Anti-Black Racisms in American Society

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The many different influences have caused a major distinction between African American and Black Culture and many cultures in parts of the Western world. Culture plays a large role in the systems our society creates – one in particular being our political system. Culture shapes our political and socio-economic lives. The influence of cultural domination, accommodation and resistance play a vital role in the syncretism of religions, languages, and cultures. An example of cultural domination lies in the capturing of Africans. The enslavement of Africans left them as the dominated race and White/Europeans as the dominant race. This initial creation of racial hierarchy lead to the belief that non-whites should accommodate to the Western way of life. Accommodation can be viewed in some ways as a survival mechanism. In order for Africans to survive in a new world they know nothing about, they have to adhere to white/European expectations. This repeated behavior of adherence, engrains certain cultural practices into African American culture. Cultural practices such as religion and language were largely accommodated to white standards. Many tribal religions and dialects were lost in exchange for European languages (e.g. English, Spanish, Portuguese) and religions (e.g. Christianity, Catholicism, etc.). However, resistance has preserved much of the African influence ad can still be seen in western Creole languages, dance, art, and music.

The same process of cultural domination, accommodation and resistance prevalent in American history can be seen in the Palenqueros of San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia. In 2007, the inhabitants of the village were beginning to lose their language, a very unique piece of their culture, to cultural domination of Western ideas. These ideas influence the technology, transportation, and domestic domination of language.

In a piece, “A Language, Not Quite Spanish, With African Echoes”, Simon Romero highlights the trials and triumphs of the Palenquero people. The Palenqueros are decedents of runaway slaves who founded their village on the jungle of northern Colombia. Due to the origin of the runaway slaves and the isolation of the village, the adults there speak a language influenced by the Congo language of Kikongo, Portuguese, and Spanish. This language’s survival over centuries can be attributed to the Palenqueros resilience to fend off threats to its existence.

However, in recent years the Palenqueros have struggled to keep their “lengua”, or tongue, alive. The village used to be quite isolated because is took an entire day by mule to reach the area, now it only takes two hours by bus. Also, commuting for work outside of the region has caused laborers to stop speaking their unique language and adopting neighboring languages. Many of the Palenqueros claim that the largest threat to their language is direct contact with outsiders.

Analysis of this region highlights some of the key concepts we cover in class; domination, accommodation and resistance. The very language of the Palenqueros shows us how accommodation plays a large role in cultural development. The mixing of languages is due to the ancestry accommodating to the different regions they were in at different times; this explains the Congo influence from the origins of this ethnic group, the Portuguese influence from the language of the slave traders, and Spanish influence form the language used by slaves in Latin America. The people who are traveling outside of the village for work have experienced cultural domination by being “scorned” because of their native tongue. The domination experienced by workers has diminished the use of the Palenquero lengua. Through education and preservation, the Palenqueros have resisted complete extinction of their language.

In all, after analyzing the emergence of African slave culture, the precursor to African American culture, and the Palenqueros of Colombia the role domination, accommodation, and resistance play in cultural politics is apparent. Each component contributes to the mixing of language, religion, and traditions.