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Would you say that white Americans homeland is Europe? Most of African Europeans a)know what country their ancestors are from, b) have direct links to their re

by marci 6y ago

Would you say that white Americans homeland is Europe? Most of African Europeans a)know what country their ancestors are from, b) have direct links to their relatives in Africa. > Africa has a lot of future, plenty of growth. China knows this and has invested a lot into Africa. I think this is exactly Africa's main issue: being seen first foremost as a land of resources and economic ventures. You go to the Americas/Europe/Asia/Oceania to visit, and Africa to make money/for "humanitarian aid". Things may evolve when they change to "X has invested a lot in Africans".

peteretep 6y ago
> Would you say that white Americans homeland is Europe? I would say — from a European perspective — a baffling number of white Americans cling on to a European cultural identity. It feels to an outsider like many Americans want to be American + something else. Many/most black Americans don’t have this luxury, and my hot take is that Kwanza and other pan-African neo traditions seek to fill this gap? As a counter-example, I lived in the anglophone Caribbean for many years, and it always felt like there was a strong sense of national identity there, very distinct from trying to associate with Africa in any way. I guess I’d also expect 2nd/3rd generation African immigrants to America to maintain their cultural identity — I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone with Ethiopian heritage describe themselves as anything other than Ethiopian whatever their passport or recent ancestry
- RuggedPineapple 6y ago
  Its not really a hot take, but an express intent. Slaves had their culture and traditions aggressively stamped out in order to further the disconnect and reinforce their place as property. Their original tribes and homelands that they could hold on to as a touchstone were repressed almost totally. This is more or less exactly why there's a 'black' culture instead of Nigerian or Ghanaian or whatever tribes existed before national boundaries were drawn. White Americans can generally point to an Italian or Irish or Swedish heritage or whatever, a luxury that black americans often don't have. At least didn't before modern DNA genealogy.

by marci 6y ago

peteretep 6y ago

> Would you say that white Americans homeland is Europe? I would say — from a European perspective — a baffling number of white Americans cling on to a European cultural identity. It feels to an outsider like many Americans want to be American + something else. Many/most black Americans don’t have this luxury, and my hot take is that Kwanza and other pan-African neo traditions seek to fill this gap? As a counter-example, I lived in the anglophone Caribbean for many years, and it always felt like there was a strong sense of national identity there, very distinct from trying to associate with Africa in any way. I guess I’d also expect 2nd/3rd generation African immigrants to America to maintain their cultural identity — I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone with Ethiopian heritage describe themselves as anything other than Ethiopian whatever their passport or recent ancestry

RuggedPineapple 6y ago
Its not really a hot take, but an express intent. Slaves had their culture and traditions aggressively stamped out in order to further the disconnect and reinforce their place as property. Their original tribes and homelands that they could hold on to as a touchstone were repressed almost totally. This is more or less exactly why there's a 'black' culture instead of Nigerian or Ghanaian or whatever tribes existed before national boundaries were drawn. White Americans can generally point to an Italian or Irish or Swedish heritage or whatever, a luxury that black americans often don't have. At least didn't before modern DNA genealogy.