World Perception of African-Americans? (live in, store, racist)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Cracks me up when foreigners, especially black foreigners come to America and look down on African Americans. If it was not for African Americans and civil rights movement, these same foreigners would not have ANY of the opportunities they have now, period. That includes Italians, Jews, Latinos and just about any other non WASP group. Anyone from NYC should ask their parents or grand parents what store signs used to say for help wanted back in the days "Blacks, Italians and Jews need not apply". True story, so I think people coming here need to pull their head out of the dirt and show a bit more respect.
People also need to realize, not everyone in a entire race is bad or crime prone. You put ANYONE in a economic and socially disadvantaged situation and they will react poorly, generally speaking. Go to UK and you will see the south asians are the ones committing a lot of crime. You go to Australia and its the Lebanese, France Arabs and Africans heck even poor whites in southern and western states do robberies, run meth labs and do all other sorts of crazy ish. No race is perfect or immune.
I believe that even in the United States, not just around the world, there are negative opinions about African Americans. I was born in Jamaica but has been living in the United States for over 34 years now, being in my early forties, you can see that I was quite young when I came to this country. I was embraced by prejuidice and hatred, sadly not through the hands of whites or hispanics, but through the hands of my own color. My sister and I were beaten on a daily basis, spat on, kicked, had our coats taken away from us and so on, I can give you a graphic details of our experience with black Americans but I won't. It wasn't until our mother literally kicked our butts for allowing those kids and some adults to mistreat us that we decided to fight back....all this because we were Jamaicans....made it worst when we told the black American kids that they are of African Ancestry like we were. Yes my sister and I are mixed; however we are still viewed as and consider ourselves to be black..nevertheless, we were highly discriminated against being from another country.
Long story short, yes there is a very negative view against African Americans even within the United States...one example, I recall telling someone that I was not African American but was actually born in Jamaica just raised here and the reaction that I received from that individual who happened to have been Italian was "Thank God, you're not one of them". I was like wow, is there much of a difference? Reality is yes, there is a big difference in culture and values and in my own opinion is why so many other countries tend to veiw African American's so negatively. In all fairness though, I and a lot of other non African-Americans have experienced the same prejuidice from African-Americans they will accept another foriegner before they accept a foreigner who happens to be black, we are always looked down at by those in the African-American communities. WHen I ask my African-American friends they honestly say they don't know why the look down on blacks from other countries...while some say that they just feel that the blacks from other countries are inferior to them or that is what they were raised to believe.
Bottom line, black, white, yellow, brown, red, purple or green what difference does it make when we all have the same insides, we all need air to breathe, we bleed the same color blood? I could never understand that, but then again maybe because I am mixed with Scottish, Indian and Black why I find all races embraceable?
I know for a fact a lot of AA do not like west indians specifically Jamaicans. I have seen family members and friends from Africa who have lived in UK say the same pretty negative things about Jamaican also.
I know a guy that came here from eastern Europe to stay for a few months. He was a big fan of rap music and wanted to live in "the hood" largely because of the images of partying that he saw in videos. Despite warnings he moved in only to qucikly realize it wasn't a big party.
As an African-American myself I was just wondering what people in other countries thought about us, if at all? Being that the U.S. has one of the largest if not the largest black population in the developed world are we seen as part of the America or does the thought never really cross your mind? I'm not here to judge I just want an honest interpretation of blacks in America from an outside source.
Having grown up in London, England in an area where the white population was a minority, I have never seen black British people as anything but British, nor black Americans as anything but American.
But they are Americans which still suffer prejudice at the hands of their own countrymen (same as in the UK) so I guess I see African-Americans as a section of society still fighting for justice and its rightful place. I think it is deeply sad that they are still having to fight for that place.
One difference in the UK (in case you are interested!) is that black British-Jamaicans are proud of their Jamaican heritage, but you don't hear them mention their previous African heritage much. Most black people in the UK come from Jamaica, and arrived in the late 1940's - early 1970's, so their roots are still partially attached, which doesn't compare to most black Americans, whose families have been in the USA for 200 years or more. So why would anyone think of them as anything but purely American?
Last edited by southdown; 02-14-2008 at 10:46 AM..
I reckon most of us think of them as exactly that. They're not from Mars after all.
I beg to differ. It wasn't until the 1960s when black Americans were given our full rights as American citizens. Almost since the day slavery began in the U.S., blacks have been looked down and treated as not just less than American, but less than human. Only in the last 40 years have blacks been granted full rights of citizenship guaranteed in the Constitution.
This country has a long history of hatred as another poster mentioned - everyone from blacks to Italians, Irish, Jews, Native Americans, Asians, gays, Catholics, Muslims, atheists, lots of different minority groups have been the victim of government-sponsored hatred and discrimination.
I beg to differ. It wasn't until the 1960s when black Americans were given our full rights as American citizens. Almost since the day slavery began in the U.S., blacks have been looked down and treated as not just less than American, but less than human. Only in the last 40 years have blacks been granted full rights of citizenship guaranteed in the Constitution.
I am speaking of the present. Only a fool would deny the shameful history you describe. That was then and this is now. And if the almost probable election of Obama proves anything, its that the bad days are long gone.
One year we hosted a foreign exchange student from Armenia, a former Soviet Republic. He arrived in the U.S. very enamored of what he perceived to be the African American culture that Armenians saw on TV -- hip hop, gangsta-in-the-hood type of thing (pls. excuse the vernacular, it's my best attempt to describe the student's mind!) The first thing he wanted to buy was a do-rag. I didn't even know what that was, let alone where to get one. He also loved anything to do with the movie Scarface. Interestingly, while he liked what he perceived to be the black gangster lifestyle, he also looked down upon African Americans in general. I like to think that we were able to positively mediate his opinions of the many types of people and cultures that make up America (we're Asian Americans).
FYI - the Caucasus mountains are located partly in Armenia, and from whence the word "Caucasian" derives.
A Swiss friend's little sister came to visit me once in New York. Would not shut up about racism (as if the Swiss are so open minded) this or racism that. Annoyed everybody. One day she missed the 59th street stop on the D-Train and ended up on 125th in Harlem.
Came back in a panic with tears flowing.
"Oh well" was all I could muster for a response.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
