Reflection On African American Culture

2018 Words9 Pages

For my cultural experience I chose to go to the Cincinnati Underground Railroad Freedom Center and tour the center as well as the Kinsey Collection of African American Art and History. I found myself changing in attitude as I walked through the center, I entered feeling “highly educated” so to speak, I had been learning about the history of African Americans since first grade. I knew about slaves, I knew about what they did to escape, I knew they worked hard and lived bad lives, however the freedom center made these realities true realities for me! I think there’s always been a bit of a disconnect with the fact that the most gruesome parts of our history actually happened, so although it was hard to come to terms with, I think this experience was important for me, eye opening, and forced me to really take a …show more content…

Take TRIOS for example. The ideas of “time, rhythm, improvisation, oral, and spiritual” (p. 290) factors within a culture being explained to me by a woman (Thompson) of that same culture, it becomes, for me, a cultural descriptor. Firstly, I see these as cultural descriptors because they're coming from a person who is a member of the culture being discussed (African American culture). Secondly, TRIOS is a cultural descriptor because when drawn out and explained she refers to what a group says, or uses terms like “almost always” (p. 290) which are much more general than “all.” Though indicating it is extremely common in her culture, she is careful not to over generalize and leaves wiggle room for those who deviate from the main culture. Finally, these are cultural descriptors because Thompson explains her own feelings and experiences through TRIOS, thus indicating that this information is coming from someone inside this cultural group, who has personal experience with it and is a credible source as an accepted and lifelong “member” so to