***2/15/06 — Scroll down for updates***
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One of the many reasons I don’t like the term “African American” is that I’m not African, and I doubt any African — black or white — would claim me as such.
Being of African descent doesn’t make one African. It’s strange that we use the word “African” as a nationality when I suspect that true Africans refer to their countries when referring to their nationality, and not the continent.
I read this article about black American bias toward black Africans. Zedueh Doerue, an African immigrant who came to America four years ago, says he’s harrassed by black American thugs because he’s African. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure out why:
“As a general trend, the two groups are having tensions,” said Jacqueline Copeland-Carson, a scholar with the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and author of the book, “Creating Africa in America.”
The tensions can be especially raw and violent in urban communities struggling with poverty, she said, as black Americans who feel economically trapped clash culturally with immigrant Africans who have escaped turmoil worse than Hurricane Katrina and may have stereotypical views of black Americans as being lazy or glorifiers of gangster life.
Regarding the lazy and gangster life stereotype, Africans are being rational. In fact, we all use the same reasoning when looking for a place to live or deciding whether to walk down a certain street at night. All people of all colors do it for the same reason: based on stereotypes of urban cities, we know it’s in our best interests to move to neighborhoods with lower crime rates. In America’s “urban communities,” most of the stereotypes hold true. Stereotypes aren’t the same as myths or urban legends, by the way; they’re based on facts.
There are other barriers that create problems, too, said Ms. Copeland-Carson, who studies contemporary immigration issues…These include widespread ignorance about the history of ethnic groups and nationalities and not understanding how others define their identities.
It’s the successful African immigrant v. the underclass black thing. Too bad the disgruntled and envious spend so much time being disgruntled and envious. They could put time and energy to more efficient use by trying to improve their own lives instead of begrudging others. But it’s easier to cry than to try. It’s boring, really.
This black African v. black American thing reaches beyond “poor” blacks. Henry Louis Gates (who just learned that he’s “half-European”) and Lani Guinier are up in arms because Africans outnumber American blacks at Harvard. Clarence Page has a simple explanation for that. Again, no rocket surgeon degree necessary. It’s embarrassing that people born and raised in the greatest country on the planet, with such a dynamic and inviting economic system, lag behind people who fled actual poverty and oppression. 
Americans in general, I suspect, don’t know much about Africa and don’t want to know. On second thought, a lot of people may know about Africa and still form negative opinions. I’m looking for a link to a story by a black liberal journalist who’s since changed his mind about Africa after a visit. (Later…found the link and more. Scroll down to Update.)
Even when I was a liberal and in undergrad, I’d laugh at students talking about Africa as though it were paradise and wearing Kente cloth, as if they had any idea what they were talking about. I can only imagine what the African students were saying behind their backs. Also embarrassing is what passes for scholarship among certain people. I’m glad my skin is brown so the flush doesn’t show. 
Have you been to Africa? Tell us what it’s like. Since I have no desire to ever go…
I think the most workable plan for Mr. Doerue would be to get his precious progeny out of the ‘hood post-haste and move to better area. He may still face resentment from other blacks, but at least he won’t have to come home to them.
Related posts:
- Hard Work and the American Dream (another Tannette Johnson-Elie link)
- The Gospel of Oppression
- Black Immigrants “Work Harder”
- Africans and Black Americans
- Slavery Reparations
Update: Keith Richburg is a black journalist who spent five years in Africa and wrote Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa.
Read Part I and Part II of Richburg’s “American in Africa.”
Also see No illusions on next African trip, Black Like Me, African-American Journalist Finds Flawed Africa, and A black writer explores Africa’s murderous depths.
Read his “debate” (debates require cross-examination) with Salih Booker, Executive Director of a non-profit called Africa Action. Booker concedes to Richburg on almost every point.
Bob Bixby (breaks added for easier reading):
I spent the first 14 years of my life in Central African Republic. I ate “bobos†(flying ants), traveled with my father into the “bush,†and squatted on the floor in mud huts with thatched roofs so often that it was a part of normal life for me. I know from experience what it is like to have grown African men talk to a mere boy only ten years old (me) as if I were a seasoned economist about the inconceivable (to them) world where one could work for a living, be compensated, and feel no tribal pressure to distribute his hard-earned pay around the village per the whim of the tribal powers.
I remember one valiant soul that worked for my father who literally pleaded with my Dad to keep his pay in our family safe. Week after week Dad would put the worker’s money in our safe and whenever the man wanted to purchase something he would come to our home and request whatever amount he needed. This was not because he could not save. It was because he lived in a culture that did not respect the entrepreneurial spirit and private property of the individual worker. They were aghast at the possibility that anyone should have more money than his superiors in age or tribal authority. Thus, parents and tribal leaders bilked the free spirits who wanted to work of a living and squelched their hope for release from the grip of poverty that has enslaved that region for centuries.
Men, grown men, dreamed of the real paradise, the US of A, and respectfully listened to an ignorant white kid from America as he told about all that he had seen and heard on his trips to that wonderful place. Even the ignorant ten-year-old knew that at the root of American possibilities was a culture of freedom and an old-fashioned work ethic innate with those who take responsibility for their own lives. The ten-year-old knew it. And the grown toothless men in ragged clothes that had been discarded from someplace in the West knew it as well. With as little education as they had, the ten-year-old and the poor villagers who had never seen carpet or running water would have laughed the “African-American†fantasy to scorn.
What’s that “old” saying? Give me liberty or give me death. Yeah, that’s the one.
Update II (2/15): Unbelievable, but there it is. There’s nothing wrong with teaching African and black American history, but the idea that it will close the achievement gap is ludicrious. If “educators” want to make headway on that issue, they need to get back to basics and demand accountability from parents.
But what do I know?
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Wow, this one is moving slow, I hope that’s because some folks are preparing what needs to be *reasoned responses*…
Several years ago, my brother and his wife went to Africa on a *Church mission*, he came back with a lot different attitude than when he left, they were in Zaire I believe and he told me that Black Africans really had a bad attitude about Black Americans and their so-called *roots* thing..
Personally, I have no use for hyphenated Americans of ANY race, creed or color, if you’re going to live HERE, and be a citizen of the USA, be and AMERICAN… And I say that after having previously divulged that my family was an immigrant family…
I think you’re misunderstanding the use of the term ‘African American’. It is not used to be ‘claimed by Africans’, or to ‘make one African’. It is simply used to acknowledge a background that is not that far in the distant past. We ARE descendants of African people. (I know there is a theory that all humans have descended from Africa, but I’m touching that. I’m just saying that most people of a darker hue are close descendants of the country.) That’s all the term means.
And the term African has to be used, instead of the countries of the continent, because most of us have no idea where our true lineages are from due to the black diaspora!
I do agree with your views on people referring to Africa as ‘paradise’ and such – I think they have a misinformed view of the current state of the continent. But it is indisputable that Africa has had a glorious history that is often deemphasized in history textbooks that most children read. THAT is the connection that people need to make with Africa: that it’s not just a backward country with tribal wars, but one rich in culture.
If you don’t want to know much about Africa, I see that as a shame. Not just because it’s Africa, but because I believe everyone should strive for knowledge about the major cultural centers of the world. Traditional Western history is very important and influential on our way of life, but a thorough knowledge of the rest of the world is essential for a greater understand of ourselves as a species.
I work in the Middle East (Dubai)and regularly interact with real Africans (primarily from East Africa). Hard working, nice folks whom we should be encouraging to emigrate to the US. Ethiopian Christians are a particularly talented crew.
I’m perfectly clear on the use of the term, Shareef. I remember when it was first popularized back in the 80s, and I adopted it myself. You probably were too young or not even born. I guess I should stop expecting people to read the About page or anything other than the front page before they make assumptions about me in the comment section. I am of obvious African descent, but thanks for reiterating it.
So educate me about Africa, Shareef. Have you been there? Believe it or not, I’m not being sarcastic. I’m totally serious.
By the way, I dropped by your blog. Thanks for acknowledging that I do allow dissent. The begrudging black liberals out there who claim otherwise want to attack me personally. On my own blog! Comedy.
Ha, I definitely knew you were African American, I’ve been on your page a couple of other times. Nowhere in my comment did I insinuate that you were anything otherwise. I’m not sure where you got that from. I was simply responding to your view on the use of the term, using some of your own words.
I haven’t been to Africa (I am planning a trip later this year though), butI don’t see how whether or not I’ve been to Africa relates at all to my point. My point is that the term simply details a link to a past that has been somewhat messy given the history of the diaspora.
I’ve seen it with plenty of other group – partically Hispanic and Asian friends of mine – that refer to themselves in similiar hyphenated terms despite being several generations removed from the country of origin. It is the link to that place that is important.
Also the ‘too young, not even born’ remark – what’s up with that? Remarks like that discourage dialogue between older and younger generations.
This is what I deserve for engaging people in comments. It’s a bad habit I’ve got to stop. Lord knows I don’t have time for back for back discussions with people who change their arguments midstream. You said it was a “shame” that I didn’t know about Africa, so I assumed that meant YOU knew about Africa. Reasonable, but incorrect assumption. All the rest, I’ll ignore. Do me a favor, Shareef. Pretend I don’t exist and just stick to the arguments without reference to me. It’s most irritating and definitely distracting, and one of the reasons I ban dissenters. If you can do that, we’re on the right track.
– Admin
I stayed overnight in Cairo back in ‘96, and Egypt is in Africa, so, yes, I have been to Africa. The pyramids were awesome. Other than that, I was unimpressed. Cab ride was scary.
I used to regularly refer to my race as “other” when I was in the military. Granted, I am probably 99% European descent, but there’s that 1% that was here in America before it was “discovered.” But really, what am I? American. (Am I rambling yet?)
Back to military days, I once was in one of those yearly Equal Opportunity (EO) briefs, and the instructor was talking about stereotypes. He made the statement that stereotyping is always bad. I disagreed then, and still do. Judging individuals based on stereotypes can turn out to be incorrect, but that can be good or bad.
Hmm, I should have re-read that first bit I posted before I posted. I was unimpressed with Cairo, not all of Africa as Cairo is the extent of Africa I have seen. (Or will ever see as I don’t plan to ever leave the US again. Ever.)
>>It is not used to be ‘claimed by Africans’, or to ‘make one African’. It is simply used to acknowledge a background that is not that far in the distant past.>>
I disagree. By your skin color, you’re stating the obvious. I’m caucasian. My background in the not so distant past is English-Irish-French and German. So, since my background is _not_ so obvious as yours, should I insist on being called an English-Irish-French and German-American? I don’t think so. I’m American. Plain and simple.
Personally, if there’s a reason to refer to someone by a racial discriptor, I prefer “Black”. I was raised to call such people Negroes. In the time I grew up, the term “nigger” was not uncommon, and it was also not particularly derogatory, but my parents taught me that it was also not to be used in “polite” society. My family came from the Northeast. Southerners of that period tended to use the ‘nigger’ term most of the time, both as a descriptive and as an insulting term. At some time, “Black” came into common use as the preferred term. Then the African-American became the desired name – maybe because many “Black” people aren’t really black. I don’t know. You say “potaaato” I say “potahto”…I’ll call somebody whatever they prefer, but “Black” is one syllable and easy to use – even if it isn’t totally accurate. I’m not really “White” either. Although moreso than most – I burn terribly, so I stay out of the sun. It’s a characteristic I don’t much appreciate sometimes. If pigment is a measure of social position, I think I rate among the elite. Don’t tell that to the IRS, though!
I think it would be better if we all just used “American”.
I remember being in Europe and being _very_ glad to see Blacks when we were away from home – at the time, you could be reasonably certain that this was a person you could speak English to. Virtually all Blacks were Americans. Not true now, but it was then.
Two points:
There was a black American journalist who published a book about Africa in the 90’s. It got a lot of press, can’t remember his name. I do reacall that he concluded that he was lucky to be an American!
And, I’ve read that Somali refugees who have moved en masse to Maine moved there as a result of negative experiences with “African Americans” in Miami. The thing for them was to get their children away from street culture and they picked, in their words, the whitest part of america they could find.
Thanks, Jeff. I found it a few minutes ago. – Admin
La Shawn:
My grandparents came from Sicily, and Rumania (Hungarian origins). They never looked back. They were happy to be American.
My Sicilian grandparents called themselves “Italian” with “American” implied – they only spoke Italian once in a while. My grandmother said “Buffalo” when asked where she was born; her English was that good. She was NOT highly educated, but loved the USA.
For first or second generation Mexican Americans, the terminology “Mexican Americans” (not “Mexicans” – because they no longer live in Mexico) makes some sense. Not only is Mexico imme
diately attached to the USA, many still have living family there, and frequently travel there. One of my wife’s best friends visits Mexico frequently, and she speaks Spanish. But her children have all been educated here, so they don’t haved much “Mexican”in them, but they still visit Mexico on occasion. For them, “Mexican American” is OK.
But the “African Link” most of Black Americans has long ago been broken.
About the best symbolism of this broken link was this Black lady walking on a street in Shreveport LA shortly before Christmas. She was wearing a sweater with Santa Claus symbols, and wearing a Santa Claus hat. Not very African.
Likewise, Black people here get really exicted at Mardi Gras time, with the beads and parades etc. Not very African.
Well, I’m a caucasian who’s Irish ancestry never ventured near the Caucasus mountains, but (who’s looking for accuracy?) I have an interesting anecdote about this whole African-American thing.
In college (in the late 80’s) I had a friend who was raised in Cote d’Ivoire. His parents were with the Red Cross. He lived in Africa from when he was three until college. When he came to the US to go to the university, he saw that there was an African-American students club and eagerly went, because he was excited to meet other students who had moved here from Africa. He thought they could share homesickness stories and maybe speak French together (if they were from west Africa). He was surprised to be not-so-politely asked to leave. When he protested “but I have lived in Africa all my life! I’m a dual citizen! My parents live there!” he was told, “your great-great-gramma wasn’t from Africa, so you aren’t African!”
He finally found friends in a Chrisitan students group. Because for each of us the same was true: this world is not our home, we were all just strangers in a foreign land.
I know alot of African “straight-outta Africa” black people who come here, work their butts off and are better off than alot of black americans here. Alot of them cant stand us black folk here squandering opportunity after opportunity.
But its not just Africans. Lots of people who come from other countries realize that they have the opportunity to do well and take full advantage of it. They know that if they fail, its back to that poor destitute life they had back home. There are many poor black americans who struggle, take advantage of opportunity and make it. It really depends on the heart and desire of that individual person.
I see it as the whole “I gotta have it now, they owe me” mentality that has been permeating all of America, white, black or whatever since the 60’s.
I see some change though…slowly but surely…
Most Africans did not and still do not identify themselves according to their country. The communities most Africans identify themselves with is either ethnicity, tribe, or language. African countries did not exist until independence less than 50 years ago. There has been a pan-African movement begun in the 1950s by Kwami Nkrumah of Ghana, so other Africans would consider their primary identity as African.
Although I use black most often, I like the sound of African American. It sounds powerful. Use it as a specialty and use black most of the time. This war is over LaShawn but I respect you for fighting on.
La Shawn,
I spent the first 14 years of my life in Central African Republic. I ate “bobos” (flying ants), traveled with my father into the “bush,” and squatted on the floor in mud huts with thatched roofs so often that it was a part of normal life for me. I know from experience what it is like to have grown African men talk to a mere boy only ten years old (me) as if I were a seasoned economist about the inconceivable (to them) world where one could work for a living, be compensated, and feel no tribal pressure to distribute his hard-earned pay around the village per the whim of the tribal powers. I remember one valiant soul that worked for my father who literally pleaded with my Dad to keep his pay in our family safe. Week after week Dad would put the worker’s money in our safe and whenever the man wanted to purchase something he would come to our home and request whatever amount he needed. This was not because he could not save. It was because he lived in a culture that did not respect the entrepreneurial spirit and private property of the individual worker. They were aghast at the possibility that anyone should have more money than his superiors in age or tribal authority. Thus, parents and tribal leaders bilked the free spirits who wanted to work of a living and squelched their hope for release from the grip of poverty that has enslaved that region for centuries. Men, grown men, dreamed of the real paradise, the US of A, and respectfully listened to an ignorant white kid from America as he told about all that he had seen and heard on his trips to that wonderful place. Even the ignorant ten-year-old knew that at the root of American possibilities was a culture of freedom and an old-fashioned work ethic innate with those who take responsibility for their own lives. The ten-year-old knew it. And the grown toothless men in ragged clothes that had been discarded from someplace in the West knew it as well. With as little education as they had, the ten-year-old and the poor villagers who had never seen carpet or running water would have laughed the “African-American” fantasy to scorn.
I have a very close friend that was a very successful businessman, a one man business and he grossed over $200K a year…Oh yeah, and he happened to be black… Not brown, not mocha, not chocolate, BLACK… But I digress…
We were at a business meeting in Ft Wayne, Ind once and went to dinner with some of the company execs and as business dinners tend to have happen, we all had a few drinks and since my buddy was the only black guy there, some of the *wheels* started to ask a few questions that were thinly veiled racial BS as far as I was concerned…
One of em asked my buddy, “Do you prefer to be called black, African-American, colored?? What do you prefer??”
My buddy looked at em and said, “I prefer to be called Bruce…”
That was his real name…
Discussion over…
That MAN taught me more about race relations in the 10 years we worked together, and did more to un-do a life of being raised in the racially prejudiced South than anyone I had ever known…
La Shawn’s attitude reminds me of my friend, a lot… The last time I saw him was on 9-10-01, we sort of lost contact after that…
I have been to many places in Africa, but I prefer to mention the many Africans who have made their way to Europe. Cosmopolitan cities such as Madrid, Paris and Rome have many young Africans selling stuff in the street markets. They speak French, English, Spanish, Italian and whatever it takes to make a sale.
My wife spent years trying to pound beginning Spanish into the heads of black and white high schoolers to little effect on many. They simply had no compulsion to learn, so they didn’t.
I admire the young African street entrepreneurs in Europe. They are really bucking the odds to make money and get ahead. And their multiple language fluency attests to the fact that you can take a child from the most insular and backward African village and he can succeed on some of the most sophisticated streets of the world.
The whole racism/poverty excuse in this country continues to underwhelm me.
I had two African students live in my home over the years. Lillian Omboya Ullat was from Uganda and had her left eye blinded with acid at the personal direction of Idi Amin. Christianity and having achieved higher grades than Amin’s son were her crime. She had zero patience with most black skinned Americans in the high school. She was very black, but she was quickly branded an “Oreo.” Her friends were other honors students, both black and white. Unfortunately, she died of cancer in her twenties, but she was a wonderfully bright lady and a stunning personality.
The other student who shared our family was Paulos Dlamini from South Africa. His father was a janitor at a university and from their mud floored house his 14 children had all found their way to education abroad through the kindness of strangers. Paulos’ father quietly begged visitors to the university to take a child home with them and give them a chance to learn. The father was killed by Winnie Mandela’s gang of thugs while Paulos was in our home. He went home immediately and I have never been successful in finding what became of him. His mind was a sponge and his grades were nearly perfect. He won the American History Award from the DAR and was among the finalists in the US Constitution contests when he had to leave for home.
There is much about Africa that is not appealing, but I have never felt there was any parallel between African Americans and black Africans except the super shallow concept of skin color.
I wonder if a white South African, whose grandmas were both born there, would be an “African-American” if he came to the US? Prolly not…
South Africa, under apartheid was a combination First world / Third world. Johannesburg – first; and Soweto – third. (Now I live in second world Slovakia; perhaps this year to become an American-Slovak.)
Recently I was in Kenya. Great kids; wearing uniforms to school. “How are you?” “How are you?” Huge, white-toothed smiles and open eyes.
And a few “Give me money” requests, too. Still cute in a 6 year old.
Aid teaches corruption. Some of the kids who got aid money twenty years ago, and are now cops, still meet other folk and say “give me money.” And it’s not cute.
Africa needs private property, individual rights, and entrepreneurs. And less gov’t = less corruption. Christianity is helping some.
Although I have never been to Africa, Richburg did tend to step into the hottest fires there were as a journalist, so of course he is going to have an extremely sour experience there. Still, his testimony is a great reminder that even the appearance of tyranny – and more importantly, the complete powerlessness to defend oneself – must be fought tooth and nail at every turn.
I still want to go though…Egypt, S. Africa and Botswana, Liberia, Rwanda etc… I want to see for myself.
Not gonna take this dude’s word for it.
I’m curious La Shawn. Can the perps in the article you mention (regarding black American bias toward black Africans)be charged with the now famous “hate” crimes???
This is essentially correct. Although I DO so enjoy referring to myself as a Scots-Irish-Anglo-German-Armenian-Native-American.
Perhaps the nomenclature is not so far off – the mixture of African, European and Native genes and culture creates an utterly unique group in the world. It’s just a crying shame that every other name ever tried came to carry such “baggage”.
Although sometimes I have been tempted, if one wishes to group people at all, to group more by culture than skin color or ancestry, and, that being the case, I’m proud to say it’s a GOOD day to be an Urban American! [[Grin]]
I hear all this talk about African American empowerment, yet I hear nothing from the African American ciommunity about the attrocities being committed against Africans in Darfur. Why are’nt there more African leaders stepping up and getting this issue addressed? I am all for the equality movement for African Americans but I want to know why there is not more sympathy for their brothers and sisters back home in Africa. Where is the committment on this?
Raymond B
http://www.voteswagon.com
I read the debate, and, to be honest, there was no engagement. The two men would each make a statement, then the interviewer would move on to the next question. I did not see any conceding of any pointby the other gentleman hat you mentioned however. Is it possible that you were swayed by your emprace of the journalist’s perspective?
My wife and I both love Africa (she is a lovely black African from East Africa, and I am a white missionary), but we have no illusions about the continent. Corruption, war, deliberate famine, ethnic cleansing, genocide – Africa can be a true approximation of Hell. “Africa is full of Herods,” as one East African evangelist so aptly put it.
Worse still is how some “African-Americans” become the docile and obedient bootlickers of African tyrants – if they are black. It’s hard to watch leaders like Robert Mugabe or Daniel arap-Moi (the former president of Kenya) getting a free pass as “civil rights” leaders in this country look the other way.
Given all of the problems in Africa, it is the African people who amaze, astound and renew me. African Christians are strong in their faith, and could teach their American counterparts a thing or two about keeping the faith under fire. African Christian churches are growing as Africans hear the voice of their Shepherd. Contrast that with the declining membership of many mainline denominations in the USA, where the leadership seems to be in competition with each other on how much they can conform to the powers of this world. The applause of men, not the approval of God, is what too many American Christians seek.
Would my wife and I go back to Africa? You bet! For all of its problems, Africa feels more like home to us that America right now. While not perfect, Africans practice what many Americans preach – loving their neighbors as themselves. America may be far richer and freer than any African country, but the militant secularism that has wrecked much of Europe will one day (I predict) ruin this country as well.
Heliotrope is right – African have little in common with “African-Americans” except skin color.
One final plea – do not think for a moment that the views and actions of African leaders reflect the views of the Africans themselves. Despite what Africanists in this country have told us, there are no democracies in Africa. Not one. Rigged ballots and voter fraud are the norm in Africa. The good news is that most African tyrants are weak as well as corrupt, so Africans in many countries enjoy a certain degree of (unintentional) freedom.
“It’s strange that we use the word “African†as a nationality when I suspect that true Africans refer to their countries when referring to their nationality, and not the continent.”
I certainly agree La Shawn. Isn’t it interesting that the only people in the world who refer to themselves by the name of their continent are ourselves, Americans. And one continent isn’t even enough, we claim two.
I deplore being called African-American and am equally dismayed with the title of ‘colored’. Even though I am milk-chocolate brown, with Italian, French Canadian and American Indian (to distinguish from India), I prefer to be called American and if at all necessary to choose a discriptive title, black will suffice.
But there are many tags that I’d choose before I even get to that one, like Christian, conservative, ‘born again’ or even Republican.
This is America. We are Americans. when we can all get to the place where we place everyone in the same family…only then do we have a chance of getting along and unifying as a country.
My impressions of Africa (specifically Ethiopia) from January 2004 trip to meet and bring home our newly-adopted daughter:
1.) Lame children begging in the airport parking lot when we arrived.
2.) Ethiopians are very friendly, warm people who have been “seasoned” by the hardships they have endured. They therefore come across as much more real or genuine than many of us Americans. Many Ethiopians I met also seem less uptight and more at-peace relative to us Americans.
3.) Lots of taxis and throngs of people walking along the rocky, dusty sides of the streets.
4.) Traffic lanes and signs are treated as mere “suggestions” … not the law.
5.) I usually (mistakenly) adhere to the prevailing American mindset that talking with strangers about religion at anything more than a superficial level is somehow “taboo”. Despite this, I was approached and engaged by many Ethiopians in meaningful discussions about faith in Christ.
6.) I saw too many women (and donkeys too!) doing backbreaking work to eek out a (brief) living. Chopping wood all day, carrying large bundles of wood for loooong distances, etc.
7.) A guilty feeling as we took off for home that it was just way too easy for me to board a plane and escape all the hardships struggle I’d witnessed and briefly endured while for millions of others there is no choice.
8.) Despite a hot climate, I rarely saw people wearing shorts. Men wore always long pants and women wore long traditional-looking dresses or (if they were younger sometimes) long pants, but NEVER shorts …except for me the obvious foreigner!
9.) A newly discovered appreciation for clean tap water when we returned home!
10.) An impression which I didn’t have until going to Africa that a large percentage of Americans are OLD (ie – over 40).
Tiny digression: “Rocket surgeon”? You’ve been reading Steve Krug!
Exactly what makes “black” a “better” term than African-American? I couldn’t fathom some of the posters in here walking down 18th Ave in Brooklyn and announcing to people in Resturants, “Hey, stop with all this Italian stuff. You’re just white folks.” I couldn’t see it happening in South Boston with the Irish, or Chinatown, etc.
(Yeah, I guess we’d have to start calling them “yellow people” instead of Asian-American.)
Let people call themselves what they like. If you PREFER “black”, more power to you.
–Cobra
If that’s directed toward me, I don’t recall telling anyone what to do. – Admin
Due to being roughly half Irish in ancestry, I’ve ventured onto a few Irish discussion sites, mainly for genealogical reasons. Got to know quite a few great folks in Ireland. One thing that universally amuses all of them is the use of the term “Irish-American” by folks here who have never even seen Ireland. My Irish friends consider such terminology to be absolutely ridiculous. I tend to agree with them, so I claim to be a Nebraskan-American.
#30 Cobra:
Just a friendly hint—
Many “Asian-Americans” don’t like being lumped together because “they all look alike” to some people. Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Thais, etc. have very different histories and some of their histories include bitter experiences with one another. If you don’t like calling them Americans, then at least hyphenate them with their country or origin.
Why don’t we use the shorthand of “European-American” or “South-American” American? And then there is the tired old complaint that people from the US have no right to claim the two American continents. Fine. Let’s call ourselves United States of America Americans. And blacks could be African-United States of America Americans. Of course, you might not like being lumped in with the “red states” so we could have African-United States of America Blue States American.
La Shawn, I am proud to be a Norwegian-Swedish-Danish-Finlander-German-Irish-Scottish-English-French Canadian-American. My grandfather was a traveling salesman.
Will Africa as a continent ever forgive the US for Bill Clinton, who is taking up African relief efforts to show ‘he feels their pain?’ I know he wants Kofi Annan’s job; he’s following the patented Liberal guidebook-find people in need -any people-then get in front of a camera and exploit their plight. Denounce the United States for not doing enough, and President Bush because he’s still President Bush.
If he (and everyone else) wants to end hunger in Africa–expose and depose the corrupt governments of the countries who keep the people starving so that the relief money keeps rolling in. I can’t help if this sounds cynical-study the situation and ask yourself why people are still starving
after decades of relief organizations working to make populations self sufficient. And notice that some African countries just last year had billions of dollars of debt “forgiven”…again.
And are we going to start calling China Town in Washington DC American Town?
How about the Irish Pub? Should we call that the American Pub now?
Little Italy? That says Little America to me.
Henry Louis Gates has a great series running on PBS this month which traces several prominent African-Americans’ geneologies.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/profile_gates.html
“In this series, I take eight prominent African Americans — Dr. Ben Carson, Whoopi Goldberg, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Dr. Mae Jemison, Quincy Jones, Dr. Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Chris Tucker and Oprah Winfrey — and trace their family trees, as well as my own, using all available documents going back deep into slavery. Once the paper trail has been exhausted, we then do their DNA analysis to determine where their ancestors came from in AFRICA. The series really shows how rich the stories of average African Americans are. We’ve extracted compelling stories about individuals who in some cases could barely read and write. These stories are as rich as the stories of Booker T. Washington or Frederick Douglass or W.E.B. Du Bois or Marcus Garvey. This is another way of telling history, and a way that everyone can respond to.” -Gates
Shockingly, none of the participants ancestries trace back to America as their origin.
When I meet people and I ask them what their name is I call them what they tell me they want to be called. I generally don’t decide, “that name is silly, so I’m going to call you what I think you should be called.”
To me, attempting to dictate what someone should call themselves is one of the highest forms of hubris.
Maybe there’s something wrong with me. I couldn’t care less what my ancestry is or, that my wife’s skin color is the opposite of mine or, what anyone should happen to think about it.
I was captivated with Dr. Henry Louis Gates series
on PBS. I have never been to an African country.
Accounts from friends and acquaintances whom have visited and/or lived in African countries
have been loving to horrible. I do think about going to the Ivory Coast, Kenya, Ghana or Nigeria) as a short-term missionary.
Bev
PS.. The one who loved it had been a missionary
in the bush country in the Ivory Coast for
almost 30 years.
>>…at the root of American possibilities was a culture of freedom and an old-fashioned work ethic innate with those who take responsibility for their own lives.>>
At the root of American possibilities is the right of private property ownership. When the government can seize your property without your consent, there’s simply no way to get ahead.
That’s why the Kelo decision was so disastrous. It’s one thing to have property taken for the public use, it’s another to have property taken and given over to another private property so that the governing body can collect higher taxes.
Heliotrope writes:
>>>”Many “Asian-Americans†don’t like being lumped together because “they all look alike†to some people. Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Thais, etc. have very different histories and some of their histories include bitter experiences with one another. If you don’t like calling them Americans, then at least hyphenate them with their country or origin.”
And I’ll be just as friendly back. I fully understand that many people are sensitive to being “lumped together”, or the “they all look alike” syndrome. People of African ancestry know this well. That’s why I don’t know what the big deal is about the term “African-American”. If it’s about skin tone, heck, Sammy Sosa is darker in complexion than Condolezza Rice, yet only ONE is considered “black.”
–Cobra
Lashawn is right on point when she says that she cannot identify herself as an African-American.Different cultures have different ways of identification.
At times you come from where you were born at.In some cultures you come from where either your Dad or Mom came from. Some cultures still identify with their ancestral origins.It is up to the individual to determine where he or she originates from.
In an attempt to show the American system that they acknowledge the fact that are regarded as being “different” and that they are different based on history the term African American came into being.I feel that the term is not wrong when you consider that historically all people that were black could trace their origins back to Africa.Just like we have Chinese-Americans,Japanese-Americans etc.President Ronald Reagan was even identiied as an Irish-American.
So the term African American is not so wrong.
It is interesting to note that African-Americans at times could be ruthlessly racist in nature.
You see this manifest in their lack of patience with the newly arrived african with a thick accent that does not speak ebonics.
You see this when they fail to understand that our colonial rulers were european and so we speak english and “sound white”. Then there is the problem of African-Americans still identifying the Africans as the financial counterparts of the slave dealers in the mist of time.
Sometimes the African American just cannot hide his disdain and disrespect for the culture of the african and could be real quick to demonstrate,”The-jungle man-has-just-arrived-in-america-attitude”
The average African also loses respect for the African-American counterpart when they percieve or mistakenly judge that there is a warped sense of freedom(Based on the value system of the Africans) and that there is the embracing of strife and the vice of life that is so predominant in the black community.For example, too many single mothers,drug use,drug peddling,high rate of black men in the prisons,HIV,acts of violence by the men on their wives and the joblessness or percieved irresponsibility of the average black man. The Africans also percieve the average African-American woman as being very fiery,confrontational and a little bit too outspoken for their own good and highly materialistic and that they have no morals and they have driven their men into a life of crime to support their needs.
Africans feel that the African-American has enourmous opportunity and resources at their disposal in this country and that he refused to take advantage and rather would live the role of the person that has given up and become lazy, preoccupied with clubbing and refuses to grow up mentally ,looking for Caucasian women to pay their bills.
Like one African friend put it,”All they want to be is either a rapper or a basketball/Football player.In that statement I understood that the African didn’t understand the culture and so they judged it.Then I have seen the Africans flaunt the,”I-work-hard-get-a-education-and-I-am-successful-attitude” with bad results for the relationship.
In my opinion both sides show disappointment for each other when they realize that they are not similar but very different in cultures and attitudes.Both sides have to work in unison with patience to understand each other and work together for the common good. I have been a witness to successful collaborations between the two groups.The success is mind-blowing.
La Shawn,
Keith Richburg’s account reminds me of what I was told by a female friend after she spent a month in Africa with her church group. Now, this lady is a college administrator with a PhD, and very liberal so what she said surprised me.
Like Richburg she saw a lot that made her thankful to be an American. Also like Richburg she started off her story to me of her African experiences with “This might shock you a little but…”. Basically she was grateful that her ancestors were brought to this country. She was sorry for the hardships they undoubtedly endured, and wished that the circumstances had been different for them, but felt that if they were watching out from above over their descendants, that they would be comforted in the long run for how things turned out, versus how things would have been.
Stereotypes aren’t the same as myths or urban legends, by the way; they’re based on facts.
I must respectfully disagree with this. Stereotypes are based on assumptions. If a young black woman who is not and has never been on any type of government assistance is stereotyped as being a welfare receipient, her history of never having been on government assistance makes the stereotype based on non-facts. White Republicans are often stereotyped as being Confederate flag waving racists, yet to stereotype a white Republican who doesn’t have a racist bone in his body this way is stereotyping him or her based on untruths.
A stereotype is an oversimplified generalization, and the assumptions are based on facts. Blacks are overrepresented on the welfare rolls. If someone assumes an unmarried black woman with five kids, no husband, living in a low-income neighborhood, and is at home during the day is on the government dole, it’s a reasonable assumption. She may be a widow or divorcee too proud for welfare who works nights, or is supported by her family. Or she could be on welfare. – Admin
I’ve lived in Ghana during Nkrumah’s rise to and fall from power, in Nigeria during the Biafran War and Ivory Coast where my a couple of classmates/dorm-mates turned out to be the kids of Biafra ‘rebel’ leader Ojukuwo.
Generally speaking, ‘African-Americans’ in living in Africa fall under three categories: boot-lickers/carpetbaggers (evil), Marxist idealists (intellectually stupid/morally bankrupt) or teachers — teachers as in teaching a man to fish/fishers of men.
I really think it would do a lot of good if it were part of a mandatory high school requirement that one spends a year in a 3rd world country, before coming back to finish HS. In HS you can impress them while they’re really young, plus helping them to focus on a career direction, altho, as part of college curriculum would work — either being better than none.
For sure, we would see the following benefits:
1) edumacation elites laughed out of their ivory towers
2) Jesse and other victicrats laughed out of their race-baiting
3) liberal elites laughed out of their limousines and GVs
4) black kids acting white with relish & fervor and working on developing the content of their character
5) best of all, folks like Cobra seeing the light that this is not a racist country holding back people, rather the racism of individuals holding themselves back.
As for Clinton. If Slick Willy really felt for Africa as America’s Black president, he would have promoted this sort of help as opposed to the mealy-mouthed ‘I feel your pain’, before scurrying off to the next media blitz.
Recently, in a Business Law class I’m taking, the teacher lectured the almost entirely black class about “knowing your roots.” This teacher is an interesting lady and everything, and very smart, but I couldn’t help but mentally giggle when she said, “In Africa, black people don’t kill each other,” as though black-on-black violence is PURELY an American phenomenon.
I kept my big, white mouth shut, though. XD
There is plenty in value in making/suggesting that black students study African history, but I think a lot of that value may be exaggerated. Most American blacks have no idea which country, let alone region, in Africa their ancestors came from, and to apply your family and cultural roots to an entire continent is quite the stretch. That’s one of the troubles with people talking about Africa as though it’s a country–one can’t simply start listing off “African values” as though such a thing exists. Africa is HUGE.
P.S. As long as I’m talking about strange racial school stories, I may as well mention the time someone (who happened to be black) asked a teacher about the “African Language.”
*coughthereisnosuchlanguageas’african’cough*
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