Difference Between African Americans And Africans?

Your quiet correct that it should be left to as a matter of choice however that's not what it is. I don't know if I told this story but at my school a black girl from England came to study here and someone referred to her as an African American from England. Isn't that stupid? Most people have not gotten the choice as the government have employed a tactic which is so often not noticed.

Why is it that when a white person commits a crime on tv its a criminal, however if it is other race their face and race will be continually splashed across tv screens as if.

 @LASIEFAIRE


My Sister is a Christian we have the same mother and father, we also had the same upbringing but I don't have a religion, I don't even go to church and i raise my children that they have a choice to be religious or not. My sister and I don't share the same politics, religion and not only in looks but we are distinctly different. Does that mean she is not my sister and  that we are divided?


What!


 
I may or may not be spelling correctly but the Hootsie and the Tootsie from Rwanda, they were divided, separated, by the
Belgian based on skin complexion and facial features such as big noses, little noses etc. People conveniently forget that African slaves from the west were enslaved in the west by whites who migrated to the west from the same British Europe you say brought about a sort of unity amongst Africans. A white person from Europe who migrates from Europe to the west is the same as the white from Europe who decided to stay in Europe but then thought to go to Africa to participate in colonization.

Any way,

Africa, one people!

Once, Hutus and Tutsis lived in harmony in Central Africa. About 600 years ago, Tutsis, a tall, warrior people, moved south from Ethiopia and invaded the homeland of the Hutus. Though much smaller in number, they conquered the Hutus, who agreed to raise crops for them in return for protection.

Even in the colonial era -- when Belgium ruled the area, after taking it from Germany in 1916 -- the two groups lived as one, speaking the same language, intermarrying, and obeying a nearly godlike Tutsi king.

Independence changed everything. The monarchy was dissolved and Belgian troops withdrawn -- a power vacuum both Tutsis and Hutus fought to fill. Two new countries emerged in 1962 -- Rwanda, dominated by the Hutus, and Burundi by the Tutsis -- and the ethnic fighting flared on and off in the following decades.

It exploded in 1994 with the civil war in Rwanda in which hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. Tutsi rebels won control, which sent a million Hutus, fearful of revenge, into Zaire and Tanzania.

In Burundi, the Tutsis yielded power after a Hutu won the country's first democratic election in 1993. He was killed in an attempted coup four months later, and his successor in a suspicious plane crash in 1994, in which the Hutu leader of Rwanda was also killed.


http://www.cnn.com/EVENTS/1996/year.in.review/topten/hutu/history.html



If its the issue of Division of Africa, The west didnt have anything to do with that. And your example is flawed in relationship to what we are discussing.
I bet if you did a little research, you will find out that the people of Africa had been divided long before the Colonization era. narrow the scope, Do alittle research on Nigeria's three main tribe.
Just to state clearly - I do not dispute, disregard or regard as relevant the evils of colonization, but sometimes we are quick to blame the Imperialist for what was already our culture

Maybe he didn't read his own source very well.

Difference?

We think we are better than ya'll

AND

Ya'll think ya'll are better than us.

PERIOD.

If I go to Africa, I'll see the worst poverty known.  If you come here you'll see a bunch of lazy ass entitled black folks.

its 750 Million of ya'll and 38million of us.

your population is growing (which is not good)

Our population is declining (which is not good)

If africa's people continue to climb - Africa will not be able to feed them.

If Black american's population continue to shrink - our political power will shrink.


I got nothing but love for Africans, between.

shut up She-ro.

That's how I see it.  between, You think you better than yorbas, and you secretly believe you better than 'most' africans.

when in actuality you just another struggling ass peasant.

Kick rocks

@Lassfaire




I didn't select anything to favor my point. I asked you to correct me if I was wrong about what I read and understood  the source you provided to say. You didn't answer my question at all. Instead you accuse  me of selecting points to favor my arguemnent, something you yourself could aslo be accused of. My advice to you is, the next time you go digging up a source, you better make sure it supports your arguement, trust me, this is where your obvious frustration lies. There was nothing cut and clear about your source, there was nothing about your source from what I could see that  supports your arguement, nothing at all.

You also acccused me of being biased. Well, If I am biased in my view, what are you? Certainly not unbiased.

a.)as was said before, africans(immigrants) have education and economic gain as primary concern;  this is speaking as a whole and not exceptions.
b.)africans are not trying to question their current identity as aa's. This shows that the aa ethnic group is a constant changing group as you as any other group but very rapid in its mobility economically, numerically, and etc.
c.)lineages are different as was said before. africans trace their lineages to their prospective patriarch or matriarch. AA's ,of a particular generation, just like alot of original americans, do not carry that knowledge as a whole unless they seek it out from a family member who is knowledgeable. In my birth state, which is in the south, i know of many aa's who are very knowlegeable of who is in their lineage and who is related to whom. Alot of them cannot trace it to anybody who is african but they can only trace it to indigenous americans and even name tribal affliation if such occurs. I have met aa's who can trace members who were slaves but very few. I would believe this to be the case of such members being freed or runaways before or during the early 19th century. I myself have ancestry that is traceable from south carolina-north carolina-virginia in which our extended family aka.tribe smith-poindexters are very numerous and carry cherokee lineages as a base from my mothers side. On my fathers side they are a bunch of mustees(black and indian).
d.)culturally aa's are very distinct as comapred to the rest of the world and this is nothing new with amalgamated groups(peoples composed of mixed compositions ,ethnically and culturally, given rise to a new group) I have seen people try to account african things into aa's culture but it is very unsubstantial. 99.99% of aa's culture was born on american soil. contrast whites(priveledged and not poor white descendants) who carry baggage from old their country of origin.
e.) finally, from the opinion of continental africans themselves, from the north to the southern tip in which i have personally met and discussed this topic. aa's are not considered african at all in any shape fashion or form. Their are specifics but the vast majority of africans are at a consensus that aa's are definately not african. i guess it would be like telling someone you are a new yorker and the the big question pops up. " oh yeah what burough? what street? what neighborhood?" Therefore, africa being nothing more than a continent, it would suffice to say that every land has its people and every people have their specifities, so representation without no knowledge or witnessess or hard core evidence would present it self dubious to one that does possess such characteristics.

@ Sista

Damn, where have you been stranger? 

[quote from HERO]  there is not level of poverty in which is better than another. 
REALLY?

O.K.

so you say POVERTY in America =

cell phone
housing
ample food
air conditioning
health care
free clothing
heating
child care
& WAYS AND MEANS to get WELFARE


Poverty in Africa =
Starvation
begging
ZERO HEALTH CARE
NO AIRCONDITIONING
and NO VIABLE WAYS AND MEANS to get SUBSIDIES


and you call these two povertys EQUAL?

Dude - YOU have no idea between ABSOLUTE poverty(Africa) and RELATIVE poverty(America).

educate yourself before you step to my posts in the future.

Something I just wanted to add to this topic. Why is it that continent born Africans think that it is within their right to say who is African and who is not? Some Africans will say that AA's are no Africans but those same Africans will turn around and say that Jamaicans are Africans. The thing is, you got Jamaicans who will tell you that they are descendants of Africans but they are Jamaicans pure at heart. I wonder why it does not upset Continent born Africans that a Jamaican will tell them they are African decent and Jamaican pure at heart but it bothers them that an AA would say basically the same thing accept for they are American at heart. I am beginning to think that dark skin, kinky hair and poverty is being associated with who has the right to claim Africa and who does not. It is okay for a Jamaicans to have a choice to claim Africa because he comes from a place that is exposed to a level of poverty, it is believed that he suffers or shares the same experience as a continent born African. However, black Americans don't have that choice. AA's are a bunch of stuck up lazy and ungrateful fools who have no idea for which they came from even though they are aware they descend from African slaves but because they are American, and don't suffer like most Africans so called do, they can not claim Africa.

I know some one is going to refer to culture but if you do that, think about this. How many people come in here and talk about AA's being lazy and saying that AA's should be able to do better than they do because they have benefits in America that they should appreciate and take advantage of?


Let me pose this question before anyone goes off saying that.


Hypothetically speaking, what if the situation went like this, AA's held onto the same culture as Africans or Jamaicans while they lived in America for generation after generation. What would  they all be accused of then?

JEALOUSY!

Pure and Simple.

Western Africans HISTORICALLY are jealous of AA's.

When in reality AA's don't know JACK about Africans and don't care to know about them except that they are tired of them showing up starving on their Television sets.

Africans on the other hand, Know everthing Western Media tells them about AA's.

Yet!  Africans are lined up outside of EVERY American Embassy DYING for a Visa - so they can come here and show the AA's how to live.

GOOD LUCK!

They come here and land in Cabs!

, the few lucky ones complete their Nursing Programs and get picked up by the Hospital they are slaving for and placed on a track for a Green card - all the while being constantly mistreated.


Of course they hate us for something they don't have


WHAT COULD THAT BE - YOU ASK?


CHOICE

Oh,  I am sorry. I was just wondering, 

 read this new york times post by lydia polgreen 2005 quoting ms. mann an aa residing in ghana

@عبدالكريم




Not true in terms of black Academia covering the identity of Blacks in America. If you know the history of America, it has pretty much been white people dominating everything concerning black people from education to religion. Blacks in America have been taking back charge of being in charge of what their identity is. "The Negroe" is a book written to describe an example of the black experience in America, it is not a book suggesting that black people title their self as "Negroe".  Negroe is a spanish word that blacks in America would know nothing about if it was not for white people in America reffering to them as such. The depths of the book entitled "The Negroe"  covers Negroe being another title for blacks in the series of titles white people came up with to identify blacks with in America and the experience attached to that.  Just to name a few, in that series of titles colored and nigga would also fall in there some where.





I disagree with all of the above. Due to the huge European influence in Africa, Africans their self are not even the same Africans they were 100 years ago, slowly but surely Africans are losing site with who they are in order to keep up with European way of life. As long as Africans continue to develop a  mind set which says that they have to leave Africa in order to survive, they will continue to open their self up to losing site with African tradition and such. As we know, Africans are leaving Africa by the heards to live and work in America, Europe and some are even desperate enough to wind up some where in China.  Pretty soon, it will only be the bushmen that carry the characteristics of what a so called true African really is, what will be said then?

Are there any books that you can refer to that at least covers a pages worth concerning the black americans identity from a white author. true, whites dominated everything concerning media, however when whites documented anything about non-whites, it was highly opinionated and lacked scholarship like that of a w.e.b. dubois. Their main concern was that of the spotlight of themselves and not those deemed subjugated. You will see this with alot of minority groups in america. The leading scholars of these particular groups are members of those groups. Do not be fooled by the name negroes, colored, and niggers for there are aa's of a generation gone who still exist using these terms formally without any regards for white people. Some of the most staunch enemies of whites used these terms. They are merely technical terms for formality which have no meaning except for the distinguishment of non-whites. Go read about the forced migrations of south-eastern native americans from their lands in which those who stayed were referred to as negroes, mulattoes, and colored. You will find this even in the spanish colonies in which indigenous populations were refrerred to as negroes. read the following quote from Lenape Then and Now: 
The Invisible Indians of New Jersey and Delaware

by Edward F. Heite (1937 - 2005)


a large percentage of blacks have always cared about were they came from with the exception of those who were entirely submissive and excepted their fate of captivity as is.
black academia have brought to the rest of black americans a sense of i.d. and political solidarity and ethno-nationalhood.
Look at Henry Louis Gates, Jr in his PBS "Wonders of the African World" in which he constantly asks questions to locals about are they black and if blacks did this and that. when he saw two black--skinned zanjabaris who told him they were persians he was dismayed. why?
because he was forcing, as other AA"s do with non-aa's, their color schematic on people. this is a man who is representative of black academia, showing a sense of desperateness in seeking identity with those who have an established identity elsewhere, while at the same time turning his back on his known lineage in the americas and their accomplishments.
In truth the aa's are a new ethnic group and can only trace their lineage so far just like any other group in the states. a vast majority of the groups are of recent immigrant parentage(late 1800's). The last slave ship was in 1859 and that was in areas pertaining to the gulf. regarding the east coast(specifically south-east), ships stopped coming in around 1808 and before that in other states. This is not the same for whites who kept coming until the 1930's, give or take.  black americans are homegrown and are not, as alot of africans say europeanized. Their culture, since most came from there, is a hodgepodge of indian-african-european which became southern culture. they even had their own colony in africa called liberia(americo-liberians) where houses where fashioned in southern colonial style and became leaders of the country. african americans are suppose to be related to sierre leone creoles also(krio);. They, the ethnic group from their beginnings as a group, are 100% american. This does not entail any political allegiances to whites or friendly terms however it does mean foundation and survival where most would have ceased to exist.

Look at other creole groups in africa. the aku or krio of gambianew groups form and disappear and some take their place and others are just written off with time.