Political Socialization: Collective Memories of African American Culture - Essay Example

College: AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE The African culture took up the challenge to re-establish its own history as a way of political and social assertion through a varied explanation. This was done using a diversified network of avenues through which it expressed its own cultural vision and tell its own story. The process of political learning in African American culture using the collective memory as a political socialization agent opens a new insight into the past. The history of these people is quite relevant and of great emphasis through out the discussion. Digging into the definition of "collective memory" it is evident that past experiences of an individual in a society influences the experiences of others in the same society and elsewhere. Collective memory is defined as the shared memory that can be passed on and also constructed by the group or modern society. (Esquith, 1996, P. 78) The definition further predisposes that it s the memory that a community possesses of its own history, lessons and learning it consciously. The tendency of bringing the entire institutional fabric which is created during such periods (when such memory occurs) impacts neglectively on the role of collective memory. It does not play a crucial role in the processes of political change. It leaves a mark on the daily political practices once the new regime becomes established. Collective memory leaves traces of the past memory in the political learning systems but to some extend this is unavoidable. (Fabre, 1994, P.29) Most of the studies under this topic focus on the effects of trauma that is produced by the memory of those bad times, war for example. Most of the scholars indicate that the war left an indelible mark on the nation. This could or can affect and undermine the peaceful nature of the society at critical moments. Collective memory instills lessons in the individuals' life and when it comes to political learning, chances are that political change may be effective. Political learning is the process through which people modify their political beliefs and tactics as a result of severe crisis, frustrations and dramatic changes in the environment. (Fabre, 1994, P. 33) This phenomenon is based on the fact that beliefs are not fixed immutably in childhood and that they are affected by political events. Political learning represents a process of cognitive change which is key to democratic reconstruction. In the African American culture has a history of struggle. African American struggled to succeed and be free, equal and affirmed. These experiences have impacted positively in some aspects. Most of them have positive sense of racial identity and spiritual strength because during the slavery period, the spirit was vital for survival. It was in the open that colour was a major determinant of who would be a slave and who would be free. (Walton, 1997, P. 132) The spiritual strength of the African - American was also derived from the physical and psychological struggles of slavery. They value self-love and love for others as methods through which people can enhance their personal lives. Through enhancing the lives of people, political change would be evident. Despite the experiences that they had gone through, they still had a great sense of accommodating change. (Walton, 1997, P. 34) Collective memory comes about through collective attitudes and behaviors. These are created and shared through common experiences and communication among a group of people. In the case of the African American, the slavery attitudes and experiences were eminent. The use of collective memory as a political socialization agent was a good target to the bringing of new knowledge to the people through political learning. It had a role of changing perceptions and attitudes of a group of people who had been exposed to hard kind of life. This tool captures the interests of researchers and scholars in social, psychological memory, sociology and anthropology. Research has it that individuals who were born between 1940 and 1960 are often defined via the JFK assassination and Vietnam War. The parents of such individuals went through a lesser impact from those events. Many research work written on collective memory during these years puts forward that identity and action could be viewed as coming from the shared development of a culture. A French social psychologist who pioneered in writing a detailed paper on collective memory argued that basic memory process were all social. He put forward clearly that individuals recall only those events that they have repeated and elaborated in their discussion with fundamental questions about memory and social processes. (Fernandez, 2002, P. 53) In African American culture, collective memory plays a crucial role in recalling the most important events of the past and not everything. Most of them were not the first victims of the experiences. Their parents or grandparents faced the experiences first hand but because it is in their history, it affects them in several ways. In political learning of the African, the tool of collective memory will be used to de emphasized such past experiences. The system or rather the process of political learning will work closely to deal with questions that encompass the nature of autobiographical memory, traumatic experience and reconstructive memory. (Fabre, 1994, P. 30) In addition to the above, social sharing of memory as a political socialization tool points more to a context marked by great social and political upheaval, to the passing generations and to an interest tinged with nostalgia for worlds. The process of political learning and its organization has to be accommodative to the collective memory of the culture and bring out positive change. This is in particular to the individuals worlds that were watered down in short to the question of remembrance and of handling down memories. (Pennebaker et al, 1997, P. 68) For African American people who have gone through a real rough period, collective memory was an affective political socializing tool to make the unified political people. The reason behind this is the less stress given to institutional and political uses of the past tan the socially shared representations of the past. These representations are the effects of their present identities that they feed in part in return. (Fernandez, 2002, P. 39) In the African American culture, the psychological effects and consequences of war were such that they affected generations of those had not been alive during the war. In the case of those who faced slavery the psychological consequences were the same as those for war. This is because there are those who died in slavery or deported in far countries never to be seen again. There were those who survived. The African American was the children of the victors or the defeated. A big number of them grew under that inculcated them with certain values. These values had much to do with the legacy of war. These are the current political class. (Esquith, 1996, P. 48) Along with the inherited and transmitted trauma of war a slavery over the years, this generation had the trauma of past war period fixed in its memory. Memories from childhood were fused with those of the silence, repression distorted historical facts and fears perceived to exist within the family setting. This had intensive harm to the extend that the terrible war became associated with the no less terrible post war period. All these impacts on collective memory created a suitable environment for political learning process to take place. (Fernandez, 2002, P. 82) The memory of the past was destructive and detrimental to the political health. With such memory, it is impossible to build a common future. In addition, achievement of social harmony and political stability was pushed further, especially in the periods of political transition. Two historical situations should actually be similar but the most important thing or aspect is that they should be perceived to be similar by political and social protagonists. The function of memory is different to that of those who remained. Lack of understanding and barrier that emerges between exile and the present generation is important. This is because among other reasons, the political learning process has been very different. (Walton, 1997, P. 44) Taking a look at the collective memory, there are indications that it is strongly influenced and shaped by institutions. The institutions have economic, political and social power in the present and it's through these influential and powerful social media that these institutions help to popularize certain images of the past at the expense of others. This explains why not every collective memory is influential in the learning institutions mostly those of political nature. Since the memory does not recall things as they happened, it represents a reconstruction of the past from the present modulates, recreates forgets and interprets the past in various ways. (Fabre, 1994, P. 56) The process of political learning in conjunction with collective memory works together to bring out a better picture of political democracy in the African American culture. In the anti-slavery period, anti-slavery alphabet A was for Abolitionist meaning a man who wants freedom. "In the morning, sow they seed." This statement was not meant for adults. They were not the only who were capable of working for the cause. The statement was implying that the alphabet was expected and intended to produce a goodly crop of hardy young abolitionists. Children were seen as fully responsible for their actions. Emphasis on doing so to make the alphabet typical of the children's anti-slavery literature was laid. (Pennebaker etal, 1997) The concept of history and collective memory declined in importance in the official curriculum in most schools because it was no longer expected to bear the burden of political socialization. That responsibility was relegated to the civics classes that were entitled formation of the national spirit. The purpose of political learning was to form a national spirit and an integrated society. The history concept seen like the departing factor between the different cultures. Though renovation of scholarship began in the 1960's it had no immediate impact on primary and secondary education. The general trend in education in modernization-involved devaluation of all sciences that were not linked to the productive process and those which subset traditional postulates. The learning process was geared into a culture free world and conceptualization of history in the process. (Esquith, 1996, P.89) Construction democracy was at the heart of political learning process. Regulation and integration of social ethnic, professional cultural and other difference, have historically contributed to the idea of democracy. They have sincerely helped in building on a political foundation on which civilizations were laid on. The collective identity rather collective memory as a tool of political socialization did not destroy the traditional family links and historical references (Fernandez, 2002, P. 37) Learning being a process of communication, political learning is not exceptional. In African - American culture, collective memories were built up in the work of homogenizing representations of the pasts and of reducing the diversity of collections. A set of experiences stored in the history and culture called upon political learning in order to achieve democracy. Taking a multi and diversified culture, the mixture of these past collective memories can be a big hustle in political learning situation. The events of communication between individuals in handling down memories in African culture, the inter-personal relationships constitute the reality of social groups as structural entities. These entities are perceived top exist within affective communities. (Esquith, 1996, P. 78) The role of historical consciousness and imagination African American culture has affected the political learning. It has resulted in to a complex picture of the dynamic ways in which their historical identity constantly invents and transmits itself in political learning despite in art, literature, oral documents and performance. Structural entities may exist in intermediate groups and major culture defined as symbolic reality. Above every other reason that pops out in terms of collective memory, political learning remains a strong process of instilling and delivering change towards a modernized society. (Walton, 1997. P 69) Political learning process considers logic. It has it that "what worked in the past trends to be avoided. Sometimes too frivolously." This process being complex, the most important lessons are not always retained and applied although they affect us personally. The lessons of the past in the same way as collective memory itself tend to be institutionalized through regulations. The process should constitute a shared and accessible source of learning for all citizens with respect to generational effects people absorb. Their beliefs, values of their time especially those that they encounter when they begin to become aware of the political world in which they are emerged. (Esquith, 1996, P. 22) LIST OF REFERENCE Esquith. S. (1996). Political Dialogue: Theories and Practices. Rodopi. Fabre, G. (1994). History and Memory in African American Culture. And O'meally, R. US: Oxford University Press. Fernandez, P. (2002). Memory and Amnesia: The role of Spanish Civil War. Berghahn Books Pennebaker, etal. (1997). Collective Memory of Political Events: Social Psychological Perspectives. Lawrence Erbaum Associates Walton, H. (1997). African American Power and Politics: The Political Context Variable). Columbia University Press. Read More