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I think this a conversation that will keep happening- the two highest profile blacks in the last 20 years both came from outside what is typically thought of as the black community. Colin Powell was the son of Jamaican immigrants and Barack Obama is the son of a Kenyan exchange student. Both were raised in two of the countries most diverse settings- New York and Hawaii.
Oprah, Condoleezza Rice and many of the prominent black business leaders had much more traditionally black/African American backgrounds. Its interesting that the blacks who have had the most success either seemed to side step race issues (Powell, Rice and too a certain extent Obama who paid much less attention to race than many white Democrats) or spent a lot of time dedicated to racial issues (Oprah, the Johnsons who founded BET, Jim Clyburn.)
I also have to ditto whoever pointed out the number of people born into slavery. To a large degree blacks are the only race that (historically) were robbed of an immigrant experience. They were also much less mobile than most any other minority or ethnic group.
They estimate about 300-500K Africans were imported to the USA, that would include those imported after a 'layover' in the Caribbean. The Black population increased so dramatically here because it's only in the USA that the black female reproductive rate has always been above the replacement rate. (about 2.1 kids per woman). Elsewhere in the New World that was not the case.
The relatively harsh color line in regards to mixed race liaisons also helped keep Black numbers high in the USA. It's estimated Mexico imported a similar number of Africans but many have been absorbed into larger communities leaving distinct Black Mexicans few in number.
Right. The numbers imported into this country weren't impressive. Other countries got far more.
Your point about the color line's effect on population growth is well noted. I hadn't though about that.
They have a culture that is their own. One of the historical impacts of "racism" is that it morphed "black culture". African immigrant have the REAL "black culture", which is "African Culture". Culture is LEARNED. The culture of African American was LEARNED from white America's mistreatment of black people. Hell...we still call each other the term that whites used in our mistreatment....the "N" word.
Racism is like radiation. The longer you are exposed to it the more damage it does. African immigrants are being exposed to lower levels of racism and their exposure period is insignificant as compared with the African American experience. That said, it would be interesting to see how well African Immigrants do relative to white immigrants or Asian immigrants, as opposed to comparing them to African Americans. We should compare apples with Apples. In other words, compare black Americans with white Americans and black immigrants with white immigrants.
Word is that Blacks who came from Africa as free people are doing BETTER than any other group here in the US including Asians and even anglo whites. That's right: they're the MOST successful group in 2014 here in the US!
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Originally Posted by Packard fan
Word is that Blacks who came from Africa as free people are doing BETTER than any other group here in the US including Asians and even anglo whites. That's right: they're the MOST successful group in 2014 here in the US!
I think this a conversation that will keep happening- the two highest profile blacks in the last 20 years both came from outside what is typically thought of as the black community. Colin Powell was the son of Jamaican immigrants and Barack Obama is the son of a Kenyan exchange student. Both were raised in two of the countries most diverse settings- New York and Hawaii.
Oprah, Condoleezza Rice and many of the prominent black business leaders had much more traditionally black/African American backgrounds. Its interesting that the blacks who have had the most success either seemed to side step race issues (Powell, Rice and too a certain extent Obama who paid much less attention to race than many white Democrats) or spent a lot of time dedicated to racial issues (Oprah, the Johnsons who founded BET, Jim Clyburn.)
I also have to ditto whoever pointed out the number of people born into slavery. To a large degree blacks are the only race that (historically) were robbed of an immigrant experience. They were also much less mobile than most any other minority or ethnic group.
It's also important to note that both men you mentioned are half or less black.
It's sort of a weird benchmark to use to illustrate just how many sub-Saharan black Africans have immigrated to the United States over the past several years, but it's impactful: According to a New York Times report, more black Africans moved to the U.S. between 2000 and 2010 than were brought to the North American continent by slave ship during the three-centuries-long Atlantic slave trade.
I guess "racism" doesn't stop Black Africans from doing very well here in the US.
Black Americans who immigrate to Ghana also do quite well there. People who immigrate usually refuse to fail. Our mantra is not "Who will give it to me?" but "Who will keep me from it?"
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