African Culture Beyond the Coasts of Africa

This week for Freshman Seminar, we embraced another powerful speaker by the name of Mario Beatty. Beatty lectured us on the topic of Abandonment and Dismemberment: "Something Torn and New". This topic was about being ripped from the homeland of Africa, but still being able to embrace the African culture in 2011. Pieces of African culture are still embodied in our language, music, dance, and morales.
One aspect of African culture that we embrace is language.Growing up in an predominantly black community while attending an elite high school put me at a great advantage , but also got me teased. I was different from the people around me and I became labeled with names like "white girl" and "stuck up". While some people spoke ebonics, the language spoken widely in the African American community, I was the only one of my friends that spoke standard English. I was the one of my friends who would correct the rest of my friends when they said things like, "Where you going" or "How you". Although these sayings were understood, I prefered to say "Where are you going" or "How are you". When I did speak like this, my friends said that I was trying to be "white" when all I was doing was utilizing the education that some others did not have the privilege of having. I did not feel that speaking standard English made me any less black.
Another aspect of African culture that we embrace is music. Although I would personally prefer Taylor Swift over Rihanna, I appreciate the tunes and musical habits that started in Africa. As Africans, we have maintain the call and effect technique. For example, a popular artist once said when I say "hey" you say "ho". The African blood in us allows us to know when and how to respond to this. Other aspects of music such as the tempo, soul and rhythm are embodied in modern day music as well. When an upbeat sound comes on, my friends and I usually know how to dance to the beat; Likewise, we a slower song comes one, my friends and I can also dance to such a beat. The African in our blood gives us the rhythm to naturally know how to dance to certain songs.
Other aspects of African culture are around us everyday. This ranges from the way that we raise our children to the way we do our hair. The way Blacks know to gather in a circle in time of assembly and the attitude in our voice when we dance or sing lets the people around us know that they have not stripped us of our African culture. No matter what happens these aspects will always flow through our blood.