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The Beef Between Africans & African Americans: Why Can’t We Get Along? (623 hits)

There are two major problems at hand: not enough African Americans acknowledge that they are Africans and not enough Africans acknowledge that African Americans are African. I’m sure growing up we have all heard the “You look like you African” jokes. Well that cruel joke has followed us to adulthood. How can a Black person look like an African, when they are African? And why is that meant to be offensive? I will admit that it wasn’t until after my voyage to the Motherland, that I began to take ownership of my African roots. What’s weird is when I say that I’m African around African Americans that know me, they look at me like I’m crazy and question me. I respond by saying “You’re African too!”

On the other hand I have heard Africans speak like the Nigerian lady who told me that I wasn’t African. Is the history of slavery not enough explanation on how we separated from our homeland? That isn’t American history; it’s African and American history. There are African Americans like myself who have gone through major identity crisis’ and struggled over the fact that we have no knowledge of what country in Africa we came from. Just because we weren’t born in Africa, don’t strip us of our African identity and heritage.

What frustrates me is I can see how the media has played a crucial role in dividing us. In America they have presented Africa to us as the Dark Continent with uncivilized people. To an extent we have believed everything we’ve seen on television. I remember on my first trip to Africa I was scared that some random men were going to break into the house I was staying and rape me. How crazy is that? In Africa they have presented African Americans as all being uneducated, rappers, thugs, and hoes. It was very irritating when the Africans would try to use slang with me. The media alone has caused us to form stereotypes about each other.

This is an issue that frequently comes up in my diverse circle of friends, so I wanted to share it with you guys. I leave you with this question:

At what point did African Americans stop being African? When we got off the slave ship? TO READ MORE CLICK IN LINK http://blacklovespeak.com/2010/05/19/the-b...

Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Monday, September 13th 2010 at 9:39PM
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Saint....African Americans are still Africans. Proper education expands on this truth. Sure, emotionalism can pursuade one to rationalize other synopsis of this reality, but, at the core, you will find holes in the explanation. African Americans came from someplace on the continent of Africa. After being Americanized, it makes us African Americans.
Monday, September 13th 2010 at 11:25PM
jamal Abraham

And this is the problem I've heard Aficans say... "We have become to American" We do not have any knowledge of our true culture and the ancestory of our family. My friend once told me if he took me to Africa, I would not be accepted... customs and traditions are important within some nations, I would not know how to adapt to his way of life and my respectful place in his home country.
Monday, September 13th 2010 at 11:58PM
Cynthia Merrill Artis

David at the risk of my misunderstanding the theme of your blog...I will tell you some tof the things I learned from native-Africans because we had a get together with the students from Africa while I was a student at UCD in the late 80s...here are some of the thingsthat came from them (some I have already talked bout on this site)

ONe student told us about they were being sponsored by White people who warned them against us using some of the things stated by you already about us in America.

One said to someone who said they would love to come to Africa and was told as Americans we would not be welcomes, because we were American.

but the one statement that really stood out to me was the student who said what a state of shock she was in because when she arrived in N.Y she saw all of these Black people...she had seen so few Black in movies and on tv she had no idea the there wer so many black people in America...now if we see this as strange...just think of how many Rich africans we have seen on our tv who live in big homes...and to be truth ful I have met many Africans but very few poor Africans in real l life...(smile)

About the best way I can explain our Unique culture is to say we would not recognize it if most of us saw it...

and, why is this, it is because we actually life our culture, culture is something we use to help keep us alive and unified as a unique people, example,

if we stop long enough to listen to the actual truth about us as a people whose very brain works differently and our bodys are different because we have not yet mutated to survive out side of Africa..itis only the lack of truthful information that we so doubt our own selves...more examples,

cycle cell anemia is part of our culture...in Africa we had rumatic fever so nature had us mutate with cycle cells in our blood to keep us from all dying out...these things work for us in Africa and against us in America...

we have not yet been able to drink cow's milk and not mother's milk and more of us are like this than white people are,,,again the mixing of races has some nonAfricans like this also...

now we all know about rap, but how many of us know it was a major part of our survival in America?!? yes, rap comes out of chattel slavery...and yes they in the know is still afraid of our rapping as it should be because this is why rapping was invented only by us. (smile)

but one thing we still hold on to in our cultrue and dispite ourown government introducian crack into our Black community we are still holding onto...do you have any idea that the Black Caucus is still trying to get permission from our government to sue our government for the reason they introduced crack into east l.a.

...and, this came out of one of our proud Black youth about crack and its purpose and why it is such a success in doing the job it was put there to do...he said "CRACK HAS DONE SOMETHING THAT EVEN SLAVERY COULD NEVER DO, IT HAS TURNED THE BLACK MAN AGAINST HIS OWN MOTHER...

OH ABOUT RAP WHEN THE WHITE YOUTH FELL IN LOVE WITH RAP HERE COME IN TEH OVER PAYING OF BIG, BIG BUCKS TO GET IT CHANGED AND TO GET A FEW WHO HELD ONTO THE ORIGINAL RAPPING STYLE K-I-L-L-E-D...

this is very important because we still hold on to our culture is MOTHER CENTERED AND NOT FATHER CENTERED...TAKE AWAY OUR CULTURE AND WE DIE BECAUSE OUR UNIQUE CULTURE IS OUR IDENTITY. (SMILE)
Thursday, April 10th 2014 at 6:47PM
ROBINSON IRMA

DOC YOU AND jAAL ARE SO CORRECT, EXAMPLE JUST HOW MANY OF OUR PEOPLE DO YOU BELIEVE WE CAN GET TO BELIEVE THAT WE CAME FROM AN AFRICA THAT HAD CITY STATES AND IT WAS NOT ALL JUNGLES WITH NONUNIFIED PEOPLES JUST LIKE EVERY PLACE IN SAY ENGALND...

HELL NO...WE ARE STILL ON AFRICA AS A JUNGLE...OH, AND ONE MORE POINT "I" LOVE TO MAKE WHEN THE MAJORITY RACE COULD NO LONGER NOT BE ABLE TO CONTINUE THE WORLD IS FLAT FORM OF CIVILIZATIO N AS WE KNOW IT BEGAN ALONG THE NILE RIVER, EGYPT WAS TAKEN OUT OF AFRICA ON MAPS. (SMILE)

SO WE STILL FALL OFR THIS VERSION OF WE WHERE SLAVES AND NOT CHATTEL SLAVES BECAUSE ALL SLAVES HAD A CHANCE TO RISE ABOVE BEING SLAVES LIKE KING DAVID IN THE BIBLE DID...BUT REMEMBER WE WERE MADE PROPERTY AND WITHOUT SOULS BACK THEN AND TODAY WE ARE STILL NOT WILLING TO EVEN ACCEPT WE ARE DUE HUMANE TREATMENT AS ONE THIENG WE ARE UNIFIED IN...WE JUST ACCEPT THAT OLD SELF FULLING PROPACY THAT WE CAN NOT GET ALONG BECAUSE WE ARE JUST TO VIOLENT TO DO ANYTHING LIKE THE CIVILIZED MAN CAN...(NUP)

BECAUSE I CAN NOT BE CALLED A LIE ON THESE POINTS...AND PLEASE WATCH THIS MAN WIN THE RACE FOR GOVERNOR OF N. Y. TOMORROW ON THESE VERYPOINTS OF HOW VIOLENT WE ARE. (NUP)PLEASE DO THIS FOR OUR RACE...
Thursday, April 10th 2014 at 6:47PM
ROBINSON IRMA

@A-L-L...

HAVE YOU EVER "KNOCKED ON WOOD" or HAVE SEEN SOMEONE" KNOCK ON WOOD" ???? BECAUSE THIS IS A PART OF OUR AFRICAN CULTURE/ SPIRITUAL BELIEFS...YOU CAN LEARN ABOUT THIS IN BIA STUDY DEPARTMENTS OR "I" WILL EXPLAIN THIS LATER WHEN ALL OF THIS HAS BEEN FORGOTTEN. (SMILE)
Thursday, April 10th 2014 at 6:47PM
ROBINSON IRMA