Embracing Different Black Identities: African vs. African American

While Zandria Robinson’s This Ain’t Chicago has done the job of educating us on the multiple souths and the many black identities present in the northern and southern regions of America, I have taken some time this week to think about the multitude of black identities in general. This week I was able to attend a Rhodes conversation hosted by the African and Black Student Associations on campus entitled, “The Complicated Relationship Between Africans and African Americans.” It opened my mind to the fact that black identity is not limited to northern and southern blacks, but blacks outside the country as well- specifically Africans.

Before the conversation, I knew only a little about Africans’ contempt for blacks in America. I had heard that Africans thought lesser of African Americans because we are disconnected from the ‘motherland’ of Africa, ‘the cradle of civilization.’ That sentiment always bothered me because it is not African American’s fault that our ancestors were kidnapped and transported to America against their will. It is not our fault that many of us can not trace our ancestry because of the slave trade. I also think that sentiment is ridiculous because as we have read in Homegoing, Africans took part in the slave trade as well. Some of us could very well be here because of an African king who paired with European slave companies for capital gain. At the end of the day, if allotted the proper tools and resources, all blacks could trace their roots back to Africa so I didn’t really understand why Africans thought of African Americans so differently just because we now inhabit a different land.

Much like Mrs. Pinkston in Homegoing, I believed that here in America, “black is black is black” (Gyasi, 273) regardless of where you were born or where you call your homeland, you are still more likely to get pulled over or arrested, still having to work twice as hard to get half as much. After the talk, I realized that the complicated relationship has less to do with regional ties than it does with a lack of effort to acknowledge and appreciate African and African American culture. Ignorance is a factor that stifles Africans and African Americans from fully accepting each other as we fail to acknowledge the different cultures and identities that lie in African and African American blackness. This in turn makes the one group feel un-welcomed in the presence of the opposing group. This was depicted in the cafeteria scene where Marjorie was made fun of “for talking like a white girl” as one of her classmates mocked her with a British accent (Gyasi, 268). The classmate was obviously uninformed on the fact that Marjorie’s seemingly British accent is a part of her black African culture as the British colonized parts of Africa. Black Americans are even at fault for similar shaming within our own community, as it is common for African Americans to proclaim proper speech or certain music as a means of ‘acting white.’ This only makes it harder for black people to embrace their identity within their own communities on top of the fact that it is already a struggle to do so in our society as a whole.

We also spoke a bit on cultural appropriation and how African Americans are now turning sacred and traditional African tribal dashiki into a fashion trend, almost a costume that completely devalues the African history and culture with which it originates. Many African Americans justify this act by claiming to celebrate their roots while simultaneously perpetuating the same toxic practices such as colorism and shaming others who don’t fit the mold of the ‘typical black person,’ taking part in divisive practices that only stifle the black community. These practices diminish space for Africans as well as African Americans to express themselves. We need to start acknowledging and embracing all identities and customs that come with the variety of blackness present in and outside our country. We have to uplift one another as a community before we can even begin the revolution needed to turn this country away from the hate and bigotry that has plagued us for too long.