Thursday, June 22, 2006

Nigerians vs. African-Americans vs. blacks from the Carribean and latin American

Why is it this way?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

although we have some things in common, we have ALOT differentiating us. Culturally. The way we raise our children. Our work ethics. The way we view marraige. The way we take care of our elderly. etc etc etc

Anonymous said...

That's spelt caribbean.
It's all in the mind.

Anonymous said...

Caribbean with a capital 'C' I meant. :)
I think everyone should watch the History Channel more often.

BeautyinBaltimore said...

Thank you for the spell check. I suffer from dislexia so I sometimes make spelling errors.
@- anonymous- explain your comment

Anonymous said...

That's spelt dyslexia actually...I am a total prick as you can see!

But seriously, I don't mean any harm. What I mean to say is that a lot of the misunderstandings/rivalry/beef e.t.c. amongst different blacks stems from ignorance - I'm not saying I'm not guilty of it myself; but I learnt a lot from the historical documentaries and programmes shown on the History Channel during Black History (love it or hate it!) month. I do try to read as much as possible on anything to do with our History.

At the end of the day, we all came from Africa, so for anyone to stand up and disrespect another black person simply because of their present nationality or appearance or status or whatever is just plain stupid.

Did you know that during the slave trade, slave owners claimed the upkeep of their slaves (food, shelter e.t.c) as a business expense (just as you would claim vehicle maintenance)and therefore did not pay any tax on this 'expense'? They would only pay tax on the purchase of luxuries such as china and tobacco for example. Also, most black South Africans only just started getting pensions in the 1990s, whilst their white counterparts had been getting pensions since the 1940s.

I could go on and on but the point is Black people need to stick together and stop this bullshit, cos when we don't stick together terrible things can happen.....

Anonymous said...

On the whole, Anonymous, are we really acting like we have any desire to stick together? Sure, individuals stick with their friends, but as an entire race?

A disillusioned Naija girl said...

You should check out this blogger's site for a different take on things: http://senamih.blogspot.com/2006/06/not-my-fault-youre-black-and-british.html

As an African, I can relate to what she says. But I agree - there are too many divisions among all the black people - I lay the blame squarely with slavery.

Unknown said...

This reminds me of a discussion I had with this guy. I mean let's take people from the middle east or even North Africa, I remember have a big ol' fight with this guy in college who was from Egypt and the checked off "White/Caucasian" on test forms and for just about everything else. He had nappy hair, dark skin, typical arab look. He insisted he was not African-American or Black. I mean if anyone wanted to call him Black, he was deeply offended. Why just Nigerians? I think most people who come from African countries are annoyed and embarrased to be associated with American Blacks. Just like Latin Blacks and West Indian people are. It's looked upon as a culture full of lazy, whiners who cry slavery everytime something doesn't go right for them. Thanks Jesse Jackson. All I'm saying is, if you look at the differences here, you have got immigrants vs. non-immigrants. I think that's what this issue is more about..

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I'm a Nigerian working in Haiti at the moment.
You guys need to visit Haiti, you would think you were somewhere in W. Africa. The language, culture, mannerism patterns depicts no difference than those of us from W. Africa.
I believe that Haitians were able to maintain their African culture up to date due to the Haitian revolution and ridding their country off of any colonial rules. Unfortunately, those former colonial/slave masters have made sure that Haiti continues to suffer economically up till today.
If you are interested, you can visit my blog at www.rhemy.wordpress.com where I post a lot of information on the history, culture and happenings in and around Haiti.
Rhemy

staff said...

We, Nigerian-Americans are inherently better than so-called African-Americans. For one, Afr-Americans lovve to deny their african heritage and claim a "blackness" even though BLACKNESS has NO roots whatsoever - what is "black"? Carribean Americans share almost a similar ancestry with afr-americans and their plight is not the same as Nigerian Americans. My dad is part portuguese and my mum is Nigerian. I went to high school in Nigeria and fully claim NIGERIA as my hometown - I can speak pidgin etc.

Take a look at EVERY SINGLE nigerian american. From Nnamdi Asomugha to any other Nigerian American - successful in one way or the other. Now take a look at African - Americans, it takes the GRACE OF GOD to KEEP THEM OFF drugs and away from prison. or their own death.