Let's apply your logic to the USA. African Americans are selling their fellow African American drugs. African Americans are killing their fellow African Americans with black on black violence. So therefore, let's demonize African Americans, right? You see how demented your logic is?
“I think something that American blacks (and Americans in general) need to understand is that your very existence is an affront to the history of the world. I always say context is everything, and if a picture isn't very clear, it often means you need to step further back to see the bigger picture before you.
Throughout much of world history, you will not hear of any people/culture/nation that ascended from rags to wealth and power like America has as a nation. Our Statue of Liberty declares to the world to give us "your poor, your tired and your huddled masses," because the belief in America has been that individuals can rise higher. But if you are paying attention to how other cultures operate and treat undesirable members in their own societies, you will find that our belief in such an ideology is contrary and "foreign" to what they believe to be true about one's station in life. Among other nations, there is a consistent ideology that those who are poor or belong to an underclass should remain underclass.
In India, these people are referred to as untouchables, who are not even treated with even a modicum of human decency. But more importantly, their belief systems even support their poor treatment meted against them by the broader Indian society, because as Hindus who believe in reincarnation, they fundamentally believe that people who find themselves a member of the underclass are somehow deserving of their station because of their deeds in a previous life.
In Saudi Arabia, African immigrants who go there to work as servants, are often beaten and sometimes even killed while working for some of these families.
Even in America, before the 13 colonies declared Independence and went to war with Britain, it was becoming more and more clear by the colonists that Britain intended to make them a permanent underclass in servitude to the Royal Crown. What no one elaborates on in our American history classes is that from the 1500's to the 1700's, if you were a citizen of a European country sent to the America's, it was more than likely because you had committed a crime, were an indentured servant or a member of the masses the European governments could not afford to care for. Early colonizers were often members if the underclass in their home countries. But when the U.S. declared independence, it got the attention of Europe, because it was the beginning of the end of Royal rule throughout Europe. From the 1700's onward and through the early 1900's, Europeans toppled their Royal governments, and established
The only thing that has allowed us as blacks in America to make progress in race relations since our enslavement on this soil, is the fact that there has always been an underlying ideology and belief that people can rise above their station in life if they work hard and are willing to fight for it. Although we still face discrimination as a people in this country, that is not to diminish the shining example our existence is within the broader context of a world history that has never allowed a group from an underclass to rise higher.
So then,
you have to realize that when you are speaking with people from foreign countries, they could be coming from a world view that does not support the idea that an underclass can rise above their station, which is also why they try so hard to distance themselves from African Americans in this country.
You also have to realize that there are members from the upper echelons of their home countries who consider the very idea of America as an afront to their own legitimacy. If you are in an abusive relationship where your partner demeans you, humiliates in an effort to prevent you from seeing and recognizing your true worth, that abusive partner becomes truly angry and fearful when you stand up for yourself and refuse to believe their lies about what and who you are. Even more so when not only do you refuse them power over you, you rise up to become more powerful than them. That is the story of America - the majority of the people who immigrate here come because their home countries treated them like sh*t, while the wealthier members of their home countries did nothing to help them. So when these people who may have been members of an underclass in their home.countries travel to America and become educated and raise their station in life, they become hated by the middle to upper class members of their old countries, and one of three things will happen:
1) they will face rejection by members from their home country for being too "American".
2) they will be guilted into supporting their community back home, attempting to solve problems and issues in their old communities that foreign governments and the wealthy members of those countries should have taken care of for their citizens.
3) They will be encouraged to denounce American cultural values in favor of the cultural traditions of their origin.
The third one is key, because many fail to realize that the mentality carried with them from their home country is the reason why some of the leadership in their countries are willing to exploit, or allow the exploitation of their own citizens by wealthier or more powerful entities - it is the belief that if you are a member of the underclass, then you don't matter.
This is important because while the issue surrounding immigration is being presented as a racial matter, the real issue is the question of assimilation and culture. Which brings us to this discussion today:
I don't have a problem with African immigrants, or immigrants from any country, but I do have a problem with the continued practice of a mentality that is contrary to American cultural ethos and values, coupled with the demeaning attituded towards Americans, whose ideals made this country what it is. This especially applies to African Americans who fought and won civil rights in this country, only for immigrants to look at our cultural values as if they are somehow less than theirs? When it was our cultural values that allowed us to survive slavery, survive Jim Crow, and fight for civil rights? Especially when some of these immigrant groups have refused or failed to do the same in the home countries they are running away from, only to tell us we are too lazy and they deserve the resources in this country that were fought and won by our ancestors? Not only that, we are supposed to forget the blood, sweat, tears and lives our people spilled on this soil so you can feel accepted while you disrespect us outright? I don't think so.
We should be aware of what results when groups adopt belief systems that compound over time and end up choking the very life out of their culture. I think as Americans, and especially as black Americans, we have been trained to believe that all problems faced by other groups and nations are the direct result of western influence, or involvement, when that isn't always the case - some of these countries devolved to where they are because it is the only logical result produced by their belief systems and ideologies over decades, and centuries.
So let's be clear: Africa underwent European colonialism, and her resources were, and continue to be pillaged by outside forces and Powers. However,
Africa was easy and continues to be easy to exploit because of a tribal cultural history and mentality. It was only after many centuries that this tribal mentality coalesced into the Africa we see today. What's more, is that it appears many Africans bring this mentality with them when they arrive in the states. It's a divisionist mentality that leaves Africans open to exploitation, but because we share the same racial background, it becomes a problem for all of us as black people, but especially as black Americans who already learned the importance of putting divisions aside to achieve larger goals.
Many of you are claiming that it is black Americans that have rejected unity with Africans, but on what basis? Everything about our experience in this country has taught us the importance of racial solidarity over the cultural differences among us as black people - that's why so many immigrants complain that Americans make everything about race - our cultural framework has always been racial before anything else. So in that sense, why would we as a people reject you on the basis of your cultural background alone, when we recognized that you are black like us? The truth of the matter is that as black Americans we never rejected Africans, but everything about their cultural framework suggests that Africans consistently place tribe/nation over Africans or Black people belonging to other tribes/nations.
So if Africans are experiencing push-back from Black Americans now, its because over the years as more of you have continued to immigrate to this country, we are starting to see the pattern in your behavior towards us."