I went from a life long Pan Africanist to a hardcore nationalist over the course of a 3 month period after being subjected to that nonsense.
I couldn’t believe the hate these people could have for us and felt like an idiot.
shyt, most of them called us idiots straight up for thinking we was anything more than a Black American slave.
I was angry but I just changed the way I approached pan africanism.
There is this shared sentiment among non black Americans, black and non black, that us Black Americans look stupid for calling ourselves “African” Americans. And that they wanna laugh in our faces for it. That made me think for a good bit about how people leverage our identity when it suits them, when they claim they’re not an AA/Black American but a [national]-American. But then to talk down on us will be like “aren’t we all technically Black/African Americans”, when we decide to gatekeep. I’m also mad at non blacks for doing the whole African American thing with Elon Musk, it’s disrespectful for what we fukking went through to have SOME honor.
Also abroad they hate being mistaken for us.
I just step out the way, let them represent themselves, and focus on Black American nuance. And if they talk about us they better have a good understanding of our nuance ESPECIALLY, if they talking in that “you ignorant American, me wise cultured worldly foreigner” tone. I feel when we call ourselves Black American and stand on it, no one can play weirdo games with our identity, question if we’re African enough, because everyone distinctly knows who THE black Americans are.
I don’t do the Egypt claiming, the moor claiming, the “everyone was black” claiming. I don’t do the flat black culture claiming. I let other diasporans gatekeep their stuff and stay out of it. Just the Black American nuance, and our quest to get our honor back and redemption. I want my birthrights back, while still respecting African heritage. If other diasporans get disrespected I still stand up for them. But the more I’ve studied black American history, the more I see how the world is wrong about us in real life when they say surface level shyt about us