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For the record, I have two degrees from two top universities (a bachelors and a masters). That doesn't mean that I'm down on my knees grateful for the civil rights movement which failed in many ways.
Disproportionately Black people are incarcerated, shot by the police, kept in the ****tiest jobs, and dehumanized on a constant basis.
When people say criminal, gangster, or other extremely degrading things, they mean Black.
Having a few professional Black tokens does not make the ongoing marginalization of certain groups of people (Blacks, Latinos, immigrants in general, gays, etc) okay or good.
I am saying no such thing. I am saying that as they learn more about each other they should respect the fact that 200+ years of separation means that we have people who are now quite different from each other. This isn't to say that there aren't residual Africanisms practiced daily by black Americans (surely the role of music and dancing is definitely African, as is the very active participation in worship). But a black American will never be an African. A black American should NOT aspire to be an African nor be ridiculed by Africans because he isn't.
Black Americans also need to understand that some one who was born in a majority black society will also think differently' "Blackness" will not be the defining identity because every one is black. Sensitivity to racism propagated by whites will also be less of an issue because, prior to arriving in North America or Europe, it was of minimal importance. So while black Americans will want to build an entire identity based on skin color an African will scoff at that.
Similarly Africans need to understand a number of things.
1. Most black Americans are not uneducated ghetto people even if this is what whites might want them to believe. In fact more than 30% of black Americans have household income higher than the median household income of white Americans. Black women in fact are fast catching up to white men in college attainment.
2. Culture evolves over time so it is totally nonsensical to arrive in the USA at a time when opportunities for blacks are now greatly better than they were even as recently as 30 years ago, and then express contempt at the condition of so many blacks. They need to admit that it was these same blacks who struggled and paved the way for even their right to arrive in the USA as immigrants, to attend some of the best universities and to have opportunities to develop decent careers. Clearly a legacy of racial abuse has damaged the psyche of sections of the black American population rendering them less able to move forward and more sensitive to micro-aggressions from whites than a black immigrant might be.
3. Africans should also cease to insult themselves by comparing what is a highly selective immigrant group, the MOST educated group in the USA with inner city blacks. One need only go to France to see that if immigration of Africans to the USA was less selective and more poorly educated people arrived then Africans would be less successful.
In fact African immigrants to the USA are NOT that successful, given that they are so educated. Their median household incomes are LOWER than for whites and Asians who are LESS educated. Africans need to ask themselves why has their educational success not translated into economic success. They do only marginally better than do Caribbean black immigrants a considerably LESS educated group. So yes it turns out that racism is in fact real.
So let us start here instead of fooling yourself that you are some African who got lost trying to find your way home. Your home is the USA, NOT Africa! And in fact this is the belief system of most black Americans, few of whom display any real interest in Africa or Africans.
Again a straw man is arguing something that other person never said "So let us start here instead of fooling yourself that you are some African who got lost trying to find your way home. Your home is the USA, NOT Africa!"
straw man
..... I don't think I'm African, I'm not aspiring to be a African, but your arguing that that you think I "I'm some African who got lost trying to find your way home." When this has never been my views, , you want to make a point but arguing the point to the wrong person.... this happen because your generalizing people who are into pan African ism when people who are into pan African-ism have diverse views, so arguing what you read or saw a video about black Americans going to Ghana is going to be irrelevant to me, cause that have never my views.
I'm a very proud to be African American, my ancestors help build America and shape the culture.... I'm not trying to being Nigerian, my ancestor where never Nigerian they left before colonization and Nigeria even existed. People Nigerian have the their own history relating to how they resistant colonization, my ancestors weren't there so I'm not going claim it. anything post are ancestors leaving I do not view as our culture. from there are culture picks up in the Americans.
What I keep repeating which you keep ignoring there is not a term for black people like Caucasian is for whites, or the way the term Asian is for race...... because of that people are giving African dual meaning and creates confusing. 1. some from Africa... 2. meaning all black people... If there another term blacks in the diaspora could use than people wouldn't be using the term African all together.
Again if term was blah blah blaaaah meant your Ancestors are from Africa..... then "African" wouldn't be used. people would say blah blah blaaaah mean your African decent. And African just means your from Africa. In all your post is like your refusing to acknowledge the context that the African diaspora who say they their African means African descent not from Africa but there not a better word choice. but instead your arguing a straw man like people are saying they're not American but African....
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Also My other point is that African and African Diaspora should work to have better relations. not try to be one giant culture that don't exist cause black people are diverse but be more educated of that diversity.
I'm saying black Americans should be just aware of African history, music, fashion, culture, news in Africa
As white Americans are with European history, music, fashion, culture, news in Europe.
To a point, I disagree. History means nothing. My grandparents came to America from Russia, escaping the oppression of the Tsar. That is completely meaningless to me, and has made no contribution whatsoever to who I am as a person.
A Black American and a Black African have nothing in common whatsoever, any more so than a White American and White African. They may, incidentally, be able to find some common ground if they both grew up in a place where Blacks were subjected to discrimination or oppression. But no living Black American was directly affected by Slavery, and very few old enough to have been directly affected by Segretation. Similarly, very few Black Africans are old enough to have been directly affected by Colonialism. However historically important those phenomena are, a Black American and a Black African meeting in the street have not been influenced at all in their lifetimes by slavery, segregation or colonialism. No more so than I and a 25 year old Russian have any common experience of serfdom or oppression in Russia.
As an aside, has it occurred to you that Barack Obama did not spend one single day of his childhood living in an African-American household, society or neighborhood, and cannot know from personal experience that that would be like. He is the 44th US president to be raised as a white child by a white family in a white social framework. It would be "unnatural" for Obama to assume that he has anything in common with even a Black American, much less a Black African.
I can tell you are not black. ...... Lol..... You lost me at "Africans today don't remember colonialism". Ha. It's still going on..... Superpowers pull the strings.
Just met a guy from Africa. He's white and was born there. If he got citizenship would he be considered an African-American?
There's a joke that George Carlin likes to tell - a racist white South African can emigrate to the USA and call himself an "African American" to mess with the black Americans.
But seriously, it's all contextual. I've never heard any South Africans in the USA, of any ethnicity, refer to themselves as African Americans. Whether it's Ernie Els, Trevor Noah, or Charlize Theron - they've always referred to themselves as South African, period. Zimbabweans, Kenyans (whether white, black or Asian) call themselves their national identity.
As I keep mention there's no term like Caucasian for black people, So much like "Asian" the term African is being used dual
1. people born in Africa any race
2. Black people or people decedent from native African groups Ashanti, Yoruba, Mande and etc.
"African" American is using the second...
Sorry but that's another one of those stupid census labels that carries baggage for some. There was a census category in Hawaii until the 1940's called Caucasian but not White. Guess what it was created by sugar cane plantation owners to pay some plantation workers less. Folks why do you keep trying to attribute plantation racial categories to people.
Sorry but that's another one of those stupid census labels that carries baggage for some. There was a census category in Hawaii until the 1940's called Caucasian but not White. Guess what it was created by sugar cane plantation owners to pay some plantation workers less. Folks why do you keep trying to attribute plantation racial categories to people.
Dude stop
And it has not a damn thing to with a plantation. The census was created to keep information of the demographics and population of the country. Also it called "diversity"
The term Caucasian wasn't even popular use before the civil war. the census used the term Caucasian for white Americans, white Americans don't care and it's socially acceptable. It's not that deep,
I also notice you keep pushing a lie, slavery didn't create racial or ethnic groups... culture and ancestry did. Slavery created a caste system to how people would be treated.
other wise the error was not discovering the diversity... the error was miss treating the diversity.
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