Are we African American or just American?
In my idealistic younger years, I held fast to the belief that there was a common blood shared between the American-born blacks and those from across the Diaspora, including Africa, which would ensure an instant kinship under the moniker of the Red, the Black and The Green.
But nowadays, as I have become more attuned to the intra-racial struggles, I’m not so sure that there is or will ever be a unification of our people.
My most recent disenchantment centers on an NPR piece about how many African-Americans no longer feel a connection to the continent and therefore have opted to drop the hyphenated “African” from African-American.
I have known personally of some deep-rooted, and often unspoken, prejudices against Africans within the African American community. Likewise, I have known of flat-out disassociation, and in rare instances loathing, from native-born Africans, who too relay a lack of kinship to the black community. In each instance, the collective “we” often reduces each other to ill-conceived stereotypes and caricatures, which are often played out in ridicule, separation and in some rare instances, violence.
Much in the same vein of the whole light-skinned, dark-skinned issue, the African vs. African American issue is a complex matter; just because we might share the same pigmentation does not guarantee a shared solidarity.
So are we, as blacks in America, too far removed from the Motherland to feel a connection with native-born Africans?
Most American Blacks are descended from Africans, who were brought here hundreds of years ago through no will of their own. Having their cultural identities stripped away, the descendants of these Africans have vague – if any- social and historical perceptive.
Without first-hand knowledge of their roots, many American Blacks can only shape their views of Africa based upon what has been said and written in both the media and distorted history books, which tells us of a continent full of war-torn countries, starving people and corrupt leaders, who continue to profit from the betrayal of its people.
On the flip side are the migrant Africans, from various parts of the continent, who are either unfamiliar or ambivalent with the past and continued struggle of American blacks. In some cases, these native-born Africans carry some of their own prejudices, which too have been perpetuated through the media. For example, believing that African-Americans are too racially ambiguous to be considered “full-blood” Africans or believing that Blacks harbor a deep-seated “chip on their shoulder” syndrome about slavery, which has prohibited them from fully taken advantages of the land of opportunity.
The result is that many native-born Africans and African-Americans have become ignorant to each other’s complex realities, choosing to maintain a separate identity and not fully capitalizing of each other’s various strengths.
However, while cultural differences remain, our shared future in a country, where racial discrimination and intimidation still exist, have a greater power to unite both sides of the same black coin. In other words, while we may continue to divide intra-racially, there are others, who only see “black” and will react accordingly – just ask the likes of Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell.
To bridge the divide, there must be a collective effort to develop a mutual respect and understanding of one another’s struggle, strengths and triumphs. Our people, collectively, have to understand that colonization in some ways was no different than slavery and its impact of how we view ourselves, and each other, is all relative. Perhaps we are in need of another “Back to Africa” movement, like what was started by Jamaican-born Marcus Garvey, in which the primary focus is on educating, outreach and reconciliation of all people of African descent worldwide.
One could hope that African Americans and Africans alike will someday realize the importance of economic, political and cultural linkages with our brothers and sisters and embrace the term “African” no matter where they may reside in the Diaspora.
Charing Ball is the author of the blog People, Places & Things.
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