African American culture has made a powerful and prominent impact on our society. It is fascinating that the things we find common in this country and in many others, stem from the tarred hands of the African American community. Frequently, most of the contributions made by African Americans go unnoticed. I believe that these contributions helped the United States gain autonomy by creating a new culture. Today I would like to focus on two of those factors, music and food. Consider food, a lot of the foods we enjoy in the United States, come from African American culture. Specifically speaking, southern cuisine. It has a major influence from slavery. For example, barbeque, frying poultry and seafood with corn meal, and utilizing every part …show more content…
Forms such as jazz, country, and rock and roll, all have the rhythm and the blueprint from African Americans. The passion and catharsis of emotion in negro spirituals transcends and transforms through them all. One soulful negro spiritual I will address is Go Down Moses sung by Paul Robeson. Robeson was a reclaimed actor, athlete, singer, and more. In Go Down Moses, he uses the biblical story in Exodus of Moses delivering the Hebrews from Egypt. This story is used to be a parallel to the physiological freedom for African Americans. He sings frequently to “Let my people go” and mentions oppression. He also sung that if the conditions are not met, “I’ll smite your first-born dead”, foreshadowing that African Americans are not going down without a fight. Overall this song elicits a powerful response because his tone is velvet, authoritative, and melancholic. When you possess little and are physically and emotionally abused every day, directly or indirectly, one has to find ways of release. The usage of religion in music was a way for them to be accepted and find solace in their living conditions. This purge of emotion and rhythm has influenced many different art forms of music even if it is not