IDS2935 (Foundations of For the Culture: Black Pop Culture): Exam 1 Readings, General Summary, & Authors

For the IDS2935 (Foundations of For the Culture: Black Pop Culture) course at the University of Florida (UF)

"What is Popular Culture?"

Storey

"Striving of the Negro"

W.E.B. Dubois

"Jubilee: The Emergence of African American Culture"

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

"The African American Culture"

Hugh J. Scott

"Nihilism in Black America"

Cornel West

"The Code of The Streets"

Elijah Anderson

"The Repertoire of Black Popular Culture"

Angela Nelson

"The Nzuri Model in Black Style of Play"

Drew D. Brown

Describes the many ways pop culture can be defined, the evolving nature of it, and how it is always shaped by struggles between dominant and subordinate groups, power, and ideology

"What is Popular Culture?" by Storey

Explains the struggle of African Americans living with double consciousness (the sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of a prejudiced society), and argues that this tension creates both hardship and a drive toward greater self-realization

"Striving of the Negro" by W.E.B. Dubois

Describes how African cultural traditions in music, dance, language, food, and art endured through slavery, and shows how they became the foundation of African American culture

"Jubilee: The Emergence of African American Culture" by Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Explores how African American culture emerged from the blending of African heritage and American experiences under slavery, and argues that reclaiming and teaching this culture is essential for identity, survival, and equality in a racist society

"The African American Culture" by Hugh J. Scott

Examines the rise of the sense of hopelessness and meaninglessness from both liberal and conservative sides in Black America, arguing that it threatens community life and must be countered through local political efforts

"Nihilism in Black America" by Cornel West

Explains how poverty, racism, and lack of trust in institutions created a "code of the streets," where respect is earned and defended through toughness and violence, shaping identity, family life, and survival in inner-city communities

"The Code of the Streets" by Elijah Anderson

Identifies seven key elements of Black popular culture (city life, food, rhythm, percussiveness, call-and-response, worship/party, and middle-class ideology) and shows how these traditions preserve identity, resist oppression, and restore community

"The Repertoire of Black Popular Culture" by Angela Nelson

Explains how Black athletes transformed sports through a distinctive "style of play" rooted in African aesthetics like rhythm, call-and-response, and improvisation, using the crossover move as a key example of creativity, cultural memory, and resistance expressed on the court and field

"The Nzuri Model in Black Style of Play" by Drew D. Brown