Short Essay 3

                                                                                                                                                                 A phenomenon was created when Parisians were exposed to jazz music and dance from the United States. In 1925 the initial introduction to jazz music and dance by means of the La Revue Negre was accepted by Paris and other European artistic circles far more openly than it's own country of origin. The Dalton and Gates article on Josephine Baker and Paul Colin mentions the African-American experience upon landing in France during World War I as being in such contrast, like night and day in comparison to the highly racist treatment they experienced in the United States. In the United States segregation was a way of life for the African-American, in France segregation is illegal. Thus this environment of acceptance provided the African-American a feeling of being human which they had never felt in their own homeland. Dalton and Gates describe the French reaction to the theater act of Le Tumulte in conjuction with the Charleston  as spellbound and quick to imitate the dance themselves.

The African-American artist found a forum that nurtured the artistic and creative mind of an intelligent human being, and the result was a level of appreciation  that traveled from the theatre audience to great classical composers such as Claude Debussy and Antonin Dvorak. The article explains a motivating factor to the French acceptance of the African-American music and dance as "degree of mirth and hedonistic and voyeuristic pleasure that they had not known for some time" which was sorely needed due to the trauma experienced from the savagery of World War I. (pg 907) The response of the French to this new dance form spearheaded the career of Paul Colin in his promotional postered advertising for the Le Tumulte act. His depictions of the lead characters were portrayed in a manner which was considered progressive in his era and are now historical artifacts. This made celebrities of Josephine Baker and her fellow artists, which they may have never experienced in the highly racist environment of the United States.

This success story was not the norm for all of African descent in Europe. For West Africans in Britain the level of racism they experienced moved them to solidarity and to create nationalistic groups that were intended to protect their human rights and provide a support network to express and explore their political ideologies. Their goal of identifying their own political and cultural needs as displaced Africans was in response to the prejudice they experienced in Britain. Hakim Adi's article gives recognition to the formation of several student unions, the National Congress of British West Africa, the Nigerian Progress Union and several outlier groups that organized to formed to provide a foundation of stabilization Africans in the diaspora and those living in Britain.

Thus the result to their treatment was a development of Pan-Africanism and activities that were influential in anti-imperialist and  anti-racist intiatives. Thus in this area of Europe socialization between the Brits and Africans was hostile due to the ethnocentric attitudes from the British, in which the African response was to organize and create networks of support to negate the harmful effects of racism and imperialism.