“AfriCons” And Their Holier Than Thou Attitude: The recent social media outrage on the rioting in Ferguson, Missouri has highlighted a rift that has existed between African immigrants and African Americans (or Black Americans). This rift existed well before I migrated here and it seems to be widening with the emergence of social media. One only has to live in the United States a few years to notice this problem. It stems from deep misconceptions passed on from older generations, friends and often fueled by the media. Startlingly, many African Americans believe that African immigrants are primitive, backward, condescending and unhygienic. They make crude jokes about African men being controlling and their women self-loathing and desperate for white boyfriends. For their part, many African immigrants buy into the stereotype that African Americans are lazy, violent, irresponsible, ignorant, thugs and unintelligent. African immigrants have over-simplified the challenges facing African Americans without taking into account the historical significance of slavery and all the nuances that comes with it. Most African immigrants fail to appreciate the sacrifice African Americans made through civil rights to lay the foundation for Africans to come to the United States. To understand this divide I will try to examine the backgrounds of the two groups: Prior to migrating to the United States most Africans have very limited contact with white Americans. Their interactions are often with misssionaries, aid workers, volunteers, doctors, teachers et al. These white Americans are generally not racists and have no reason to be considering the reasons they come to Africa in the first place. Therefore, there is very little animosity or hatred towards white Americans. On the flip side, a large number of African Americans grew up in impoverished neighborhoods where they learned from older generations the history of slavery and the cruelties inflicted on the black race. They may have experienced firsthand some form of injustice and have deep seated suspicions of white Americans. These suspicions make many African Americans predisposed to distrust white Americans and look down on those African immigrants who express respect or admiration for white America. Some African Americans have the tendency to blame racism for their current conditions, and are quick to point out instances of perceived racism, even in situations where it is ambiguous and unclear. After surviving several years of poverty, sickness, corruption, lack of opportunities, poor leadership, civil wars, coups, etc., the African immigrant is grateful to be in a country where freedom abounds and there seem to be equal opportunities for all (at least on paper) so long as one is willing to help himself. They mostly have no political agenda, are willing to take up any job and will not blame the system if they fail in their endeavors. They live in mixed neighborhoods instead of black neighborhoods and will work hard to make sure their children get the best education. As an African immigrants I’ll be the first to admit that we have failed to hold our leaders accountable, and as a result poverty, sickness, corruption and ignorance is killing our people, yet we take a hypocritical stand by judging and insulting the intelligence of African Americans. We find it convenient to borrow right wing ideologies to talk down African Americans. I am not making excuses for black America but before we point the figure let us first look in the mirror. As my friend Kwame Agoogi will say; “if we were half as demanding as African Americans are about their rights, we would have been living in a much better conditions”.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 21:32:08 +0000