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Object lesson, where I live in the RustBelt, our city has had an influx of refugees, Nepal and Bhutan and Somali Bantu, to
show you how discrimination works, the Asian refugees were settled and scattered among the white working-class areas
guess where most of the Somali Bantu were settled, in one of the WORST housing projects in the city, mostly AA. Several have been shot and robbed already due to cultural misunderstandings. Some of the Somali teens have already been arrested
because the look like someone who did a crime.
The local news ran an article on them, one Bantu man stated," This is just like in Africa, poor Black People standing around
doing nothing" We also got some of the "Lost Boys of the Sudan". I met a couple of them while food shopping, they got jobs
in several local supermarkets. Every time one would see me in Whole Foods, he would smile and say "Hey Brother!"
The fact that they settled these people in the middle of an American Ghetto with no cross-cultural training or any thing is very callous to me after all they have gone thru.
What happens to people from a number of poor countries. Someone will have a relative living with 15 other people in some major city. That person will wire home a 100 dollars a week. In local currency in a poor country this seems like a lot of money. So a number of people will think that they'll get ALL this money just by moving to the US.
The reality upon coming here is an entirely different matter, but this is difficult for people who maybe wiring money back home to tell people.
Somalis don't speak English and Somali refugees likely arrive with a low level of education. These are major barriers to performing well in the US. Of course there are classes to teach new arrivals English and programs to help them get educations.
Of course, if they speak to Americans they would know NEVER let the government chose your HOUSING.
As I said on earlier threads, "BlacK" and "African American" are creations of white racists who stripped people of ethnic identities, and who further pushed an one drop rule to permanently create a marginalized/slave group of people.
African Americans, including those outside large urban centers, provided they have resources often do research their ethnic backgrounds (genetic testing) and some do go to the countries of their origin.
You see lots of YouTube videos, blogs, and others by African Americans who are traveling or living in Africa or other parts of the world. These are younger and more educated people. This would have been almost unheard of among AAs you generation.
I think you have to rigid and stereotypical views of AAs, and based everything solely on the ones you've known in the past.
With that said an African American at the end of the day is an American, and a Westerner. It's easier for Americans to go to other Western countries than it is non Western countries. I'm live in Spain. The adjustment to live here long term is much easier than it would have been the DR, Colombia, or Jamaica.
On the bold, wanted to note we should not base items of popularity amongst the black American population on YouTube videos.
I've taken DNA tests and have no desire to find my "roots" in Africa tribes/nations. A majority of black Americans, like myself, are a mishmash of various African regions. My African DNA is from every part of Africa while about 30% is from Europe (all over Europe too).
Back in the 1960s and 1970s blacks from America would go to African nations - particularly Ghana. This is not a new thing. Just like back then, most of the black Americans who go today will come back to the US.
I do a lot of genealogical research and historic research. Very few black Americans actually go visit places based on their ethnic origins, but it is increasing in popularity. I'll note I do plan on visiting sites of historical interests to me in Western African nations that played a part in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. However, I will go with the knowledge of the fact that the people still in those areas, their ancestors/tribes more than likely had a hand in capturing and selling off my own ancestors to Europeans for trinkets and weapons and liquor. So it is not something I will do to "connect" per se with current African tribes, it would be to honor my ancestors who endured for me to be able to be here and pay homage to them. I would like to one day temporarily live in an African nation just to live there and experience a different environment, but I am a black American or African American whatever you want to call it.
I agree with what caribny stated earlier in that a large amount of black Americans have no desire to "be" African and don't consider ourselves African. IMO it is only becoming a fad to do so because of YouTube and other sites that trick people into thinking that this is popular, when in reality it is not.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Agbor
Object lesson, where I live in the RustBelt, our city has had an influx of refugees, Nepal and Bhutan and Somali Bantu, to
show you how discrimination works, the Asian refugees were settled and scattered among the white working-class areas
guess where most of the Somali Bantu were settled, in one of the WORST housing projects in the city, mostly AA. Several have been shot and robbed already due to cultural misunderstandings. Some of the Somali teens have already been arrested
because the look like someone who did a crime.
The local news ran an article on them, one Bantu man stated," This is just like in Africa, poor Black People standing around
doing nothing" We also got some of the "Lost Boys of the Sudan". I met a couple of them while food shopping, they got jobs
in several local supermarkets. Every time one would see me in Whole Foods, he would smile and say "Hey Brother!"
The fact that they settled these people in the middle of an American Ghetto with no cross-cultural training or any thing is very callous to me after all they have gone thru.
On this, nearly all refugees are settled in lower income places. I worked with the refugee communities in public housing when I lived in GA and we had refugees from Nepal and Bhutan as well that lived in public housing that was predominantly black Americans. We also had a substantial Somali refugee population and even some of the Sudan lost boys (grown men today). They were all sent to similar places.
I also grew up in the Rust Belt and I lived in a poor to working class neighborhood predominantely growing up but it was very integrated at the time. We got a large influx of refugees when I was in 3rd grade from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand (this was in the late 1980s) later we got a lot of refugees from Iran and Iraq after Desert Storm. A lot of my old classmates/friends to this day are refugees from those countries. This was during an era when crime was worse than it is today and they turned out fine and very few of us live in the old neighborhood today and if we do we do so purposefully as we could afford not to.
IMO Somalis and all refugees are pretty resilient people. I do agree though that they should provide them with some good transitional social services, but if they are in public housing, then that should be/will be taken care of by the housing authority. I had to coordinate this sort of thing for our residents (and not just for refugees, seniors as well, disabled individuals, older sets of refugees from earlier epochs who were Russian Jews or Koreans, etc. there is a lot of social services programs run in public housing).
On the bold, wanted to note we should not base items of popularity amongst the black American population on YouTube videos.
I've taken DNA tests and have no desire to find my "roots" in Africa tribes/nations. A majority of black Americans, like myself, are a mishmash of various African regions. My African DNA is from every part of Africa while about 30% is from Europe (all over Europe too).
Back in the 1960s and 1970s blacks from America would go to African nations - particularly Ghana. This is not a new thing. Just like back then, most of the black Americans who go today will come back to the US.
I do a lot of genealogical research and historic research. Very few black Americans actually go visit places based on their ethnic origins, but it is increasing in popularity. I'll note I do plan on visiting sites of historical interests to me in Western African nations that played a part in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. However, I will go with the knowledge of the fact that the people still in those areas, their ancestors/tribes more than likely had a hand in capturing and selling off my own ancestors to Europeans for trinkets and weapons and liquor. So it is not something I will do to "connect" per se with current African tribes, it would be to honor my ancestors who endured for me to be able to be here and pay homage to them. I would like to one day temporarily live in an African nation just to live there and experience a different environment, but I am a black American or African American whatever you want to call it.
I agree with what caribny stated earlier in that a large amount of black Americans have no desire to "be" African and don't consider ourselves African. IMO it is only becoming a fad to do so because of YouTube and other sites that trick people into thinking that this is popular, when in reality it is not.
On this, nearly all refugees are settled in lower income places. I worked with the refugee communities in public housing when I lived in GA and we had refugees from Nepal and Bhutan as well that lived in public housing that was predominantly black Americans. We also had a substantial Somali refugee population and even some of the Sudan lost boys (grown men today). They were all sent to similar places.
I also grew up in the Rust Belt and I lived in a poor to working class neighborhood predominantely growing up but it was very integrated at the time. We got a large influx of refugees when I was in 3rd grade from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand (this was in the late 1980s) later we got a lot of refugees from Iran and Iraq after Desert Storm. A lot of my old classmates/friends to this day are refugees from those countries. This was during an era when crime was worse than it is today and they turned out fine and very few of us live in the old neighborhood today and if we do we do so purposefully as we could afford not to.
IMO Somalis and all refugees are pretty resilient people. I do agree though that they should provide them with some good transitional social services, but if they are in public housing, then that should be/will be taken care of by the housing authority. I had to coordinate this sort of thing for our residents (and not just for refugees, seniors as well, disabled individuals, older sets of refugees from earlier epochs who were Russian Jews or Koreans, etc. there is a lot of social services programs run in public housing).
Speaking of, here's a nice Youtube clip of black teenagers from DC visiting Ghana in 1968. While they enjoyed their time and there were some tense moments when a classroom of Ghanaian boys declared that they were nothing in America, they came away feeling more American.
Very interesting video...I think the exchange between the Black American students and the Ghanaian students and teacher was that the two groups were talking past each other both coming from different cultural assumptions. The Ghanaians were
insulted when the slave label was put on house servants who could be relatives and the way they were treated which maybe
might be interpreted as "rough" by American standards.
One part of the video that shocked me, was the interview between the man and his wife discussing children. The part that
shocked me was when the man said the effect that the stigma of a single woman NOT having a child was greater than the
fact of her having a child unmarried. In America in 1968 the stigma of being an unwed mother was greater than not having
a child.
It seemed a big deal was made to have children at all costs to the point of having someone impregnate a woman just to have a child.
I was thinking the student may have hit a raw nerve when she said she thought some people were treated like slaves...African
kingdoms had a big role in selling slaves to the Europeans and modern slavery still exist in Africa even though people won't
admit to it.
I saw something on 60 minutes where some families in Ghana were generationally indebted to other families and their family
had to serve the other family. Slavery or indentured servitude?
Speaking of, here's a nice Youtube clip of black teenagers from DC visiting Ghana in 1968. While they enjoyed their time and there were some tense moments when a classroom of Ghanaian boys declared that they were nothing in America, they came away feeling more American.
I think the bold is common for black Americans traveling to other nations where there are other black people and them seeing (finally for some) that all black people in the world do not think of themselves like we do and they do not have the history that we do. I agree the classroom scene was tense and I feel that it was interesting the Ghanaian view that the slaves in their society were/are not slaves. FWIW this is also something that is in Haitian society to this day (this system of servitude/slavery) and IMO it actually is a system of slavery as well. Anyone who is working for someone for nothing is a slave and especially if they have been forced to do it since childhood.
That whole thing (servitude/slavery) is something that is not common in black American households/families/commuities, primarily because of our unique "tribal" past and culture in comparison to blacks in some African nations and in Haiti (which has maintained a longstanding cultural connection to its African roots). Too often IMO black Americans view other blacks around the world as our "brothers and sisters" just because we all have some recent African ancestry and that is fine but it is also important to realize that all people of the African diaspora are not the same, and do not share the same history and culture as each other. The main thing I think we of the African diaspora should acknowledge and be aware of is the fact that there are pervasive stereotypes of blacks from America and from African nations and the Caribbean that are not reflective of us as communities and individuals and that believing these media/entertainment depictions allows us to fall into a view that denigrates each other the same way that non-Africans/non-black people have historically treated us. We should not assume that Africans live in huts for example or are uneducated or force some outlandish, harmful cultural practice on each other on a large scale, and Africans and other black people should not view black Americans as hip hop caricatures or even Civil Rights caricatures that are commonly displayed in American media. We are more than these depictions on all sides.
I have yet to travel to an African nation (planning to in 2019 for my birthday) but I've been to many more "black" countries in S. America and the Caribbean. That, along with a lot of historical study and genealogical study does reinforce to me that as a black American, we are unique amongst those of the African diaspora and are our own "tribe" so to speak versus other blacks in other nations/continents.
I was thinking the student may have hit a raw nerve when she said she thought some people were treated like slaves...African
kingdoms had a big role in selling slaves to the Europeans and modern slavery still exist in Africa even though people won't
admit to it.
I saw something on 60 minutes where some families in Ghana were generationally indebted to other families and their family
had to serve the other family. Slavery or indentured servitude?
I agree with this.
And I did agree with the American teens that what they were seeing was slavery.
I also agree that even to this day people ignore the fact that African tribes had a major role in the existence of the African slave trade. It is a reason why I, as a black American, never claim I don't have a culture and why I never see any African culture/society/tribe as in any way better than my own.
I noted above I have done a DNA test and I have African ancestry from a variety of places on the continent (every part of the continent except Madagascar it seems lol).
When my long ago ancestors were sold off for trinkets or weapons or liquor, for me, my desire for Africa left and my people have created a beautiful history and culture for me here that I am grateful for. I am especially grateful, as I noted above, that we as a "tribe" in America, really have always been dedicated to ensuring the freedom of each other and other Americans. Of course there will be outliers but in America I think we were too busy trying to fight the ridiculousness of white supremacy to be bothered to try to enslave our own people for our own benefit to any wide degree, especially not after the Civil War.
Very interesting video...I think the exchange between the Black American students and the Ghanaian students and teacher was that the two groups were talking past each other both coming from different cultural assumptions. The Ghanaians were
insulted when the slave label was put on house servants who could be relatives and the way they were treated which maybe
might be interpreted as "rough" by American standards.
One part of the video that shocked me, was the interview between the man and his wife discussing children. The part that
shocked me was when the man said the effect that the stigma of a single woman NOT having a child was greater than the
fact of her having a child unmarried. In America in 1968 the stigma of being an unwed mother was greater than not having
a child.
It seemed a big deal was made to have children at all costs to the point of having someone impregnate a woman just to have a child.
On the bold, I agree but will point out that in black America, single mothers have been a constant presence for our demographic's history in this nation and so even though it was a stigma, it was not as bad in black America as it was for whites in America. It is highly likely that at least 1-2 of the teens in this piece were the children of single, unwed mothers. This is one of the reasons why I partially adhere to the views espoused by black feminist bell hooks in that as black Americans, we have a similar, but unique cultural experience in this land and that it would behoove us to not attempt to define ourselves by what she calls white (European) patriarchal culture. This culture is not inherent to black Americans and it it what defines the "traditional" man/wife/children family mantra that is espoused as one of if not the most ultimate way to be "successful." We should define our own culture and our own definition of success outside of the views of the white patriarch.
My dad was a teen in 1968 and he told me that of all the people on his block, when he was young, his mom/dad were the only married couple on his street (and they ended up divorcing by 1970)! My older sister's mother lived on his street and she became pregnant with my sister in the early 1970s. My sister's maternal grandmother was a single mother of 8 kids and had never been married in the 1960s. Her kids were all born between the 1945 and 1960.
Very interesting video...I think the exchange between the Black American students and the Ghanaian students and teacher was that the two groups were talking past each other both coming from different cultural assumptions. The Ghanaians were
insulted when the slave label was put on house servants who could be relatives and the way they were treated which maybe
might be interpreted as "rough" by American standards.
One part of the video that shocked me, was the interview between the man and his wife discussing children. The part that
shocked me was when the man said the effect that the stigma of a single woman NOT having a child was greater than the
fact of her having a child unmarried. In America in 1968 the stigma of being an unwed mother was greater than not having
a child.
It seemed a big deal was made to have children at all costs to the point of having someone impregnate a woman just to have a child.
As a Ghanaian, I know a woman without kids is seen as less than. It's important to note that in traditional Akan culture, which is the dominant culture of Ghana, inheritance and familial lines flow through the maternal line. So a woman that has no kids is seen as contributing to the decline of the family.
This is unfortunate because in 1968 a Ghanaian woman that didn't have kids, didn't have them because of medical issues not out of choice.
Forgot to note that that was a great program you shared EdwardA. I got to finish watching it and was happy that the young black teens at the end of the program did feel they were more American and went toe to toe with the Africans who tried to insinuate that black Americans should go back to Africa and fix the continent.
The young teens told them that we black Americans have a deep history in this nation (America) and we have fought for the betterment of our nation and to leave would serve us no purpose. I agree with them and would add what I noted before - that many of the people in Africa are descendants of those whose ancestors sold ours off for trinkets and liquor and some other form of currency or weapons. We are now culturally different and we owe nothing to the continent. I also agreed with the kids that black people world over like to still imitate Americans and black Americans in particular.
It is sad to me viewing this because I do interact a lot of teenagers who are black and many of them are very unlearned initially about our history as a demographic in this nation and the benefits that we have brought to this nation and the fact that this is OUR nation. We are native to this land for many generations and it would be silly of us to leave our country after our forefathers have worked so hard to better it for us.
I also do feel that many black Americans who want to leave America over race issues are "running away" like what was mentioned in the piece. IMO they are similar to Africans who come here to America to better themselves individually and ignore the plight of their people and homeland. It is sad to me that so many Africans immigrate to America or Europe, etc., and leave their countries in a horrible condition that would improve if they took their education and went back and helped to change their homelands.
I remember reading about a Ghanaian who was educated here in America and worked in IT at Microsoft for many years and moved back to Ghana and started a college (Ashesi University) there focused on training ethical and entrepreneurial leaders as that is an issue from his perspective in Ghanaian society. The way to move African nations forward is for the best and brightest Africans to not abandon their people for money and individual riches like the founder of Ashesi Patrick Awuah. Though many people like to denigrate black Americans we do have a culture of helping our people and community that is entrenched in what it means to be black. So much so, that it is even a hotly debated topic in black America and has been for many generations but the gist is always to "uplift" our people. I think Africans need to be more focused on uplifting themselves as well and obtaining ethical control of their countries and resources away from former colonizers and future would be colonizers.
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