According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, a cafeteria fight at Minneapolis South High School escalated into a melee involving hundreds of students last Thursday, spurred by what parents and students said are growing racial tensions between Somali-American students and others. This incident highlights a continuing and centuries-old conflict between Black populations within the United States.
There has been an ongoing dialogue (at times, debate) about what it means to be Black, in the age of Obama, in the African-American community. This recent occurrence has created an impetus for the contemplation of the issue of Black identity. There are a great many challenges that face African-Americans in their search for clarity and insight into these complex matters. Within this text this writer will not claim to have “solved” the riddle that is Blackness.
Yet, it behooves us to investigate the hindrances that have impeded progress and the barriers that obstruct the ability to clearly articulate and define views and positions regarding this difficult issue. There is always an inherent danger in trying to define any group of people too broadly — Blacks and peoples of African descent are not immune to this danger.
Since the beginning of Black captivity and enslavement, a great emphasis has been placed on identity – how Blacks are viewed by society as a whole (i.e. the dominant White culture) and how Blacks view themselves.
Control and oppression cannot be successful if there is not a hostile attack on the psyches and self-perceptions of those whom you seek to control (a perception of irreversible and inherent inferiority in the mind of the oppressed). This occurs while simultaneously fashioning a social construct of White superiority and supremacy that touts the virtues of Whiteness and Western Civilization, as well as qualities and attributes that were and are deemed impassable for Blacks.
This external assault on Black self-perception creates and lends itself to the internal difficulties that prevent African-Americans from developing a healthy, relevant and multilateral Black identity here in the United States.
Internalized oppression
Internalized oppression occurs among members of the same cultural group. People in the same group believe (often unconsciously) the misinformation and stereotypes that society communicates about other members of their group.
This in turn causes Blacks, and other groups, to focus the oppression on one another, instead of addressing larger problems in society. The results are that African-Americans treat one another in ways that are less than fully respectful — causing them to hurt, undermine, criticize, mistrust, fight with or isolate themselves from one another.
This phenomenon is seen time and time again in a number of behaviors in abused and neglected children, battered women, unhealthy relationships: The oppressor or abuser begins a cycle that the abused and oppressed continue. Internalized oppression has been the primary means by which we have been forced to effect and “be in accord” with, our own oppression. Toni Morrison, Richard Wright, Alice Walker, James Baldwin and many others, have written volumes about Black self-loathing and self-hatred.
It manifests itself in various ways. Some of these forms are subtle: petty jealousies, inability to appreciate the success of other Blacks, Blacks who are better off (materially, educationally, financially) acting as if they are better than other Blacks, equating low achievement with being Black, the feelings of inadequacy (“not being good enough”) that prevents some from even attempting to be a catalyst in their own emancipation.
This does not mean, however, that every disagreement, debate or dispute should be construed as internal oppression. Honest debate and righteous dissent is not only good but necessary for progress.
All the same, there has been, at times, a self-hating psychosis that has led an untold number of Blacks down the road of self-abasement and self-mutilation. They were told by other Blacks: your nose is too wide; your lips are too big; your skin is too dark. Prominent African-Americans have attacked programs such as affirmative action (programs that in fact helped them to achieve much of their own success).
An ever-changing, multinational Black population
As reported in the New York Times on August 29, 2004, the percentage of those with black skin who were foreign-born in the U.S. rose from 4.9 percent to 6.7 percent between 1990 and 2000. With this influx of a foreign-born Black population, it is inevitable that it would lead to certain intra-cultural conflicts. Foreign occupation, slavery and colonialism have impacted Blacks all over the globe, but Blacks born outside of America have their own perspective of these occurrences. Sometimes these perspectives differ or run contrary to those of U.S.-born Blacks.
The views of Blacks born in America are usually shaped by this particular country’s history of discrimination and racism. African-born and Caribbean-born immigrants also come from countries where people are physically homogeneous. Because of visa requirements and immigration restrictions, they often arrive here with skills that immediately spring them into the upper echelons of business.
They come from countries governed by people who look like them. Foreign-born Blacks in the U.S. are accustomed to being part of the dominant culture. They may have some understanding of what it means to be a “minority” when it comes to political or social power, in terms of phenotype, however, they rarely do. In other words, they hail from a different reality than native-born Blacks.
Several decades ago, the 1992-1995 National Health Interview Survey studied data which described the differences in socio-demographic and health characteristics of the non-Hispanic U.S. population categorized by race (Black and White) and nativity (immigrant and native), the health of foreign-born Blacks was comparable to that of U.S.-born White persons in most cases, and, in some cases, better than the health of foreign-born White persons.
More than 67 percent of the foreign-born Black population assessed their health as being excellent or very good. This was significantly greater than the 52 percent of their U.S.-born counterparts who assessed their health as excellent or very good and similar to the proportions of U.S. and foreign-born White persons who rated their health at that level (69 percent and 62 percent, respectively).
This is due in part to certain related factors. Foreign-born and U.S.-born Blacks’ economic and educational statuses are vastly different according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 report. Fifty-seven percent of foreign-born Black families had a household income above $20,000, compared with the 45 percent of their U.S.-born counterparts.
In addition, foreign-born Black populations were more likely to be currently employed; 64 percent of foreign-born Black persons, as compared with 57 percent of native-born Black persons. This same report also showed a difference in the percentage of native-born and foreign-born Blacks 25 years and older who had attained a B.A. or B.S.: US-born Blacks:16.5 percent , foreign-born Blacks: 24.3 percent.
These discrepancies, at times, lead to intra-cultural conflict between foreign-born and native-born Blacks. Blacks from other countries are not immune to the effects of the negative propaganda-machine aimed at native-born Blacks. This leads some foreign-born Blacks to buy into the harmful stereotypes, which leads to (what appears to be) a concerted effort on the part of the African-born population to distance and distinguish itself from U.S.-born Blacks.
This creates an “intra-cultural chasm” that gives birth to the not-too-often discussed (at least not openly) belief that many American-born Blacks have about foreign-born Blacks (especially those who hail from continental Africa): They think they are better than us. Under these tense and somewhat hostile circumstances, it is extremely difficult (if not impossible) for any unity amongst the various African-American populations to emerge.
The brutalization of Blacks in countries governed by Blacks
Those who have studied and understand history realize the role that Western civilization has played in the subjugation, enslavement and colonization of Black people and Black nations. The rape, devastation and plundering of natural, as well as human resources, have been thoroughly documented. Nevertheless, we as human beings (at times) can have short memories. We have the flawed tendency to analyze and judge our current circumstances, with virtually no examination of their causes.
This must be remembered when we as American-born Blacks interact with those from places such as Somali, Liberia, Haiti, Rwanda and the Sudan. After the violence and slaughter that they have experienced in their homelands, America begins to take on this almost magical appeal. More often than not, the face or faces of the aggressor has looked like them. U.S.-born Blacks have much less difficulty in seeing the White privilege and White supremacy that is endemic in American society than their foreign-born counterparts.
And although the fingerprints of Western colonization and manipulation can be found all over the problems that plague the peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora, the visible instruments used to oppress, murder and brutalize have been Black as well. To convince the Rwandan who narrowly escaped extermination; or the native of Darfur in the Sudan who has been orphaned by that region’s blood-letting; or the Haitian that has been scarred by decades of violence, that we as Blacks are “one” can be a tough sell.
The more enlightened amongst us know that in a puppet show it is those who are pulling the strings who are ultimately in control, yet many Blacks (including American-born) are oblivious to the strings; they see only the puppets. When they recall the rapist, the executioner, the corrupt law enforcement officer, the governor and/or president, their recollections are in black or brown. They see only the hand that held the machete; they see only the face of those that held the machine gun. Black hands and brown faces, brown hands and Black faces.
More “American” than we are “African”
This is not a stinging indictment, nor is it a ringing endorsement, but simply a statement of fact. It should be thoroughly understood, however, that we as Blacks have influenced America, just as much as America has influenced us. This nation has benefited greatly from our contributions (intellectual, social, technological, political) as a people.
There has been, however, reluctance or a lack of realization on the part of American-born Blacks or to admit the influence that American culture has had on their lives. We loathe admitting the impact that a country that has exploited, demoralized and brutalized us has had on our beliefs and perceptions about: success, beauty, value and life.
The same ills, dysfunctions and maladies that are pervasive in the U.S. have not passed the Black community by. The hell that we have caused countless Black men and women to go through because they didn’t measure up to some “white-American” standard of beauty or success is incalculable. It is all too painful for the abused to see the abuser in themselves.
Nevertheless, there it is just underneath the surface. Moreover, the xenophobia that has been a staple in American history and culture has reared its ugly head time and time again in the American-born Black community. “They’re taking our jobs” or “they don’t even know how to speak English” are not only mantras spouted by Whites about undocumented immigrants, but these same words can also be heard dripping from the lips of native-born Blacks in regard to our foreign-born brothers and sisters.
For far too many years, and far too many times, we (American-born Blacks) have engaged in that all too American (and all too Euro-centric) practice of disregarding and de-valuing cultures other than our own.
Conclusion
Several years ago, this writer was speaking to a Sudanese law student and the conversation came around to Darfur. He said that the main problem in that region was the issue of identity. Will Darfur be a Muslim or a purely “African” state? Or maybe … both? How will the citizens of Darfur be defined? In other words, identity is not an insignificant thing; it is a matter of supreme importance. There have not been many answers proposed in this text.
On the contrary, there have probably been more questions created and we should be perfectly fine with that. It has long been my belief that we have failed to find the right answers because we have failed to ask the right questions. So let us begin there. In doing so we will undoubtedly have to confront some uncomfortable truths and some unpleasant realities, but this should not deter honest, thorough, sincere and uncompromising discussion and examination.
Defining who one is an innate need. For by defining ourselves we discover our purpose, and by discovering one’s purpose we can began to realize our destiny. This is true of the individual and it is true of a people.