If they did have children, their family often came second in line to their master’s family. Instead, they performed the caretaker role for their master’s family and in some cases, bore the slave master’s child. They surrendered female privileges such as the ability to create children of their own with a man of their choosing. They were forced to sexually submit to their masters and raise their children. African American women were forced to accept the feminine gender when it benefited their white masters. The same idea is applied to black women born into slavery. Therefore, black men born into slavery were denied male privilege because of their race (Vershawn, 2011). Furthermore, to pursue a white woman would mean surrendering his life altogether. For example, he could not pursue his black female counterpart because she belonged to the white man and doing so would mean risking his life. As a result, the black man was stripped of his masculinity because he was prohibited from performing masculine, patriarchal behaviors.
In slave days, the black woman was accustomed to heading working families and males were often witnessed white masters raping their wives (Jones, 2006). Many studies suggest there is an underlying tension between African American men and women and their white counterparts stemming from slavery. All of which have impacted modern African American identity (Thrower, 2010). The state of the African American community is rooted in America’s history of slavery, racism, and discrimination. The study also provides a chance to interpret how sub-cultures participating in hip-hop culture, or non-African American cultures reinforce African American gender. Results indicate that common dance movements mirror the movements discussed in the literature such as female parting of the pelvis, male grabbing of the groin, hand movements, male and female gaze, booty dancing, and lack of movement. Textual analysis is used to examine how African American gender is reflected in hip-hop dance movements and what messages those movements send about homosexual and heterosexual African American relationships. This study analyzes how African American gender is expressed through hip-hop dance, an art form that was created as a form of resistance to black oppression in the 1970’s. Such a statistic is the motivation for this study which draws on historical information about the impact of slavery on the black male and female genders. Studies have shown that African American couples are less likely than their white counterparts to enter and maintain a successful marriage. African Americans have also experienced difficulty in maintaining stable, romantic relationships. African Americans have struggled to overcome various obstacles from racism to economic inequality. Many studies prove that slavery has had a lasting impact on the role of African Americans in society.
I really enjoyed this project because I was able to invest in something that truly captured my interest. Throughout my communication experience, I have been watching hip-hop music videos and analyzing how the dance movements in those videos reflect African American gender roles in relationships.