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I'm not asking if most African-Americans live in the South. What I am asking is do African-Americans, regardless of where they live in the United States or how long they have been there, reflect a certain "Southernness" in their cuisine, accents, and style of worship?
It depends. Many blacks are from the West Indies and Africa and have no connection to the South at all but are still considered African American. That said, I think the majority of multi generation American blacks have some connection to the South.
I don't think the majority of blacks in the Northeast and the West Coast have southern speech patterns. New York, Boston, LA, and Bay Area born blacks just don't have the accent pattern. Chicago and Detroit are a different story.
I think many blacks are connected to the South through food. I grew up in the North, but still ate traditional Southern food. Most of my friends ate the same way.
I don't know what you mean by a southern style of worship. Is that supposed to imply catching the Holy Ghost and shouting out after the minister's every word? My grandparents, from NC, were not raised in that religious environment. They were brought up in a low key environment. I think it's important to realize that there is no exclusive southern style of worship.
Since most of us have roots in the South, the styles of worship, music, and cusisine can show a fair amount of similarlity from coast to coast. Even black people whose roots have been outside the South for many generations will be influenced by the huge numbers of black people who came north and west during the Great Migration and brought their southern customs with them. That's becuase up until recently (in U.S. history) both old-line descendants of Northern freemen and newcomers from Dixie were forced to live in the same neighborhoods.
But this is far from universal, especially in areas of the country with substantial numbers of immigrants. Especially in the last generation there has been heavier immigration from sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South America, and the West Indies, and these people have brought entirely non-Southern cultures with them. This is pretty evident here in NYC where you can find neighborhoods of Haitians, Jamaicans, Guyanese, or Senegalese. And that's in addition to the blacks from Puerto Rico and Panama, who have been in the U.S. for years. It's pretty evident in NYC and I suspect that a lot of these folks, like previous immigrants, will leave the big cities they first settled in within a generation or two.
The lesson here should be obvious: black people aren't all alike.
Last edited by citylove101; 01-11-2013 at 10:52 AM..
I'm not asking if most African-Americans live in the South. What I am asking is do African-Americans, regardless of where they live in the United States or how long they have been there, reflect a certain "Southernness" in their cuisine, accents, and style of worship?
I would say no. Black people in the northeast, midwest, and west coast cities take pride in their own culture. Most people would say that New York, Detroit, Chicago, and L.A. blacks are not southerners. I would say that some have southern roots and leave it at that.
Not really. As a northern African American, personally I'm not really fond of the south. Only black people from Philly, Jersey, NYC and probably Boston and other northeastern cities, show very few or no traces of the southern accent. Blacks from from LA, the Bay and Midwestern cities such as Chicago and Detroit all have a noticeable southern sound to their accent.
Most African Americans in Chicago, Detroit, and other Midwest cities tend to have a slight southern drawl. I think it's also a generational thing in that typically African Americans over the age of 40 are far more likely to retain some sort of southern influence in their accent than someone under the age of 40 years old. I think this applies everywhere around the country with the exception of the Northeast and the Pacific Northwest region.
One interesting question would be do you believe Northern African Americans have more in common with Southern African Americans than Northern Caucasians have with Southern Caucasians.
Hard to say. Maybe somewhat. But I think the main difference is that so much of the Northern Afro American culture is associated with city/urban culture compared to their Southern Counterparts (which have a lot of presence in small town and rural culture as well).
There's definitely an influence of Southern culture and most "Soul Food" is Southern food. But as others have said, many take pride in the places they live.
One interesting question would be do you believe Northern African Americans have more in common with Southern African Americans than Northern Caucasians have with Southern Caucasians.
Yes. An even more interesting question is do Black Southerners have more in common with White Southerners or Black Northerners?
As to the question at hand, there is a common cultural theme for most African Americans, regardless of region. Now the accents are definitely going to differ, but you'll find commonalities with cuisine (soul food), religion (Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, etc.), music (R&B, Gospel, Hip Hop, etc.), etc. with a bit of regional variations.
It depends. Many blacks are from the West Indies and Africa and have no connection to the South at all but are still considered African American. That said, I think the majority of multi generation American blacks have some connection to the South.
I don't think the majority of blacks in the Northeast and the West Coast have southern speech patterns. New York, Boston, LA, and Bay Area born blacks just don't have the accent pattern. Chicago and Detroit are a different story.
I think many blacks are connected to the South through food. I grew up in the North, but still ate traditional Southern food. Most of my friends ate the same way.
I don't know what you mean by a southern style of worship. Is that supposed to imply catching the Holy Ghost and shouting out after the minister's every word? My grandparents, from NC, were not raised in that religious environment. They were brought up in a low key environment. I think it's important to realize that there is no exclusive southern style of worship.
Well LA does.
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