A: It's due to the misunderstanding of each others cultures. Both African-Americans and black-Africans (because not all Africans are black) have different cultures that sometimes don't agree with each other socially.
AFRICANS VIEW POINT: One of the biggest reasons from the African standpoint of why there is dislike though is that when Africans started coming to America during the 60' or 70's, alot from the African American community were never really welcoming to them; which has been a big complaint by many Africans (there have been cases where some have been taunted, teased, beat up by African Americans). That mind frame not only spread to Africans overseas but ones in Africa (so over the years as more Africans were coming and experiencing this and spreading that view to their community Africans have just learned to permanently distance themsleves from African Americans). Another reason is some Africans have a stereotypical view that African Americans are lazy, into crime, uneducated, uncultured and just surrounded by drama which is untrue for the most part, sad, and stereotypical.
AFRICAN AMERICAN VIEW POINT: One of the biggest reasons from the African American standpoint of why there is dislike for Africans, is some have said that Africans think they are better then African Americans, that Africans act like Uncle Toms, and are mad at them for selling them to slavery. Another reason though is that some African Americans have a stereotypical view that Africans live in the jungle, poor, suffering from starvation and A.I.D.S. which is untrue and stereotypical, and sad. Sometimes these stereotypes have been influenced by the media too from both sides, not only from personal experiences. So for the most part most from each community keep away from each other respectfully, it's sad but thats just the way it is.
Having a grandfather who is from Ethiopia, I have some insight to this. My grandfather never liked blacks from America simply because he felt that they are lazy. He would call them "niggers". Mental slaves. A lot black Americans would immediately think because my grandfather came from Africa that he was uneducated or simple.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with one point. Black Americans are not African. They are Americans. They are not Nigerian, Ethiopian, Congo etc. They are Americans that are black.