Some stereotypes about black Africa that I get from living in America:
Africa is a country: Africa is divided into dozens of countries, but those are just lines on a map: there is no important difference between most of them. Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone, for example, are pretty much all the same. They have no history worth learning and understanding.
People: They all look alike: dark brown skin, flat noses, big lips and woolly hair. The women are fat, but that is how their men like them.
Culture: They wear colourful clothes – or almost nothing at all – and love to play the drums and dance. They live in jungle clearings in little round huts. They eat monkeys.
Language: They speak in some mumbo-jumbo that is not even a proper language, the most important word of which is “bwana”. Some can speak in broken English.
Lack of civilization: Africa was a dark continent full of naked savages. They put bones through their noses and cooked people in big pots. Whites brought civilization, but unfortunately it has been falling to pieces ever since they left in the 1960s. Ancient Egypt does not count as an African civilization because Egypt is not truly African.
Lack of intelligence: tests show that black Africans have an average IQ of 70, which, sadly, proves they are not terribly bright – as we suspected all along. So Africa will forever be screwed up unless outsiders step in to run things properly.
Black Savage Rule: Mugabe proves they are incapable of self-rule. Rulers are cruel and on the take. Rape and murder are out of control. Gone are the good old days of:
Colonialism: the left’s name for white rule. Yes, there were some “excesses”, but whites more than made up for it by bringing civilization and good government.
Neocolonialism: imagined by the left: whites have had little power in Africa since the 1960s.
Bono, NGOs and Nice White Ladies: white people who try to help Africa in spite of itself.
War: ever-present wherever you go, fought by heartless 12-year-old boys with machine guns.
Genocide: a common practice.
The slave trade: carried on by blacks and Arabs for thousands of years, long before whites showed up. They are still at it!
Cities: vast, violent shantytowns. At the centre: a few government buildings and maybe two high-rise hotels that are falling apart. There is one dirty, ill-equipped public hospital filled to overflowing. There is not even regular bus service, much less universities and libraries.
Disease: half are dying from Aids – proof they lack any kind of morals. Millions die of malaria, also incurable.
Religion: some follow a half-understood Christianity; a few follow Islam, most follow superstition.
Children: unwashed, half-naked, skin and bones for want of food. They sit listlessly on the ground with flies landing on their faces.
Wild animals: the only noble and truly interesting thing in Africa.
See also:
- the single story
- Transatlantic slave trade
- genocide
- black IQ
- stereotype
- reading while white: history and news
- The history of black history
And here’s one the racist undertones to a word:
DEGRADATION OF MEANINGS: “Mumbo jumbo” has become a cliché signifying meaningless superstitions, but it comes from a Mandinke word — mama dyambo — for a ritual staff bearing the image of a female ancestor. (Look it up in any good dictionary.) “Fetish” now connotes an obsessive sexual fixation, but originated as a Portuguese interpretation of sacred West African images as “sorcery” (feitição)
I did not know about the ‘fetish’
http://www.suppressedhistories.net/articles/racism_history.html
I am reminded of one, with a commentator here that you have not mentioned
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
This is always an explosive issue and perhaps one that you may wish to do a topic on in the future
I second J Female Genital Mutilation(and Male circumcision) would be an interesting read.
And you can add in ‘female circumcision’ where parts of the labia(??) is cut as opposed to the removal of the clitoris.
It is the latter (and its closely related practice) which is often callled FGM.
plenty of preventable disease in Africa we could be helping to remove.
The IMF & world bank appear to make things worse and if anyone kne anything about them, they’d ask for them to be made criminal organisations
I think Africa would improve with greater and smarter western intervention
However, they must allow us to help them
Neocolonialism: imagined by the left: whites have had little power in Africa since the 1960s.
What? Evidence, please.
Check out white-controlled corporate energy interests that use, abuse, and crap on Nigeria, for starters, then refuse to pay for the damage they’ve done.
A lot of self-serving NGOs using African people’s causes are run by whites too.
How about the ravages wrought by the white-led IMF?
Neocolonialism is a “stereotype”? No, it’s a reality of global white supremacy.
I don’t know which is worse; the fact that this nonsensical and painfully ignorant view is held by White people, or the fact that people as black as I am in the western world also hold this view. As an African who grew up in Africa (Nigeria) I don’t find this insulting as such. Just stupid. The next halfwit that asks me to speak ‘African’, I will in turn demand that selfsame idiot with the IQ of a pea, speak ‘European’.
I didn’t know about the origins of the phrase “mumbo jumbo” or the word “fetish”. I wonder how many other words or phrases have racist undertones.
Great Post Abagond. With the World Cup in my native South Africa, the British are doing their best to portray every single stereotype outlined.
For that, the English will lose *cross fingers* to Slovenia today!hahaha!
^^^
Haha! I was so sad Nigeria was eliminated yesterday
I think we were knocked out as well Y, I’m amazed SA lasted so long, lol, we’re pretty useless
now here’s to hoping Ghana does us proud, if they’re not out already!
“I wonder how many other words or phrases have racist undertones.”
Here is one of my favourites:
-jungle
The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala (जंगल) which referred to uncultivated land. Although the Sanskrit word refers to “dry land”, it has been suggested that an Anglo-Indian interpretation led to its connotation as a dense “tangled thicket”.
SOURCE:
Francis Zimmermann (1999). The jungle and the aroma of meats: an ecological theme in Hindu medicine. Volume 4. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 8120816188.
So many people just love to persist in conjuring up images of steaming, dense jungles, when the word Africa is mentioned, as if Africa does not have varied and diverse ecological systems:
-savannah, rain forests (which is the correct word), and desert areas.
But, my most beloved catch-all phrase is that Africa is a country, or when someone on a game show wins a trip to Kenya, Tanzania, etc.———–right away in the next breath, sure as night follows day, on comes the phrase: “Yes! You’ve won a trip to Africa!”
Never, you’ve won a trip to Kenya, Tanzania, etc.
Don’t ask me how many times I have had to chastise ignorant people that:
“Africa is a continent, not a country.”
AE:
Maybe I was not clear in the post, but the stereotype about neocolonialism is that the left is just imagining it – because whites, supposedly, do not have enough power in Africa to carry it out.
Or, to put it another way: many whites think that once African countries gained independence they were in complete control of their destinies from that point on, that white countries no longer sent arms or soldiers to support certain leaders, that they did not screw Africa on trade policy, that the IMF has not made a mess of things, that Shell and Total have no bad effect on African countries, etc.
“Great Post Abagond. With the World Cup in my native South Africa, the British are doing their best to portray every single stereotype outlined.”
MerriMay, is the stereotyping being done in the British newspapers, television, or both? Is it more a situation of the media pandering to what they think their white audience wants; to mock blacks and or African people? Or, is “the public” ready stereotype Africans even without the media’s help?
They always do it SW6
*ready to stereotype…
Yes I have stereotyped the media ha ha
Are we allowed to at least hate vuvuzelas without being called “racist”? I mean the things are truly unbelievably annoying.
…Though I will admit that the racist undertones that are showing up in vuvuzela-hating are truly disturbing.
the vuvuzelas are cool. To be honest I didnt notice the noise until people started complaining about them. To me they are no different than fog horns.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter yesterday “refused once again” to ban vuvuzelas from World Cup venues 15 June 2010
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/140030
Nice post.
The danger of a single story.
http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html
Great post, Abagond.
This reminds me of an article by Binyavanga Wainaina: “How to Write about Africa” .
Here is the link:
http://www.granta.com/Magazine/92/How-to-Write-about-Africa/Page-1
Vuvusela hating or calling for it to be banned is tantamount to apartheid. Europeans descend on African soil, find tradition that is not to their liking and want to throw their weight around. The problem with the England team is that they’ll lay the blame for their lousy games at anything but themselves,vuvuselas are a handy excuse. Bunch of crybabies, so darned sensitive over-paid little boys!!
Wish I was there, I’d be blaring my vuvusela into any Brit’s face till they learn to like it, haha, they get my dander up these people!
yes you are right. It’s their land and home and it’s not for others to tell them what to do
Although I find Chinese made, Israeli owned plastic vuvuselas aren’t really traditional
SW6
Newspapers and television alike stereotype Africa. Their Princes are in SA/Botswana/Lesotho doing their late mother’s Sentebale charity work, naturally they love to see how those poor starving Africans are saved by one of them. They have been to every shantytown, Soweto etc to rummage around for a barely articulate disgruntled black voice. The BBC is pretty left wing, in a way I’m inclined to think they report the journey SA has been since Apartheid days, and yet they rarely, if ever, report any successful metropolitan areas of Johannesburg’s black suburbs. Their bias shows though, and my favorite, a BBC reporter grabbing a random white South African to speak on South African racial progress. The barely concealed rapport, ”you poor fellow white, how are ‘they’ treating you” Typical.
They’re not really interested in the black perspective, unless it’s poor orphans huddled behind as a backdrop to remind viewers they’re really reporting from Africa. Or their own hand in their livelihood through aid.
Vuvuzelas may be annoying, but it is the height of arrogance to come on someone’s native land and start telling them what should and shouldn’t be banned.
SA is worse than under apartheid. The murder of 3000 farmers since mandela was let out. He’s hopeless. An old terrorst and all the leftie media and Bono and Annie Lennox love him
God knows what he incumbent will do to SA.
Thank God they have the Spingboks
@MerriMay
I know everywhere on TV BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five is about South Africa and something negative.
@African language
If I had £1 for everytime someone asked me if I could speak African I would be a millionaire LOL. I had a Indian boy ask me if I could speak African and I said no then asked him if he could speak Asian which he started making fun of me saying Asian is not a language guess he didn’t get it until my friends tore him a new one for the African language part. Yet he still didn’t understand I mean in India they speak many languages/dialects like Gujarati, Punjabi, Hindi.
I wouldn’t even mind if someone asked me if I could speak Nigerian even though Nigeria has many different language/dialects spoken there. The only person I’ve met that understood it was a Chinese classmate.
@Jungle Mud Huts
Stupid white Irish techer tried to tell me that the drawing of a house in Nigeria druing a black history month group project was wrong because it wasn’t a hut and then proceeded to paint over the windows. Dumb woman just becasue she’s been to the continent once not stating which country she felt she was the expert on all things African.
@Lack of Intelligence
Ha now that is funny. My dad tells me strories all the time of his school days of how someone didn’t do their homework on didn’t know something how they would be mocked. Intelligence is very important. Especially maths (which I hate) My dad loves numbers. LOL
@ Alan Ba’tard
The creator of the vuvusela didn’t patent the model/design which obviously left it open to copycats, a pity, he could have made a killing of the now infamous vuvus
I’m curious, why is Mandela a terrorist? dare I guess the race of those 3000 farmers sad as it is, but so many others died before them.Unfortunately, they are victims of a racial climate that other races continue to suffer under as well. let’s not pretend only whites are dying at alarming rates here.
I’m glad you wrote something on this, I get the same flap and ignorance, and I nearly want to slap people who try to tell me an, AFRICAN, that Africa is a country and on top of that the language we speak is some clicking and clocking noise. I usually hear this from African Americans, dang on shame. If people were smart to look past these idiotic stereotypes they would know that if Africa as a whole was so horrible why are so many Whites moving there taking resources from there? Why r the Whites in South Africa, so press to claim the land as their own. Ignorance is always bliss. Thank you Abagond.
Those who are connected can get a varied POV of African countries. There are many blogs from Africa or those expatriated from the countries in Africa. Even if one were to read a racist blog of a white Zimbabwean, it is still different from our general view of the country.
The problem with the the tone of this article as with others is that stereotypes almost always have a grain of truth to them. Africa, or at least southern Africa, does have a horrific AIDs problem. There is alot of famine and violence. Government is often corrupt and tyrannical.
@ FG
I don’t think anyone was denying that there is SOME truth in stereotypes, if there weren’t, they wouldn’t be much use.
FG,
I’ve been to many parts of Africa (haven’t been to southern Africa though), and the only one stereotype above that rings with much truth is corruption in gov’t. I don’t know about the tyrannical part, but corruption definitely exists, though its severity varies depending on the country. Violence… hmmm, I think anyone that’s lived in any midsize to large city in the U.S. is well-equipped for violence in cities of Africa. The villages I visited tended to be quiet, community-type settings.
So, Abagond, please tell me about the “real” Africa. Unfortunately, some of the negative stereotypes about Africa are true.
Of course, there are bright spots, like Tanzania, Botswana and Ghana (all of which I would love to visit).
The victors get to write history books, control the media, and print the stories that are consumed world-wide, and they will always spin things to their advantage. Right now Africans (at home and abroad) are not the victors. Europeans are.
quote MerryMay
” I’m curious, why is Mandela a terrorist? dare I guess the race of those 3000 farmers sad as it is, but so many others died before them.Unfortunately, they are victims of a racial climate that other races continue to suffer under as well. let’s not pretend only whites are dying at alarming rates here. ”
Well hang on, when did I say only whites died. If I say something, don’t preseume I believe something else too
The whites are victims of politics. Apartheid was set up to protect them. Sure there is black on black violence, but I wasn’t talking about that. Many of those 3000 murders would not happen under apartheid
http://incogman.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/the-dead-2-horrible.jpg
Mandela was a terrorist. Here are some of his crimes
* The full list of munitions and charges read as follows:
• One count under the South African Suppression of Communism Act No. 44 of 1950, charging that the accused committed acts calculated to further the achievement of the objective of communism;
• One count of contravening the South African Criminal Law Act (1953), which prohibits any person from soliciting or receiving any money or articles for the purpose of achieving organized defiance of laws and country; and
• Two counts of sabotage, committing or aiding or procuring the commission of the following acts:
1) The further recruitment of persons for instruction and training, both within and outside the Republic of South Africa, in:
(a) the preparation, manufacture and use of explosives—for the purpose of committing acts of violence and destruction in the aforesaid Republic, (the preparation and manufacture of explosives, according to evidence submitted, included 210,000 hand grenades, 48,000 anti-personnel mines, 1,500 time devices, 144 tons of ammonium nitrate, 21.6 tons of aluminum powder and a ton of black powder);
(b) the art of warfare, including guerrilla warfare, and military training generally for the purpose in the aforesaid Republic;
(ii) Further acts of violence and destruction, (this includes 193 counts of terrorism committed between 1961 and 1963);
(iii) Acts of guerrilla warfare in the aforesaid Republic;
(iv) Acts of assistance to military units of foreign countries when involving the aforesaid Republic;
(v) Acts of participation in a violent revolution in the aforesaid Republic, whereby the accused, injured, damaged, destroyed, rendered useless or unserviceable, put out of action, obstructed, with or endangered:
(a) the health or safety of the public;
(b) the maintenance of law and order;
(c) the supply and distribution of light, power or fuel;
(d) postal, telephone or telegraph installations;
(e) the free movement of traffic on land; and
(f) the property, movable or immovable, of other persons or of the state.
Source: The State v. Nelson Mandela et al, Supreme Court of South Africa, Transvaal Provincial Division, 1963-1964, Indictment.
http://www.DavidBenAriel.org
Posted by David Ben-Ariel at 12:39 AM
Here’s another stereotype…the term ‘Black Africa’, as if Blacks do not live in N. Africa in places like Libya, Algeria etc
A Alan b tard:
So, Jan Christiaan Smuts and Pik Botha were not terrorists?
No Ann they were not!
So, committing the following atrocities absolves them from the label terrorist:
Smuts:
-advocated racial segregation (apartheid);
-was opposed to the unilateral enfranchisement of native South Africans;
Smuts was for most of his political life a vocal supporter of segregation of the races, and in 1929 he justified the erection of separate institutions for blacks and whites in tones reminiscent of the later practice of apartheid:
“ The old practice mixed up black with white in the same institutions, and nothing else was possible after the native institutions and traditions had been carelessly or deliberately destroyed. But in the new plan there will be what is called in South Africa “segregation” — separate institutions for the two elements of the population living in their own separate areas. Separate institutions involve territorial segregation of the white and black. If they live mixed together it is not practicable to sort them out under separate institutions of their own. Institutional segregation carries with it territorial segregation.”
SOURCE: Journal of Heredity – Jhered.oxfordjournals.org. http://www.jhered.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/21/5/225.pdf
Pieter Willem Botha (that’s the Botha I meant);
-instituted the infamous Bantustans (homelands) as segregated arid areas for the confinement of native Black South Africans, while retaining the supremacy of a white controlled government;
-in 1983, insituted a constitution, creating two new houses of parliament: one for Coloureds (House of Representatives) and one for Indians (House of Delegates), along with that for whites-only (House of Assembly). The new Tricameral Parliament theoretically had equal legislative powers but the laws each new house passed were effective solely in its own community. Control of the entire country was maintained by the white house.
The plan included no chamber or system of representation for the black majority.
Then again, ya’ couldn’t have those pesky Zulus, Ndebele, etc., to have a vote would ya’ now?
Bothas terrorists policies disenfranchised native Blacks; gave the best land to whites; created a divide-and-conquer wedge between Coloreds and Black South Africans.
But, the biggest terrorists acts done by Botha were the following:
-Sharpeville massacre: the slaughter in 1960 of women, children and men by white police led to an uprising of the Black people. The govt, headed by Botha, committed a gross human rights violations in that excessive force was unnecessarily used to stop a gathering of unarmed people, detaining 18,000 people.
-Soweto Massacres 1976 (students were massacred by authorities because they refused to accept the new law which made learning Afrikans mandatory. During this rebellion, thousands of little school children were rounded up like so many criminals, and were jailed, beaten, raped and tortured.
I lay those crimes against humanity at the feet of Willem Botha.
So………………………
…………………Smuts and Botha………………………
…………………….Terrorists.
“One count under the South African Suppression of Communism Act No. 44 of 1950, charging that the accused committed acts calculated to further the achievement of the objective of communism”
So advocating for communism = terrorism?
“…soliciting or receiving any money or articles for the purpose of achieving organized defiance of laws and country”
Um… was a bomb or something involved, or is ANY breaking of the law equivalent to terrorism in your view?
You can throw in FW De Klerk(who received his nobel peace prize for releasing Mandela, pah!), Eugene Terre Blanche and many others in there while you’re at it.
Noun 1. terrorism – the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear;
Noun 1. state-sponsored terrorism – terrorism practiced by a government against its own people or in support of international terrorism.
SOURCE: Roget’s Thesaurus
State-sponsored domestic terrorism committed by the SA govt against its own citizens under the governments of Smuts, Botha, et. al.
Apartheid, bantustans, passes needed by Black Africans to go to and from work/home, attacking little defenseless school children whose only crime was engaging in civil disobediance.
TERRORISM.
Someone by the name of Jovent sent an email that was overflowing with white racism. In it his mentions:
“The greatest dicators in recent years have emerged in Africa. People like Idi Amin of Uganda, Hastings Kamuzu Bandain Malawi, Mobutu Sese Seko, in Zaire, self-anointed Emperor Bokassa of the Central African Republic, Mohammed Saidi Barre in Somalia, Sani Abacha of Nigeria, Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe –the list is endless.”
He convenviently leaves out the great dictators from Europe to support his white supremacist claims. I’m bloggin right now about his email.
Almost unbelievable this stuff still exists in 2010. Last time I interacted with people who propagate that sort of nonsense was in the 70s. Makes you wonder about the quality of basic education in certain parts of this world…
One of the most stifling problems in resource rich African countries is the “Paradox of plenty”. As long as a quick buck can be made – for whomever pulls the strings – not much will change for the better.
@MerriMay
And here I thought Britain had come further than this. How stupid, how wretched. I wish I could actually cease being amazed at the great lengths of national delusion some countries will go to.
Is it not elementary for people to see the Royal Family are simply trotting about Africa purely for cynical P.R. purposes? But, as you say, “naturally they love to see how those poor starving Africans are saved by one of them.”
————-
Stereotyping is all about disrespect. Africa can reverse this disrespect through economic growth that they guide and control.
Where money is on the line there is always respect. This is as true in private life as it is true between states. African countries need to OWN their resources. They need to sell these global commodities to the highest bidder and use the proceeds to reinvest in all factors of production across the board, and then repeat to increase national wealth. I believe they can do this. They haven’t done it due to a host of factors. I think the corruption that Natasha mentioned is the biggest millstone hanging off their collective neck.
Getting rid of the corruption is key to major positive transformation. Perceptions will follow.
Wow. People really do think like that. I do confess, I tend to believe these sometimes. I know I sometimes say, “Speak African,” without even realizing it.
May I ask though, where is a current example of a successful African country? I haven’t yet heard of one.
Beautiful.
“Cici”,
give it up will ya! Your phony, disingenuous nature just jumps out of your text. GET A LIFE! Find something to do with yourself other than being a troll.
SW6,
“Getting rid of the corruption is key to major positive transformation. Perceptions will follow.”
you are absolutely correct. Corruption of government is a big problem in some African countries and getting rid of it is the key to eradicating many of their ills.
CiCi,
Successful African nations: Ghana, Sensgal, South Africa, Uganda, to name a few. They might not be as successful as the US, but they are doing well for countiries that gained independence only decades ago. I can attest for the first two since I’ve been there. Dakar looks better than many neighborhoods in the U.S.
Ann, Smut and Botha were NOT Terrorist. The terrorists were the ANC and the PAC
I agree Sharpeville was unnecassary
Will. I don’t know the politics of the person who sent you that info on black dictators but he’s right!
LOL….and here I thought you had some brain cells knocking about in the ol noggin. Must not engage!
With regard to the point about neo-colonialism.
Here is how one link defines the term ‘neo-colonialism’
“A policy whereby [a] major power[s here read Western] uses economic and political means to perpetuate or extend its influence over underdeveloped nations…
And for those who have a passing interest in the subject,
Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah
http://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nkrumah/neo-colonialism/
@MerriMay
Vuvusela hating or calling for it to be banned is tantamount to apartheid. Europeans descend on African soil, find tradition that is not to their liking and want to throw their weight around.
Merri, the guy who popularized them at football games and makes several million Rand a year selling them to fans is an AFRIKAANS plastic factory owner. This is hardly some millenial Zulu tradition we’re talking about here, either. It’s been going on for less than a decade.
That said…
The problem with the England team is that they’ll lay the blame for their lousy games at anything but themselves,vuvuselas are a handy excuse. Bunch of crybabies, so darned sensitive over-paid little boys!!
Agreed. Everyone is suffering and for England to piss and moan about how it affects them particulalry is just too precious.
Personally, South Africa is the host and if this is part of their culture – no matter how recent or Afrikaans profiting – I say let them do it.
But I FERVENTLY hope Brazil bans the things at our World`s Cup. We have our own stadium culture that doesn`t involve immitating a horde of bees.
The problem with the vuvuzela, to my mind, is that it becomes a stadium monoculture.
On AIDS:
There are plenty of people contracting HIV and dying of AIDS in the US, yet the American government has been particularly reluctant to address that issue within the past 30 years, even though places like DC and Atlanta have horrifying numbers (and that’s just counting the 80% who know they have it).
Ann:
Alan is a troll. He admitted on his own website that he came here for:
“stirring shit. They are easilty stirred too. All lefties who blame everything on whites.”
The other day he said there were NO blacks in Britain in 1940!! Then he moved the goalpost and said there were only A FEW PURE NEGROES back then – where “PURE” is hard to prove and “FEW” is whatever he says it is. And then he ignored what Queen Elizabeth said in 1601 about there being A GREAT NUMBER. On top of that he wanted US to find the proof for HIS case. He cannot simply admit that he made a boneheaded statement.
@SW6
I find you very rude. I was not trying to be fake or wily, and I wasn’t trying to fish for trouble. All I was saying was that I sometimes find myself in prejudgments -that was made clear to me in this post. That example had just happened today, and I felt that I should confess my mistake. Not that it’s any of your business, but right after I made that mistake I corrected myself, then asked and found out that my friend spoke a Nigerian language -I believe it was “Yoruba” (excuse my spelling).
You know absolutely nothing about me. Don’t pretend as if you do.
Lastly, I don’t appreciate the quotations around my name. If you don’t like my name, that’s a little too bad, princess.
@Natasha W
Thank you very much. I’m not very well versed in African politics and history -save any controversial issues that make the news. I definitely should read up more.
@Abagond
Thank you for this post. It has really opened my eyes.
Cici,
you’re right I don’t know anything about you. I certainly wasn’t pretending as though I did. All I know is how to interpret the symbols that show up again and again in the environment. Someone wiser than me said, “We do not see things as they are; we see them as we are.”
In my personal experience white people have mocked me to my face in a multitude of racist ways, but hiding the racism behind pseudo-innocence. It’s an amusing game for some of them to play. But growing up as a young black kid you don’t find this sort of thing funny at all. It makes you feel confused and frustrated, until it has happened enough times that you connect all the dots and conclude, “this person is just racist.”
Your comment, through the filter of my experiences, just looked like pseudo-innocent racism. So, I thought why not point it out before this person gets their laughs. Your comment took me back to bad memories and I reacted.
Anyway, this go round I’ve obviously made an error in my interpretation. You are being sincere. I apologize.
As for the quotes around your name that was just my way of getting at someone who I thought was using anonymity to be racist with impunity-sorry about that too.
@SW6
Well, apology accepted.
Maybe I should just mention that my actual name is “Tacicia” -a black name. I’m black, just like you -perhaps a bit whitewashed, but black nonetheless.
To be honest, I was trying to keep my vocabulary up to par with everyone else. Perhaps I was a bit over the top.
“”Here’s another stereotype…the term ‘Black Africa’, as if Blacks do not live in N. Africa in places like Libya, Algeria etc”"
That always screams as a ‘cluebat to the head’ situation. Let alone when people make other fail worthy statements like how ‘North Africa is not part of Africa’ or ‘Egypt is not part of Africa,’ like there’s some sort of mystical barrier that keeps Black peoples quarantined to specific areas that magical affects only them.
*gag*
Would you prefer “sub Saharan Africa “
Sub-Saharan Africa =Black Africa
Same thing really, but stated in different ways
then how do you describe it?
Africa (N. Africa/ NE Africa/ Southern Africa/ West Africa).
Just as we have Europe (Western Europe/ Eastern Europe) according to ‘geographical location’ but not by race
But Africa has two races at least, Sub suharan negroid and Arab North. So for reasons of clarification, would the traditional descriptions seem sensible?
It all depends whether you wish to exclude other inhabitants in the region like the Berbers (who are not Arabs) and the Negroids (to use your terminology) that still reside within N. Africa and have done so for a very long time.
what terminology should we use rather than “negroid’?
I was just quoting your preference of words…It does not in anyway change or affect the point that I am bringing forth
if someone wishes to talk about a specific area in Africa then the intention is to exclude others for the relevence of the topic
Sub saharan Africa, if spoken about by someone is being specific and pertinent to the topic at hand. The intention is to exclude other geographic areas
It is also used to suggest that Blacks live in sub-saharan Africa only…carrying us back full circle to my point
how many blacks, that is to say, negroids, as opposed to Moors live in North Africa?
I think you will find it is not saying “blacks” live in Sub Sahara only, it dentoes that is is the negroid area of Africa
I heard the expression on the BBC world servive this evening. I’m sure cartographers and ethnographers will tell you this
Caucasoid, Negroid, Mogloid, – Bullshoid!!! Quasi – intellectual nonsense fed to the masses like castor oil. What, question the notion of race? But tell me why oh great wise one, Answer: “because i say so! that’s why”
Color ( colour actually ) of love says
Caucasoid, Negroid, Mogloid, – Bullshoid!!! Quasi – intellectual nonsense fed to the masses like castor oil. What, question the notion of race? But tell me why oh great wise one, Answer: “because i say so! that’s why”
Sorry, were you addressing me?
abagond,
“Alan is a troll. He admitted on his own website that he came here for:
“stirring shit. They are easilty stirred too. All lefties who blame everything on whites.”
Is trolling allowed on your blog? Just wondering, not implying that Alan should be banned.
Natasha, Have I been trolling? No! It is clear you can’t handle me intellectually.
And you must admit with the strange beliefs you have you are ripe for the trolls. However, have you noticed my lot have been well behaved?
Oh Boo Hoo says Natty! LOL
Plus I know you’d all see what i wrote on my site. i didn’t hide it and I know you’ve been looking via the link supplied
Alan, what are you talking about?
I quoted abagond where he said you yourself are trolling here. So you’re either lying then or you’re lying now. I honestly don’t find you too trollworthy; there have been worst trolls here in the past. And if I were annoyed by you, I would simply cease reading your comments entirely, but I think you’re a little nice and squishy on the inside.
Ah! Natasha My apologies to you. I should read more carefully:D
So Alan, what do you think about “Human Centipede”?
Natasha, Have I been trolling? No! It is clear you can’t handle me intellectually.
With a mighty ‘intellect’ like yours, who needs one? They have lost the argument before it started. Anywho, I am going to saunter on over to your ‘site’ and have a go at trolling. YOU HAVEN’T MET A TROLL LIKE ME DEAR.
I changed my mind! I have to register with my email etc. Forget it! It was an entertaining thought none the less!
well of course you register with email. So what! LOL No guts
We need a few more trolls and I as the owner don’t care about their politics. You would have kindred spirits there on certain subject i feel
[...] waiting around in famine-and war-torn areas. Over at Abagond, he seeks to dispel the myths and stereotypical lies that slander the image of Africa. Yes, Africa is a [...]
Nubians have lived in the Nile delta long before the Arab invasion.
Natasha and others who think Ghana is “successful”:
Erm, it’s not. It’s the second most peaceful country in Africa, but it’s still riddled with poverty, corruption, and men abuse women with impugnity. And I say that as a Ghanaian person living in Ghana.
According to the IP address the previous comment did in fact come from Ghana.
Medusa, I noted that it wasn’t as successful as the U.S. and other places, but I wouldn’t expect it to be. And other countries, including the U.S., have a notable number of people living in poverty, corruption in government, and abusive men.
Also, by successful, I meant in terms of economy; GNP and GDP. In that, Ghana is one of the more successful countries. But corruption and other factors can prevent this wealth from being spread around. Still, Ghana’s poverty level is only about twice that of the U.S., and dropping every year.
*poverty percentage
LOL. Alan cut off in mid-troll.
And Natasha, you’re right: as trolls go, Alan was something of a sweetheat. But yeah: troll. He openly claimed on his site, several times, that the only reason he was on here was to stir up s!@#. We have enough legitimate s!@#-stirrers as it is.
@ Medusa
You may not have noticed but even the U.S., itself is still riddled with pockets of urban poverty, corruption, and abuse.
I’m not saying it’s equivalent, I’m just saying that a true appraisal of success cannot be measured against Nirvana.
King, urban and rural poverty. In fact, the latter has a higher rate of poverty. The Deep South contains most of this.
But I agree with your last statement. “Successful” doesn’t mean “no in/tangible issues.” If that were the measure, no country would be considered successful.
You’re right Natasha, I stand corrected.
Most of Africa is truly backward compared to the rest of the world. I think I can defend that statement without appeals to self-serving American ideas of what “advanced” and “backward” mean.
On the other hand, Africa is nowhere near as backward as most Americans seem to imagine it. A place where most people are savages or living in refugee camps – the sort of Africans you commonly see on American television because they are the most dramatic – is not a place that could not support a billion people.
Backward in which ways?
With regard to stereotypes about Africa. Strangely negative stereotyping by the Western world can be traced back to around 1500s and even medieval Europe
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=J8rVeu2go8IC&dq=staying+power+peter+fryer&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=U30qTIzbMZey0gSg5JTtAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false
pp. 136-146
Natasha:
I started to answer you but it looks like it will become a post…
Yeah, I realize that there are things like that in other parts of the world, but as someone who spent the majority of my life in the developed world, there are just certain basic things that I expect. And I don’t mean things like running water and electricity, because while I’m accustomed to them, I get that you won’t get them all the time in a nation that’s developing. I mean like men not thinking they have the right to assault you on sight, or money that has been allotted for roads to be paved being used to pave roads, rather than buying a government official a fourth Beemer to park in the 30 million dollar house.
africa is beautiful
I had friends from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Ghana and Sierra Leone while in college. Many of them schooled me on these very same stereotypes and helped dispel some of the misperceptions that media feeds us about African countries. Also, the AIDS rate in Brazil is one of the highest in the world but the epidemic there rarely receives significant media attention. Maybe because it is frequently misrepresented by western media as a predominately european country with a white majority (a lie). It always AIDS=Africa and sometimes AIDS=India. Also we never hear about Sub-Saharan countries like Botswana that have experience significant economic progress and have been touted as “success stories”. Nobody likes African success stories.
im west african (liberia) and im not even joking about 95% of everything you said here is true! lls but just to add this ALL AFRICANS HATE NIGERIANS
First, AFRICA IS A CONTINENT NOT A COUNTRY
Second, Well, I have a question to EVERY PERSON who faithfully believe that’s Magrheb et Egypt are not part of Africa.
Tell me in what part of the world do you think they are? is it in Europe, the middle East, Asia or better…is it a continent by itself?
If anyone can prove it to me even on the world map that they are not African countries, I swear to God with my hand on my heart that I will stop considering them as Africans, but as long as history books and Atlas show them as part of African countries, it will always be like that.
Please people!!! read…read…and read go to library and get yourself some cultural, academic books…NOT magazines, newspapers where all they do is always showing the worst side of countries and if you can, please by all mean go and see the place by yourself instead of believing all the stereotypes the media love to show and other people carry.
The only way to get rid of ignorance, racism and stereotype is to accept each others the way God created us instead of living in a way “certain” people think is acceptable.
Of course Egypt is part of Africa. The ancients didn’t really associate it as such though because it was easier to get to Europe from Egypt than traversing a thousand mile+ desert to get to the “real” Africa.
Lots of people today seem to think the same way.
post colonialism today should be viewed as a kind of corporate colonialism. Far worse than under British Crown rule
In the early 1700s Linnaeus divided mankind by continent. But then in the late 1700s white scientists came up with the idea of the Caucasian race. It took in not just Europe but North Africa and the Middle East too. That allowed whites to claim the achievements of Egypt and Babylon to prove how their race was just plain better than everyone else.
There is no natural line between “white” and “black”: If you walk from Kenya to Denmark you will find no sharp dividing line between the races – people just slowly become less and less “black” and more and more “white”. There is no more reason to draw the line south of Egypt than at the Suez Canal.
Not to mention the way continents are defined is also random.
Africa is a continent not a country, it has more than 40 countries
This just proves how stupid you are.
Wow,People are really ignorant about the african continent
How do black stereotypes of Africa differ from white ones?
Julian Abagond: Which whites do you mean when you refer to this post as “Africa according to white people?” Do you specifically mean non-Hispanic American whites?
African is a wonderful continent..i love anything about it:)
So if Africa is such a great continent with so many wonderful countries, why deal with white racism here when you all could just go back to this incredible place and enjoy all the wonderful things it has to offer. Serious question. I would think if Africa was really so great and all of these stereotypes were false, black Americans would be immigrating over there in droves. Furthermore why are Africans perpetually risking their lives in over-crowded boats to get out of Africa and into Europe, Isreal and any civilized country that will take them? Why do Africans steadily leave Africa to come to America but you really never hear of black Americans talking about moving to Africa?
The world prosperity index is filled with African countries…all on the bottom half of the list
http://www.prosperity.com/rankings.aspx
Only one single African country in the top 60, that is really an amazing feat.
@ Aaron
I assume “here” is the United States of America?
If I were to guess an answer, it would be “because the USA is African-American’s country (whether you like it or not), and they have every right to chose to live in their country; the country their parents, grandparents and their ancestors built.”
For your information, the bulk of african migrations happen from African countries to other African countries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emigration_from_Africa
We’re talking about of continent of 1 billion+ inhabitants. Compare the 440 000 figure (for the whole continent) to, say, the 100 000 Portuguese (out of 10 million) who immigrated to the African country of Angola in the past 5 years:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125409630023845069.html
http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/369061-angola-portugal-s-new-eldorado
This puts things in perspectives, doesn’t it?
Africans do not steadily leave Africa to come to America. The main destination of African migrants is Europe:
LOL. You’ve never opened a history book in your life, have you?
To cut a long story short, Africa is currently recovering from uncontrolled european immigration (we call it “colonization” here), which left the whole continent in a mess. To better assess our current economical situation, you need to know where we come from.
Illustration: I live in a midsized town in one of the smallest countries of West Africa; my country’s economic growth rate is roughly equal to the continental growth rate. Yet, this midsized town, half a thousand kilometers away from our economical capitol boasts more schools, more industries and more economical activity than the whole country at the time of the independence in 1960.
A visitor from the USA with no historical perspective visiting our city will be totally unimpressed, but we, who have witnessed our city’s evolution during the past decades, know that we are moving in the right direction.
Apparently, these days, most economists agree with our empirical observations:
http://www.economist.com/node/21541008
http://www.economist.com/node/21541015#footnote1
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Whats_driving_Africas_growth_2601
http://www.silkinvest.com/2010/06/why-mckinsey-and-bcg-believe-in-africa-silk-invest-special-update.html
@ Aaron:
I believe Dahoman X proved (with links) it’s the other way around. lol!
Thank you Dahoman X for your information
Aaron, I really dont grasp your line of thinking. Their may be indivicuals who have made that choice, to go to Africa to live to escape the racism in the USA
But, black Americans have been in America a few centuries even before it became a country , The United States of America. They have as much at stake about their country as any white American.
I have a question for you, why cant white Americans really face the facts and realities about their history and racism and discrimination against black Americans ? Why are white Americans in such a state of disconnect from these realities? Why cant white Americans take responsibility for these problems in society that we are responsible for creating ? Why to we have to listen to such ignorant and racist drek coming from a lot of white Americans who should know better?