Originalsly:
Naturalized, Permanent Resident or Illegal.... doesn't matter... no one will know... but as soon as you speak with a foreign accent.... you are perceived as a foreigner and should be expecting the question 'where are you from'?. If you were born in the US.... and at age 4 for whatever reasons taken to Nigeria and returned to the US at age 21 with a Nigerian accent... you will be perceived as a foreigner... then the question..'where you from'?.... if the answer is given without explanation.. you would be strengthening the belief that foreigners cannot be trusted... they are liars! If you were born in Nigeria... migrated to the US at age 5... illegally... by age 10 and above... no one would ever even think you are a foreigner.....accent is everything.... until it comes to documentation.... status documentation.
On descrimination..... yes... there is subtle discrimination in the US because open discrimination can send you to prison or companies sued. Punch a guy... you are charged for assault.... call him a nigga/white thrash then punch him.... you would be charged for assault and discrimination.
On Nigerians in the Police Force... you have to have College and above qualifications to be recruited. Not many Nigerians reaching that level of education would even consider being Police officers. Most likely, most of the ones whonare.. we're brought up in the US.

TheCongo2:
As an individual, there is nothing illegal in calling someone a nigger. Maybe immoral and reprehensible but not illegal. There is no ground for lawsuit when someone call another person a nigger.

Originalsly:
As an idividual... it's a hate crime... same goes to calling someone a gay. Happens all the time.

TheCongo2:


I challenge you that there never been any case where a person got arrested for the mere fact of calling someone a nigger or gay. This would go against the freedom of speech.

A hate crime would be a combination of a crime (assault, theft …) and racial epithet. Using racial epithet alone could never lead to an arrest. You may ask a police officer.

lionlee216:



A nigger or nigga from the mouth of a white man to a black is a racism word

TWoods:


Yes i do have a good relationship with my work colleagues. We travel on business together, we take lunches together, we work on projects together majority of the time, we have frequent happy hours or attend private parties hosted by each other... all of them are white, natural born US citizens. We joke about our selves, but we do so respectfully.

Don't get me wrong, i am not saying that subjective bias does not occur in the work place but oftentimes the problem we minorities tend to have is we are hypersensitive to perceived discrimination. So we read meanings to innocent questions and get defensive, assuming that everyone is out to get us on account of our skin color, accent or countries of origin. My colleagues sometimes find funny memes on Nigeria or they may run into a topic on Nigeria they are curious about, they send it to me... we discuss. I find memes about their own heritage too, i send it to them, we discuss... and get on with our jobs. No offense taken. If you command respect in your workplace, people will treat you with respect.

I absolutely disagree that naturalized Americans are treated differently from natural born citizens. I wasn't even an immigrant for many of the years i lived and worked here... yet i never felt anyone treated me differently because of that. Everyone knows i am Nigerian first and foremost... i'm proud of it. Anyone who doesn't like that fact can kick rocks.

lindaayim:
The question that i get most of the time is how did you get here? my answer by air...i flew in

gentleiphy:


In my own opinion,i think the Americans-white and to some extent the African Americans even despise immigrants from other developing nations like Nigeria.However it doesn't make sense to give someone citizenship and then turn around to deny him or her some rights and jobs...I would say Canada is better in that aspect and reason being that Canada is a country of whole loads of immigrants so the federal job denials is not evident as the immigrants out numbered even the supposedly born Canadians...a permanent resident regardless of which country he comes from who has stayed up to 3yrs even without being a citizen can apply to the police force and get the job...

TheCongo2:


I am shivering after reading your post.

My brother, I have learned it the hard way. It is not because someone has the title of engineer or doctor that you will assume he is been treated accordingly at his place of work. You have no idea what some people may be going through daily at work. Sometime people are assigned tasks at work that are below their skills (a far cry from their skills or from their titles). I have seen it happened. Some people are being assigned to less desirable jobs, or being denied mentoring and training. You would never be able to confirm if some of those Nigerians doctors and engineers are NOT going through this type of humiliation at work.

mctowel01:
This is why I love Australia and I believe its one of, if not the best country for a Nigerian to migrate to. Almost everybody, white included is an immigrant. The original natives are aborigines so everyone is respected and has equal rights. The only thing is your visa status should be permanent resident or a citizen, then you will have the opportunities you want

JewelStone:

Calm down bro, you just got here and you ain't seen nothing yet. Have you never heard of how white Australians treated and are still treating the Indigenous Aboriginals? If you want to know how racist Australians are, try applying to a white collar job if your name sounds African, Indian, Aboriginal, Muslim etc

@Topic
Systemic bias is real and it's sadly not going away soon. I don't experience it much because I don't pay attention to it. For instance, my non-white colleagues always complain to me that my team leader is racist and he's biased towards the white staff members. This is probably true to their experience but I don't pay attention to it because my team leader hasn't treated me unfairly, and if I have any concerns, I bring it to his attention objectively without directly or indirectly accusing him of bias or racism. Maybe I'm guilty of enabling systemic bias, but I'd rather focus on my job than look for bigotry.

But then again, what most of us refer to as racism could just be preference. People prefer to interact with people they can understand, who share the same experiences as them. We are all guilty of this

mctowel01:


Your opinion tho. I won't say that there is 100% no racism here. I see it happen amongst people quarrelling in trains and public places. I ve never experienced it, infact, I will still say I do not think the general population is racist. Obviously, there could be few idiots out there, but its not something to make me wail about. I ve been made a temporary team leader for a task where I work, despite "white" people being there before me, not cos of my skin color, but because I was able to convince the manager. I m not saying its 100% no racism, but at times, you see what you want to see. I feel its overhyped at times. Sometimes, I believe its not bias, people naturally just connect more with people they can more easily relate with. I stay in an asian community and I find their whole lifestyle difficult. And yes, they are not generally as friendly as the white australians, I can't really connect with them socially and culturally and it doesn't make me racist. It doesn't mean they will belittle you for having another skin color as its more comon in Europe. I know a Nigerian who was considered as the only person for his job, and promoted one level up, just after looking at his resume and interview. His name is also Nigerian.
And even if you ve stayed 10years here, our opinions and experiences can not be the same.

TWoods:


To be honest, I think this was a passive aggressive and totally unnecessary confrontation with someone who was probably just trying to start a friendly conversation. I'm also fairly up the income/social ladder here myself and i often get the "where are you from" question from most people. The lady was correct, it's impossible for anyone born and raised in the US to have the sort of accent like yours so it was a fair question. There was no need for your response. It's ok to simply state that you were born African but a naturalized US citizen. We joke about it in my office here, people try really hard to say my name and i tease them by scoring them on points based on who can say the name the best. We all have a good laugh and that's it. I work with 99.9% whites and have never felt any disrespect on account of my name or accent (which people think ranges from English to Jamaican).

If you search desperately for bias or bigotry, you will find it.

lindaayim:

very great write up. Honestly, there have been instances where i questioned the privileges of my citizenship. like in certain federal jobs and managerial positions in private american firms. I'm an american (naturalized) but i see my country as a collection of different nationals-Chinese, Indians, Mexicans, Nigerians etc etc claiming the tile american in lip service but in reality are Chinese living in america, Mexicans in america. this does differ if i were to be native born. just to buffer my point and i may be wrong. i am not everywhere in the USA but i have never met a Nigerian born immigrant (immigrant in from early 20s) who is in the police force. i have been told by several naturalized Nigerians that they never got accepted into the police force no reason given.

Konquest:

^^^^^^
^^^^^^
OK... it's time to bump this insightful thread up in 2020!
The post is still very relevant as of today.


Just to name a few...
There are naturalized Americans of Nigerian descent in the U.S. Police...
Deputy Adewale Olukoju who is an ex-Olympian is one of them. He is
ex-Olympian Fatima Yusuf-Olukoju's Husband and they got married in 1998.
Here is a link below on Adewale and Fatima Olukoju
==>https://www.pe.com/2013/01/11/riverside-fitness-coach-never-forgets-her-roots/


Another guy of Nigerian descent is[b] Officer Akintayo Akintunde[/b] who has worked with the
Washington, District of Columbia police in the United States since May 2016.
Incidentally Akintayo Akintunde who graduated in 2016 from the University of Baltimore
has joined the league of young people that are profiled as suspected criminals based
on their looks [i.e wearing braided hair or dreadlocks] by the Nigerian police
after only spending 4 days in Nigeria!

Akintayo Akintunde was featured in "Beyond the Badge" D.C Police Web-series.
==>https://mpdc.dc.gov/page/beyond-badge

~~~~
Beyond The Badge: Ep. 2 | "Rise~N~Grind"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4LBRGDkUrc[2:39]
Nov 6, 2018 - Uploaded by OfficialDCPolice
Episode 2: "Rise~N~Grind" In this week's episode,
we go beyond the badge with Officer Akintunde.
~~~~





On the other hand many U.S.-born and naturalized Nigerians are in
the U.S. Armed Forces and have been in combat right from the
1st Gulf War in Iraq and the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in 1990.


Perception is stronger than reality... so most of the time
if a person begins to have that inner dialog about
being sidelined in American or any Western country,
that is what will manifest in the physical world... because
people can subconsciously sense if another person
has low self-esteem or doubts himself or herself.

So "faking it till you make it with a smile," i.e, "learn how to win
friends and influence people" and anybody will see his or her career
skyrocket! Even with some racists or white supremacists still
existing in America... and worse still in Russia where even
mixed race children and young adults get picked on
by the some young Russian gangs.


Well with the rise in ancestral DNA tests from Ancestry.com,
23andMe, and AfricanAncestry, a lot of whites are begining
to appreciate the FACT that race is indeed a social construct
and I have met many friendly whites and have never experienced
racism though in all my dealings and travels!

My 2 cents, Hope this helps.

All the best!

lindaayim:

You must have plenty of downtime/time at work to be playing a guess game on peoples accent...i guess u got nice job though. on the matter of irrelevance which you brought up i guess u misunderstood my position and am leaving it at that... talking about not understanding what is assertive i believe you need to go read the meaning of what being assertive is. aside the above you made a good point of being proud of my Nigerian heritage but maybe you didn't read the topic. It's doesn't primarily focus on one's heritage but focuses on how naturalized citizens are treated compared to native born. thanks

Drenimarcus:
Let me add my own little bit to this topic. Like Twoods said, if you look for racism, you will find it. I live in the Midwest. I really do not care, I go my way, if you start a conversation with me, I respond politely, I have had people ask me where I am from, I am always eager to be asked, i proudly tell them, I am from Nigeria(nothing fit change that) .


My MIL always want me to tag along with her when she is going grocery shopping because In her words “she likes to show off her Nigerian SIL“. What I generally do know is the more they get familiar with you, the more they open up. Everyone knows this, I am and will always be a Nigeria and I will never reject my heritage(naija no good no mean say make person reject).

My watchword has always been be polite, respect people opinions even if you don’t like it(no be your country), don’t break the law.

God be with us and keep us safe.

TWoods:


Not dismissing your experience by any means but can we really compare the quality of medical education in Nigeria and Canada? Is a Nigerian medical license equivalent expertise to a Canadian? Of course if I ran a hospital here, I'd expect a Nigerian doctor to have obtained some additional education and experience here before I can employ him.