Jerks

Jerks

The African American Culture and its impact on Canadian Culture and Identity
Initially, slaves were separated from other slaves that spoke their language and taught English in order to assimilate them with the whites in hopes that they would forget their language, history and identity. By not educating their slaves, slave owners indirectly caused slaves to speak improperly for so long that it became a dialect of English that is now that very recognizable southern accent. African Americans are heavily responsible for creating and imposing this accent on the rest of the people who inhabited the area.
You cannot drive through one Canadian community where a teenager will not be blasting the bass in his car listening to rap music, where baggy jeans and colourful shirts are not worn or where ebonic slang is not uttered. It makes sense when you see where and why this comes from. As Canadians we try to maintain our identity and culture but a lot of what we learn and imitate comes from the U.S mainstream, naturally as we are so close together physically and share the most in common with them. Because of the massive population of African Americans North America their culture has began to swallow up the others that surround them, remaining on top in U.S popular culture. Since Canada, being a cultural mosaic, has many different backgrounds to draw from. From their history being dragged out of Africa to a brand new continent, African Americans resisted assimilation as best they could at the same time carving out their newly found identity without forgetting the past and creating a culture which would heavily impact not only America but would stretch to Canada and then the Globe.

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