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I am not telling African-Americans anything. But it is my opinion that they indeed belong on the American continent and nowhere else.
Chinese, who are mostly racists, but at least they do bring about change and invest and build a lot.
True, but let us not get into any post racial nonsense.
The fact that SOME AAs identify with Africa is because they feel rejected by the USA.
The reason why others use the term AA is to define themselves as an ethnic group. Defining one's self as AA has nothing to do with being interested in the African continent.
Except that no one is just "American", especially some one who is visibly non white.
A visit to a Trump rally will quickly dispel that myth. When they say they want America to be great again, and they want back THEIR America, they don't mean those whose ancestors have visible signs of sub Saharan African ancestry. They refer to the USA of 1955, not that of 2000!
I really honestly don't care about what those fools at Trump rallies says. I'll still stay with American over anything. For myself, personally, not African-American. Whites don't own what it is to be "American".
Nope--at the end of the day, we're all black and uniting is the only way we can grow.
I see no point in contriving black unity, especially when most black immigrants look down on us. Do you hear the things that carribean say about us? Forget them. And Africans don't even identify with each other and much less with black Americans.
People need to realize that we are a distinct ethnic group and that we belong here in the US. We need to stop searching for an identity elsewhere and looking for kinship with random black people around the world.
We have our own history and culture, that's probably the most influential world wide of all black ethnic groups. Embrace black Americanism.
I see no point in contriving black unity, especially when most black immigrants look down on us. Do you hear the things that carribean say about us? Forget them. And Africans don't even identify with each other and much less with black Americans.
People need to realize that we are a distinct ethnic group and that we belong here in the US. We need to stop searching for an identity elsewhere and looking for kinship with random black people around the world.
We have our own history and culture, that's probably the most influential world wide of all black ethnic groups. Embrace black Americanism.
That would be a step toward a HEALTHY and REALISTIC black american identity...we should view all non-black american people including white american through our OWN sub-cultural lenses...As far as black
immigrants if they want to identify with us fine, if not fine, we should drop the one size fits all blackness
in relation to immigrants.
I have experienced this social pattern on campus, the Africans usually didn't associate with the Black Americans UNTIL they experienced WHITE RACISM FROM SOME OF THE WHITE FRAT BOYS,THEN they
came to us as in why is this happening to us? and what do we do?
The longer black immigrants stay in this country, they are going to be assimilated in our direction whether
they want to be or not. I have seen this with black refugees in my city, many were settled in or near the projects, while the Asian and Latin ones were settled toward the white areas.
I have experienced this social pattern on campus, the Africans usually didn't associate with the Black Americans UNTIL they experienced WHITE RACISM FROM SOME OF THE WHITE FRAT BOYS,THEN they
came to us as in why is this happening to us? and what do we do?
We (Ethiopians) normally hang around with our own people, especially the adults. What's it like in university (if there are any Ethiopians in your university)?
We (Ethiopians) normally hang around with our own people, especially the adults. What's it like in university (if there are any Ethiopians in your university)?
In my case, I am Afro-American but I lived with people from Sierra Leone. Me and several Black Americans
felt more comfortable with West Africans than some of the other Americans...Most of the Africans were from
Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Cameroon. I also had a Ghanaian friend and several friends from Kenya.
So mostly English-speaking West Africa, I haven't met anyone at all from Ethiopia. When the Black American students had an event, the Africans attended. In the cafeteria they mostly sat with themselves and/or me.
I remember I sat with some American friends for once, one African acquaintance came and took my
tray in the middle of me eating and said "No, you sit with us."
Two of the presidents of the Black Student Union here have parents who immigrated from Nigeria. From my
experience, I don't have any bias towards black immigrants.
What I found interesting was that my African friends were group-oriented rather than individual-oriented and even if they were from one country they tended to hang with their own ethnic groups. Several ethnic groups from
Sierra Leone were teaching me words in their various languages. I learned about the different ethnic
groups in Sierra Leone who was from what group and what their reputation was. They did discriminate among themselves by ethnic group. (I heard complaints).
I have noticed Nigerians nowadays are hanging around with more black people. In HS were their is a decent Nigerian community they hang out with Nigerians, but besides Nigerians and other West Africans Nigerians actually hang out with black people a lot, maybe because Nigerians and Africans in general unlike other ethnicity don't cross the street, when a black guy looking like Chief Keef walks by them, because seeing dark skinned people isn't associated with crime like it is in America. For me it seems that Asian Americans seem to be the least judgmental due to the fact that many of them are immigrants like me, or sons and daughters of immigrants.
In my case, I am Afro-American but I lived with people from Sierra Leone. Me and several Black Americans
felt more comfortable with West Africans than some of the other Americans...Most of the Africans were from
Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Cameroon. I also had a Ghanaian friend and several friends from Kenya.
So mostly English-speaking West Africa, I haven't met anyone at all from Ethiopia. When the Black American students had an event, the Africans attended. In the cafeteria they mostly sat with themselves and/or me.
I remember I sat with some American friends for once, one African acquaintance came and took my
tray in the middle of me eating and said "No, you sit with us."
Two of the presidents of the Black Student Union here have parents who immigrated from Nigeria. From my
experience, I don't have any bias towards black immigrants.
What I found interesting was that my African friends were group-oriented rather than individual-oriented and even if they were from one country they tended to hang with their own ethnic groups. Several ethnic groups from
Sierra Leone were teaching me words in their various languages. I learned about the different ethnic
groups in Sierra Leone who was from what group and what their reputation was. They did discriminate among themselves by ethnic group. (I heard complaints).
I see. Indeed, Africans in general hang around with their own ethnic groups. Mostly because of language and culture.
I feel a real connection with Africans from the continent, and all over the disapora. Are we different, yes. That is the beauty of it all. I want Black people from all over the world to thrive, as a collective, as different as we all are. Personally, I don't quite fit into American culture, despite being born and raised here. I have always felt this way, from the time I was a child. I am simply drawn to people from Africa, and they are to me. Personally I love what Marcus Garvey stood for. I embrace Pan-Africanism.
I see. Indeed, Africans in general hang around with their own ethnic groups. Mostly because of language and culture.
This is the trend I've noticed for all first generation adult immigrants from my own country of birth(Portugal), those not raised in the US overwhelmingly had(very few arriving these days) no interest in establishing meaningful friendships with people outside of their ethnic group initially. I do however notice a shift with their children raised in the US whom seem quite comfortable socializing outside of their ethnic group and most primarily identify as American, resulting in a significant percentage marrying outside of their ethnic group(in California primarily to Americans of European ancestry and to a lesser extent Latino ancestry).The vast majortiy though maintain some cultural ties to their ethnicity for three generations, although significantly decreasing each generation, and by generation four(even those whose ancestors are entirely Portuguese) the vast majority identify solely as American and have little to no knowlege or interest in their immigrant story.
How does that contrast with the Ethiopian experience? From what I gather you are a first generation naturized immigrant to the US like I am.
Last edited by AFP; 04-05-2016 at 10:40 AM..
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