Beginning

Hello everyone! Before you start reading this blog, I want to introduce myself.

My name is Lucy Chen and I am an international student from China who has been studying in UWEC for almost one year.

I hope you enjoyed the video I made in "You Tube" and thank you so much for browsing this website and showing your interests in African American culture and history. In this website I will mostly focus on the history, characteristics and current situation of African American Oral traditions.

You may feel confused why as an international student I show great passion for African American Oral traditions. I think my interests about this amazing culture began with the civil rights pilgrimage trip during the spring break of 2012.If you want to know more about that trip, there is a link in the left hand of this websites. You can have a look and if you have the chance to take part in that trip, don’t hesitate to do that.

During this trip, we visited plenty of African American museums. After almost two months, I still remember that whenever there was a video about the speech “I have a dream,” in front of the screen, there would be a group of people standing still, watching carefully and nodding from time to time. Although Martin Luther King delivered the speech half a century ago, the speech is still extremely inspiring and impressive to all the members of that trip.

However, not only that, every time an African American speaker gave us a lecture, I was also surprised by their spectacular speaking talents. The memories of taking part in that African American church are still fresh and touching for me. Those beautiful songs, excited people and the atmosphere of the whole church make my heart tremble whenever I recall that scene. I could feel the power and energy through their words, their voices and their hearts.

I used to question the power of a word or a voice, but now because of what I saw during the civil rights trip, I have come to appreciate the power of speech of many African Americans. If their words have no power, how can President Obama’s speech be so persuasive? If their voices have no power, how can Jazz be so touching and impressive? If their voices have no power, how can young people be so crazy about Hip-hop and Rap music?

After reading learning about African Americans, I found that conspicuous oral traditions are found throughout African American history and their current life. Just like John Esling emphasizes in her article “Langue myth: Everyone has an accent except me,” everyone has an accent, and it is part our identities. I believe that African American accent is part of their religious and cultural identities. I believe that if you want to learn more bout this special group of people, you need to learn something about their oral traditions.

Later, I found myself constantly pondering about some questions like: why are African Americans good at persuasive speeches and emotional music? I have already seen the beauty and historical traditions of their language, but why some people still think African American English is an inferior language. Why are there are still so many debates about African American English going on just like school board debate in Oakland, California, which passed a controversial resolution recognizing the legitimacy of "Ebonics"? Are these phenomenon related to the social and economic status of African Americans?

From the beginning, I was full of confusion and questions about their oral traditions but because of my exploration I found that as a person who was not familiar with the situation of American Americans, I should start with some background knowledge about African American history and American society. In the next blog article, we will learn some basic knowledge about African American history and continue our exploratory study in this topic.

Here are some links about African American oral traditions.

I hope these videos can make you think more about some examples of great African American oral traditions. There are also some links of the websites in the left hand of this web page, which relate to African American culture and history. You can check it out and learn more about this topic.