When Black Americans Stopped Being Africans

[00:00:39][music] >> Hello, this is Lady Boujee and I hope you're having a beautiful day. Thank you for your support. Thank you for subscribing to the channel. Thank you for your comments and thank you for your thumbs up. Thank you for all you do to support the channel and yes, we are commanded to love one another whether we want to or not or whether we agree with each other or not.

[00:01:05]And today I want to talk a little bit about when black Americans stopped being Africans.

[00:01:12]Because I think that it is significant in what's going on in America now between black Americans, the foundational black Americans and the black immigrants. So I want to talk about that. So here we go.

[00:01:26]>> Since we're sending out reminders, this is just a friendly reminder that black Americans are not African. We are not African-American and I'm not saying that as a way to try to disassociate ourselves from our lineage. Yes, we have lineage that comes from the West the coast of West Africa. Yes, that is a part of our lineage, but we are not African. We are not African-American. I really just wish that we would drop that part of the title cuz it does not describe in full like really who and what we are. And it also confuses people about our our American-ness and it makes them feel like we are immigrants like the other people that come over here.

[00:02:08]>> So, let's talk about when Black Americans stopped calling ourselves African-American and why that shift wasn't about hate, division, or disrespect. It was about clarity. It was about lineage and it was about protecting a culture that outsiders kept trying to rewrite.

[00:02:28]Because here's the truth.

[00:02:30]Black Americans and African immigrants are not the same group. We don't share the same history, the same lineage, the same culture, or the same relationship with the United States. And that's okay as long as everybody stays in their lane. And what this means is that if you are an African immigrant or a Caribbean immigrant, you should not be centering yourselves in Black American culture or Black American history. And that's not being mean, that's just clarity.

[00:03:06]So, I want to talk about the original meaning of African-American.

[00:03:11]When Black Americans started using the term African-American, it wasn't about claiming a modern African nationality.

[00:03:20]It wasn't about pretending we were Nigerian or Ghanaian or Kenyan. It was about honoring the people who were kidnapped from the continent and forced to build this country like my ancestors because my ancestors did come from Africa. So, that term meant a lineage, not a nationality, a heritage, not a passport, and a connection to ancestors, not a claim to modern African identity.

[00:03:49]And this was before large-scale African immigration. There was no conflict, no tension, and no competition. It was just respect from where our ancestors came from. And if you're saying that your ancestors didn't come from Africa, I'm not talking about you, so you don't have to leave any comment about you're not African. Some of our ancestors did come from Africa, but we are not African. So, we were calling ourselves African-American without no problem.

[00:04:23]But, when immigration increased, the conversation changed. When African immigration increased in the 1990s and 2000s, a lot of new voices entered the conversation. Voices that didn't grow up in Black American culture, didn't share our history, and didn't understand the meaning behind the term African-American. Some immigrants responded with, "You're not African. You weren't born in Africa. You don't have a tribe." And for Black Americans, that was confusing because the term wasn't about them in the first place. It wasn't about claiming their nationality. It wasn't even a conversation they were part of when the term was created. This was when the diaspora tension began, in my opinion.

[00:05:16]So, once this conversation started, Black Americans said, "Fine. We are Black Americans because we always had the option of just being Americans." And from that came Black American, foundational Black American, Freedman, Solon, and whatever else because these identities weren't created out of hate.

[00:05:44]They were created out of accuracy because we are all of that. We don't even need the African moniker. And you're right, we're not Africans. And I would just add that these identities come out of our lineage and out of self-definition. We get to name ourselves. And now we have Africans and Caribbeans in some cases coming out, you are ashamed of your African ancestry.

[00:06:09]No, we're not. No, we're not. We're just telling you who we are and that's the end of it. All this African talk is over. Hear me and hear me good because it's not going to change. Black Americans and black immigrants are not the same group. We are not the same culturally, we are not the same historically, we are not the same politically, and we are not the same socially. And that's not an insult, it's a fact. Black Americans descend from enslaved people in the United States. We built a culture under pressure. We fought for our civil rights and we shaped American law, music, language, and identity. African immigrants and other black immigrants come from sovereign nations. They have their own cultures, tribes, and histories. They arrive with citizenship from their home countries. And they enter a system black Americans fought to open. These are two different lineages, two different histories, two different cultural realities. And because of that, African immigrants and other black immigrants should not be centering themselves in black American culture, black American history, or black American political identity. Not because they're bad people, but because it's not their lineage. Now, the irony. Suddenly, everyone wants to be black American.

[00:07:46]This is the irony. The same people who said, "You're not African." talking to us, suddenly want to be black American because now they realize they don't have any agency here. Whatever they were told about black Americans back home in their little village or little their little hood or whatever they came from doesn't have any weight here.

[00:08:07]What you were in your homeland carries no weight here. Because black American culture is globally influential, the foundation of American music, the backbone of civil rights, and the blueprint for black identity in the United States. That's who we are. All that little about you being a prince back home or you being in this or your tribe being that, that doesn't have any weight here. So, if you were a prince back home, you better go back home and claim your throne because you don't have one here. And one other thing I need to make clear because I've heard people online saying things like, "Oh, we going to stand with the Asians or we going to stand with the Latinos." We don't need anybody to fight our battles.

[00:08:54]Let's make that very clear. Black Americans are not sitting around waiting for anybody to come to save us. We built our own movements, we fought our own battles, we survived our own tragedies, and we organized our own boycotts. And we did that without any outside help.

[00:09:13]You understand? So, we don't need you to stand with us. You can stand with the Asians, you can stand with the Latinos, you can stand with the white people, you can stand with anybody you want to because we don't need you. We've been doing this by ourselves for 400 something years without any help from you. And we're not running. That's the whole point. We are not running to your homelands looking for a better life.

[00:09:38]We're staying right here. We are used to fighting alone. We are used to standing on our own two feet, and we are used to carrying our own weight in this country.

[00:09:50]And here's the boundary. When tragedies happen in America, when injustice hits our community, when we mobilize, that's our lane, that's our fight, and that's our history. So, black immigrants don't need to center themselves in anything that we're doing, not for us or against us, because you have your own people, your own nations, and your own struggles back home that need your voice and your energy more than we do. So, the most respectful thing for you to do is to fight for your own lineage, your own homeland, and your own communities. The same way black Americans fight for ours.

[00:10:34]So, black Americans didn't stop being African out of hate. We stopped because the term no longer described our lived reality. We are a distinct people with a distinct lineage, a distinct culture, and a distinct history. And we have the right to name ourselves without anyone else trying to center themselves in our identity. We're not going back to being African-American because we're not African-American. Nobody is.

[00:11:05]African-American is a dead term, and we need to bury it.

[00:11:10]Okay, y'all, let me know what you think about this video, and have a good day.