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"Racism" against Africans in Black Community: Why is that?

Enzom21

Member
Yeah, I have no idea where he got that from, as if somebody puts that much thought into it. As an African American that grew up in a predominately African American environment I've never heard this.

Africans get made fun of in predominately African American elementary and high schools because they're DIFFERENT. That's it and kids are stupid.

I also have never heard that sentiment expressed by any of my family and friends, but maybe gutter_trash's experience as an African American differs greatly from our own.
 

facelike

Member
Because Black people don't share the same history as the colonizers who created America. African denotes where my ancestors came from.

Which I personally think is complete BS. Being from Africa allows people to be true to their history. In other words they are Nigerian-American, Ghanaian-American, the same way that a person can be Italian American and Chinese American.

I find being called AA kind of a insult to both me and to those from any of the countries in that continent because it make it that all dark skinned folks are 'all the same' and 'from over there'.
 

trixx

Member

Depends on country I guess. I've' never had anyone in my family talk shit about African Americans, I don't think most are into such divisive bs.

I think country/culture can easily falsify many of his claims. In fact I've never heard any African talk shit abiout African Americans. You're more likely to hear Ghanaians and Nigerians talking shit or conflicts between east African nations.In the end it's all really dumb
 
Depends on country I guess. I've' never had anyone in my family talk shit about African Americans, I don't think most are into such divisive bs.

I think country/culture can easily falsify many of his claims. In fact I've never heard any African talk shit abiout African Americans. You're more likely to hear Ghanaians and Nigerians talking shit or conflicts between east African nations.In the end it's all really dumb

Haha, it's not as bad here in the UK within black people. Just Nigerians making fun of Ghanians and vice versa tbf we have the superior Jollof rice.

Off topic. Didn't know there are quite a lot of people with Nigerian ancestry on GAF.
 
Depends on country I guess. I've' never had anyone in my family talk shit about African Americans, I don't think most are into such divisive bs.

I think country/culture can easily falsify many of his claims. In fact I've never heard any African talk shit abiout African Americans. You're more likely to hear Ghanaians and Nigerians talking shit or conflicts between east African nations.In the end it's all really dumb

Yeah, In my experience growing up in the 80's and early 90's, We had no issues and vice versa with African immigrant families. And college and professional life there's a lot of networking involved between these groups. We just look at them as Black.

Plus I remember dating a Nigerian American women in college and thought nothing of it because despite having a Nigerian name, she was completely Americanized with no Nigerian accent or anything.

The main thing I do remember that I was a sophomore or junior in College in GA and she was a couple of years younger than me and had already graduated with her bachelor's from Florida A&M University and was continuing her studies at UNC.

She's a neurologist now.

I probably should've kept dating her. LOL
 

Voke

Banned
I grew up in a very familiar boat as you OP. I'm the youngest in my family, so my parents had been living in the states for a decent while by the time I was born. When I went to school at first, it was majority white kids. I was usually the only black student, let alone Nigerian. When I moved I was around 14 years old and black people were more prevalent. It's strange because I never got teased for bring African or black at all beforehand, but when I started to associate with more black kids, I got the clicking noises, I got the African booty scratcher, anything you can think of.

I feel like black people specificslly target us Nigerians because.... we kind of do the same things. Nigerians are very prideful people and love to let it be known. Lots of Nigerians I know have said very rude things about blacks in general. This was more a thing for me when I was in middle and high school though, since I graduated people seem more interested on my Nigerian side and I get lots of love for it. So I kind of feel like a lot of it was just young ignorance.
 

Derwind

Member
Depends on country I guess. I've' never had anyone in my family talk shit about African Americans, I don't think most are into such divisive bs.

I think country/culture can easily falsify many of his claims. In fact I've never heard any African talk shit abiout African Americans. You're more likely to hear Ghanaians and Nigerians talking shit or conflicts between east African nations.In the end it's all really dumb

Pretty much this.

Though many new immigrant communities are pretty insular, after a generation or so, the xenophobic tendencies start to water down.

At least that's just my experience.
 
Haha, it's not as bad here in the UK within black people. Just Nigerians making fun of Ghanians and vice versa tbf we have the superior Jollof rice.

Off topic. Didn't know there are quite a lot of people with Nigerian ancestry on GAF.

We are fucking everywhere! Although first time I've a gathering of this magnitude.
 
I grew up in a very familiar boat as you OP. I'm the youngest in my family, so my parents had been living in the states for a decent while by the time I was born. When I went to school at first, it was majority white kids. I was usually the only black student, let alone Nigerian. When I moved I was around 14 years old and black people were more prevalent. It's strange because I never got teased for bring African or black at all beforehand, but when I started to associate with more black kids, I got the clicking noises, I got the African booty scratcher, anything you can think of.

I feel like black people specificslly target us Nigerians because.... we kind of do the same things. Nigerians are very prideful people and love to let it be known. Lots of Nigerians I know have said very rude things about blacks in general. This was more a thing for me when I was in middle and high school though, since I graduated people seem more interested on my Nigerian side and I get lots of love for it. So I kind of feel like a lot of it was just young ignorance.

THE BOLDED. At least in my experiences, In the adult and professional world, Africans Americans and Africans get along and network with each other just fine. As somebody who's been in Atlanta and has a decent network of Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Nigerian friends, co workers, and contacts.
 

Cyframe

Member
Which I personally think is complete BS. Being from Africa allows people to be true to their history. In other words they are Nigerian-American, Ghanaian-American, the same way that a person can be Italian American and Chinese American.

I find being called AA kind of a insult to both me and to those from any of the countries in that continent because it make it that all dark skinned folks are 'all the same' and 'from over there'.

You don't have to identify yourself as an African American. That is your choice. African American, again denotes a historical context where native Africans were enslaved and brought to the US as property. If someone can't understand the Atlantic slave trade, then, they can read a book.

In the US, some prefer Black, some prefer Black American, some just note nationality. Maybe I'll call myself just an American when things like police brutality are addressed but this is way off the topic.
 
Because blacks are not just one group like whites are not just one group and asians are not just one group. I mean whole World War 2 in Europe was based on whites (Germans) wanting to enslave whites (slavs) and in Asia based on asians (japanese) colonizing other asians (koreans, chinese etc).
 
Because blacks are not just one group like whites are not just one group and asians are not just one group. I mean whole World War 2 in Europe was based on whites (Germans) wanting to enslave whites (slavs) and in Asia based on asians (japanese) colonizing asians (koreans, chinese etc).

In America they'll eventually assimilate into homogeneous Blackness, no different than all the ethnic Whites assimilate into homogeneous Whiteness, and be divided by White Americans and Black Americans.
 

Hopeford

Member
This is probably true in my case, as well. Every once in a while, I'll get a Latino Pride dude who gets irate when he hears my (admittedly poor) Spanish and calls me a gringo, but more often than not? It's white people telling me, "Oh, but you're not REALLY Latino - you act white." The most frustrating thing in the world is hearing someone else tell you what you are above your own truth. It gets me really upset.

It's especially frustrating when it's some white guy trying to say "No, you don't deal with any racism! I'd know, being fully white." It's like...nah man. Don't have it as bad as others, but I promise you that people can get really fucking weird if they detect a hint of an accent sometimes. Or when they find out my last name.

Like, when it's some other Latino dude who's trying to tell me off I'm like "You're wrong, but honestly you have it worse than me so I think you have a lot of leeway in how you act." But when it's some whiter than Vanilla Ice dude tries telling me that I don't have to deal with any kind of discrimination - that really upsets me. Especially when it comes from someone who is supposedly progressive :/
 

KillLaCam

Banned
I've had more Africans make fun of me for not being black enough lol. But that's an issue in all cultures 'you're not blah blah enough "
 
I've had more Africans make fun of me for not being black enough lol. But that's an issue in all cultures 'you're not blah blah enough "

Ain't that the truth.

My grandma's side of the family is from Trinidad.

No one has a clue what to do when I tell them I'm mostly West Indian.
 
Hurt people hurt people.

Also, I know enough African friends who told me their parent told them not to fuck with african-americans in so many words–“black boys lie” stands out as something a few of my female friends let me know they were told growing up. Black people across the globe have been conditioned to hate theirselves. Not surprisng that we’re all too eager to apply that against one another.
Good summary here. We learn self-hate by the beginning of elementary school. Not exaggerating. America does a good job of ensuring it.
 

FStubbs

Member
This is why if we had an alien race to do space battle with we'd all get along better.

I'm pretty sure even then priority would be given to certain places and groups and others would be fed to the aliens, and some would be betrayed to the aliens.

A good historical example of a de-facto alien invasion would be the colonization of the Western Hemisphere.
 

Viewt

Member
It's especially frustrating when it's some white guy trying to say "No, you don't deal with any racism! I'd know, being fully white." It's like...nah man. Don't have it as bad as others, but I promise you that people can get really fucking weird if they detect a hint of an accent sometimes. Or when they find out my last name.

Like, when it's some other Latino dude who's trying to tell me off I'm like "You're wrong, but honestly you have it worse than me so I think you have a lot of leeway in how you act." But when it's some whiter than Vanilla Ice dude tries telling me that I don't have to deal with any kind of discrimination - that really upsets me. Especially when it comes from someone who is supposedly progressive :/

Absolutely.

If you look anglo, the second people catch wind that you've got some "ethnic" blood in you, the casual racism comes out to fucking play. I swear to god, someone once asked me if I "eat chihuahuas" on my "home island."

Any frustration being showed is instantly my "fiery temper" and not just typical BS.

Like you said, we definitely don't have it nearly as bad as our darker-skinned friends, but the whole "one drop" thing never really went away for minorities. My family could live in this country another hundred years and I would still get "Huh? How do I even say this?" responses when people read my name.
 
This thread is some bullshit...

Talking bout Africans <this> and Africans <that>...

Yall do know Africa is a continent right?

With largely significantly more cultural and ethnic diversity than on every other continent on the planet.

You cannot say "Africans are like X" without it being wholly and irrefutably bollocks before you even finish that sentence with anything else following...

Also I have no idea where this whole "Africans dont like AAs" crap comes from.

Spend 24 hours in Lagos and you will immediately see how bullshit that is, given the wholesale veneration and appropriation of AA culture/music/slang/etc that is pervasive over there.

& I am saying this as a British-born Nigerian with at least 50% of my social circle being mainland and diaspora Naija + Ghanian + Kenyan + Zimbabwean folks.
 
This thread is some bullshit...

Talking bout Africans <this> and Africans <that>...

Yall do know Africa is a continent right?

With largely significantly more cultural and ethnic diversity than on every other continent on the planet.

You cannot say "Africans are like X" without it being wholly and irrefutably bollocks before you even finish that sentence with anything else following...

Also I have no idea where this whole "Africans dont like AAs" crap comes from.

Spend 24 hours in Lagos and you will immediately see how bullshit that is, given the wholesale veneration and appropriation of AA culture/music/slang/etc that is pervasive over there.

& I am saying this as a British-born Nigerian with at least 50% of my social circle being mainland and diaspora Naija + Ghanian + Kenyan + Zimbabwean folks.

It's obvious they're talking about in America. It's one thing to disagree, which i do, but at least get the context of the specific geography right.
 

Afrocious

Member
Maybe it's because I've had to check folks in my circles who are African-American outright drag people born from African countries, but I feel most posts ITT are dismissing the OP and it's pretty gross.

I mean, I can say that I've heard folks from Nigeria, Liberia and other African countries drag African-Americans as well, but I don't think the thread is about that. Eh.
 
This thread is some bullshit...

Talking bout Africans <this> and Africans <that>...

Yall do know Africa is a continent right?

With largely significantly more cultural and ethnic diversity than on every other continent on the planet.

You cannot say "Africans are like X" without it being wholly and irrefutably bollocks before you even finish that sentence with anything else following...

Also I have no idea where this whole "Africans dont like AAs" crap comes from.

Spend 24 hours in Lagos and you will immediately see how bullshit that is, given the wholesale veneration and appropriation of AA culture/music/slang/etc that is pervasive over there.

& I am saying this as a British-born Nigerian with at least 50% of my social circle being mainland and diaspora Naija + Ghanian + Kenyan + Zimbabwean folks.

Us yanks are much too lazy to avoid generalizations ;)
 

Xe4

Banned
Going to a school with a bunch of immigrants from all over trying to get degrees in petroleum and mechanical engineering and stuff, I really do have to say that immigrants from all over whether from different parts of Africa or from China or wherever make pretty much anyone look lazy. I'm not sure if they look down on others in the African American community or no about being lazy, but I honestly don't even think there's that much interaction.

Something like 95% of all black people that go to my university are from a different country, which I think is honestly pretty cool. Though I could imagine a non-immigrant African American having difficulty in a black engineering advocacy group or something.

Of course, I'm sure it works both ways, depending on who is the majority in the minority group or whatnot.
 

Beefy

Member
Maybe it's because I've had to check folks in my circles who are African-American outright drag people born from African countries, but I feel most posts ITT are dismissing the OP and it's pretty gross.

I mean, I can say that I've heard folks from Nigeria, Liberia and other African countries drag African-Americans as well, but I don't think the thread is about that. Eh.

I can only comment what I seen man
 
Going to a school with a bunch of immigrants from all over trying to get degrees in petroleum and mechanical engineering and stuff, I really do have to say that immigrants from all over whether from different parts of Africa or from China or wherever make pretty much anyone look lazy. I'm not sure if they look down on others in the African American community or no about being lazy, but I honestly don't even think there's that much interaction.

Something like 95% of all black people that go to my university are from a different country, which I think is honestly pretty cool. Though I could imagine a non-immigrant African American having difficulty in a black engineering advocacy group or something.

Of course, I'm sure it works both ways, depending on who is the majority in the minority group or whatnot.

Is the bar of entry for foreign students the same as foreign workers?

I imagine that immigrants seem hard working because the strict entry process filters out the less motivated....or we're just a bunch of xenophobes missing out on good talent.
 

ccbfan

Member
From my experience its the other way around.

When I went to college which was a highly rated Engineering school so we had a lot of well to do African students (both foreign and domestic). The most vile things said about African Americans were from Africans. Since they were "mocking their own race" they had no PC filter and pretty much anything goes. Pretty much every negative stereotype was heavily pushed (lazy, violent, terrible parents, entitled, waste of opportunity, etc). Plus the school near a bad neighborhood so it reinforced their stereotypes even more.
 

Xe4

Banned
Is the bar of entry for foreign students the same as foreign workers?

I imagine that immigrants seem hard working because the strict entry process filters out the less motivated....or we're just a bunch of xenophobes missing out on good talent.

I'm not entirely sure, because I'm not a foreign student, but there is probably a selection bias at play. Not only is the immigration process probably rather strict, many students have already gone through a four year university in their own country, and go to a school in the US because it's more technically rigorous, there are more resources, and a degree from a STEM school in America goes a lot further.
 

dbztrk

Member
prejudice exists in all forms, nothing surprises me anymore. people can be just so fucking dumb and judgemental.

well to be honest, i WAS surprised to learn that us Finns were once considered so inferior by the Swedes (who ruled over us for ages), that they measured our skulls and shit to ”prove” we deserved to be subjugated. who knew? goddamn Swedes and Finns. who the hell can even tell us apart?? we ourselves can't!

I wasn't aware of what the Swedes did to the Finns.The English did the same thing to the Irish. They compared their skulls to "negros" thus proving their "inferiority". The way the English treated the Irish was abominable.

I think the take away is that human beings are awful and will look down on anything/anyone that is different from them and elevate themselves.
 

redfox088

Banned
Africans are also prejudiced towards Americans. I'm the son of a Liberian immigrant and an African American, I'm the only one in my family who isn't the product of 2 African parents and my family treats me differently for it. If I could compare it to something it would be how some Latin Americans look down on mexicans.
 
Africans are also prejudiced towards Americans. I'm the son of a Liberian immigrant and an African American, I'm the only one in my family who isn't the product of 2 African parents and my family treats me differently for it. If I could compare it to something it would be how some Latin Americans look down on mexicans.

As the son of a Ghanaian immigrant and a African American, I haven't really had this experience. My mom gets treated differently when we go to Ghana (she's viewed as white or not African cause she's light skinned), but nobody really gave me any grief. Definitely not a good thing though.

But I'll also echo the same sentiments as most of the other Africans in the thread. Got tons of crap from my AA peers for being different. Strangely enough as I grew up it went from being too black to acting too "white". Kids are stupid.
 
Yeah when you said acting too white its society at work. TV influence kids minds so much that if you dont act a certain way its bad. Since I got older you can't act white unless your a damn Uncle Tom or ****.

What in the hell does acting white mean? Sippin' cappuccinos and going to an Ivy League school?
 

gfxtwin

Member
When so much media and national discourse carries the fucked up message that being black is lesser than being white, being white is normal and more beautiful, etc, it's almost understandable that some black americans would be brainwashed into adopting some self hatred, white supremacist attitudes, etc. Hopefully attitudes that one grows out of, it's sick, but it's still a thing that happens because of how often those messages are shoved in your face while living in western society from second one.

As for African immigrants, I don't know enough about black culture in Africa to even comment TBH.
 

akira28

Member
Maybe it's because I've had to check folks in my circles who are African-American outright drag people born from African countries, but I feel most posts ITT are dismissing the OP and it's pretty gross.

I mean, I can say that I've heard folks from Nigeria, Liberia and other African countries drag African-Americans as well, but I don't think the thread is about that. Eh.

Like he said. If you've seen that and have some events to relate, I guess this could be a discussion for it. All I can say is I know about the arrow going one way, but hearing about it go the other is new to me. Most times in my experiences Africans have been pretty respected, I mean in general. Now I have personally seen white people insult African and West Indian immigrants and I didn't even really understand what they were joking about until later.

In my experiences Africans and African culture had always been something to gravitate towards and learn from. But that's what they taught us in schools and in church in black communities. I had to go into mainstream culture to see Africa as a lesser place or a place of poverty and need, or a place to ridicule. When we called each other African booty scratcher...it wasn't because one or the other was African, but because we were both black, and insulting each other out of fun.

But those are my experiences, and they're obviously different from your own.

edit: and yeah black youth culture gets hit by the wake of all the overhead going in America. The acting too white thing if you "speak properly" or try to excel at certain things. Its not malicious on the whole, it's identity confusion and a misapprehension about one's own abilities and potential. And why would anyone be surprised that this happens in America?
 

Numb

Member
Experience born and raised there
Africans talk so much shit. The closer the worse it gets. First it's other tribes then Cushites vs nilotes vs Bantus then other countries then African Americans,Euro black people etc etc

Although African Americans aren't spared but it's not as close to the things within reach
 

NJSlay

Banned
I used to work with a group of Nigerians at a Wal-Mart back in the early 2000s who absolutely despised Black Americans. It was shocking.
 

Combichristoffersen

Combovers don't work when there is no hair
No community is immune from looking down on other groups. Where a difference exists people will look down on it.

Pretty much.

Obviously I can't really say much about the subject as I'm white. But an Eritrean friend of mine here in Norway told me a somewhat amusing story about this once, about how he'd been on the phone with his mum in Eritrea.

I can't remember all the details, but he'd told his mum he'd been hanging out with some friends from another African country lately (can't remember which country). His mom was like 'you gotta be careful around them, they're black'. 'But mom, you know, uh, we're black too'. 'No, stay away from them they're black, they're bad people'. 'But.. We're black too, mum'. 'No no, they are black, we are beautiful'.

Really does show no community is free of prejudice.
 

PixelatedBookake

Junior Member
Guys, thanks for opening my eyes to the degree of racism Black Americans face from Africans. I had no idea it could be that bad. I never hear that kind of crazy shit from my uncles and dad but I've heard that lowkey shit from them. Very shitty, but I'm glad that I'm more aware.
 

ghstwrld

Member
After all these years no one got my name right once
Not even once

same
laugh.gif
 

v1oz

Member
Never said anything about what they did or did not go through.

Doesn't mean [insert African Groups] understand the fall out of American slavery or how it effects African Americans today. Making blanket statements about how so and so group should be able to do w/e without factoring a whole pot of shit soup is kinda non-sense IMO.

One culture going through bad shit doesn't mean that they understand a completely different culture and the bad shit they went through. If it did then I'm sure we'd all be nicer to each other.
If you think Africans (many of whom live and were born in the USA) don't get how effected African American descendants of slaves are today because of a difference in culture then you are frankly an idiot. Can you honestly say that about families like Obama's who are the product of more recent African migration? Not all africans are as ignorant as what you read on this thread.

No one said, that you said anything about what they did or did not go through. The only person making blanket statements here is you, by foolishly trying to insist that Africans are completely ignorant of your situation. When I say Africans - as a Pan Africanist, I mean the entire African diaspora which means not just people from the continent but includes the millions of people of African heritage in Europe, the Caribbean, Asia and the Americas.

You said Africans don't understand the ramifications of systemic racism and slavery in the USA. Africans tend to be very political aware, they are very knowledgable about matters which affect the African diaspora and know enough about American history. These are all areas which are well researched and discussed amongst politically minded people. There was slavery in Africa, there was also slavery in the Caribbean and South America - we can all emphasise with that. Bad shit is bad shit where ever it happens, trying to divide people around some arbitrarily man made cultural divide does not help the pan african cause one bit. We may have different backgrounds but we can understand your struggle.
 
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