Thanks, Susan for your comments.

However, I don't embrace all African American culture, any more than a person of another race or ethnicity embraces ALL of their culture...

And I never thought I was sharing information about African Ameican culture here as a means of "reducing the divisions in African American culture." I thought I was sharing information because I was interested in that information and wanted to share it with members and non-members of the community that I had joined. {Just like anyone else here shares information}.

As to some other points you made: I think part of the problem I ahve with these types of discussions is the phrase "African American culture". It's similar to the problem that I have with the phrase African American {or Black people; or black people}BTW, the referent negro people [paricularly with a small 'n' makes me cringe..This has sooo much negative baggage that it still amazes me that people still use it in the 21st century, even if they are talking about the 17th, 18, and 19th century...

The phrase "African American culture' implies that there is only monolithic culture and not a multiplicity of cultures based on geographic region, economic class, religion, age, gender, political interest, cultural, recreational, & social interests [such as the very active undergraduate and graduate university based fraternities and sororities]. Furthermore, African Americans can be sub-categorized by our ethnic origin [for example African Americans of Caribbean, Latino, Native American and/or Gullah background]...

Needless to say, Black folks in the USA are part of multiple sub-categories and have meaningful interactions with those who see themselves largely through the lenses of those affiliations.

Susan, while I agree with the point that you made that after slavery was legally abolished in the USA, many Black folks wanted to turn their backs on secular slave songs and spirituals because they wanted to be accepted by the mainstream culture {read establishment 'White' culture}. However, I'm not sure that that is the reason why African Americans aren't interested in these songs now.

Yes,I do think that some African Americans are embarrassed by that dialect talk, but I think even more don't know about it. And if they are aware of dialect poems and songs, they don't like them because [in their view] a}those songs are considered to be hard to understand {they evoke a "What the heck are they saying?" response}; b} these songs are considered to have nothing to do with folks' life right now {they evoke a "What does that got to do with me?" response} and c} those songs are considered to be relics of the past and IMO African Americans are present/future folks-besides for a few old school/golden oldies, Black people in the USA quickly ditch old music and move on to {and move to} new [or re-worked old] songs...Not to mention old slang terms, but that's a whole 'nother thread.

Besides, you can't dance to spirituals and secular slave songs {note there are some very syncopated Gospels songs that you can 'stomp' and move to}. The fact that you can't dance or "get your move on" to secular slave songs or spirituals dooms them for many African Americans....Consider the few African Americans who are 'into' Blues and Jazz. Once they stopped being dance music {or primarily dance music}, we ditched them and moved on to R&B and Hip-Hop and Bass music and Dancehall Reggae...

****
And another thing, while I'm here and on a roll:

It's been some time since I raised this question, so I will repeat it now:

With regard to Mudcat: WHERE ARE ALL THE BLACK PEOPLE?

I do NOT want to be the only person of acknowledged African American descent who posts on this forum.

I didn't come here to be a spokesperson for ANY person besides myself. If I come across as a spokesperson for all African Americans or any other African American, I'm very sorry.

I've learned alot during my almost one year at Mudcat and I have met some great people.

I'd much rather be here than not...

I just wish that there were more African Americans and other people of color here too.


Peace,

Azizi