Black British man makes a video expressing his wish to be a Black American

[Babymama Magnet]

15,765 views Mar 3, 2019 It's All Blakademik
S02E06: From Aliko Dangote to Oprah Winfrey, we can point out wealthy Black individuals in the US & African countries. Where are the (financially) successful businesses and individuals in the UK? Do we have wealthy Black communities, like Baldwin Hills, California? #BlackWealth #Britain #Blakademik

The black community in the UK are still quite young. We're only 4 generation in from when we immigrated over to the UK till now.

Our grandparents (1st Generation) come over with skills and trade and our parents (2nd generation) worked as teachers and within the civil service. It's only the 3rd and 4th generation (myself) who are looking to be more business minded.

There is a few obviously wealthy individuals (footballers and entertainer) but not enough black businessmen/women.

In terms of communities, the UK is strange as wealth seems to be intermixed and more classed based.

You don't have a 'rich' black community or asian community as wealthier individuals seems to be intermixed with less wealthy individuals in the area that we live in (at least in London where the rich and poor are close proximity to each other and are blended)

For example, asian (indians) are doing well/decent for themselves but you will find that a lot of them are scattered in good areas but also poorer areas. They have a big community in cities like Bolton and Leicester but both these cities are known to be poor-ish. This isn't reflective of how asians are doing at the moment tho.

Edit: The most obvious difference for Black British (compared to Black Americans/Africans) is that outside of our entertainer/athletes we have little to no positive representation of black people doing well in other avenues (Businesses, Politics and High Job positions) so it can feel like we're invisible to society outside of the stereotypical roles.

Working for a big company in central london and seeing other black people in senior positions opened my eyes to what we can do outside of music and sports which unfortunately i feel many young black childen (especially black boys) don't get to see.

 

[Babymama Magnet]

Generally speaking, black Americans are one ethnic group. We don't consider ourselves immigrants. People that are half non black are generally still accepted as part of the geoup. We can stay on code if need be. ...

UK black folks seem more divided by where they are originally from and if they are biracial or not.

Dude sounds defeated af.

Not divided but we have no community like that.

Take the jews and muslims (south indians). They have a community where they all know each other or know a friend of a friend of a friend. They congregate with each other socially and work together to help each other progress and improve their standing within society.

Black people in the UK don't have this.

 

[BaileyPark31]

Not divided but we have no community like that.

Take the jews and muslims (south indians). They have a community where they all know each other or know a friend of a friend of a friend. They congregate with each other socially and work together to help each other progress and improve their standing within society.

Black people in the UK don't have this.

That's what I mean by divided. Yall are big on your "original" nationalities .... you haven't formed one Afro-British or Black British ethnic group. Yall swimming against the current individually.

When black Britts or Black Euros say " well, yall don't know where you are originally from".. it doesn't make sense to us because we don't consider ourselves immigrants. We are from here. We're as American as any wyte person that's been on this land 400+ years.

By law were were placed and discriminated against together. So regardless where in Africa ancestors were from, regardless if one parent wasn't Black, etc, we became 1 ethnicity.

And yes I realize how huge the US. We subcultures but we mainly still on code.

Britts need to study Latinos. They from 50 different countries and still manage to stay on code for their benefit.

 

[BuckFilly]

@RehReh

 

[KingDanz]

"i lay down on my bed everyday, looking at the sky and thinkin I Wish I Was Black American"

 

[Kasgoinjail]

@RehReh

Ur username gone b BukkFiddy

 

[DaRealness]

I knew who it was before I even clicked on the thread.

I don't mean to sound brutal, but he's a fukking lame. I just don't get this guy. He teaches Python classes, he's travelled, he has a platform where he's interviewed black men from here, the US, Canada and other parts of the world who are making moves....so what's the issue? It's not like he's not in a position to move somewhere else if he's unhappy.

Lately all he's been doing is whining and bytching and it's not a good look. He needs to step outside his house or something.

 

[HarlemHottie]

Everybody itt understands exactly what he's saying. Now watch how yall turn right around and shyt on ADOS/ FBA for attempting to maintain the sense of unity that fueled all those civil rights gains everybody runs here for.

Disingenuous.

Young breh sounds so discouraged and I feel him. Since the 80's or so, the diaspora has grown exponentially, but can show no recent gains. No work is being done to build community, economic or political power. The young people will naturally start to feel resentful, even to their own elders.

 

[Voice of Reason]

@RehReh you want to be amongst Black American men too don't you

 

[Kasgoinjail]

@RehReh you want to be amongst Black American men too don't you

Yes I am not xenophobic (just ignorant at times)
I love all my Diaspora Family, amigo. ☣

 

[Kasgoinjail]

@HarlemHottie I'm just joking and I knew u would get it I learned that ☣ on 125th

 

[Black Magisterialness]

That's what I mean by divided. Yall are big on your "original" nationalities .... you haven't formed one Afro-British or Black British ethnic group. Yall swimming against the current individually.

When black Britts or Black Euros say " well, yall don't know where you are originally from".. it doesn't make sense to us because we don't consider ourselves immigrants. We are from here. We're as American as any wyte person that's been on this land 400+ years.

By law were were placed and discriminated against together. So regardless where in Africa ancestors were from, regardless if one parent wasn't Black, etc, we became 1 ethnicity.

And yes I realize how huge the US. We subcultures but we mainly still on code.

Britts need to study Latinos. They from 50 different countries and still manage to stay on code for their benefit.

This post is powerful AND also filled with things I don't think a Black Brit could understand.

Because of the very nature of Windrush Generation and immigration of post colonial-Nigerians, black brit identity CANNOT be a cohesive thing. Man most black brits have a DIRECT PARENT OR GRANDPARENT from another country. England is not "home". Ghana is. Nigeria is. Jamaica is. etc.

Black American say we are American because outside of Natives and WASPs, we literally have been here the longest. Our people and our culture did not exist before America. In the same way the Vikings and the Franks blended to become the Normans. We became "black", "african-american". But understand, our culture is powerful because it was made through NESSECITY. Skin folk had no choice but to form common lexicon, music and culture.

England is not like that. There's no reason for a Nigerian Brit to rock with a Togolese Brit. They both got firm community roots. Black American's didn't. That's why I hate when black europeans throw that bullshyt in our faces. Your parents FLED to Europe. VOLUNTARILY. We were STOLEN and STILL persist and created the most powerful culture there is.

 

[Louisville Slugz]

poor bruv

 

[null]

Dude lowkey sounds defeated like he’s going through something. This is definitely not healthy.

 

[null]

Some of the stuff he's saying is a bit inaccurate (Black businessmen) but I can see why he has his opinions.
Maybe it's just "grass is greener" syndrome but there's more scope and opportunities for a Black man to succeed in the US meanwhile there is a glass ceiling on how successful one can be in the UK.

breh is right.

brehs have next to no power in the UK.

and the UK is losing power anyway.

There is also a bigger feel of community and staying on code amongst Black Americans while that isn't really the case here. There is not really much UNITY in Black British community because it's so fractured and people either rep their home countries more than being Black British or straight up want nothing to do with Blackness.

Generally, the UK is just a shyt place to thrive as a Black person unless you're lucky but it's also somewhat better compared to how Black people are treated in France, Italy and other European countries.

it's called benign neglect

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www.voice-online.co.uk