Do Africans and African Americans get along??

[ladygreek]

Originally posted by PhDiva
ladygreek,

No doubt...I agree with you but I want to understand where many of these stank attitudes emanate from. Does that excuse the behavior? Of course not, but I can definitely respond differently when I understand some of the reasons behind the funky behavior.

Let me give you an example. Years ago, while in undergrad, I took a couse called "Black Women in America" and this particular semester, a guy from Japan enrolled in the class. It wasn't unusual for American-born Asians, Whites, Hispanics to enroll but one day I was just curious as to why this guy who could barely speak English would enroll in this course. So the professor who obviously had the same question asked him, "why did you enroll in this course?".

He said, "I wanted to see if the picture books I got from the U.S. Embassay were true." We all asked what picture books and he proceeded to pull out "Guides to Dealing with Black Folks" courtesy of the U.S. government. In the picture books were caricatures of Black women who had 8 breasts and a baby suckling on each one with a caption along the line of "watch out for the welfare queen!!" and other derogatory stereotypes like that. To say we were shocked and angry was an understatement

The Japanese guy also told us that his Korean friend had a similar book that portrayed Black folks as violent thugs trying to steal from Korean owned stores. The Korean "Guide to Business Ownership in Black Communities" was also published by the U.S. department of tourism and commerce. And it was like a lightbulb went off in our heads b/c we all at once started to get some clue as to why the interactions between Asians (particularly foreign born Asians) and Blacks has always been tense. The U.S. government was mass producing derogatory images of Black folks abroad and those folks were interacting with Blacks based on false information.

So my point is that yes, their attitudes might be stank. They may think their boo-boo don't stink but alot of those superior beliefs are fed by our government. So I try to temper my response to their silliness with questions like "what makes you think white Americans don't think the same way about you?" or "does being rude over cab fare get you any closer to getting out of poverty?"...Then too, it might be the teacher in me that prefers to take turn things like this into teachable moments so I can prevent someone getting an unnecessary beat-down

PhDiva

Wow @ those books! But since this thread is about the relationships between Africans and African Americans, I have to ask, are African immigrants given the same books? And if so why would they buy into it? That would be like me buying into the images I say growing up all Africans being from the Deep Congo where men wore nothing but loin cloths and bones through their noses and the women wore grass skirts with their breasts hanging free--think not only the fictional movies but National Geographic on TV.

So I am not going to take the time to ask someone why they look down on me or try to turn it into a teachable moment. The folx I have encountered here are not unintelligent, gullible people.

[Jells]

"But since this thread is about the relationships between Africans and African Americans, I have to ask, are African immigrants given the same books? And if so why would they buy into it? That would be like me buying into the images I say growing up all Africans being from the Deep Congo where men wore nothing but loin cloths and bones through their noses and the women wore grass skirts with their breasts hanging free"

Actually, I get that more than not! When I tell people that I'm going to Nigeria, they ask me if my family live in huts or what "tribe" they belong to as if Africans have not evolved from cavemen and women. Some say it in jest, but the fact is that they are surprised that there are shopping malls, modern cities and housing, and other amentities that are similiar to the U.S. It's just the images you see and hear about are not consistent with reality. Unfortunately, people don't want to take the time to research things on their own. Some are simply content on believing everything they see or hear and taking it for face value...

[ladygreek]

@Jells,
Just a fyi. If you hit the quote button beneath the post to which you are responding, it will print it for you. Then you can delete parts of it if you want to. Just don't delete the *open bracket* quote*closed bracket* *open bracket*/quote*closed bracket* html code around it. brackets =[ ]