Akata?

gigette,

I agree completely. This is exactly the way it is used by Nigerians. As the one person showed with the old movie sugar hill. African Americans have been aware of this for a long time.


Actually not quite. Nigga is a different word and different pronounciation than the word Nigger that offends African Americans.

The word Nigga means: We are one, us against them, when used as a group word.

It means simply Male or man, when applied as a singularity.  You would never use the word for a Black woman. Unless you were trying to put her down as too loud mouthed or manly or something.

The word Nigger means: Uppity Black person. The word is used to be a reminder that Black people are not supposed to be where they are in life.



gigette,


The "slave" response, while tempting is the incorrect response.

As you may have noticed, African Americans call themselves slaves all the time. It is a different class of insult.

Using it in the wrong way will declare you to be an outsider.

African Americans do not communicate like others. We live in a country where we have huge traditions of hiding our real meaning from others because we had too.

I know instantly from the way my African American friend introduces me to their Continental African friend, exactly what type of African I am dealing with. One who is with us or against us.

One of the biggest miscommunications between AA and CA is the use of the wrong insult to AA.

Understand this, if you say the correct insult, you will be taken in as a brother/sister for life. If you give the incorrect insult you will be branded as an outsider.

And all of this will be understood by AA without saying a word, that you could understand.

Put African Americans down all you like, we been shaking off insults for 400 years, we won't break, but you must do so correctly.

I consider this miscommunication to be a personal pet peeve. That is why I travel around to African boards and talk with Africans. As they say: Reach one, teach one.  


I am Ghetto.

Please put the word Ghetto into your search engine. You will find that hundreds of thousands of web pages will pop back with names such as 'Ghetto Princess', Ghetto poetess, Ghetto Master, Ghetto Boy, Ghetto King, etc.

You can also turn on your radio and hear Hispanics talking about getting A's on their Ghetto report card.

You can open your magazines and see whites complaining that Eminem is always worrying about making sure to have his Ghetto Credentials.

Calling someone Ghetto is actually a compliment.

Even intellectual blacks who might squirm at the word, will be secretly in their heart saying: '''You damn right, I am Ghetto. The wrong Nigga to mess with.'''

So just sit in your Fubu shirt and babyphat jeans, listening to our CDS, watching us on the news, video shows, in a lot of movies.

Of course we are Ghetto. And your not.

Again a case of using the wrong insult.

Chinani,

A friend of mine, likes to show a long post which is about a Black person who is complaining that no matter how much education you have, whites will never accept you in America. Then she sits back and waits for the response.

All the Black people who read it get very confused. Their response is:

""What type of Crack is this black person smoking?""


All the whites and African Immigrants & other Immigrants respond:

''"Blacks should just get a better education, and stop blaming their poverty on whites. They need to stop talking about racism.""

Then my friend pulls out the the weblink.

And shows them that while she changed the race of the poster.

This was actually written by an Asian to other Asians on an Asian website.

The whites and African Immigrants and other Immigrants go silent. Their in shock.

All of their ideas that Blacks are just sensitive and making it up are shattered.

The Blacks squeal with laughter. The reason we were confused is because:

No Black person in their right mind, would ever think in the first place that whites will accept them, will treat them better if they had more education, more money, if the Ghetto blacks acted better etc.

There is no assimilation for people in America without whiteskin. Everybody knows this except for the new Immigrants who come to America and believe the white lies that they will be accepted if they just do well.

White people will never speak well of a Black person. Nigerians are going to waste years finding this out. The fact that even Asians know this is true in America, should tell you something.

As Black people say: If a Blackman walks on water, the paper the next day will say that Black people can't swim.

As James Baldwin said: I have drank my share of dry martini's, it didn't do a damn thing for me.

Every Immigrant is always offered one free gift when they hit the shores of America:

At least your not like those slave descendants. Those Niggers are just bad. 

It was  painful all those years watching those other immigrants take that free gift.

But nothing hurt like it did, when we realized that Continental Africans are also trying to take the free gift and run with it.

In our mind, every Akata is a reminder to us, that Africans, above all people, need their natural black ass whooped.

They should have known better.

Chinani,

The free gift to walk around and feel as if you are so much better than African Americans.

Do you know that many Immigrants of other races or even white ones actually come up to African Americans and say "stop complaining" my father came here in 1950 and he worked his way until he opened a shop. Your just lazy.

They get quickly embarrased when they are forced to realize that African Americans in 1950 were not even allowed in restaurants, business's etc, had to ride the back of the bus, etc, etc.

See they have been living on the free gift that they are better than African Americans and African Americans are just bad, that is why African Americans are at the bottom.

Their shocked to be forced to realize that their father indeed had it better than us. That they been lied to for a very long time. I have actually seen some immigrants repent, when they realize that their thinking about African Americans is mostly based on falsehoods.


********

In regards to Africans own perceptions stated here in this thread which I normally do not dignify with a response.

Law breakers -- Less than 10 percent of African Americans have ever went to jail in their life, for the whole time we have been in this country, in every generation.

Poor Conditions -- We have always been segregated, first on slave plantations and now in Ghettos. It literally saved our life and us as a community. One of the worst things to happen to us was desegregation. If Africans understood how we think here, they would know God bless's the man with his own hut, not the man staying in the enemy's territory in a mansion. But this idea is too deep to explain right now.

Drug Users:  Look at this information:

1997 NHSDA, rates of current cocaine use were 1.4 percent for African Americans, 0.8 percent for Hispanics, and 0.6 percent for Caucasians. http://www.drugstv.com/Cocaine.htm

Is that 1.4 percent of African Americans who use crack, really so scary, enough to think about the other 99 percent drug users?

Swaggering: Somebody has been watching too many Blaxploitation movies. Besides which are there really Africans any where in the world, who know how to keep out of colorful clothes and talking loudly and making a public spectacle of their beautiful black selves. I have learned to enjoy the show. Rather than feel bad about the people because of what whites might think of this stuff.

My point to you about all of this.

The free gift is this, African Immigrants and all the other immigrants is they get to be under the illusion that African Americans are bad and your people are good.

We do not care, we know what we really are and we know the whiteman will never allow that image to get out about us.

We think you Africans should have known better in particular because you know all the bad things they say about you which are not true.

The Nigerian in particular. Does he even have a leg to stand on, when it comes to a bad image around the world?

I'D like to see some Nigerian claim that.

Chinani,

Well, I forgive them. I accept their excuses.

Look how tense it got between me and you at first.

The key to peace was sticking in there.

There must be a good African proverb for what I am trying to say, please tell it to me, when you remember it.

T2,

Sure here is the post:

http://www.modelminority.com/article296.html

@drusilla
from reading ur other posts, i would just like to say this. african americans are not some rare breed, we see them and interact with them, not so? we form our own opinions right there, we are defn influenced by the media and whatnot, but its up to our discerning nature as reasonable humans to decide for ourselves whether popular opinion is right or wrong. this is the difference between forming an opinion about africa and africans, its not like you have african americans going to africa to see that not every child has kwashiokor or whatever, whatever change in opinion they may have is based on whatever africans they interact with

gigette,

By the way, it is not about the word 'slave' not hurting them. It is about it being the incorrect insult for the situtation when you are called 'African' derogatorily.

You must show that the opposite of African is far worse:

Responses:

1. Why you whiteys always be putting down the African Blackman?

2. If you were Black, you wouldn't talk that way to me.

3. Did the whiteman tell you to say that to me?

4. I'D rather be an African than the whiteman's b*tch. (to a man and if you are really mad)

I wouldn't recommend you say anything real mean to a blackwoman. Blackwomen are known to be willing to show dey azz just about anywhere.

Where as a Blackman will back down from you (a black woman) and walk away. (it will be in the back of his mind, that you are a blackwoman and may show your azz)

Just some useless tips on how to correctly insult an African American.

Or as we call it: Playing the dozens.

Have fun and play safely. 

my parents call AAs "Akata" and i know it has a negative connotation because i've asked my dad about it but i forgot what he said the meaning of it was.

But any one could tell without knowing the meaning because of the context it's usually used.
some people use it to mean just plain "African American" but usually it's used in a bad way.

What an interesting thread!

First, the etymology of a word is only good for coffe table talk. What a word meant is not really as important as what it means these days. Or more importantly what its user meant to say when they said it. My brother who says he now dislikes being called "African" clearly showed us that.

In other words, words ae only good for what they communicate. "Shut it" may have a single dictionary meaning but could be used to communicate countless messages.

I personally have always marvelled at the how certain races in America choose to fight racism by fighting words. Jews are the experts in this. The AA's seem to be catching up.

I believe anyone who is moved by a connotation that is derogatory has a suspicion that his accuser is right. For example, calling a Nigerian 419 hurts because (some) Nigerians are 419 . If you say, called Nigerians "boozers" will it hurt?

The solution therefore, may lie in taking the criticism and considering its validity. Jap was once a derogatory term. But now it is uttered with respect.

I believe that AA's (I just learnt this shorthand, and I'm loving it ) need to know that until AFRICA IS DEVELOPED, they can get as touchy touchy as they like, the whites and Asians will continue to look down on them.

Instead of calling each other names, or caring wht they are called, Blacks should just do the needful to make their race respected.
Also, until t

t4cash,

Smart post. Let me think about it before I reply.

Ashiwaju,

I am fine.  Thank you for asking.

I think there is something said that applies first to any ideas of development in Africa.

I am going to start a new topic for it. 

t4cash,

Thank you for responding. I started a thread to talk about Africa's development but to first put some other idea on the table.

The point more or less that my own thinking comes from. I think you'll understand clearly what I am trying to get at through this man's writing.

http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-15741.0.html#msg440159

Tee-Chan,

We are all learning. Remember fruit grows, it does not appear.

So with the attention, fruit can grow out of what seems a bad situtation now.

We are One. Reach One, Teach One.

Well there shouldn't be racism between anyone. And everyone has the same color blood, not black nor white. Or yellow. Only RED. As for skin color, peoples can have the same skin color and still make distinctions. The Germans do it, as do the Russians. As long as it's done respectfully. I guess the respectfulness of "akata" is the debate here.

Anyhow, welcome to Nairaland!

@ te-chan ,please can you tell us some of these rumors you've heard about Africans.

By the way Nigerians prefer to be called Nigerians not Africans,the same way a Briton doesn't like to be called European.

Babyosisi, for the main reason of my posting on here, to express my feelings about hatred between Africans and African Americans, I would not post rumors I heard about Africans. I will not state such things that I’m sure that many believe to be true about Africans. Oh, yes, when I state Africans, I don’t just mean Nigerians, I mean everyone that’s from Africa. It’s just like how there’s different states in the US but if you go to another country, they refer you as an American, not as a New Yorker or etc. When I had talked to my friends about this hate, they were very upset, because just like me, they couldn’t understand why there is hatred between Africans and African Americans. This cook on my campus told me that it had always been there. I wonder why. I have nothing against anyone from Africa. In fact, I have great respect for Africa. When I was in High School, I had a great English teacher, which to me, was the best. She taught English in a way that wasn’t boring at all and we had a lot of fun.  She was young and full of energy. She told the class that she was from Africa and that she’s still in college, taking classes to become a better teacher. We were surprised. She sounded and acted as if she was born in America, but she wasn’t. She taught us that just because a person is from a different place, it doesn’t mean that they’re any different from you. I still remember her even now. Man, I miss her.

Akata…I’m not too sure what the true meaning is but I can feel deep within that it’s a word that I wouldn’t want to be called by. “Wild cat” or whatever isn’t a nice thing to refer people by. If someone needs to call African Americans by a name, then just say African Americans