....they don't have the same plight as us African-Americans.

This isn't a hate or bait post but something I feel the black folks here might want to discuss.

So at work I have a few African co-workers and I am the only African-American male there. In light of everything that's going on in the world up comes the topic of race relations and French is already one of their languages but I often find them saying "we this.." and "we that.."
The whole time I'm thinking to myself...dude has duel citizenship or can easily buy a one way ticket back home to Africa and go about his business.

I say this because it seems that many Africans that came/come to the U.S. and start businesses and thrive and prosper off the American economy then send money back home AFTER we as African-Americans were "freed" as slaves and began establishing our own way in this country from nothing.

I flat out want to ask them....

1) When your ancestors discovered that they sold or knew about my ancestors being taken from our indigenous land and put through continuous stages of hardship in America that they didn't come in swarms to come through and rescue us?

2) Why is it AFTER the fact that when we are "free" and establish a little for ourselves from nothing that like many other ethnic groups Africans came to the U.S...our plight here became theirs as well?

I'm hoping you all can see these as valid points and questions of discussion and both black and African can chime in and give me your take on the situation.

I'm not african-american, but creole Mauritian.
Our country is a former slave colony, It is still a different reality there than black people in America (as most of the white people left after the end of slavery, the country also has a large Indian community which in alot of ways took over from where the white colonialists left off with the racism towards the african's (Caste system)
I am actually a mix of both, but am mostly and consider myself creole mauritian.
I grew up and lived in Australia- lets not get into their racism particularly against Indigenous Australians.

I guess I can not answer your question exactly, but yes africans everywhere do use the phrase "we", and we include former African slaves that live in the Unites States.

I dont know if African's claim your plight but feel they should speak up in support of it?

I get and hear what your saying about the experience of an African Vs African-American- two very different experiences.


Do you think African's claim your plight or feel they should speak up in support of it? like many african-americans have in support of issues concerning black people around the world- inc South Africa?

.

anyway, troll on playa

come on now..

I think this is a very valid topic for discussion.

Alas, it's one I've partaken in way too many times... don't know where to start with it at this point.

believe someone actually thinks everybody in all of Africa was complicit in the slave trade and sat around letting it happen when they could have stopped it or sailed over to save everyone on their magical ships. it's all kinda ridiculous. to add on that those same africans then waited until Black Americans freed themselves and established themselves in this country before coming over and taking a piece of that pie...i dunno man, i'd just rather put the blinders on to that shit.

>believe someone actually thinks (stop right there... he didn't say all of Africa so don't deal in absolutes... BUT perhaps that is his experience with Africans) everybody in all of Africa was complicit in the slave trade (No one said that either... BUT that is a valid argument.) and sat around letting it happen when they could have stopped it or sailed over to save everyone on their magical ships. (Oh the ships were only magical for us then... because other cultures had them and used them. Even Marcus Garvey built ships and sailed back... he sailed back in the midst of hate and b/s... I never read about african ships on our horizons...)


it's all kinda ridiculous. to
>add on that those same africans then waited until Black
>Americans freed themselves and established themselves in this
>country before coming over and taking a piece of that pie (You must have had these conversations before... the offense is already built in) ...i
>dunno man, i'd just rather put the blinders on to that shit.

But there are no blinders fam. I married an Afrian woman and her father nor mother speak to me, allow me in their home because I am Akata... so whether you don't want to beleive it or otherwise it is real.)

I know what I have observed so no, need for discussion here.

but they typically have other issues... just as serious around race and identity and racism.

our African counterparts wholly look at slavery as if it were our fault. They look at our plight as our weakness and approach us from that view point.


It makes it difficult to begin a dialogue.

They feel that you not "getting over it" is your fault.

Nobody disputes that slavery was some terrible shit. But terrible shit happens. I mean, if you live in Africa today, you probably encounter some fucked-up shit on a weekly basis.

But you gotta just keep moving forward. The world don't stop turning for nobody, and nobody owes anybody anything.

(That's the way *they* think of it...not ME)

We clown the Nigerian dude because his people were so greedy they sold us away and now all of us are having to fight the white man, and then he'll make a joke about how Nigerians are going to run everything.

In my mind, as long as your black and trying to build with black folks you are good people.

Yeah African-Americans should try harder to "move on" but Africans should also admit they accidentally fucked themselves over by dealing with Euros and Arabs in the first place.

>Yeah African-Americans should try harder to "move on" but
>Africans should also admit they accidentally fucked themselves
>over by dealing with Euros and Arabs in the first place.

And while Africans may not admit it (due to certain class issues among other things) we're arguably more fucked than African-Americans.

But then again, I think most Africans DO know that... which is why they are so unsympathetic to African-American plight. They feel that "y'all" have it good, "you" have everything at your fingertips if "you" would just ackrite and grab it... and yet "you" still complain.

The grass is always greener.

>But then again, I think most Africans DO know that... which is
>why they are so unsympathetic to African-American plight. They
>feel that "y'all" have it good, "you" have everything at your
>fingertips if "you" would just ackrite and grab it... and yet
>"you" still complain.

I have Nigerians in my extended family as well as Guyanese. Both of them look at American Black folks with this view. We DO have a lot of advantages to them if you look at their home countries. We sit here and complain about way too much shit to have all of these opportunities at hand. They prove we have these opportunities when they come over here with next to nothing and make it while many of us sit off complaining about how "da man" got us down.

(A lot of us here on OKP HAVE made it or are working hard towards doing do, so we don't count)

---------------------------

forcing myself to actually respond to you is like bathing in ebola virus. - Binlahab

Like there is stupid, and then there is you, and then there is dead. - VAsBestBBW

R.I.P. Disco D

>And while Africans may not admit it (due to certain class
>issues among other things) we're arguably more fucked than
>African-Americans.

and i live in south sudan where *we* are our main problem

i still dont think our issues are as insurmountable as that of african americans.
i guess i should say, poor Black people are more fkced up than our poor.
dont know how to explain this. i mean, we have more challenges, yes
but i have cousins that are barely literate *after* finishing high school in the u.s and thats a bit difficult to imagine here (in terms of someone being in high school and not able to read/write(
that institutionalized ish is not a joke
and then the whole they aint pullin up bootstraps mentality that is even amongst Black people?

i dont know

while being much more deeply-rooted.

And they're not "fatal"... you can live a full and rich life while afflicted by chronic colonial mentality.

But the problems are there and the fact that we don't even see them makes it all the worse.

>And they're not "fatal"... you can live a full and rich life
>while afflicted by chronic colonial mentality.'

Im not so much speaking about our identity issues cause we are fucked up when it comes to that
(i walk around juba and see so many women bleaching their skin yet we are the blackest people i know)
im mainly speaking about, whether or not poor people here still have some opportunity to actually succeed vs having a whole system that ensures that you can barely make it out.
i feel like there is a sense of complete lack of hope in the us. that i dont see in africa
(outside of drugdealing, playing football or nba)
i might be wrong,
but working with poor kids in the u.s and then working with poor kids in kenya?
there was still ambition amongst kids who might never make it that i didnt sense in the u.s

which end up manifesting in a number of detrimental ways on the macro level as well.

There's a simultaneous sense of inferiority and superiority in the contemporary African psyche. And it's a big part of why it seems that Africa can never stand on its own. We tend to be very confident people individually but not collectively.

that we are not grabbing & taking advantage of?

i dont want to put words in your mouth or fingertips & you know im not attacking you im honestly interested in what you or others who may agree w/ that POV think


does it really matter?

for all my fans who keep my name in their mouth: http://i.imgur.com/v2xNOpS.jpg

Maybe I met the wrong Africns because the ones I talked to ALWAYS made sure to bring slavery up or imply that our ancestors were weak for being caught and sold off...

>

Anti "Black" bigotry, yes, but not as it relates to having been sold into slavery.

they also said this:

if you put 5 africans in a locked room and 5 Black Americans in a locked room the Africans would get out quicker.

It was a party and the liquor and bud was flowing and once they got buzzy they went for broke.

we were outnumbered 15 to 2 and it was their party. There were a few who were chill and we chopped it up but some of them were on that mutts and dogs shit.

You don't know my father-in-law fam... He had that convo with me. Straight up wanted to ghetto blast him once or twice but can't do that hahaha.
>
>Nobody disputes that slavery was some terrible shit. But
>terrible shit happens. I mean, if you live in Africa today,
>you probably encounter some fucked-up shit on a weekly basis.
>
>But you gotta just keep moving forward. The world don't stop
>turning for nobody, and nobody owes anybody anything.
>
>(That's the way *they* think of it...not ME)
Also, you forgot that when the elder Africans came here, they were not rightly accepted by the American Blacks... and their mistreatment angers and hurts them as much as slavery hurt us. They ask us to get over it, but they won't. It's a really crazy dynamic.

>Also, you forgot that when the elder Africans came here, they
>were not rightly accepted by the American Blacks... and their
>mistreatment angers and hurts them as much as slavery hurt us.
>They ask us to get over it, but they won't. It's a really
>crazy dynamic.

Dude, I don't forget that because *I* got that mistreatment and so do Africans still coming over to the States today, in 2015.

To this very day right here on this very forum a lot of African people still get that disrespect and patronizing attitude... trust, bruh, I didn't "forget" anything lol

But do most Africans wallow and wail and curl up into a ball of depression about how Black Americans don't like them? They just move on... "These people don't fuck with us, so we don't fuck with them." Life goes on.

or my wife's parents lol.

i guess that needs to be defined.

we had a lot of kenyans come to the u.s in the 70's, during the height of the civil rights/ Black Power/ movement
we had the whole pan africanist movement that i think was a seminal time with regards to the relationships amongst diaspora blacks
i dont think that was a time of 'us' against' them. I think that was a time when we all felt like we were in the same boat (regardless of how we got here)

i dont know when that changed.
i know that my generation of africans are the most prejudiced against Blacks its shameful
i dont know how to explain it
for example, most of my peers grew up worshiping AfAm culture in Nairobi
(we were listening to all that shit y'all were listening to)
but most of us that came here?
something changed.
it didnt for me, not so much so i still cant explain it

that we aren't taking advantage of all the things that are available in the US.

>that we aren't taking advantage of all the things that are
>available in the US.


i will be completely honest and say that africans who are in the u.s (that i know)
do not respect african americans.
thats not jealousy. its prejudice

unfortunately that is nearly universal & IMO true of Black people as well


does it really matter?

for all my fans who keep my name in their mouth: http://i.imgur.com/v2xNOpS.jpg

I think the issue is valid as a diaspora topic of discussion. However, I think your assertion leave little room for an expansive and inclusive discussion.

I am Liberian; I know what the "Americo-Liberian" did to indigenous nations in "Liberia." Not the same, but I just want to illustrate that the Atlantic Slave Trade was not practice by most Africans.

Africans like most immigrants tend to generally buy into the American narrative. The institutional, governmental, scientific and culturally believe that anyone(group) can make it regardless of the systematic diseases AA went through from Slavery, cultural alienation, Jim Crow, Black codes...

My mother likes to stress that America has "free education." But she misses the fact that this free education is secondary to most. Your African co-workers will understand the institutional and cultural racism if you point them in the direction of health in the US.

My point is the world in general has bought into this narrative; African or not.

I don't understand what your beef is if it's the first scenario.

I got no beef, just recognizing that as a conversation starter most folks will come in very defensive.


1) "When your ancestors discovered that they sold or knew about my ancestors being taken from our indigenous land and put through continuous stages of hardship in America that they didn't come in swarms to come through and rescue us?"


These kids are raise on rap music
that's why they
autone it

-Blitz the Ambassador

.

Error


These kids are raise on rap music
that's why they
autone it

-Blitz the Ambassador

>Error
>
>
>These kids are raise on rap music
>that's why they
>autone it
>
>-Blitz the Ambassador


There's an error in your sig too. I think "autone" should be "autotune"
Lol, my bad. I just had to point it out.

>1) "When your ancestors discovered that they sold or knew
>about my ancestors being taken from our indigenous land and
>put through continuous stages of hardship in America that they
>didn't come in swarms to come through and rescue us?"


at all.
i understand the sentiment. and its hilarious when eddie griffin does it in voodoo child
but its not like africans were just cold chilling ignoring the missionaries and colonialists.

>but its not like africans were just cold chilling ignoring the
>missionaries and colonialists.

inner connected w/ours

They may have sympathy for us on many fronts

But as Anthology said above, most Africans I've had discussions with abt slavery in America and how the lingering effects of that experience is partly why we aren't able to move forward they seem to feel as if we're using slavery as a crutch...and that we have more resources at our disposable than any other group of ppl of color and we should be doing more

One brother from Ghana (heard this from Jamaicans too) used to say to me all the time in so many words that "Blk ameicans are lazy"

Exactly!!!!!

They never take into consideration the actual politics of this place. It is interesting watching my wife as New Jersey treats her like an American Black... it's almost like she is just now realizing how effed up it is...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^THIS is the key! Most Africans change their tune once they experience Institutionalized racism. Until that happens I chalk it up to them being ignorant.

not, "y'all were weak to get caught"

Especially for Question #1.

How u spokesperson and don't even watch soccer/futbol


but im banned tho.
____________

Dallas Cavericks LETS GO!!

In my experience they are just hellbent on believing the white supremacist narrative. It's easier and doesn't require them to think.

>In my experience they are just hellbent on believing the
>white supremacist narrative. It's easier and doesn't require
>them to think.

Not "WE" but "THEM"?

Word?

I didn't know this site was so Anti African. Good to know.

Of course we are all the same. However, the continentals Africans I was speaking about don't see it that way. I just deal with the ones who don't accept that nonsense.

Africans have their stories and we have ours...

I'm sure we also have GOOD stories too but this post ain't really about that.

I been maried to it for nearly a decade and TRUST... yes (in some cultures , not all) we are not effed with by them. Wife's parents (THEY) did not attend OUR wedding, nor any of her relatives (aside from one sister). When OUR son was born THEY never showed up. THEY disowned their eldest daughter because of our marriage...


All I am saying is that there is a problem. A Huge problem. It is not all cultures, but there are many who outright dislike US and don't view US all as the same.

Just as there are those of US who are equally as ignorant and hurtful to our African family.

I have never once threatened culture removal or anything to that effect. If anything it is to the opposite.

======================================
http://www.zuitomedia.com/

>
>======================================
>http://www.zuitomedia.com/

His wife being african kind of explains his posts about his marriage tho...

>I been maried to it for nearly a decade and TRUST... yes (in
>some cultures , not all) we are not effed with by them. Wife's
>parents (THEY) did not attend OUR wedding, nor any of her
>relatives (aside from one sister). When OUR son was born THEY
>never showed up. THEY disowned their eldest daughter because
>of our marriage...
>
>
>All I am saying is that there is a problem. A Huge problem. It
>is not all cultures, but there are many who outright dislike
>US and don't view US all as the same.
>
>Just as there are those of US who are equally as ignorant and
>hurtful to our African family.
>
>I have never once threatened culture removal or anything to
>that effect. If anything it is to the opposite.

My brother in law is Senegalese (Wolof). His fam LOVES my sister. Sorry y'all had to go through that.

that there are biases on all sides and allowing that to deter you from seeing the bigger picture only means you have biases you dont want to let go of.
its 3 sides to the same die
colonialization and slavery fucked all of us up
once we all realize that and move on and connect with those who dont buy into the foolishness we will be much better off
im sleep tho.

>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
instagram:
http://instagram.com/0kayndc

"There is much temptation to use what has worked before,
even when it may exceed its effective scope."

"Roll me further bitch"

I disagree

And I'm African

here soaking up all that good integration & affirmative action, but missed all the dogs, waterhoses and lynchings?


well that goes for pretty much all groups that came up in the past 50 yrs, including women


i never got the 'why didnt they come rescue us' beef tho.
if i have the power/gall and u have the dimwittedness for me to come across town and offer u a bottle of crown royal for your neighbor's kid
then i come back the next week with a gun and take your brothers kid

there is as much chance as u coming to find me as a flea pulling a tree


what i dont get tho is why so many countries dont have civil rights/arab spring movements
instead it seems like ppl just wash their hands of govt altogether

You diluted fuck! Get out of my cab!" (c) Angry African Cab Driver

...the substance of this post was not intended in any way to offend or endorse "beef" between anyone.

Call this a social experiment if you will. I'll reveal what I mean by such when time avails but the responses here will be a part of a grant that I'm writing this upcoming Spring.


For the record, I'm cool with ALL indigenous people.

Thank you all again for sharing your insight on what was presented above.

>Call this a social experiment if you will. I'll reveal what I
>mean by such when time avails but the responses here will be a
>part of a grant that I'm writing this upcoming Spring.

>

...can you explain?

we are the omni Americans & have bought into the materialism that defines American culture, the idea of the exceptional one rather then the communal us that defines american culture, etc

so of course other African ethnic people dont like or get us...by & large & i mean the VAST majority of "us" will be QUICK to get on some niggas v. Black ppl/die nigga so Black ppl can take over shit

so cmon keep it 100 in the damn post

i also married & had kids w/ a african woman...met the family. been to africa etc & the shit is real

until they REALLY got to know me & built w/ me...my people & our culture was an abstraction they mostly got from tv or radio or the media. african kids may go to school or whatever w/ everyone else but like most immigrant families or really most anybody...they lived in tight lil cocoons of their own & didnt really know or build w/ anyone who wasnt _______

so when i show up yeah i was akata. straight up. they had to get to know me & even then they prolly still to this day like he is ok...i guess but the rest of em? LOOK at tv! bums. etc

is what it is. aint gonna stop me from jamming fela or getting my jollof on


does it really matter?

for all my fans who keep my name in their mouth: http://i.imgur.com/v2xNOpS.jpg