By Nyesha Stone
Pascal Archmiede
Let’s be honest, America was built on the back of Black people. Our style and our ideas have helped shape society, but the country and by extension the world have seemingly forgotten to include us in the history of how American came to be.
We are more than just slaves, and author, Pascal Archmiede, made sure to emphasize that fact in his book, “Black American History, from Plantations to Rap Culture.” Archmiede has a love for music, and like many in the Black community, he specifically enjoys rap music, which plays a huge role in the Black community.
Archmiede is from Guadeloupe—a French speaking island in the West-Indies—and he majored in English, specifically American Civilization, but focused on the evolution of Black people in America.
“I wanted to share what I learned through university,” said Archmiede. But he questioned why he had to wait to attend a university to attain this knowledge.
The entire point of the book is to raise the Black community’s awareness about our past and to bring us back together, because we separated from our brothers and sisters hundreds of years ago, he said.
The goal is to “raise our people’s consciousness and promote black excellence,” Archmiede said.
He wanted to make the book accessible and easy to read. The goal was to get the youth to read and learn their history, in a unique way—through music. Archmiede went through about 300 years of Black people’s history to show how we got to this country, and then bit by bit, he incorporated different genres of music into the story.
In the book he states, “The evolution of the Black Man in the New World is tightly linked to his characteristic music…At each step of their integration on American soil, the Blacks have created the kind of music that their social and psychological environment suggested to them.”
Archmiede’s love for rap music has led him to writing a book that will hopefully inspire the Black community to learn more about ourselves. Plus, he knows how to connect with the youth, you must meet them where they’re at, and music is in most youth’s lives.
Music has been a way for Black people to express their circumstances, to fight the status quo and to just be Black. Everyone can connect with music in some way, but most Americans don’t credit the Black community for our innovativeness when it comes to music.
“African Americans have managed to create a global culture,” he said about the rap culture. “Rap today is the second most bankable music…so why do they always show our people so miserable?”
Although rap is something most of the country, and the world, listens to, it’s still associated as being bad for the community, but Archmiede wants the world to see rap music as something beautiful not destructive. Make sure to pick up his book and learn more about the real Black community.
To order Pascal Archmiede’s book Black American History, from Plantations to Rap Culture, visit https://www.amazon.com/Black-American-History-Plantations-Culture/dp/2356826696.