United We Stand Divided We Fall!

My Twitter feed exploded the other day with discussions of the tension between African Americans and Africans.

“I’d never bring an AA home… they have no culture”

“The hypocrisy of African Americans to say Africans look down on them. All y’all do is crack hunger and war jokes about us…”

As I read more and more I had to ask myself: When did we come to this place, why are we so divided? It made me think of a girl I knew in elementary school named Tosin. She had to be the sweetest girl I’d ever met, but she was bullied all the time because of her African heritage. Her mom had even told me a story of her being jumped and having her hair ripped out from the roots simply because she was different. This was all at a time where it wasn’t “cool” to be Caribbean either and now it seems the tables have turned. Now we have African Americans ashamed to say that they were born and raised American. To add fuel to the fire, many Caribbeans and Africans look down on African Americans as a backlash for the experiences they had as kids.

So, what’s the solution? Honestly, I can’t think of a solid answer but for sure both sides need to try and understand one another’s culture. I feel like a major reason we’re having issues is that we keep separating ourselves. So, if you’re African American try and learn as much as you can about African and Caribbean culture. Their culture is extremely important to them, so assure the people around you that you aren’t interested in the culture simply because it’s trending on social media. The same goes for Africans and Caribbeans, let us in and teach us what we may be ignorant to. At the end of the day, we are all Black people and we need to be as unified as possible. We have too many factors working against us to fight within ourselves. United we stand. Divided we fall.

Written By: Twanna F.