Throughout this class we have learned about the progression of music since Africans were first brought over to America as slaves. Although it would be easy to say that we studied black music because we only focused on African American artists and movements of music in the African American music, one of the biggest take aways from the class was that African American music is American music. African Americans have lead the way for music to be what it is today and have started every new trend or genre in music. This class has not only taught me about music but also about Africans Americans and the way society has always and still does treat us. As we saw in Jay Z’s video, no matter how accomplished, smart, good-looking we are, we will always be black in the eyes of society. Before taking this class, it was sometimes hard for me to not believe the message that society feeds us which is that being black is lesser than being white. Although shown to me by my family, this class exposed me to the depth of black excellence. As a people to have overcome so much shows that we are in fact not lesser than others but deserve to be treated equally and given credit for our achievements.
