You can go almost anywhere in the world outside of Africa and America and ask people to name three things they love about Black culture. More often than not, the three things they will mention will be aspects of Black American culture.
Ok, so I’m about to go on a quick rant….Malcolm X’s MOTHER was a Grenadian, born in Grenada. Malcolm X’s father, Earl Little, was a descendant of enslaved Black Americans born in Georgia. Malcolm X was a Black American from Omaha, Nebraska.
W.E.B. Du Bois had some paternal ancestry connected to Haiti and the Bahamas, but reducing him to “Haitian” ignores that he came from a longstanding Black American family with deep roots in the United States. His identity and life’s work were rooted in Black America and Black American historical experience.
Marcus Garvey is irrelevant to the point being made. He was influenced by Booker T. Washington and currents of Black American thought that long predated him. He also wasn’t a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. He primarily led a Black nationalist movement centered on Pan-Africanism and going to Africa (a place he never went to himself; he died in Britain), which differed significantly from the later Civil Rights Movement led by Black Americans confronting the legacy of Jim Crow. Even if you credit Garvey with “influencing” some, influence is not the same as originating or sharing the Black American Civil Rights Movement.
The Civil Rights Movement was fundamentally rooted in descendants of enslaved Black Americans confronting the legal and political system created after American slavery. Its central issues, slavery’s legacy, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, segregation, disenfranchisement, and anti-Black racial terror, were unique to Black Americans in this country. Similarities or even the minor participation of a few do not make the underlying historical experience “shared” or interchangeable.
Y’all have got to hop off our shit with the leeching. Like, acknowledging a couple of contributions or participants is one thing, rewriting Black American history into everyone else’s history is another. Stop treating Black American history like a public utility that everyone gets to claim ownership over. Stop confusing benefiting from Black American victories with originating them.
Mind you, the Hatian Revolution that they keep speaking on because that's when they peaked worsened AND expanded slavery in the United States. Most of the "Haitians" that entered the U.S. during that period, were the white refugees who fled. Facts, not fairytales or fiction.
She's absolutely right. The same way African-Americans and the rest of the black diaspora only have equal rights because of Haitians and the Haitian Revolution.
Please read Toni Morrison’s TIME magazine essay from December 1, 1993 “On the Backs of Blacks” for further explanation on this moment and so many more Black immigrant history in the U.S. https://t.co/b5rxVpuldm
Black immigrants: “THIS IS THE WHITE MAN’S COUNTRY. BLACKS HAVE NO POWER HERE”.
Imagine admitting out loud that you’re willing to accept a racial hierarchy as long as you don’t have to live in your homeland. 😂
What this idiot is referring to actually expanded slavery in America. They can't even help them fucking selves yet wanna tell fairytales of how they "helped" Black Americans.
EXACTLY yall didnt DO A GOTDAMN THING. Yall didnt name or establish any of those communities, we named it after ur raggedy ass shithole of a 3rd world failed state because of misguided pan-africanism unity that NEVER EXISTED. So yall didnt DO anything tangible for us.
Folks be like “I’m talking about the American system” then we let yall keep talking and “magically” your conversation starts attacking Black Americans. Because that’s what really was on your heart. Hate and xenophobia.
Because we don’t teach our Black history in our schools or homes, we now have generations of American Blacks who claim they are not from Africa. Frightening.
"I'm a black American. I'm proud to be a black American. I am proud of my race. I am proud of who I am. I have a lot of pride in who I am and dignity.."
-Michael Jackson
(The 1993 Oprah Winfrey Interview
Timestamp: 24:11)