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Blogs Guest Blogs Hostile African-American/African Relations in the U.S. by Gebriela Birhane
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Blogs Guest Blogs Hostile African-American/African Relations in the U.S. by Gebriela Birhane | Hostile African-American/African Relations in the U.S. by Gebriela Birhane |
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| Written by Foresight | |
| Friday, 05 September 2008 | |
  Many individuals are either unaware or choose to deny the ongoing conflict between Africans and African Americans in the United States. When I first arrived to America, I had a full blown accent and was one of many East African refugees to immigrate into east San Diego. My first experience of racism (and I use this word loosely) was not from whites, but from an unexpected source, African Americans. Many African Americans in my community perceive themselves as inherently different from Africans. Growing up, I was constantly slapped with racial slurs like “African booty scratcher.” Countless times, I was asked if I lived with lions, lived in a hut, or whether I wore clothes in Africa. Maybe I’m overreacting, but even then it just didn’t make any sense. Why would individuals who looked just like me, tell me to go back to Africa? Why did those who resemble me most, hold such resentment? The situation was so bad in east San Diego that a full scale war broke out at Crawford High School between African American and African students. S.D Liddlick’s article, “Failed Expectation,” chronicles the failures of the San Diego inner-city schools and the ongoing conflict between African American and Somailan students. He describes the conflict as being so tumultuous that “The police [were] a constant presence at Crawford….There’s also a special assembly during that time, in which Somalis and African-Americans are strictly separated and lectured to, by the police, about gang violence. There were reportedly several off-site neighborhood shootings.” The situation at Crawford High School is not an isolated conflict; I too encountered hostility from African American students during high school. It was constantly made clear to me that Africans were inherently different from African Americans regardless of skin color. For instance, I was asked by an African American classmate “why are you president of Black Student Union? You’re not black.” Personally, I have a few theories as to why many African Americans ridicule Africans about their country of origin. In San Diego, I believe the tension between the two groups was in part due to economic factors. In the early 1990’s, there was a huge influx of African immigrants into the east San Diego community. This influx created anxiety among lower class African Americans who considered the Africans as a threat to their economic wellbeing. Imagine a scenario in which African Americans are so fearful of losing their jobs to African immigrants that they begin to harbor hostile feelings. This hostility then dissipates to their children, who in turn go to school and tell the African children to “go back to Africa.” The media is another contributing factor to the conflict. How many times have you seen depictions of Africans living in huts, hunting wild animals, or near starvation and covered with flies? These depictions perpetuate an ideology of African racial inferiority. Thus, is it any wonder that some African Americans reject their African heritage so as to distance themselves from such negative stereotypes? Taking a more socioeconomic outlook, rejecting one’s African ancestry can enable a group that has been historically subjugated to the bottom of the racial hierarchy to move up. That is, they are no longer at the bottom of the racial ladder because they are above (and distinct from) the inferior Africans. Whatever the motive behind ostracizing Africans, I wish I could say that it only happened in my community. Unfortunately, I have heard similar instances of harassment from other African immigrants.  I believe the first step to resolving the on-going tension between Africans and African Americans is through education. The school system needs to do a better job educating young children about the African continent. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t ever recall being taught about Africa in grade school, except for learning that it is one of the seven continents. I recall being taught that Christopher Columbus discovered America. However, it was never mentioned that he enslaved and infected the Native Americans with small box and syphilis. I learned that Abraham Lincoln was a morally righteous man who freed the slaves. What they failed to mention was that he cared very little about the slaves and more about securing the economic wellbeing of the North from the South. This fact is best shown in a statement made by Lincoln in an 1862 letter to the New York Daily Tribune: "My paramount object...is to save the union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the union without freeing any slave I would do it..." I guess the elementary school teachers overlooked that part of history. Thus, my question is how can African American children have a sense of pride in their African ancestry when it is explicitly ignored in school? How can one expect them to embrace their African heritage, when it is constantly being shown in a negative light? The media plays a huge role in dissipating ideologies of racial inferiority and a savage way of life in Africa. It is the responsibility of educational shows, such as the National Geographic channel, to present a comprehensive view of Africa rather than the typical images of half naked Africans. This depiction only represents a small subset of any given African population. The majority of African countries have houses, buildings, cars, airports, roads, etc. This is not to say that all African countries are well developed, but an accurate depiction of Africa can go a long way in transforming race relations between African Americans and Africans. Comments
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 written by jeff johnson , December 17, 2007
Phew! This is sooo true and very sad. Sad! We are the ones that actually need to educate ourselves. The white man is not going to do it. Why should he? It's not his problem. But I have to mention that Africans that move to the U.S also try to distant themselves from all the stereotypes that follow African Americans. I think it was an episode in the sopranos when a Somali kid was getting harrased by italian kids. They called him a N*#@%!. His response was "I am not a N!@#%, I'm from Somalia. I go to school and I have a job!". But guess what, back home in Africa, there is discrimination within thesame country between ethnic groups. Some of them started during colonization when the Europeans suceeded in causing division between tribes in other to be able to control them and prevent unity. An example is in Rwanda (the Hutu and Tutsi), the division led to a genocide decades later, long after the Belgians left. I can't understand why you would kill someone for the shape of their nose or their hieght. They all look thesame to me. Damn it, the whole world is jacked-up!
Let me start by saying I am sorry for your negative reception received on arriving to the States, I have never lived in the States but visited the East Cost many times. Each time I must add visited some sort of cultural event where American’s were celebrating their African ancestry.
It seems from your opinion that many Africans who have had their names taken are still ashamed of themselves, nothing seems to have changed since Malcolm Shabazz’s speech in the fifties ‘ You can’t hate the root without hating the tree’. I agree that education about Africa is very important but in retrospect I do not remember my schooling in London ever facilitating the students by covering African history. All of my knowledge was done from personal research. I think the desire to know more of who you are must first be there and thus you acquire the power from knowledge of self. With reference to your comments on opinions of rural Africa. I don’t think you should let things bother you when people have primitive opinions. First of all the Zulu language Nkosa makes a beautiful click sound in some words. Many African’s have no desire to dress like Westerners. We have our standards. I would like you to listen to Fela Kuti’s song ‘Gentleman’ (if you haven’t already heard it) and spread the word. Please do not be dismayed, as you well know many African Americans play a strong role in getting to know their culture and actively involved in many African businesses especially in west and southern Africa. Ignorance will always exist but you can’t let that get you down, it can sometimes be contagious! Copyright 2007. All Rights Reserved.       |
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 10 September 2008 ) |
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Before I actually visited the continent in 1994, I kinda looked at Africa as one big ass place with a whole bunch of darkskinned black people who were skinny, ran really fast and used darts and spears to catch their food. I had learned early on that Africa was the cradle of civilization, but I never really understood how exactly. Other than seeing the Shaka Zulu & Roots mini-series, The Gods Must Be Crazy Part 1 & 2, The Good Times episode when Thelma was about to marry Ibe, and The Air Up There...I didn't know much else about Africa/Africans.
In elementary school, one of my best friends was from Nairobi, Kenya and I used to think his house and car smelled really funky and that all Africans shopped at K-Mart and other little dumb stuff like that. When we used to snap on one another, I would call him an African Booty Scratcher and make a click noise everytime I said his name. It wasn't really a matter of me not having proper home training, but I think even my parents were ignorant about a lot of shit at that point. They honestly didn't know much about Africa outside of all of those Sally Struthers Feed The Hungry commercials.
In preparing for my first trip to Africa, I remember taking a whole bunch of shots (Typhoid, Yellow Fever, Malaria,etc.) and the physician just telling us not to eat outside of the Hotel because we would end up having diarrhea and all kinds of crazy shit. She had never even been there, but she was telling us all of this stuff about how people didn't wear deodorant and stuff. I was kinda afraid to go, but I didn't have much choice.
Moving forward, the first 4 countries I visited in Africa were Egypt, The Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania. I was awe struck with the similarities between the places. Excluding The Sudan and Tanzania, we ate at KFC in both Cairo & Nairobi. People had cars, jobs, you know....the same stuff people had here. It was like being here. It was freaking me out because I thought that once I stepped off the airplane into these countries I would step on some goat shit or something. I thought I was gonna see men walking around with their balls hanging out and women with their boobs out, but I realized that westernization is the most dangerous philosophy ever introduced to mankind. It has pretty much forced people without the resources to get adequate education (not classrom education) and people without the desire to travel to remain in a certain state of mind. A very ignorant state of mind. Outside of watching television and hopping on the internet, where can the average person actually develop a perspective on anything? At this point in my life, I have been to 27 African countries and I have seen my fair share of infomerical type of conditions, but you can go to East Point, GA and see shit very similar. Most people I encountered had a job and wore what you and I would wear over here (not no Ed Hardy stuff...but like Nike and Reebok stuff).
The interesting thing though was what a lot of people over there thought about African Americans. Remember, the first time I went to the continent was in 1994.... so everything they would say to me was relevant at the time. One guy kept calling me O-Dog (Menace II Society) every time I saw him and his brother used to call me Gin & Juice. I remember this older man yellin 'WHAAAAAZZUUUP' like Martin did on his show everytime he saw my pops and I remember driving past a barber shop called 'The Gangster Barber Shop'. My dad and I went inside the shop a few days before we left Nairobi and there was 2Pac and Spice 1 posters all over the place. MC Eiht was blasting on the radio. That was just in Kenya, but if I told you about some of the experiences I had during my later trips to Ghana, Mauritania, The Gambia, Cote D'Ivore, Senegal....you would be mind blown. When I was in Kumasi in Ghana (1999), this guy kept telling me that I was 'Livin Tha Hard Knock Life' that I need to 'keep my hoes in check'..lol. I didn't even have any hoes with me, so I think he was just familiar with phrases moreso than the meaning behind certain things.
Ultimately, Africans and African Americans have been misinformed about one another. People with certain blessings and resources available to them (in both countries) need to take a much more proactive approach towards educating one another. There is much more to African American culture than hip hop and there is certainly more to African culture than doing backflips and wearing Kinte Cloth. As far as the actual solution to the problem, I don't know how many people actually recognize that there is a problem between us...and for the people that do know, I am not quite sure how many people care. I'm doing what I can though.