Black Culture Traditions

Helps students better understand the bedrock beliefs of black culture in America. Through carefully selected articles, students read valuable and foundational theory, critically analyze popular and lesser known forms of black culture, and learn how appropriation and performance has rendered certain aspects of black culture invisible.

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Black Culture Traditions: Visible and Invisible helps students better understand the bedrock beliefs of black culture in America. Through carefully selected articles, students read valuable and foundational theory, critically analyze popular and lesser known forms of black culture, and learn how appropriation and performance has rendered certain aspects of black culture invisible. The text underscores how the omission of relevant teachings about African Americans continues the injustices and racial inequality experienced in America.

The anthology features four distinct parts. In Part I, selected articles by Molefe Asante, Melville Herskovits, and Amos Wilson discuss theories of Afrocentrism, culture, and psychology, and shed light on many of the misnomers, misconceptions, and misunderstandings in black culture. Part II focuses on the values that are part of the everyday lives and experiences of African Americans, including religious beliefs, ideas of right and wrong, spending practices, and class ideology. In Part III, students read about black culture traditions with emphasis on the family. The final part discusses ideas related to beauty, black creativity, and the expression of values, beliefs, and traditions as aesthetics of black culture.

A powerful and enlightening collection, Black Culture Traditions is an ideal text for courses in African American studies and cultural and ethnic studies.