an ethnicity. Being that all African-Americans share the same heritage, it would stand to reason that they would have a shared cultural experience no matter where they are in the US.