Black Africans vs. Black Americans...

[GO843]

Every now and then I run into Americans who swear up and down that Africans look down on them, more so now that this "ADOS" movement is picking up steam...And conversely, I've also run into some Africans who feel that Americans are lazy, disrespectful, and have adopted negative behaviors from the white man...I just feel like on both sides, there are ignorant folk who generalize and pin stereotypes on an entire group of people...Which is counter productive.

Personally, I was born in Nigeria(father side) and raised in South Carolina(mother side)...Got family in Africa still, but the majority of my life experience has been as a Black man growing up in the south...I've met Africans from various countries here in the states and online and the majority of them have genuinely loved Black Americans and welcome Americans to come back to the continent...Some of them even feel like Americans are the ones who look down on them...

...So, which side of the spectrum do you fall on, or are you in between like me?...And what have your experiences been like with people from the other side?...Also, if you're a Black person from anywhere else(UK, South America, Carribean, etc), what's your perception of Blacks from America and Africa?

 

[Duwop]

I don't have the time today.... Maybe later

 

[Duwop]

Naw I'll run it down in a second, but it's gonna be a long post.

 

[GO843]

Take your time...

 

[Duwop]

Okay....

I was born with a very wide nose.

And A VERY African name in Diarra.

These two things have given me a very unique experience as many Africans in my life have initially mistaked me for a true African when I am just a typical Black American.


And 100% of the time. Not one exception in my entire life, whenever a native African realized that my parents just pulled my name out of a African name book, and it wasn't a family name passed down.....100% of the time their face frowned up and they looked at me with disgust.

In all my experiences with native Africans they look down on black Americans. They 100% subscribe to ever stereotype whites have placed on us and they 100% feel black Americans are responsible for their place in white America.

In college, I had African friends who would hide their black friends from their African parents.... They had them thinking they was only cool with white kids...

In the work world, I started off at the airport. a large amount of the sky caps were African and they constantly were on that shit...

My name tag had my first name on it and at least 3 or 4 Africans would walk down on me a week thinking I was from Mali or something... And they always were offended when I wasn't.

One dude literally got confrontational like he was ready to fight cuz he said I "stole my name from his people" like he took it as a great offense..... And I can promise you if we weren't at a federal airport...m we would have been fighting over that shit....

But I wasn't trying to catch a felony...

But understand this....

An African man wanted to FIGHT ME.... Cuz of my name....

They don't fuck with us fam.... There's always exceptions.... But not as a whole...

And I've never been a fan of trying to attach myself to people who don't want me....

 

[Duwop]

Like the 80's was crazy....

Mad black folk was trying to reconnect and give their children genuine African names..... And I feel like that caused crazy division.... Cuz Africans..... They don't like that shit

 

[King Freeman]

Uggghhh. This again.

 

[GO843]

They don't fuck with us fam.... There's always exceptions.... But not as a whole...

And I've never been a fan of trying to attach myself to people who don't want me....

You from DC, innit?...I know you prolly grew up around a lot more Africans than me, but were all your encounters in the DMV area?...Cause I got fam in DC and Jersey who have expressed those same sentiments about their African friends' parents and what not...Which kinda makes me feel like it might be a result of those immigrants moving to bigger cities and having an "us against everyone" mentality...And when you have that mentality, you may very well start to model your behavior after the social group that's on top(whites)...

...When I lived in Columbia, SC my dad had met a few other African families...Some Nigerian, Cameroonian, Liberian...And all of them had kids with Black American friends who would be at their houses...There was no discrimination...One of the families was well off but the others were just regular folk in the hood...Een right now in the small town I live in there's some Cameroonian ladies with a hair shop...They stay in the projects on my side of town and never talk down on American Blacks...Matter fact, they want to start more Black businesses in the area and they wanna get locals on board...

But I once dated a Ghanian girl from Atlanta, her family stayed in Buckhead...Her grandparents came over here, very money minded, and went the typical doctor route...So she was from a family with 3 generations of wealth...And they 100 percent looked down on me cause I didn't come from that type of background, I had a criminal record, my family in Atlanta was from the hood in Decatur, I had dreads, I rapped, etc...Got even worse when they found out I was Nigerian because some Ghanians(a lot of Africans, actually) look at Nigerians as scammers and liars...

Then I also dated an Ethiopian girl from Charlotte NC...Her mom and sisters LOVED me when they met me...Never got a sense that they had a problem with me, and they lived in a lower middle class neighborhood full of American Blacks...

...So I say all that to say, I really think it's a case by case basis and there might be more exceptions than you think...Especially if you were to go over there(unless you've already been), because most stories I've heard from American Blacks who relocated was that they were embraced with open arms it just took them a while to get used to the different customs and economic factors...

 

[Duwop]

I grew up in Baltimore, went to college in Philly and worked at the BWI airport.

My experiences have been limited to the East Coast region.

 

[Focal Point]

Misconceptions cause a lot of these issues, I try to interact on a regular with all my black ppl, only way shit gonna change

 

[GO843]

I grew up in Baltimore, went to college in Philly and worked at the BWI airport.

My experiences have been limited to the East Coast region.

Okay, word...So that's what I be sayin...Like I work with an older cat now...He got on this topic few days ago, and was goin off..."Aw man, them Africans hate us, they don't want us to come back, they sold us" etc...And I asked him what made him feel that way and he said he had bad run ins with Africans when he usta live in New York...And I was like "Well how is that different from those same africans making a blanket statement about Black folk everywhere just because they met some wild niggas in Brooklyn?"...

 

[GO843]

Misconceptions cause a lot of these issues, I try to interact on a regular with all my black ppl, only way shit gonna change

Exactly, the way I look at it...I wanna know how all of us have experienced the world...Like, there's Black messicans that been there for centuries...That interests the fuck outta me!...Erbody ain gon be on some "unity" shit but I think if more people put they pride and preconceived notions to the side we'd get closer to it...

 

[Focal Point]

My brother's wife is half American and half Nigerian... he's been learning a lot of her father's culture

 

[SeaSnake]

Every now and then I run into Americans who swear up and down that Africans look down on them, more so now that this "ADOS" movement is picking up steam...And conversely, I've also run into some Africans who feel that Americans are lazy, disrespectful, and have adopted negative behaviors from the white man...I just feel like on both sides, there are ignorant folk who generalize and pin stereotypes on an entire group of people...Which is counter productive.

Personally, I was born in Nigeria(father side) and raised in South Carolina(mother side)...Got family in Africa still, but the majority of my life experience has been as a Black man growing up in the south...I've met Africans from various countries here in the states and online and the majority of them have genuinely loved Black Americans and welcome Americans to come back to the continent...Some of them even feel like Americans are the ones who look down on them...

...So, which side of the spectrum do you fall on, or are you in between like me?...And what have your experiences been like with people from the other side?...Also, if you're a Black person from anywhere else(UK, South America, Carribean, etc), what's your perception of Blacks from America and Africa?

African American. I think the beef just comes from ignorance and bad school experiences. Like every African got a story of being bullied by Americans. But every group go through that. Haitians got tired to f it and teamed up. If we just chill and talk we be alright

 

[GO843]

My brother's wife is half American and half Nigerian... he's been learning a lot of her father's culture

So he's actually close with his father in law...?

 

[Focal Point]

Exactly, the way I look at it...I wanna know how all of us have experienced the world...Like, there's Black messicans that been there for centuries...That interests the fuck outta me!...Erbody ain gon be on some "unity" shit but I think if more people put they pride and preconceived notions to the side we'd get closer to it...

I know a black Mexican from Oxnard and she rides hard for black unity

 

[Focal Point]

So he's actually close with his father in law...?

Very much so, they go out for drinks and watch football and soccer

 

[Duwop]

Yea there's this African cat that comes to my bar...



Architect makes dumb money.

Wherever he was from in Africa they were poor. When he came to America for college, he came poor.

Now he's in a really good position, and has a horrible outlook on black Americans.

He fucks with me, but he thinks I'm an exception because I work hard and I'm family oriented. I still speak to homie, but I stopped fucking with him heavy after we had that conversation one day about black Americans.

He won't be convinced they're not mostly lazy, self destructive, and overtly violent....

Just a toxic mindset I can't fuck with

 

[GO843]

African American. I think the beef just comes from ignorance and bad school experiences. Like every African got a story of being bullied by Americans. But every group go through that. Haitians got tired to f it and teamed up. If we just chill and talk we be alright

What country?...And were you born here or there?

 

[GO843]

Yea there's this African cat that comes to my bar...



Architect makes dumb money.

Wherever he was from in Africa they were poor. When he came to America for college, he came poor.

Now he's in a really good position, and has a horrible outlook on black Americans.

He fucks with me, but he thinks I'm an exception because I work hard and I'm family oriented. I still speak to homie, but I stopped fucking with him heavy after we had that conversation one day about black Americans.

He won't be convinced they're not mostly lazy, self destructive, and overtly violent....

Just a toxic mindset I can't fuck with

Yeah, that's some fuck shit...But that sounds like the type of person I wouldn't fuck with regardless of what color they were or what country they from...There's plenty Africans who adopt that "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" mentality but there's also plenty others who don't think that way...