American Culture

Critical Race Theory is a lens that people can use to understand American politics. This lens can help those see that racism is within U.S. History, Policies, and Social Institutions. Within CRT there are 5 core principles that help build upon understanding persistent racial disparities in economic, political, and social experiences and outcomes. Those principles are 1. Racism is ordinary and not a deviation from the norm, 2. Race has been constructed socially, much to the detriment of people of color, 3. Convergence of interest, meaning that black people achieve civil rights victories only when white and black interests converge, 4. A notion that white people are the beneficiaries of civil rights legislation and lastly, 5. The idea of storytelling and counter-storytelling as a way to magnify the stories, experiences, and narratives of marginalized communities. With my project, I use CRT as a way of looking at the music industry\u27s history and use this as inspiration for my art piece. In my art piece titled, American Culture, I hope to capture a visual representation of how Black music has become absolutely central to what we consider “American Culture” is. I specifically focus on the music industry\u27s impact of Black musicians and parts of this story that aren\u27t truly shown nor appreciated. In sum, I say, behind every great white voice has been black voices. Some examples include Big Mama Thornton, The Blossoms and Ashanti to name a few. The fifth principle of Critical Race Theory is demonstrated in my project and this is how I will be recognizing and appreciating these artists and culture. Overall, this connects to my course\u27s goal to explore the formal elements and thematic concerns of the blues, jazz, soul, and hip hop that have shaped American literature and culture through time