It seems the 3 biggest factors in rejecting any connection west africa is.
1. slavery was a loooong time ago and too many generations removed to get back to west africa..
when was the last slave ship to america
July 9, 1860
The schooner Clotilda (often misspelled Clotilde)
was the last known U.S. slave ship to bring captives from Africa to the United States, arriving at Mobile Bay, in autumn 1859 or on July 9, 1860, with 110 African men, women, and children.
The Clotilda, the last known American slave ship, made its illegal voyage 52 years after the international slave trade was outlawed.
mind you the civil war started in 1861 and that ship was the last recorded...so for half a century they were essentially smuggling in captives so how many slave ships were coming here every year up to that point??
If youre in your 50s then your parents were likely born in the 1930s, 40s....youre grand parents were born around early 1900s....your great grandparents were likely born late 1800s (1870/80) youre great great parents where likely born in the 1840s/50s..youre talking about west africans STILL coming off the boats. youre not THAT far removed to be acting like its thousands of years ago.
2. Africans dont accept us. If thats a criteria then as I said earlier going by how blacks have been historically treated and regarded in this country then we're not americans either. Now if you say you dont care that white america has beaten you, lynched you, went out of their way to exclude and discrimnate against you..promoted a negative perception about you they broadcast worldwide...(funny how foreigners come here already knowing how to hate on black americans) if you can ignore all that and still claim this country and culture as yours then you can ignore anything said by africans as well.
3. culturally different - no doubt but that doesnt change the lineage one bit. again using my buddy as an example
he's an orphan born in america...never knew his parents..raised by whites lived in Utah all his life.
You and him talk and you bring up that he's asian...he says very firmly "I'm NOT asian..I'm YELLOW.
you look at him and say..dude I'm pretty sure you're Asian... He yells back "I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO ASIA! DONT NO ANYTHNG ABOUT ASIA! I DONT SPEAK NO ASIAN LANGUAGE! FUCK ASIA! I'M A YELLOW-AMERICA!
I'D RATHER FILL IN YELLOW THAN ASIAN AMERICAN. CUZ ASIANS DONT FUCK WITH US!*
THATS WHAT I
BELIEVE! THATS HOW I
FEEL AND THATS WHAT I
IDENTIFY AS!
no one would say he's NOT asian but just a yellow american. Altho he checks all boxes of excuses as to why one would reject their heritage and place of origin.
not by choice.