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African American
par *Maadox Mer 25 Fév - 18:11
Let me start of by saying...i am not generalizing but it seems to be general 
So i was talking to this Af american dude and the conversation led him to ask "why should i know about Africa anyways"...
Its not the first time i hear an Af american say that...i am always amazed at their "detachment" from Africa...
So since this was through email...this is what i wrote to him:
1) The most modern answer will be the world is such a changing and global place, power is shifting like there is no tomorrow so its one best interest to know about anywhere in the world, not just Africa…life is now beyond the comfort of our borders.
2) Africa is rich in culture and everybody should know about Africa…at least most countries. Maybe something interesting will pop out to you and it would be the opportunity of a lifetime.
3) As an African American, you have history and its traced back to Africa…I think it’s a big lie and denial to just think otherwise. In my observation of African Americans, they lack solid background of culture…I always feel like they are very confused and just “are”…there isn’t really a purpose for their being…most of us Africans believe that its this lack of foundation that make most lack real goals in life except hustling…THEY tried to erase that past for you guys…just like THEY tried it in Africa with colonization but its all good because its time for empowerment.
4) America is a melting pot…and there are a lot of Africans for example…if you were to do business, date a girl, visit an African, how would u understand them? How do you” beat your enemies”, how do you “join them”?
5) Being culturally knowledgeable is totally attractive and opens up your mind to other possibilities.
6) Why can’t you as an African American help Africa somehow? Its where you come from…I am an American citizen…but my heart also lays in Africa.
i just can't stand people who got no clue of their surrondings...Going to school in Congo, i remember a professor who made us write every monday what happened during the week before around the world and in Congo...So i gotta know...maybe i don't understand fully the issues at stake but i gotta know...and to this af american dude, he thought it was overload of unnecessary information...lol.
As we got into it, i felt like i was intimidating the dude...lol, so i ended the conversation.
This is not necessary a sound conclusion but honnestly if Obama's dad was not from Africa and that he never made those trips to the motherland, i think i would have been a great Hillary supporter...coz in my opinion af americans are willingly ignorant...and that i can't stand....
So i was talking to this Af american dude and the conversation led him to ask "why should i know about Africa anyways"...
Its not the first time i hear an Af american say that...i am always amazed at their "detachment" from Africa...
So since this was through email...this is what i wrote to him:
1) The most modern answer will be the world is such a changing and global place, power is shifting like there is no tomorrow so its one best interest to know about anywhere in the world, not just Africa…life is now beyond the comfort of our borders.
2) Africa is rich in culture and everybody should know about Africa…at least most countries. Maybe something interesting will pop out to you and it would be the opportunity of a lifetime.
3) As an African American, you have history and its traced back to Africa…I think it’s a big lie and denial to just think otherwise. In my observation of African Americans, they lack solid background of culture…I always feel like they are very confused and just “are”…there isn’t really a purpose for their being…most of us Africans believe that its this lack of foundation that make most lack real goals in life except hustling…THEY tried to erase that past for you guys…just like THEY tried it in Africa with colonization but its all good because its time for empowerment.
4) America is a melting pot…and there are a lot of Africans for example…if you were to do business, date a girl, visit an African, how would u understand them? How do you” beat your enemies”, how do you “join them”?
5) Being culturally knowledgeable is totally attractive and opens up your mind to other possibilities.
6) Why can’t you as an African American help Africa somehow? Its where you come from…I am an American citizen…but my heart also lays in Africa.
i just can't stand people who got no clue of their surrondings...Going to school in Congo, i remember a professor who made us write every monday what happened during the week before around the world and in Congo...So i gotta know...maybe i don't understand fully the issues at stake but i gotta know...and to this af american dude, he thought it was overload of unnecessary information...lol.
As we got into it, i felt like i was intimidating the dude...lol, so i ended the conversation.
This is not necessary a sound conclusion but honnestly if Obama's dad was not from Africa and that he never made those trips to the motherland, i think i would have been a great Hillary supporter...coz in my opinion af americans are willingly ignorant...and that i can't stand....
*Maadox- Nombre de messages : 129
Date d'inscription : 16/11/2008
Re: African American
par Nappy Soul Jeu 26 Fév - 1:11
Be careful now ; this kinda talk has to be carefully analysed before judging.
When we talk about Afroricans, we're talking about a people who has been corrupted from the root of their arrival in this land where they were brought as tools. ( Not human beings).
Opressed for 400 years, told that they were subhuman and demoralized to a point where they 're ashamed of their own heritage and thus identity. In the whole cultural palette living in North America, Afroricans are the only ones who can't retrace their ancestry. This is not because they 're not willing to, but because the people who taught them about their origins were the same people who brought them to that land. They're taught that Africa is a place of hardship and danger with nothing to offer but war,disease, famine and poverty.
How can you learn your own history by the mouth of you own oppressor and come out of it with a positive outlook on who you really are?
When they see Africa , they see national Geographic Africa, when they see african they see hungry kids, poor mongrels that kill each other donning AK47's wearing flip flops for the sovereignity of a infertile piece of land. Why do you ask? Because that's the only image of Africa that they 're shown. Which is why, when their ellites visit the motherland they comeback transformed over what they been lied about all these years.
Why do you think that they don't identify with African immigrants that come here with nothing, but evolve 3 times as fast? When talking about Obama even some of the very educated Afroricans will say that he's not "Black" as if black was being re-invented by the Afroricans, somehow...
Education will be the key to their salvation, one can not go forward without ackowledging his origins and his history. If i was you I'd lay that down on him ( Your Afromerican friend), all the ethnicities living in North America today are able to retrace their ancestry and ackowledge their heritage, and thus have accepted their identity as a people. African Americans have not. The result? The socio economic clusterf#&k that is the plight of black America today.
Is it their fault that they're like that? No, I believe that it's the remnant of an oppressed people.Just that as of late it's like they're handing out the rope to their own hanging,for the same reasons you mentioned. They think they can afford to believe that ignorance is bliss. When you talk to people from Latin America or the Caraibeans where salvery was also practiced, you meet a different perspective. They want to know. They study thoroughly their history and they invest closely in their heritage and provenance.
To be fair I have personally met a good bunch of young Afroricans, very savvy of Africa,its people and its history. I 'd admit that most of them come from rich to middle class homes, but that fact should not discount them for actually being there. In the late 80's/ early 90's a cultural movement swept the Afroricans youth , it was called "Afrocentricity" , it was visible in the mainstream through hip hop and other element of popular culture. Music group like Afrika Bambaata, A tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Leader Of the New School, Jungle Brothers, Queen Latifah, Digable Planets, Arrested Development, etc...where the catalysts for that movement...Believe it or not, but this movement is still alive today, it might not be as visible as back in the day but you still recognize its evolution in today's artists. People who observe Kwanzaa ( As ridiculous as that practice is), are still yearning for something that would give them a sense of heritage. So , it would be hard for me to say that they want to linger in ignorance.Some of them want to know. It's just that too few are motivated to do so.
As a whole I'd say that they are victims ( At some fundamental level, anyway...) in this whole debacle. We ( African imigrant) come here from wherever we come from and expect them to be at the same level as us , our African history might also be suspect, but the difference is that we know where we've come from. A lot of us do not understand the privilege that comes from having a land to retrace one's identity...They've been robbed of that over and over, and as long as they don't claim it back, they will remain...confused.
When we talk about Afroricans, we're talking about a people who has been corrupted from the root of their arrival in this land where they were brought as tools. ( Not human beings).
Opressed for 400 years, told that they were subhuman and demoralized to a point where they 're ashamed of their own heritage and thus identity. In the whole cultural palette living in North America, Afroricans are the only ones who can't retrace their ancestry. This is not because they 're not willing to, but because the people who taught them about their origins were the same people who brought them to that land. They're taught that Africa is a place of hardship and danger with nothing to offer but war,disease, famine and poverty.
How can you learn your own history by the mouth of you own oppressor and come out of it with a positive outlook on who you really are?
When they see Africa , they see national Geographic Africa, when they see african they see hungry kids, poor mongrels that kill each other donning AK47's wearing flip flops for the sovereignity of a infertile piece of land. Why do you ask? Because that's the only image of Africa that they 're shown. Which is why, when their ellites visit the motherland they comeback transformed over what they been lied about all these years.
Why do you think that they don't identify with African immigrants that come here with nothing, but evolve 3 times as fast? When talking about Obama even some of the very educated Afroricans will say that he's not "Black" as if black was being re-invented by the Afroricans, somehow...
Education will be the key to their salvation, one can not go forward without ackowledging his origins and his history. If i was you I'd lay that down on him ( Your Afromerican friend), all the ethnicities living in North America today are able to retrace their ancestry and ackowledge their heritage, and thus have accepted their identity as a people. African Americans have not. The result? The socio economic clusterf#&k that is the plight of black America today.
Is it their fault that they're like that? No, I believe that it's the remnant of an oppressed people.Just that as of late it's like they're handing out the rope to their own hanging,for the same reasons you mentioned. They think they can afford to believe that ignorance is bliss. When you talk to people from Latin America or the Caraibeans where salvery was also practiced, you meet a different perspective. They want to know. They study thoroughly their history and they invest closely in their heritage and provenance.
To be fair I have personally met a good bunch of young Afroricans, very savvy of Africa,its people and its history. I 'd admit that most of them come from rich to middle class homes, but that fact should not discount them for actually being there. In the late 80's/ early 90's a cultural movement swept the Afroricans youth , it was called "Afrocentricity" , it was visible in the mainstream through hip hop and other element of popular culture. Music group like Afrika Bambaata, A tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Leader Of the New School, Jungle Brothers, Queen Latifah, Digable Planets, Arrested Development, etc...where the catalysts for that movement...Believe it or not, but this movement is still alive today, it might not be as visible as back in the day but you still recognize its evolution in today's artists. People who observe Kwanzaa ( As ridiculous as that practice is), are still yearning for something that would give them a sense of heritage. So , it would be hard for me to say that they want to linger in ignorance.Some of them want to know. It's just that too few are motivated to do so.
As a whole I'd say that they are victims ( At some fundamental level, anyway...) in this whole debacle. We ( African imigrant) come here from wherever we come from and expect them to be at the same level as us , our African history might also be suspect, but the difference is that we know where we've come from. A lot of us do not understand the privilege that comes from having a land to retrace one's identity...They've been robbed of that over and over, and as long as they don't claim it back, they will remain...confused.
Nappy Soul- Nombre de messages : 439
Date d'inscription : 06/09/2008
Re: African American
par *Maadox Jeu 26 Fév - 17:51
i understand their history...but its so much to keep on being the victim...u know? u gotta break out of a cycle...same thing in Congo...same thing with me...i can't keep on doing the same thing and expect different results...If my dad is an alcoholic...i might have tendencies to be that way...but i also have a choice not to be that way...I know it ain't easy, i ain't gonna pretend...coz its hard for me to break out of bad habits...But at least one step at a time is the road to recovery...
In my adult life, i have learnt that i can't live off of excuses...i ain't going no where, things will eventually come back to me and i would have to deal with them...and most importantly, its a truth and a fact that "Knowledge is power" no matter your excuse.
In my adult life, i have learnt that i can't live off of excuses...i ain't going no where, things will eventually come back to me and i would have to deal with them...and most importantly, its a truth and a fact that "Knowledge is power" no matter your excuse.
*Maadox- Nombre de messages : 129
Date d'inscription : 16/11/2008
Re: African American
par Silver Dim 1 Mar - 4:34
Slavery had a deep negative impact on american blacks, nobody should overlook that fact. But I still think that given the opportunities black americans have had in this country, as a people, they should be a socially and economically more stable than they are right now. A big problem they have in their community is having excuses for everything. It's the white man's fault, it's because of slavery. Again, It would be inhuman to think that slavery and/or its ghost have nothing to do with the problems blacks still face today. It has. Katrina, Jena 6, police profiling...etc are a sad reminder that blacks still live in a society where a lot of descendants of slave masters still think and act like their racist ancesters. But America , as a civil society, has tremendously improved. From slavery to 2008, via the independance and the 60's, the country has been constantly breaking race-related barriers.
Why many blacks haven't taken advantage of the opportunities other disadvantage people in the rest of the world can only dream of having? That negative mentality of having excuses for everything. It's the white man's fault, it's because of slavery.
You have these immigrants from all over the world who come to, say, Harlem, with their very limited english they first have to legalize their presence in this country while working on the black market (aka being taken advantage of by everybody, included a lot of blacks). With a little save money they open a bodega (corner store) , save more money and open another one. In a few years they realise their dreams and are able to help their families. Black Americans don't have to work on the black market for less than minimum wage, they don't have to learn conversational english, they can get assistance to start a business....they got it better than most new immigrants, but why 80% of business in the black community are in the hands of others? Because the american black has master the art of excuses. The white man made me a slave and he's treating me like one. I am Kunta Kinte. But the same black american will make fun of an african or carabean black who's just arrived in this country. He'll call him/her Kunta kinte, immigrant who comes to steal from americans. The american black uses slavery and racism when it works for him/her, but he can use the same words to attack others. Of course I am not associating all black americans, you have a lot of blacks who refuse to use those excuses, they work hard and are succesful. They are even called "sell-outs" by the "regular" blacks because they have succeed like white people (which can be a sin in the black community). How many people call Cosby, Oprah...sell-outs because of their success?
Europeans, Asians, Latinos, Africans come to this country and they work hard and they realise their american dream while the average american black "keeps it real" using excuses for his/her stagnation. Your ancesters fought for you to be free, act like free people, damn it!!!
Why many blacks haven't taken advantage of the opportunities other disadvantage people in the rest of the world can only dream of having? That negative mentality of having excuses for everything. It's the white man's fault, it's because of slavery.
You have these immigrants from all over the world who come to, say, Harlem, with their very limited english they first have to legalize their presence in this country while working on the black market (aka being taken advantage of by everybody, included a lot of blacks). With a little save money they open a bodega (corner store) , save more money and open another one. In a few years they realise their dreams and are able to help their families. Black Americans don't have to work on the black market for less than minimum wage, they don't have to learn conversational english, they can get assistance to start a business....they got it better than most new immigrants, but why 80% of business in the black community are in the hands of others? Because the american black has master the art of excuses. The white man made me a slave and he's treating me like one. I am Kunta Kinte. But the same black american will make fun of an african or carabean black who's just arrived in this country. He'll call him/her Kunta kinte, immigrant who comes to steal from americans. The american black uses slavery and racism when it works for him/her, but he can use the same words to attack others. Of course I am not associating all black americans, you have a lot of blacks who refuse to use those excuses, they work hard and are succesful. They are even called "sell-outs" by the "regular" blacks because they have succeed like white people (which can be a sin in the black community). How many people call Cosby, Oprah...sell-outs because of their success?
Europeans, Asians, Latinos, Africans come to this country and they work hard and they realise their american dream while the average american black "keeps it real" using excuses for his/her stagnation. Your ancesters fought for you to be free, act like free people, damn it!!!
Silver- Nombre de messages : 2335
Date d'inscription : 04/06/2008
Re: African American
par Silver Lun 2 Mar - 4:40
Maadox,
Instead of talking about american blacks relationship with Africa (the main question), I reacted to your last posting.
In respect to their relationship with/perception on Africa, the american blacks can be divided in 3 categories:
* You have those who know a lot about Africa and its history. They tend to be Afrocentric, sometimes a little bit too much. Some of them are afrocentric because they hate white people .
*You have those who know a little and MAY want to learn more but sometimes fall into the trap of stereotypes even though they know some things about Africa are exagerated. These people are confiused.
*You have the ignorant american blacks who feed off stereotypes about Africa. They think they're experts on Africa since they generalize and/or believe everything they see on the discovery channel and on shows like comic views. They tend to think they're superior blacks because they were born in America.
Sometimes I understand the ignorance of american blacks when it comes to African history or history in general. These are people who were constantly brainwashed and tought to hate their own. A lot of balcks are fought back hard to destroy that circle but unfortunately there are still a lot of mental slaves out there. That's why I think black history month is important. Instead of talking about MLK every year (as directed by WT) they should learn more about every aspect of their past including the taboo one , slavery. How slavery really came about? How was life before the white man came to Africa? What great contributions africans have made to humanity? I think the moe positive things they will learn about Africa, they more they would like to know about that continent. Understanding their african heritage and being proud of it will help them positioning themselves in America. If you don't where you came from, you don't know where you're going.
Silver- Nombre de messages : 2335
Date d'inscription : 04/06/2008
Re: African American
par *Maadox Mar 3 Mar - 17:15
Silver, i like your post!
the Af american issue is deep...but i hope they learnt from Obama, who didn't ignore the issue but rose above all those stereotyples and stumbling blocks...they gotta wake up somehow...
the Af american issue is deep...but i hope they learnt from Obama, who didn't ignore the issue but rose above all those stereotyples and stumbling blocks...they gotta wake up somehow...
*Maadox- Nombre de messages : 129
Date d'inscription : 16/11/2008
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