Jalen Taylor
Take Home Exam
Fall 2011
Marvin Broome

1) Black culture has an interest and unique background that is very questionable. Curiosity about black culture arose during the Harlem Renaissance in the 20s but the Black community became more concerned during the 1960s. The concerns of the black community were the possession, meaning, reappropriation and reconstruction of their culture. It was during this time that many blacks shifted from the ideal of integration towards the resurgence of Black Nationalism. This movement sparked an interest in the Black culture, as well as the role in life and struggle. From here, a strong commitment to revitalize, reconstruct and actually construct Black culture came about. This newfound inspiration to rediscover the black culture led to the unveiling of a few paradigms that were centered on the theme of bits and pieces of the Black culture being lost or forgotten. The Deficiency Paradigm argues that Blacks have no real culture, that slavery destroyed it, and that what passed as Black culture was simply a pathological reaction to Whites, a duplication of them or an expression of lower-class culture rather than a specific Black culture. The Crusian Paradigm argues that although culture must be seen as central, the three factors of culture, politics and economics must be welded together into a dynamic synthesis and social strategy. Both of these paradigms argue that Whites have tried to destroy black culture by forcing their ideas and ways upon blacks. The argument in both of the paradigms is also that an American culture existed instead of a Black culture. There are differences between the two paradigms. The basic idea behind the Deficiency Paradigm is that blacks have no culture of their own and that what they do have is borrowed from the white culture. The Deficiency Paradigm argues that there is a misjudgment