By: Inemesit Asikpo, an Element’s writer
The U.S. lacks having an original culture. If there were to be a culture, it would be taking other cultures and claiming it as their own. The only culture that would be truly American is from the 100s of Indigeonus tribes from all over North America. Unfortunately, about 95,000,000 – 114,000,000 Indigenous people were killed since the beginning of European colonization in the U.S. This American Holocaust only left about 5,000,000 Indigenious people, compared to the 250,520,000 current American inhabitants.
During colonization, Europeans destroyed the Indigeonus people’s history, raped their women, enslaved and murdered their people. The Indigeonus race is not completely wiped out, but the huge population decrease and loss of history makes their culture seem non-existent in current America. The only way the U.S acknowledged the Indigenous people’s history is by culturally exploiting them, realizing the Natives were gaining more power to shut them down, or by making terrible movies that didn’t accurately depict their lives before or after colonization.
The U.S has proven time and time again that they do not care for the first people of this land by kicking them off their reservations for corporate gain, not providing proper social services to the people on reservations, and leaving most Indigenous people in poverty.
Cultures that Originated in the U.S.
While enslaved, Africans ate leftover scraps from their master(s). Not being able to have access to everything their master(s) had caused black people to become creative with what/how they ate. Oftentimes, Africans would make foods that could be cooked or baked in large quantities like gumbo or cornbread. They also cooked foods that could be made quickly like rice and beans. This formed the creation of delicious soul food!
In the early 70s through 90s, black creativity was BOOMING! The most common way of finding these glimpses of the Black past was through clothing. In the 70s, black people dominated the disco and ball life all across the country. The classic afro with the bootcut jeans or over the top shirts became a very fast trend in America. These trends made covers of magazines and newspapers and even some tv shows. Sadly, the Black community was not always represented for their creativity and oftentimes scammed for their ideas. In the 90s, a completely new world of fashion can be seen shown by the new genre of music that originated in New York called rap. Rap was dominated by minority groups because it was made for minority groups. If one were to listen to rap in its early stages, they would hear subjects ranging from the good days of growing up to the crack epidemic during the 80s. This wide variety of different musicians influenced how black people dressed and their own creative sparks. In this era, people with baggier clothes and ‘ ghetto ‘ hairstyles like waves and braids can still be seen.One can also see the formation of the shoe culture that originated with Air Jordans and Nike after basketball stars like Micheal Jordan brought the shoes to a brighter light through sponsorships.
The United States has no singular culture because of the 100s of different cultures it houses. The U.S. has immigrants that influenced American culture, like the Spanish and Asain cultures that did not originate in present day America. This country’s history has shaped the cultures of many, directly and indirectly, but no matter what, almost everyone has a culture to claim as their own in the U.S. Whether that be with the Hispanic to Latinx cultures to the African or African American cultures, there’s a home for almost everyone in between.
Bibliography
Hayford, Vanessa, and Vanessa Hayford Vanessa has a serious passion for food and can usually be found searching for new eats in Toronto. Aside from her culinary pastimes. “The Humble History Of Soul Food • BLACK FOODIE.” BLACK FOODIE, 3 Feb. 2018, www.blackfoodie.co/the-humble-history-of-soul-food.
Janu. “The American Indian Holocaust, Known as the ‘500 Year War’ and the World’s Longest Holocaust In The History Of Mankind.” DeWereldMorgen.be, 28 Apr. 2017,www.dewereldmorgen.be/community/the-american-indian-holocaust-known-as-the-%C2%93500-year-war%C2%94-and-the-world%C2%92s-longest-holocaust-in-the-history-of-mankind/.
Wikipedia. “Native Americans in the United States.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Sept. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States.
Duffin, Published by Erin, and Sep 17. “Population by Race in the U.S. 2019.” Statista, 17 Sept. 2020, www.statista.com/statistics/183489/population-of-the-us-by-ethnicity-since-2000/.
History.com Editors. “Indian Reservations.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 8 Dec. 2017, www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/indian-reservations.
“Colonial Enslavement of Native Americans Included Those Who Surrendered, Too.” Brown University, www.brown.edu/news/2017-02-15/enslavement.