Column: Adventures with Abby – evaluating the African-American roots of aspects of our culture

When Tyler the Creator won Best Rap Album for “Igor” at the Grammys, he mixed his gratitude with a good dose of social commentary. 

By all accounts “Igor” was not a typical rap album. In fact, according to an article for the Badger Herald, the album boasted fewer rap songs than songs blending hip hop, soul, R&B and pop. Tyler the Creator did not even identify his album as rap.

Yet, despite its genre fluidity, “Igor” won Best Rap Album.

“On one side, I’m very grateful that what I made could just be acknowledged in a world like this, but also, it sucks that whenever we, and I mean guys that look like me, do anything that’s genre-bending, they always put it in a ‘rap’ or ‘urban’ category,” Tyler the Creator said. 

Tyler the Creator spoke out against one side of a curious cultural dichotomy in the United States. 

In the melting pot that is our country, it seems that minorities are forced into two categories. In one, minorities must stay within the bounds of artistic and cultural expression traditionally associated with their culture. In the other, elements of minority cultures become so wildly popular in the mainstream that their cultural roots are completely forgotten.

This African-American History month, what varieties of music, dance and food have Americans enjoyed for so long that we forgot they originated with African-American culture?

Since its inception, rock n’ roll has been snuggly woven into the American music experience. From poodle skirts to platform boots, Americans of all races and backgrounds rock out to guitar solos and rebellious lyrics.  Rock has become part of America’s lifeblood. 

In the early 1950s, African-American singing groups like the Dominoes and the Spaniels birthed the first rock sounds as they blended “gospel-style harmonies and call-and-response singing with earthy subject matter and more aggressive rhythm-and-blues rhythms,” according to Encyclopædia Britannica. 

It wasn’t until white radio disc jockeys played the new style on air that it took off among America’s youth. 

Most of rock n’ roll’s earliest pioneers were African-American. Jackie Brenston released “Rocket 88,” Sister Rosetta Tharpe strummed her guitar and Fats Domino made his music popular before Elvis arrived on the rock n’ roll scene. 

As rock grew in popularity, its listeners forgot its African-American roots. 

The history of tap dancing followed a similar pattern. According to an article entitled “Tap dance in America” from the Library of Congress, tap evolved from a blending of the Irish jig and the West African gioube in early America. Jig and gioube became jigging and jub, then the traditional tap dancing of Broadway. 

Aside from tap aficionados, would anyone today know that the style of dance had both Irish and African-American roots?

According to the Atlanta Black Star, Africans forced into slavery brought what are now traditional Southern comfort foods with them to America. Deep-frying, for example, was part of African food culture. Now, other states and even other countries broadly associate deep-fried food with southern states. 

Even some of America’s treasured nursery rhymes — like Chicken Little and Brer Rabbit—are adaptations of African folklore, the Atlanta Black Star states. 

These cultural origin stories are necessary not only to properly understand America’s cultural history but also to celebrate the minority cultures that have made America what it is. 

So the next time you listen to rock, watch tap dancing, eat deep-fried food or hear Chicken Little, remember that these things would not exist without African American influence. That is something to celebrate, both this month and every month after.

Bowman is the opinion editor. Follow her work on Twitter.