Why Africans and African-Americans Don’t Get Along

“Black people are cursed with petty differences” — Marcus Garvey

It seems to be a ‘crabs in a bucket’ mentality.

Which really pisses me off because we’re inherently the same. Not in a monolithic sense, but due to the fact that we have many things in common.

As an African living in North America, I’m astonished and disheartened by the animosity exhibited in the black diaspora.

The predominant population of Black Americans are descendants of Africans. But over time, the two communities have slowly severed any meaningful connections to the point that we no longer recognize each other.

“The overwhelming majority of African Americans are, at the very least, six or seven generations culturally removed from Africa.”

Yet we as the melanated-skin community don’t seem to want to rebuild it in any way, shape or form.

Instead, we divide ourselves even further.

To understand the friction between us, we need to investigate the culprits behind it.

White Supremacy

This belief has caused more damage to us than we care to admit.

If it were not for the disruptive events of the transatlantic slave trade, many African Americans today would have remained in Africa.

The role of white supremacy in America is well-documented. Captured Africans were forced to endure multitudes of hardships for hundreds of years; slave labour, discrimination, brutality, and even the retitling of their own names.

The damage it did to the African continent was significant in its own way. Colonialism made African colonies dependent on European powers and completely diminished any economic potential they might have gained.

It forced Africans into slave labour on colonial plantations where they also faced racial discrimination and brutality.

Now we’ve found ourselves at the bottom of the barrel. (According to Western perceptions and worldviews)

Although slavery and colonialism have pretty much dissipated, white supremacy has left black people with a huge scar of internalized racism to deal with.

History has shown us that white people built this country with one goal in mind — economic expansion and the accumulation of wealth and prosperity for themselves.

Likewise, black people need to stand together in unison to achieve their own liberation.

Microaggressions

In current times, black people still have to navigate through the tides of racism in the Western world.

The American migration laws and policies that have allowed Africans to migrate and seek prosperity in America were made possible by the civil rights movement.

Some African-Americans believe that African immigrants are coming to take away opportunities for them, while others actively engage in xenophobic behaviour toward them.

On the other hand, I’ve also witnessed Africans evoke uncouth perceptions of African-Americans.

I was once in a room where a black American man was openly xenophobic toward Nigerians, saying that they cause problems everywhere they go. I’ve also heard an African man state that black Americans are lazy and only care about “gang-banging” and violence.

These kinds of attitudes have existed long before social media. But with the open interactive platforms we have now, we’re seeing more microaggressions being thrown around.

This leads to the coinage of terms like akata which is a Yoruba word for “wild cat” — used by some African immigrants to describe some African Americans, or African booty scratcher which African Americans use to mock Africans.

What originally inspired this article was a YouTube video I watched earlier that dissected the difference in experiences between Africans and African Americans.

If we would just be able to sit down, table these issues, and discuss them in a mutually beneficial manner, we would find a common middle ground that leads us to some form of understanding.

Ignorance

“Do you guys have water in Africa?”

“Is it true that people live in huts and ride giraffes?”

“How did you get here?”

A group of African American teenage boys queried as we finished a game of pick-up soccer in the suburbs of Dallas.

They made jokes about the African lifestyle and even mocked our accents. Immediately, it became clear to me that these questions were not borne out of sheer curiosity but more out of ignorance nurtured by stereotypes about Africa.

We as black people have internalized what white people have said about us throughout the years, and now we’re using it against each other.

In Africa, there are mixed feelings about African American culture; some are fond of it, others not so much. But they wouldn’t even know the first thing about the black experience in America.

They’re only led by the perceptions of them that are portrayed through TV and social media.

“Why do black Americans complain so much about their country? If they don’t like it then they should leave”

Words from an elderly African lady.

What really drives African people away from their African American counterparts is the perceived negative images of drugs, violence and misogyny that they are stereotypically associated with.

We can also look at it from the lens of American imperialism. The truth is that America is a global superpower that wields vast cultural and economic clout that it already provides African Americans with the facilities to be more hyper-visible than other black groups around the world.

Unwittingly, their culture is framed as a sort of “superior blackness” that filters into interactions with others on the black spectrum.

Self-hatred

Why do we straighten or shave our hair? Why do we make fun of people who have a skin colour that’s darker than our own? Why do we pretend to be something we’re not?

Self-hate.

Malcolm X once said,

“I had joined that multitude of N**** men and women in America who are brainwashed into believing that the black people are “inferior” — and white people “superior” — that they will even violate and mutilate their God-created bodies to try to look “pretty” by white standards.”

I remember reading an article about 16-year-old Nate Sanders who was bullied in school because of his skin color.

“I had reached the conclusion that Black was a negative thing — that if I could, I would wish to be white” — Nate Sanders

When you’re constantly being made fun of and when you’re used to seeing the glorification of everything you are not, it’s only natural that you feel like an outcast. This is what the black community goes through on a daily basis.

Surrounded by Eurocentrism, black people are constantly reminded that they don’t live up to society’s ideal standards, which is why they resort to putting on straight hair, wearing wigs, acting and speaking in the standard White American way.

All to abide by the ‘ground rules’ created by their white counterparts. This is what gives rise to the phenomenons of ‘Uncle Tom’ and the ‘token black kid’.

You may have come across these kinds of individuals or maybe you were one yourself. The preppy, semi-awkward black person that tries way too hard to fit in with his white peers, all while simultaneously putting down his own people.

These kinds of people are the type to have no association with any black person whatsoever.

Their internalized racism runs very deep.

I’m reminded of a powerful Tedx Talk by Jabari Lyles where he reflects on his journey and struggle to overcome self-hatred.

The message behind this? Live in your greatness. No one will respect you until you learn to respect yourself. If they try to treat you as less than you are, remind them that you’re not.

“Black is beautiful, Black is powerful.” — Nate Sanders

If we stand in solidarity with one another, we have the power to change the world as we know it.

At the very least, mutual understanding and respect are necessary for Africans and African Americans to coexist courteously.

Read next —