That's not a short answer, I'll probably have to do this is two comments, but that's okay. :)
There are scores of books and entire courses of study based on breaking down the Black Experience, Black Culture and African-American Culture and Experience. I look at the difference in terms of background and experience and inclusive vs. exclusive. African-American Culture is the shared experience of an entire hue of skin colorations, socio-economic circumstances, and educational backgrounds that are superseded by the commonality of expression and oppression. For African-Americans, as for all cultures, that expression of shared history and identity comes through in music, clothing, food, celebrations, lexicon and an inherent resonance with what it means to be Black in American.
The Black Experience on the other hand, is global. Regardless of your country of origin and the regional identification, there is a unique experience to being Black in the Western & Western-influenced World. Despite our individual genetic histories, the shared ancestral legacy of slavery and oppression, along with modern bigotry and ignorance binds us together. You can take someone of African descent from Canada, the United States, South America, Spain, England, Algeria, Angola, South Africa, Egypt, Inda, Mongolia, Australia and New Zealand and have them walk together down a street in Midwest America and they are all Black. They will all be treated with the same biases, be they good or bad, and they will have the same experience for as long as they are in the same location.
So while the African-American Experience is local and the culture internal, the Black Experience is global and the culture external. All African-Americans are Black but not all Blacks are African-American. Your two Archangels will be treated the same when they walk down the street, but if Raphael lived a human life, he'd have a different culture base than Samael would have had in Ghana, but they're both in America from what you said, so where Raphael's African-American Culture and Samael's Ghanaian Culture overlap, is their shared Black Experience and the Black Culture that comes from that experience.
Going from the global and inclusive definition of Black Culture, to the nationalist explanation, Black Culture is the accumulation of cultural influence by all those internally and externally identified as Black in the United States regardless of how they individually identify. So again, all African-Americans are included in the term Black Culture but not all who identify as Black consider themselves African-American.
I think one of the best ways to really take in a cultural sensitivity is to hear and read about the experiences of each ethnicity in the words of those who've lived it. There are countless essays and documentaries and studies and where you don't have to turn it into a second career, I think it's imperative that we all dedicate time to each culture or ethnicity we wish to represent in our writing and that we take every opportunity to soak in that knowledge when it's presented. I watch everything I can that comes concerning ethnic migration and the experience of PoC in the U.S. and abroad because I know my story is only one way it could have happened. The greater the variety of stories I learn I want to learn the more effectively I can touch on those different threads and weave a new narrative for my character.
It can seem daunting, but the information is out there and much of it in easily digestible form in order to encourage understanding across cultures and ethnicities.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Answer part I
Date: Tue, Apr. 26th, 2011 07:19 am (UTC)There are scores of books and entire courses of study based on breaking down the Black Experience, Black Culture and African-American Culture and Experience. I look at the difference in terms of background and experience and inclusive vs. exclusive. African-American Culture is the shared experience of an entire hue of skin colorations, socio-economic circumstances, and educational backgrounds that are superseded by the commonality of expression and oppression. For African-Americans, as for all cultures, that expression of shared history and identity comes through in music, clothing, food, celebrations, lexicon and an inherent resonance with what it means to be Black in American.
The Black Experience on the other hand, is global. Regardless of your country of origin and the regional identification, there is a unique experience to being Black in the Western & Western-influenced World. Despite our individual genetic histories, the shared ancestral legacy of slavery and oppression, along with modern bigotry and ignorance binds us together. You can take someone of African descent from Canada, the United States, South America, Spain, England, Algeria, Angola, South Africa, Egypt, Inda, Mongolia, Australia and New Zealand and have them walk together down a street in Midwest America and they are all Black. They will all be treated with the same biases, be they good or bad, and they will have the same experience for as long as they are in the same location.
So while the African-American Experience is local and the culture internal, the Black Experience is global and the culture external. All African-Americans are Black but not all Blacks are African-American. Your two Archangels will be treated the same when they walk down the street, but if Raphael lived a human life, he'd have a different culture base than Samael would have had in Ghana, but they're both in America from what you said, so where Raphael's African-American Culture and Samael's Ghanaian Culture overlap, is their shared Black Experience and the Black Culture that comes from that experience.
Going from the global and inclusive definition of Black Culture, to the nationalist explanation, Black Culture is the accumulation of cultural influence by all those internally and externally identified as Black in the United States regardless of how they individually identify. So again, all African-Americans are included in the term Black Culture but not all who identify as Black consider themselves African-American.
I think one of the best ways to really take in a cultural sensitivity is to hear and read about the experiences of each ethnicity in the words of those who've lived it. There are countless essays and documentaries and studies and where you don't have to turn it into a second career, I think it's imperative that we all dedicate time to each culture or ethnicity we wish to represent in our writing and that we take every opportunity to soak in that knowledge when it's presented. I watch everything I can that comes concerning ethnic migration and the experience of PoC in the U.S. and abroad because I know my story is only one way it could have happened. The greater the variety of stories I learn I want to learn the more effectively I can touch on those different threads and weave a new narrative for my character.
It can seem daunting, but the information is out there and much of it in easily digestible form in order to encourage understanding across cultures and ethnicities.