Who else here is MIDDLE PASSAGE BLACK

[ExodusNirvana]

Help me get something constructive out of this. Was your family part of the Diaspora to Trinidad and/or venezuela? And tell me about their either revolution or fight for rights.

I'm not being sarcastic, whatsoever, to be clear.

That's a good question actually. My cousin did a DNA ancestry thingie on our family a few years back and the DNA traces back to various West African countries. I never really looked at it cause I kind of already knew that just based on common sense but I really should either do one myself or ask her to see it at the next family gathering. I do know that when I was in elementary school (PS 235 in BK) my 5th grade homeroom teacher made us do a genealogy project for the entirety of the year where we made scrapbooks going backwards in time for all our relatives.

My grandparents on my mom side knew where their parents were from (Trinidad) but had no idea where their grandparents were from or anyone else going backwards. On my fathers side as I said, his father was Venezuelan/Trinidadian and my paternal grandfathers parents were Venezualan/Trinidadian but beyond that they have no clue. My paternal grandmother was born in Dominica but grew up in Trinidad. Her parents were born in Dominica but beyond that, nobody knew anything.

 

[Oceanicpuppy]

I agree but the middle class of black America is not very far removed from the lower class generationally, at all. If you reread my story, if my grandfathers don't move to Gary to work in Steel, I'm probably in Mississippi (dads side) or Arkansas (mothers side) doing nothing...and that is not a disrespect to my brothers in the south. We were a simply job opportunity and move away from failure.

The south had industry, My Granddad worked the coal mines.

 

[Poitier]

I put all my African American Blacks above all else. My family has been in the US 250+ years. Tribe>Race

 

[TL15]

@Ed MOTHERfukkING G I know what you mean. I'm not as passionate about it as you but I feel the struggle.

In the 90's there were a ton of Sudanese in SoCal and I think they nicknamed them the "Lost Boys". My mom would write in "Black" on the race part of my school papers when I was in elementary school. It was no offense to any African person (and still no offense) but she made sure that she told us we were black. We weren't getting any specials on Oprah because we emigrated during wartime, we weren't going to get special treatment in school, her father's Grandfather was a slave and she made sure we knew it.

 

[Moshe.]

@Ed MOTHERfukkING G I know what you mean. I'm not as passionate about it as you but I feel the struggle.

In the 90's there were a ton of Sudanese in SoCal and I think they nicknamed them the "Lost Boys". My mom would write in "Black" on the race part of my school papers when I was in elementary school. It was no offense to any African person (and still no offense) but she made sure that she told us we were black. We weren't getting any specials on Oprah because we emigrated during wartime, we weren't going to get special treatment in school, her father's Grandfather was a slave and she made sure we knew it.

Seems like we have the same mother as my mother would do the same. I don't think we should divorce ourselves of those that are genetically very similar to us. The world seems to unite in its collective hatred of the Black, and the Black seems to distant his/her--self from other Blacks. This is undoubtedly, very foolish behavior. When a collective majority -- some more than others -- despises your very being, would like to take your homeland, etc..., and always say, "you are different from those other ones...", and you believe them, you are a fool.

The race is more important than the damn tribe, especially in this climate. If you value the tribe more, you don't really value the race because you lack basic understanding of what defines the race. The tribe is just a segment of the race. The segment doesn't define the whole, and if enough segments are destroyed, that tribe you valued so much, will also be destroyed in the process.

 

[Kitsch]

Interesting thread.

 

[Poitier]

Putting Tribe 1st does not mean you can't have racial unity.

Black people are diverse and that should be respected.

 

[TL15]

Seems like we have the same mother as my mother would do the same. I don't think we should divorce ourselves of those that are genetically very similar to us. The world seems to unite in its collective hatred of the Black, and the Black seems to distant his/her--self from other Blacks. This is undoubtedly, very foolish behavior. When a collective majority -- some more than others -- despises your very being, would like to take your homeland, etc..., and always say, "you are different from those other ones...", and you believe them, you are a fool.

The race is more important than the damn tribe, especially in this climate. If you value the tribe more, you don't really value the race because you lack basic understanding of what defines the race. The tribe is just a segment of the race. The segment doesn't define the whole, and if enough segments are destroyed, that tribe you valued so much, will also be destroyed in the process.

I agree that personally the struggle is VERY similar, but it is not always the same. My mother did that partially because the Africans who were coming over here at that time were highly publicized and there were assemblies recognizing them etc. I don't know her deep routed motives but I know she made sure that we knew our struggle as Black Americans was different than those of the New African-Americans.

I too agree that race is a more important issue, but acceptance is crazy. In college I remember traditional African students who were in the US just for college got treated completely different than black students. As much as I love our people, I can't say that we are all the same in the eyes of others. We may have very similar genetics, but there are different and unique struggles that both types of "Americans of African descent" go through.

 

[kayslay]

Putting Tribe 1st does not mean you can't have racial unity.

Black people are diverse and that should be respected.

Funny NO other group of Blacks besides AAs are guilted for putting tribe before race.
I wonder why that is?

 

[Moshe.]

You have to look at the ones treating the Africans differently from the displaced African, and most of all, why. Usually whites like to play those games with Blacks. They will treat the African better so that the displaced African will foster some sort of resentment towards the emigrated African.

 

[JoeClair]

You have to look at the ones treating the Africans differently from the displaced African, and most of all, why. Usually whites like to play those games with Blacks. They will treat the African better so that the displaced African will foster some sort of resentment towards the emigrated African.

Agreed. I mean, this shouldn't even be our focus. We're pulling attention away from the one common enemy.

 

[Anti-Anime]

i respect what your ancestors did, if not for them, i don't think i'd be here in the US with as many opportunities as i have now. i don't think looking at it from your pov is any good though, i'd get cuffed up by a crooked pig just as fast as any AA and probably even faster considering i'm pitch black. i understand there are some of us africans that come on that pretentious/condescending tip and they need to be checked real quick, but it goes the other way too.

 

[frush11]

I'm a middle passage and a return back Black.

Descend from enslaved Blacks from America, Jamaica, England, and Canada who were on that back to Africa tip, and they got their wish and settled in Freetown Sierra Leone.

 

[kayslay]

You have to look at the ones treating the Africans differently from the displaced African, and most of all, why. Usually whites like to play those games with Blacks. They will treat the African better so that the displaced African will foster some sort of resentment towards the emigrated African.

It would be easy to place blame with white people but this idiology is cutural for Non AA Blacks.
All things arent a simple case of Black & White.

 

[Poitier]

Funny NO other group of Blacks besides AAs are guilted for putting tribe before race.
I wonder why that is?

Its usually from a few Diasporans who learned a few facts about Egypt, Mansa Munsa and Thomas Sankara and now all of sudden all Blacks are a monolith