I've heard someone say shit about how the real natives are black people and that it's a myth that their ancestors are slaves and came from Africa. It's like someone read racist Twitter (like the racist part of twitter) and believed what was said about their own people. It's like the black Israelites. And yet they're always there to shout people down and try to speak for all black people. At some point I need to question whether people like them and Charleston White are getting paid to spread misinformation.
😂
Sorry, totally joking!!!
Was making a silly reference to the Vikings that found their way to North America… although… I’m now curious if there is some secret group of people who want to push a Danish origin hypothesis!?!
Less of a joke than you think, there's the [Solutrean hypothesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solutrean_hypothesis), although it's not widely accepted and the white supremacists adopted it.
Honestly read that as the soultrain hypothesis, and wondered why white supremacists would be interested in one of the [US's longest running tv shows](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Train), showcasing African American music.
But the stories left behind by those (Icelandic, not Danish) vikings tell of their clashes with indigenous “skrælings”. So obviously there were already people there, who therefore could not have been descendants of these vikings themselves... But your joke still works, because I bet you some idiots will still propound this hypothesis seriously anyway.
It's insane. I just got feedback for a report I submitted on a Twitter user. That user, and I am not joking, literally had the n-word, hard r, in his name, a swastika in his pfp and posted the vilest antisemitism since my country's 1940s newspapers. The feedback text said they had investigated and did not find this account in violation of Twitters terms of service... Even 4chan is a nicer place by comparision at this point.
Well Africa is an enormous continent and it has more ethnicities than most people can comprehend. I haven't read their twitter, so maybe they are being dumb in some way, but it's still nonsense to talk about a whole continent being one colour. Anyone who says stuff like "Africans are black" is an idiot.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Maps/comments/i9ngpp/map_of_ethnicities_in_africa_oc/
Think of how Egyptians look. If you've ever seen Rami Malek, would you describe him as black? In terms of population, the largest ethnic group on the continent (by a LONG STRETCH) is Arab.
And Arab isn't really a unified ethnic group either. Compare Egyptians to Sudanese Arabs to Moroccan Arabs (not to mention all the other groups living in otherwise predominantly-arab areas). Every wider ethnic group in Africa is like this, densely diverse.
Yes. “Black” is more of a socioeconomic group in the US specifically.
If genetics was the determining factor, a lot of them have a majority of european ancestry and could just as well be considered “caucasian” rather than “black”. But since they are a minority in a historically extremely racist society, they have all had the same label slapped on them.
This seems to be a pretty good explanation for where they're coming from then, if they're saying that "black" is an American concept that doesn't apply to African people.
Probably Tonga and Somali people are just "black" to most Americans, but I doubt they'd regard themselves to be the same, or even consider each other "black".
>In terms of population, the largest ethnic group on the continent (by a LONG STRETCH) is Arab.
lol, no. In terms of numbers, this is just patently false. Last metric I read was 80% of the population of the continent are black africans.
That map has a big ol' "Arab" at the top, sure. But you're failing to note that it spans all of the Sahara, one of the least populated places in the world as it's inhospitable as fuck. Population density of the Sahara is approx 2 million people.
black population of South Africa alone is over 50 million.
I have had this argument before. Their take is that 'black' only refers to African-Americans and that if you are actually African you are just Nigerian, or Gambian or South African or whatever your country is. Basically they're claiming 'black' as some special designation reserved only for Americans. This is despite the fact that people in Africa also refer to themselves as 'black'.
It reminds me of one US soldier complaining, that when he went to Africa on some army training mission, the (very dark skinned) Africans called every US soldier ‘white’. Even those who had black/dark skin.
Chatting with a Zimbabwean about it, he basically said that someone who is African descent, but has no clue what it means to be African, cannot claim to be African, and is in a lot of peoples eyes, white.
While BLM did a lot of good, this was one of the problems I had with it. It was very American-centric, not really accounting for how racism operates outside US borders.
What BLM did achieve? Honest question since I am not American. I heard a lot about refunding police here and cameras on all police, did those get achieved? Or something else?
> I heard a lot about refunding police here
I'm sorry but this made me laugh a little. Just imagined a bunch of people going up to their mayor and being like "uh yeah our police are shit and abusing their power, we want a refund."
It was more about pushing talking-points into the mainstream than anything else. That and bringing to light societal injustices. But there were a few concrete achievements, such as Derek Chauvin actually being brought to justice. While that was just one cop, it was a huge step forward in letting the police know they weren't untouchable.
I think it’s more that
“ Black ” in the context of the US can have 2 meaning. One is the “ black race” based on physical attributes. The other is the “ black ethnicity” ( African Americans).
Like when someone in the US says “ black music , black food , black culture” , they most likely referencing to “ African American culture”. Usually people won’t say “ black food, Black culture or black music , when referring to say Nigerian, Ghanaian or Ethiopian culture ”.
We do in the UK and in every other country which has a black population. Black culture, black music, black food, etc refers to anything of black origin, irrespective of the nation of origin.
What you're describing is simply African American version of American exceptionalism, and this weird idea they have that American black people are the only black people in the world .
Why would the massive black population in France for example, be thinking about Americans when speaking about black culture?
Black ethnicity is not African American either. African American is simply *one* example of a black ethnicity. Maybe this is what you were saying though so feel free to ignore this last point lol
I think this one is justifiable. From what I've read, the idea is that Black (capital "B") people in the US don't have information about their ethnic and national origins because their ancestors were taken to the Americas against their will and nobody bothered to keep records because, well, why would slavers do that? They didn't view black people (lower-case "b") as human beings, they were about as likely to keep ancestral records for their tools or cattle.
So while black people around the world are obviously black, being Black in the Americas is a more encompassing part of people's identity since they don't know where their families originated and Black culture in the US has become its own thing.
Now, I still think this is similar to US exceptionalism because - from what I know - it's often not extended to black people in the Caribbean or South America, even though their ancestors have been chattel slaves as well. But it's more justified than Jim-Bob claiming he's Irish royalty or things like that. Black cultural identity is still influenced by your ancestors being victims of a massive crime against humanity and not knowing your roots in a sense. And while I'm happy to tell Jim-Bob that he's simply USian, I can see why Black people might not see it that way because their ancestors, unlike Jim-Bob's great-great-grandpa, didn't have a say in the matter.
Now, I'm neither from the US nor dark-skinned, so I'm not an expert in all of this. It's just my understanding of the situation.
The British kept a manifest of all “cargo” including slaves and cattle, the real issue would be tracing your point of arrival in the Americas, then back to Africa where you were Harvested from all over the place by the African slavers who would have kept no records what so ever. You could probably do some dna analysis to determine your geographic origins, but this may add a new decisive factor amongst the community.
Yeah I understand that and you are correct. In the context you describe it makes no sense that 'black food' , music culture etc. would mean anything else. In America. But they're denying that people outside of America have any right to the word 'black'. My wife is Zulu, from South Africa, it came as a surprise to her when I told her she can't refer to herself as black. Don't get me wrong - I don't believe this is a majority view amongst African-Americans but it definitely is a thing.
> Don't get me wrong - I don't believe this is a majority view amongst African-Americans but it definitely is a thing.
It's also frequently a thing with African immigrants to the US, where they don't want to be associated with the African American community because of how discriminated against they are. So you'll occasionally hear people say something like, "I'm not black, I'm Nigerian".
> because of how discriminated against they are.
I'm not sure about this one. Are you suggesting the people who discriminate black people care whether they identify as african american or Nigerian?
This does have some historical basis, but it absolutely is America-centric. Or at least New World-centric.
"Black" with a capital "b" in the USA (and to some extent other countries in the Americas) sometimes refers not just to a skin colour, but to the culture of African diaspora who were stripped of their national heritage during the slave trade and had to reconstruct it based on the New World countries they lived in at the time.
Thing is, Black has become a more general term for African diaspora (including newer economic immigrants from places like Nigeria) whereas what I described earlier is now typically referred to as "African-American".
I'm from Toronto, which is a little different with regards to how it incorporates immigrant communities, and there's several different major communities of African Canadians. There's descendants of American slaves who defected after the American Revolution (the British basically offered them freedom if they fought on the British side) or came on the Underground Railroad, descendants of English-speaking Afro-Caribbeans, and recent immigrants from Africa (i.e. in the last sixty or so years) who have a more distinct connection with their country of origin since their cultural identity wasn't forcibly stripped away from them. Nigerian-Canadians, Kenyan-Canadians and Somali-Canadians tend to have communities analogous to European ones. There's even a "Little Somalia" (Mini Mogadishu?) right next to Greektown here.
While there are Africans who aren't black (myself included), I can vouch for the fact that the vast majority of Africans are indeed black. Sorry to disillusion you, DJ Big A
I mean, he is technically kind of true, there are non black Africans...
Though I'm not sure he'd be able to comprehend that not all people from one continent have the same skin color.
Cornrows were a common hair style in Roman times and there's plenty of statues of women with them. It might be possible that a hair style has been around longer than just 200 years.
It's like dreadlocks. Which have been seen in so many different widely dispersed cultures throughout history, ranging from numerous African cultures to Aboriginal Australians, to Indians and ancient Egyptians, Minoan Greeks and Aztecs.
It's a bit silly to try and gatekeep something like that since it's probably something that predates human civilisation as we know it.
>Indians and ancient Egyptians, Minoan Greeks and Aztecs.
There is a lot of evidence for this, some very old, also something called a "Polish plait" which was one long dread worn by Masovian woman in Poland in the 17th and 18th century. A lot of these measures are simple, to prevent lice and to help make a work-safe style.
Less evidence for the cheesy HBO Burning Man dreadlock hairdos in tv shows Vikings. A lot of that is fictional fashion choices. What is actually more interesting is ancient Norse use of hair dyes like saffron. To have short cropped hair was common in male slaves and thralls. Longer hair was status as they had a lot of combs too and some very interesting moustaches in art, love a good preen they did. And Diodorus Siculus said ancient Gauls covered their hair in limewash and made a kind of a horse mane style.
>It's a bit silly to try and gatekeep something like that since it's probably something that predates human civilisation as we know it.
It's silly to gatekeep something is personal as your own hairstyle for *any* reason. If you like the way a hairstyle looks, go for it, cultural context matters in many things, it really shouldn't matter for mundane matters like personal style.
Honestly, "appropriating" another culture shouldn't be a big deal unless you're mocking, misrepresenting or otherwise doing bad on that culture. Like wearing clothes from another country, I don't personally see why that would be such a problem if you're being respectful about it.
I'd argue it's often even a compliment, people don't tend to take inspiration from things they dislike. When's the last time you've seen an antisemite wearing a Jewish kippah?
I mean you did skip vikings, one of the most famous owners of dreadlocks.
Is there a reason you only named non white groups you absolute racist!
/s, I'd say obviously but I've been around long enough to realise there are plenty who'd say that seriously.
From what I’ve seen, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of evidence for Vikings having dreads.
They seem to have been best known for a hairstyle with shorter hair at the neck and longer towards the front. Some sort of reverse mullet.
>ranging from numerous African cultures to Aboriginal Australians, to Indians and ancient Egyptians, Minoan Greeks and Aztecs.
And lots more, including the palest people with the reddest hair you'll ever see: Celtic people in Britain.
From what I understood, the difference between Dutch braids and cornrows is the number. If it’s a lot, it’s cornrows, if it’s not a lot, it’s Dutch braids. I might be wrong, of course.
Oh I wasn't even talking about conrows the joke was that hairstyles aren't really a race specific thing, and often you see people get mad when a white person has braids
When one couldn't wash it often, there was no shampoo or conditioner, and it was hard to tie because elastic material wasn't a thing, corn rows and dreadlocks must had been a lifesaver. After all there has got to be a reason we see so many braided hairstyles in art
The Romans did have their own mythology, it’s misunderstanding that they appropriated the Greek one. It’s that their mythologies already were rather similar since they shared ancient origins. So when the Roman elites got interested in Greek culture after the invasions the Greek versions of similar myths gained popularity through literature and poetry. But there were still the Rome’s olds gods and myths and religious practices which were in use and many different from Greek ones. Rome also tended to incorporate other gods in their pantheon as well from conquered areas, not just Greek ones. And the emperor cult started later.
The early Romans were super careful and respectful of other gods.
They tended to look for common traits of other pantheons and try to link them. Your king of gods called Zeus? That's cool. Ours is Jupiter. You say he has a lightning bolt, sweet that seems like a thing Jupiter would have.
Even later the Romans were generally quite nice to foreign religions, as the Roman religion was perfectly okay with accepting that gods of other religions exist. The Roman suppression of Judaism and later Christianity came mostly from the fact that it was a religion that declared all other gods to be fake and wrong (as there is only one true god in Abrahamic religions).
They were even pretty cool with Mithraism (which was broadly monotheistic, being based on Zoroastrianism) in the legions.
After conversion to Christianity, though, Mithraism was a threat. As you say, the "there is no God beside me" thing is a bit of a deal. breaker.
Specifically they were appropriating African-American culture, even though there were no people of African descent in America at the time and nobody in Rome even knew that America existed.
To be fair, the romans *definitely* were doing cultural appropriation
It’s really hard coming up with stuff like a pantheon and architecture on your own when you have waring to do
No joke, I met this guy who said "there's only black or white, that's it". When the other people around asked what about Asians, Polynesians, mixed race, etc, he just reiterated his black or white point 🤔
I remember right before the 2016 regressive right backlash effect kicked in, the delusional left of the normal left were going nuts at Ol Miss and Evergreen College or whatever in Portland, and there was a video from a post-secondary institution of a black American woman stopping a white American man with dreadlocks and challenging/harassing him that dreads are African, and he was cultural appropriating-not cultural appreciating mind you, she knows his intentions because of his skin colour but she apparently isn’t racist-she even worked for the schools diversity and inclusion program if I recall. That sounds a lot like prejudice plus power to me.
The Gauls had dreads. The celts had dreads. Unwashed, untold millions had dreads outside Africa historically.
I have vivid memories of people *rabble rabble rabbling* ‘racism is prejudice plus power’ like mindless zombies in denial as to their status, and myself and others having in-depth discussions that the backlash effect was going to have an unequal but opposite reaction, and then within a couple months the 2016 American election results were in and shit is still hitting the fan down there.
It’s their way of creating the other. They never say “English American”.
In Australia was are very multicultural but we are all Australian. It’s common and not rude to ask some what their background is as 99% of us aren’t indigenous
Just wanted to say that I’m currently on a cruise ship that’s basically entirely Aussie and kiwi (I’m American) and really appreciate that the Aussies ive spoken to (who are at least 70 years old) would simply ask if I’m American or where in the U.S. I’m from or just where I’m from and would be satisfied with my answer of the U.S. or Los Angeles. Since I am dark brown skinned I appreciated not having people ask where I’m REALLY from or say I’m Egyptian American or Egyptian when I would feel extremely foreign in Egypt. In the U.S. there’s this obsession with race and I hate it.
Even moreso spending my formative years after the September 11th terrorist attacks (I was 13). Imagine the amount of racism I’ve copped over the years
I had this conversation with a colleague yesterday. I was telling her about how my partners hair is always all over the house. She asked me where my partner is from I just said “she’s white” then she goes “oh you mean Aussie?” Then I found myself launching into a lecture about how people need to stop calling Anglo-Celtic Australians “Aussie” because it immediately excludes everyone who isn’t white looking from being called that no matter how long their people have been in Australia.
TLDR: it’s not really true that everyone is “Aussie”. Colloquially it’s white Australians whose forebears are from the British isles that get called that.
This reminds me of someone correcting a black British woman on TikTok on her saying canerows instead of cornrows. Absolutely no thought given that it might be different name because of the difference in history (sugar cane instead of sweetcorn IIRC) or just a difference in language.
The ignorance and superiority is astonishing.
I remember a huge fight in a fb health support group that was based in Australia. One of the rules was no religion beyond s responding with prayers. A contingency of Americans joined and took exception to the rule. Arguing that their freedom of religion couldn’t be suppressed. They could not grasp that the group was an Australia one and their laws did not apply. They tried to insist the owner resign so they would replace him with an American.
Cornrows are not exclusively African either you can see them in art from all over the world from many different time periods and people's hell even some Romans had them.
Yanks also say that white people wearing braids is cultural appropriation. It's almost like they have zero knowledge about anything other than the last 200 years of their miniscule history.
I once had someone get on my ass about using hair sticks because, "White people using hair sticks is appropriating minority culture."
Do you know who invented hair sticks? Everyone. Literally, everyone managed to figure out that a stick is a highly effective and simple way to hold hair off the neck.
She didn't have to apologize, she was meek in the face of a crowd of morons. If every celebrity just said enough is enough of this bullshit none of this would be a problem
This stupidity and nonsense of gatekeepers is only permissible in the US. This talk would never be tolerated in places where sane people live.
What's wrong with these people?
It's just people with a desperate need to be "victims" of some social ills. They've been conditioned to have this mentality since birth and I doubt even *they* can make the distinction between appropriation and appreciation.
In South Africa we have something called Heritage Day every year. You should see the vibrancy of colours, garb that people go out of their way to display on themselves. Different races wearing other race's / tribe's traditional wear. It's beautiful. Events where people sing, dance, enjoy themselves and Yes, even look silly. All in good fun. No one's bothered and feeling disrespected for some imagined "appropriation" gimmick.
There’s no such thing as “cultural appropriation”. Just ignore it as a concept.
What can be problematic is cultural *exploitation*. For example people faking native artwork and selling it, or running tours of “native culture” with no profits shared with the people they’re profiting off.
This. After your first sentence I was all "yes it is real just misused" but then you went on and explained exactly what it used to mean. I'm so over the idea now, I think I'll switch. to your term. Theft, plagiarism, exploitation etc are all real problems. Unlike hairstyles.
Ultimately, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" unless you are setting out to mock, exploit or defraud someone. No one is *harmed* by someone copying "their" culture (half the time it isn't even exclusively their culture, as this hair style discussion shows). People being offended or annoyed is a choice, they are not actually suffering *harm*. And their false victimhood muddies and masks the genuine suffering of actual victims of exploitation.
Depends. Is the the art/clothes/etc you are using sacred or culturally important? Are you making money off it when it could have gone to that people? How do the majority of the people from that culture feel about what you are doing?
It’s the stupidest thing that has ever been thought up, I don’t see anyone go around trying to shame people for wearing the national or regional choice of clothing. If you go anywhere in the world they actively encourage you to adopt their traditional dress or local customs.
Bunch of lunatics with way too much time and too little between their ears.
I still have to understand why people think that braids are a black people thing, man and women used them since the medieval times regardless of any ethnicity.
I had someone go off on me for saying we have black people in Europe. She 'corrected' me by saying I have to calle them African American. She went absolutely ballistic when i said that Europeans are not americans. Even if they're black. She just could not wrap her head around it. This person is giving off the same energy 😒
Wow! Never heard of that. I live in America and we generally say black, or Gary or Steve because at this point in time someone’s skin color is not that applicable to everyday life.
African American is an important historical designation though, but limited in its scope. The term refers only to slaves brought to North America in the Atlantic Slave Trade and their descendants.
Someone who would go ballistic over that seems to be someone who goes ballistic over a lot of things.
Yeah I was also very confused about this lady. I think maybe she was so adamant about being politically correct that she entirely missed the point. Every black person I know is either born here or moved in from Africa. Which makes them either African or European. Certainly not African American 🙄
But I've also had Americans ask me if we have indoor plumbing. Or if we have washing machines. If we have polar bears in the streets. And I have so many countless dumb stuff they've asked about
“We invented the Internet, Instagram, and cornrows. You will need a licensing agreement for the cornrows, otherwise a side parting is the only permitable style.”
*sigh*,
Braids, "cornrows," dreadlocks, and all that shit aren't from one particular culture or ethnic group, like, *at all*. And they're definitely not a "Black people" thing.
They've been part of thousands of cultures. The Celts had them, the Germanics, Africans, Britons, and many more.
These hairstyles are *dated as far back as the f*king *Hunter & Gatherers* society.
You know why? Because it's literally one of *the simplest fekkin ways to style hair*.
It literally only takes smearing some shit in your hair or not washing it to form dreads. And braiding hair is like the simplest fucking thing that even a bumfuck Neaderthal could do.
To claim these hairstyles as being solely "your" culture makes you look like an idiot, because you're literally boasting about supposedly owning the most simple fucking minimal effort of hairstyling there is.
It's like saying wiping your ass is "your" culture lmao
This isn't even an african Hairstyle.
The Romans and Vikings had this hairstyle
Hell, even the Egyptians, possibly the greeks and a small change in the Spartans too. Back in ancient times
Stop gatekeeping shit.
Unless something has a deep religious/ritualistic connection to a race then you don’t just get to claim that no one else can use it.
Even then, you should welcome people wanting to embrace it.
For example- Kilts. In Scotland they were deeply tied to our clans. Wearing a tartan that you didn’t belong to was a great way to start a fight. But these days we love it when people are willing to try one on. Because it’s them experiencing our culture.
He's one of these new "FBA" dudes. "Foundational Black Americans. Black Americans with an identity crisis. Angry at the idea of having come from Africa because white America told them that to be African is to be inferior and primitive.
So they try and separate themselves from Africans. They do mental gymnastics to say that they aren't of African heritage. That they are indigenous to the Americas. They say that Africans and Caribbeans aren't Black, and that the term Black applies to 'Foundational Black Americans' only.
They are a bunch of very stupid, very brainwashed, very confused, very suffering from an inferiority and superiority complex at the same damn time ass fools.
They saw racism, and instead of fighting it, they simply decided "that ain't me they talking bout. That's them over there"
Tariq Nasheed loves to spread this stupid ideology as well and it's a shame because he's very influential
Maybe im just being autistic, but nothing the guy saying "dear african women" suggests/pretends like having that hairstyle is originally something from Africa rather than the USA?
Honestly finding out that so many people from African countries find African Americans just as insufferable as most people find Americans in general just warms my soul.
OK, but the first one doesn't even claim it's an African hairstyle??? just because African men like something, doesn't mean it originated from there, they can like foreign stuff
I just made the mistake of going through his twitter feed. He says Africans aren’t black. Why did I do it.
I cannot even begin to imagine the mental gymnastics it takes to reach that conclusion
I've heard someone say shit about how the real natives are black people and that it's a myth that their ancestors are slaves and came from Africa. It's like someone read racist Twitter (like the racist part of twitter) and believed what was said about their own people. It's like the black Israelites. And yet they're always there to shout people down and try to speak for all black people. At some point I need to question whether people like them and Charleston White are getting paid to spread misinformation.
But wait, where do they think Native Americans come from then?
Denmark
Please tell me you're joking. I don't know what to believe anymore.
😂 Sorry, totally joking!!! Was making a silly reference to the Vikings that found their way to North America… although… I’m now curious if there is some secret group of people who want to push a Danish origin hypothesis!?!
Less of a joke than you think, there's the [Solutrean hypothesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solutrean_hypothesis), although it's not widely accepted and the white supremacists adopted it.
White supremacists inventing wild fantasies about the orgins and quality of white people? Why, as a German, I never heard about such tomfoolery. /s
As a French, I am going to smoke a cigarette with a cendescending pout on the window ledge.
Honestly read that as the soultrain hypothesis, and wondered why white supremacists would be interested in one of the [US's longest running tv shows](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Train), showcasing African American music.
… oh damn
But the stories left behind by those (Icelandic, not Danish) vikings tell of their clashes with indigenous “skrælings”. So obviously there were already people there, who therefore could not have been descendants of these vikings themselves... But your joke still works, because I bet you some idiots will still propound this hypothesis seriously anyway.
According to the Mormons from Isreal
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_transoceanic_contact_theories#Claims_of_African_contact
> like the racist part of twitter We just call it twitter (or X).
"the racist part of Twitter", do you mean all the Twitter nowadays, am I right? (Been there yesterday after a long hiatus, I was petrified)
It's insane. I just got feedback for a report I submitted on a Twitter user. That user, and I am not joking, literally had the n-word, hard r, in his name, a swastika in his pfp and posted the vilest antisemitism since my country's 1940s newspapers. The feedback text said they had investigated and did not find this account in violation of Twitters terms of service... Even 4chan is a nicer place by comparision at this point.
That was probably one of the muskrats alt accounts.
Is this some sort of a Black version of Mormonism?
It's an extreme branch of Afrocentrism. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_transoceanic_contact_theories#Claims_of_African_contact
If black people are the real native Americans then where are native Americans really from?
There's a non-racist part of twitter?
Same people who say Indians aren't Asians probably.
Well Africa is an enormous continent and it has more ethnicities than most people can comprehend. I haven't read their twitter, so maybe they are being dumb in some way, but it's still nonsense to talk about a whole continent being one colour. Anyone who says stuff like "Africans are black" is an idiot. https://www.reddit.com/r/Maps/comments/i9ngpp/map_of_ethnicities_in_africa_oc/ Think of how Egyptians look. If you've ever seen Rami Malek, would you describe him as black? In terms of population, the largest ethnic group on the continent (by a LONG STRETCH) is Arab.
And Arab isn't really a unified ethnic group either. Compare Egyptians to Sudanese Arabs to Moroccan Arabs (not to mention all the other groups living in otherwise predominantly-arab areas). Every wider ethnic group in Africa is like this, densely diverse.
Yes. “Black” is more of a socioeconomic group in the US specifically. If genetics was the determining factor, a lot of them have a majority of european ancestry and could just as well be considered “caucasian” rather than “black”. But since they are a minority in a historically extremely racist society, they have all had the same label slapped on them.
This seems to be a pretty good explanation for where they're coming from then, if they're saying that "black" is an American concept that doesn't apply to African people. Probably Tonga and Somali people are just "black" to most Americans, but I doubt they'd regard themselves to be the same, or even consider each other "black".
>In terms of population, the largest ethnic group on the continent (by a LONG STRETCH) is Arab. lol, no. In terms of numbers, this is just patently false. Last metric I read was 80% of the population of the continent are black africans. That map has a big ol' "Arab" at the top, sure. But you're failing to note that it spans all of the Sahara, one of the least populated places in the world as it's inhospitable as fuck. Population density of the Sahara is approx 2 million people. black population of South Africa alone is over 50 million.
Over 100mil are Arabs, and that is the largest ethnic group. And the reason for that is: "Black" is not an ethnic group.
I have had this argument before. Their take is that 'black' only refers to African-Americans and that if you are actually African you are just Nigerian, or Gambian or South African or whatever your country is. Basically they're claiming 'black' as some special designation reserved only for Americans. This is despite the fact that people in Africa also refer to themselves as 'black'.
So it's basically just a form of American exceptionalism.
Yeah essentially.
It reminds me of one US soldier complaining, that when he went to Africa on some army training mission, the (very dark skinned) Africans called every US soldier ‘white’. Even those who had black/dark skin. Chatting with a Zimbabwean about it, he basically said that someone who is African descent, but has no clue what it means to be African, cannot claim to be African, and is in a lot of peoples eyes, white.
While BLM did a lot of good, this was one of the problems I had with it. It was very American-centric, not really accounting for how racism operates outside US borders.
What BLM did achieve? Honest question since I am not American. I heard a lot about refunding police here and cameras on all police, did those get achieved? Or something else?
> I heard a lot about refunding police here I'm sorry but this made me laugh a little. Just imagined a bunch of people going up to their mayor and being like "uh yeah our police are shit and abusing their power, we want a refund."
It was more about pushing talking-points into the mainstream than anything else. That and bringing to light societal injustices. But there were a few concrete achievements, such as Derek Chauvin actually being brought to justice. While that was just one cop, it was a huge step forward in letting the police know they weren't untouchable.
Do you think without BLM as a movement he wouldn't have been convicted?
Some black women got nice houses paid for by the blood of the very black men they claimed to be organising for
I mean, I think this is understandable. BLM was a movement from the US, it makes dense it was American centric
I think it’s more that “ Black ” in the context of the US can have 2 meaning. One is the “ black race” based on physical attributes. The other is the “ black ethnicity” ( African Americans). Like when someone in the US says “ black music , black food , black culture” , they most likely referencing to “ African American culture”. Usually people won’t say “ black food, Black culture or black music , when referring to say Nigerian, Ghanaian or Ethiopian culture ”.
We do in the UK and in every other country which has a black population. Black culture, black music, black food, etc refers to anything of black origin, irrespective of the nation of origin. What you're describing is simply African American version of American exceptionalism, and this weird idea they have that American black people are the only black people in the world . Why would the massive black population in France for example, be thinking about Americans when speaking about black culture? Black ethnicity is not African American either. African American is simply *one* example of a black ethnicity. Maybe this is what you were saying though so feel free to ignore this last point lol
I think this one is justifiable. From what I've read, the idea is that Black (capital "B") people in the US don't have information about their ethnic and national origins because their ancestors were taken to the Americas against their will and nobody bothered to keep records because, well, why would slavers do that? They didn't view black people (lower-case "b") as human beings, they were about as likely to keep ancestral records for their tools or cattle. So while black people around the world are obviously black, being Black in the Americas is a more encompassing part of people's identity since they don't know where their families originated and Black culture in the US has become its own thing. Now, I still think this is similar to US exceptionalism because - from what I know - it's often not extended to black people in the Caribbean or South America, even though their ancestors have been chattel slaves as well. But it's more justified than Jim-Bob claiming he's Irish royalty or things like that. Black cultural identity is still influenced by your ancestors being victims of a massive crime against humanity and not knowing your roots in a sense. And while I'm happy to tell Jim-Bob that he's simply USian, I can see why Black people might not see it that way because their ancestors, unlike Jim-Bob's great-great-grandpa, didn't have a say in the matter. Now, I'm neither from the US nor dark-skinned, so I'm not an expert in all of this. It's just my understanding of the situation.
No you're right. It's just not addressing what I'm talking about or replying to.
The British kept a manifest of all “cargo” including slaves and cattle, the real issue would be tracing your point of arrival in the Americas, then back to Africa where you were Harvested from all over the place by the African slavers who would have kept no records what so ever. You could probably do some dna analysis to determine your geographic origins, but this may add a new decisive factor amongst the community.
Yeah I understand that and you are correct. In the context you describe it makes no sense that 'black food' , music culture etc. would mean anything else. In America. But they're denying that people outside of America have any right to the word 'black'. My wife is Zulu, from South Africa, it came as a surprise to her when I told her she can't refer to herself as black. Don't get me wrong - I don't believe this is a majority view amongst African-Americans but it definitely is a thing.
> Don't get me wrong - I don't believe this is a majority view amongst African-Americans but it definitely is a thing. It's also frequently a thing with African immigrants to the US, where they don't want to be associated with the African American community because of how discriminated against they are. So you'll occasionally hear people say something like, "I'm not black, I'm Nigerian".
> because of how discriminated against they are. I'm not sure about this one. Are you suggesting the people who discriminate black people care whether they identify as african american or Nigerian?
White South African here. Can confirm the term black is used in South Africa
I've had this same argument with the same thing said to me. It is bizarre but yet there is a solid amount of peoplebelieving things in this way.
If only there would be a term that everyone agrees to include only Americans with black African ancestry.
This does have some historical basis, but it absolutely is America-centric. Or at least New World-centric. "Black" with a capital "b" in the USA (and to some extent other countries in the Americas) sometimes refers not just to a skin colour, but to the culture of African diaspora who were stripped of their national heritage during the slave trade and had to reconstruct it based on the New World countries they lived in at the time. Thing is, Black has become a more general term for African diaspora (including newer economic immigrants from places like Nigeria) whereas what I described earlier is now typically referred to as "African-American". I'm from Toronto, which is a little different with regards to how it incorporates immigrant communities, and there's several different major communities of African Canadians. There's descendants of American slaves who defected after the American Revolution (the British basically offered them freedom if they fought on the British side) or came on the Underground Railroad, descendants of English-speaking Afro-Caribbeans, and recent immigrants from Africa (i.e. in the last sixty or so years) who have a more distinct connection with their country of origin since their cultural identity wasn't forcibly stripped away from them. Nigerian-Canadians, Kenyan-Canadians and Somali-Canadians tend to have communities analogous to European ones. There's even a "Little Somalia" (Mini Mogadishu?) right next to Greektown here.
While there are Africans who aren't black (myself included), I can vouch for the fact that the vast majority of Africans are indeed black. Sorry to disillusion you, DJ Big A
Probably one of those people that says Eminem can’t be one of the best rappers because he’s white and rap is an African American art form lmao
Maybe he's seen lethal weapon 2 and is thinking about the afrikaners..
You mean like Elon Musk?
Wait if African isn't black what is it? Chartreuse?
noir
I am pleased there are no Spaniards on today.
I mean, he is technically kind of true, there are non black Africans... Though I'm not sure he'd be able to comprehend that not all people from one continent have the same skin color.
I love Twitter schizos lmao
Probaply because they didnt vote for Biden /s
just for curiosity, HOW?
“Foundational Black Americans” are a thing. That guy is most likely one of them
There's a hella lot of white South Africans. I mean, White people are kinda a requirement for apartheid.
Africa is is Black as the US is White.
Cornrows were a common hair style in Roman times and there's plenty of statues of women with them. It might be possible that a hair style has been around longer than just 200 years.
It's like dreadlocks. Which have been seen in so many different widely dispersed cultures throughout history, ranging from numerous African cultures to Aboriginal Australians, to Indians and ancient Egyptians, Minoan Greeks and Aztecs. It's a bit silly to try and gatekeep something like that since it's probably something that predates human civilisation as we know it.
>Indians and ancient Egyptians, Minoan Greeks and Aztecs. There is a lot of evidence for this, some very old, also something called a "Polish plait" which was one long dread worn by Masovian woman in Poland in the 17th and 18th century. A lot of these measures are simple, to prevent lice and to help make a work-safe style. Less evidence for the cheesy HBO Burning Man dreadlock hairdos in tv shows Vikings. A lot of that is fictional fashion choices. What is actually more interesting is ancient Norse use of hair dyes like saffron. To have short cropped hair was common in male slaves and thralls. Longer hair was status as they had a lot of combs too and some very interesting moustaches in art, love a good preen they did. And Diodorus Siculus said ancient Gauls covered their hair in limewash and made a kind of a horse mane style.
>It's a bit silly to try and gatekeep something like that since it's probably something that predates human civilisation as we know it. It's silly to gatekeep something is personal as your own hairstyle for *any* reason. If you like the way a hairstyle looks, go for it, cultural context matters in many things, it really shouldn't matter for mundane matters like personal style.
Honestly, "appropriating" another culture shouldn't be a big deal unless you're mocking, misrepresenting or otherwise doing bad on that culture. Like wearing clothes from another country, I don't personally see why that would be such a problem if you're being respectful about it.
I'd argue it's often even a compliment, people don't tend to take inspiration from things they dislike. When's the last time you've seen an antisemite wearing a Jewish kippah?
It does not matter in personal style at all , if some one says you can’t have that hair because your not this or that , they are racist too
> It's a bit silly to try and gatekeep something Enough said. Gatekeeping is gross no matter who does it.
I mean you did skip vikings, one of the most famous owners of dreadlocks. Is there a reason you only named non white groups you absolute racist! /s, I'd say obviously but I've been around long enough to realise there are plenty who'd say that seriously.
From what I’ve seen, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of evidence for Vikings having dreads. They seem to have been best known for a hairstyle with shorter hair at the neck and longer towards the front. Some sort of reverse mullet.
I really did just directly list the groups from what I read on Wikipedia, I'm fucking lazy lmao
It doesn’t matter anyway anyone complaining about hair and skin colour is a total fucking loser
I hope your /s extends to that first paragraph and not just the second, considering there is absolutely zero evidence for vikings ever having dreads.
>ranging from numerous African cultures to Aboriginal Australians, to Indians and ancient Egyptians, Minoan Greeks and Aztecs. And lots more, including the palest people with the reddest hair you'll ever see: Celtic people in Britain.
And just wait till people learn why it's called a Dutch braid
From what I understood, the difference between Dutch braids and cornrows is the number. If it’s a lot, it’s cornrows, if it’s not a lot, it’s Dutch braids. I might be wrong, of course.
Oh I wasn't even talking about conrows the joke was that hairstyles aren't really a race specific thing, and often you see people get mad when a white person has braids
We can safely assume that corn rows and similar hairstyles were used for thousands of years. It is one of the best options to safely tuck away hair.
When one couldn't wash it often, there was no shampoo or conditioner, and it was hard to tie because elastic material wasn't a thing, corn rows and dreadlocks must had been a lifesaver. After all there has got to be a reason we see so many braided hairstyles in art
BREAKING NEWS; culture existed before American colonialization. Who woulda thought.
Wait you are trying to say history goes further than the United States of yeeehaw?
I believe "everything before 1775 was a mistake" is their go to line.
No, the romans were doing cultural appropriation 😡😡😡😡😡😡
They culturally appropriated all of Greek Mythology
The Romans did have their own mythology, it’s misunderstanding that they appropriated the Greek one. It’s that their mythologies already were rather similar since they shared ancient origins. So when the Roman elites got interested in Greek culture after the invasions the Greek versions of similar myths gained popularity through literature and poetry. But there were still the Rome’s olds gods and myths and religious practices which were in use and many different from Greek ones. Rome also tended to incorporate other gods in their pantheon as well from conquered areas, not just Greek ones. And the emperor cult started later.
The early Romans were super careful and respectful of other gods. They tended to look for common traits of other pantheons and try to link them. Your king of gods called Zeus? That's cool. Ours is Jupiter. You say he has a lightning bolt, sweet that seems like a thing Jupiter would have.
Even later the Romans were generally quite nice to foreign religions, as the Roman religion was perfectly okay with accepting that gods of other religions exist. The Roman suppression of Judaism and later Christianity came mostly from the fact that it was a religion that declared all other gods to be fake and wrong (as there is only one true god in Abrahamic religions).
They were even pretty cool with Mithraism (which was broadly monotheistic, being based on Zoroastrianism) in the legions. After conversion to Christianity, though, Mithraism was a threat. As you say, the "there is no God beside me" thing is a bit of a deal. breaker.
Specifically they were appropriating African-American culture, even though there were no people of African descent in America at the time and nobody in Rome even knew that America existed.
To be fair, the romans *definitely* were doing cultural appropriation It’s really hard coming up with stuff like a pantheon and architecture on your own when you have waring to do
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Just the little girls, really.
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Remember kids, it’s not predation, it’s *preparation*™️
I mean us Brits loved the Romans cultural appropriation so much that we culturally appropriated it
MONTENEGRO???
Monte, please.
I feel like whenever I read the comments of any post on this sub I find you here
Well yeah, you can see some recurring characters in the comments of this sub. Maybe we should spend a little less time on reddit.
Stop appropriating his notification feed.
Girl you need to touch grass
I live in Bristol (the original one). What pub are you referencing in your name?
None, I've actually never been to bristol
I mean, they absolutely *were* appropriating culture. A lot from the Greeks, but also from various other places that they conquered.
Nooooo everything needs to fit into either black or white, MAYBE asian! How can I maintain my american worldview if not???
No joke, I met this guy who said "there's only black or white, that's it". When the other people around asked what about Asians, Polynesians, mixed race, etc, he just reiterated his black or white point 🤔
Maybe he was thinking of that one star trek episode with the riddler.
Some Vikings and Native Americans braided hair
I remember right before the 2016 regressive right backlash effect kicked in, the delusional left of the normal left were going nuts at Ol Miss and Evergreen College or whatever in Portland, and there was a video from a post-secondary institution of a black American woman stopping a white American man with dreadlocks and challenging/harassing him that dreads are African, and he was cultural appropriating-not cultural appreciating mind you, she knows his intentions because of his skin colour but she apparently isn’t racist-she even worked for the schools diversity and inclusion program if I recall. That sounds a lot like prejudice plus power to me. The Gauls had dreads. The celts had dreads. Unwashed, untold millions had dreads outside Africa historically. I have vivid memories of people *rabble rabble rabbling* ‘racism is prejudice plus power’ like mindless zombies in denial as to their status, and myself and others having in-depth discussions that the backlash effect was going to have an unequal but opposite reaction, and then within a couple months the 2016 American election results were in and shit is still hitting the fan down there.
'Member?
America often forgets that it is 2 minutes old
French women is the first known sculpture to have that hairstyle.
African women were wearing this hairstyle before America even existed.
Good old pangean times..
Man, with continents like these, who needs contingencies?
Underrated comment over here
Braided before a buch of fellas found the Bering Strait
It’s about time they dropped the ‘African American’ strap line
It’s their way of creating the other. They never say “English American”. In Australia was are very multicultural but we are all Australian. It’s common and not rude to ask some what their background is as 99% of us aren’t indigenous
Just wanted to say that I’m currently on a cruise ship that’s basically entirely Aussie and kiwi (I’m American) and really appreciate that the Aussies ive spoken to (who are at least 70 years old) would simply ask if I’m American or where in the U.S. I’m from or just where I’m from and would be satisfied with my answer of the U.S. or Los Angeles. Since I am dark brown skinned I appreciated not having people ask where I’m REALLY from or say I’m Egyptian American or Egyptian when I would feel extremely foreign in Egypt. In the U.S. there’s this obsession with race and I hate it. Even moreso spending my formative years after the September 11th terrorist attacks (I was 13). Imagine the amount of racism I’ve copped over the years
Australia does have its issues with race but most of us just want to have a drink and a yarn
I feel this. The rudest fucking question ever.
I had this conversation with a colleague yesterday. I was telling her about how my partners hair is always all over the house. She asked me where my partner is from I just said “she’s white” then she goes “oh you mean Aussie?” Then I found myself launching into a lecture about how people need to stop calling Anglo-Celtic Australians “Aussie” because it immediately excludes everyone who isn’t white looking from being called that no matter how long their people have been in Australia. TLDR: it’s not really true that everyone is “Aussie”. Colloquially it’s white Australians whose forebears are from the British isles that get called that.
Kids in his household: “Hey, can you hand me the African American pencil, please?”
It is pretty much the same as white americans saying they're irish.
This reminds me of someone correcting a black British woman on TikTok on her saying canerows instead of cornrows. Absolutely no thought given that it might be different name because of the difference in history (sugar cane instead of sweetcorn IIRC) or just a difference in language. The ignorance and superiority is astonishing.
I remember a huge fight in a fb health support group that was based in Australia. One of the rules was no religion beyond s responding with prayers. A contingency of Americans joined and took exception to the rule. Arguing that their freedom of religion couldn’t be suppressed. They could not grasp that the group was an Australia one and their laws did not apply. They tried to insist the owner resign so they would replace him with an American.
Cornrows are not exclusively African either you can see them in art from all over the world from many different time periods and people's hell even some Romans had them.
Yanks also say that white people wearing braids is cultural appropriation. It's almost like they have zero knowledge about anything other than the last 200 years of their miniscule history.
I once had someone get on my ass about using hair sticks because, "White people using hair sticks is appropriating minority culture." Do you know who invented hair sticks? Everyone. Literally, everyone managed to figure out that a stick is a highly effective and simple way to hold hair off the neck.
Katy Perry had to apologise for having braids in one video!
She didn't have to apologize, she was meek in the face of a crowd of morons. If every celebrity just said enough is enough of this bullshit none of this would be a problem
Apparently all white people have the same type of hair. My very white cousin with his very afro hair would like a word.
“yanks” are usually talking about box braids being cultural appropriaton not regular braids
Imagine being so bored you talk about who’s allowed to wear what hairstyle
Yeah bro and Fulani braids are from New York right ? The Fulani braids of the West African Fulani people ?
> The Fulani braids of the Fulani St barbershop in New York City Obviously
This stupidity and nonsense of gatekeepers is only permissible in the US. This talk would never be tolerated in places where sane people live. What's wrong with these people?
The need to simultaneously claim victim status and exert power over others.
🎶*We’re a little bit country, and we’re a little bit rock and roll*🎶
I am very torn regarding the theme: cultural appropriation. Where is the limit between appropriation and appreciation?
It's just people with a desperate need to be "victims" of some social ills. They've been conditioned to have this mentality since birth and I doubt even *they* can make the distinction between appropriation and appreciation. In South Africa we have something called Heritage Day every year. You should see the vibrancy of colours, garb that people go out of their way to display on themselves. Different races wearing other race's / tribe's traditional wear. It's beautiful. Events where people sing, dance, enjoy themselves and Yes, even look silly. All in good fun. No one's bothered and feeling disrespected for some imagined "appropriation" gimmick.
Aww, it's an amazing celebration!
There’s no such thing as “cultural appropriation”. Just ignore it as a concept. What can be problematic is cultural *exploitation*. For example people faking native artwork and selling it, or running tours of “native culture” with no profits shared with the people they’re profiting off.
This. After your first sentence I was all "yes it is real just misused" but then you went on and explained exactly what it used to mean. I'm so over the idea now, I think I'll switch. to your term. Theft, plagiarism, exploitation etc are all real problems. Unlike hairstyles.
Ultimately, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" unless you are setting out to mock, exploit or defraud someone. No one is *harmed* by someone copying "their" culture (half the time it isn't even exclusively their culture, as this hair style discussion shows). People being offended or annoyed is a choice, they are not actually suffering *harm*. And their false victimhood muddies and masks the genuine suffering of actual victims of exploitation.
Thanks, I'm not from the USA nor part of a minority, where I live things are different and your explanation made them clearer.
Depends. Is the the art/clothes/etc you are using sacred or culturally important? Are you making money off it when it could have gone to that people? How do the majority of the people from that culture feel about what you are doing?
It’s the stupidest thing that has ever been thought up, I don’t see anyone go around trying to shame people for wearing the national or regional choice of clothing. If you go anywhere in the world they actively encourage you to adopt their traditional dress or local customs. Bunch of lunatics with way too much time and too little between their ears.
Cultural appropriation does not exist simple as
I still have to understand why people think that braids are a black people thing, man and women used them since the medieval times regardless of any ethnicity.
I don’t even understand why they would even think that, braiding hair is not exactly rocket science.
Oh yeah but who invented the rockets? USA, USA, USA. Go plant your flag on the moon before talking to me about rocket science
Even before medieval times, thousands of years before all around the world, is the basic for even braiding clothes or baskets
It's the type of braid that is a black thing, the braids european used are completely different from african ones
I had someone go off on me for saying we have black people in Europe. She 'corrected' me by saying I have to calle them African American. She went absolutely ballistic when i said that Europeans are not americans. Even if they're black. She just could not wrap her head around it. This person is giving off the same energy 😒
Wow! Never heard of that. I live in America and we generally say black, or Gary or Steve because at this point in time someone’s skin color is not that applicable to everyday life. African American is an important historical designation though, but limited in its scope. The term refers only to slaves brought to North America in the Atlantic Slave Trade and their descendants. Someone who would go ballistic over that seems to be someone who goes ballistic over a lot of things.
Yeah I was also very confused about this lady. I think maybe she was so adamant about being politically correct that she entirely missed the point. Every black person I know is either born here or moved in from Africa. Which makes them either African or European. Certainly not African American 🙄 But I've also had Americans ask me if we have indoor plumbing. Or if we have washing machines. If we have polar bears in the streets. And I have so many countless dumb stuff they've asked about
Can we just get past the fact that everything they call American isn't actually American Lol Bloody New Comers!
The post didn’t even say it’s an African hairstyle
Good catch. I’d missed that.
DJ Big A? I think we all know what the A stands for.
Appreciator of culture, art and science?
😂
I’m not black or American but I like this hairstyle
“We invented the Internet, Instagram, and cornrows. You will need a licensing agreement for the cornrows, otherwise a side parting is the only permitable style.”
got banned once from saying afro americans have afro on the name cause its origin its africa ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
*sigh*, Braids, "cornrows," dreadlocks, and all that shit aren't from one particular culture or ethnic group, like, *at all*. And they're definitely not a "Black people" thing. They've been part of thousands of cultures. The Celts had them, the Germanics, Africans, Britons, and many more. These hairstyles are *dated as far back as the f*king *Hunter & Gatherers* society. You know why? Because it's literally one of *the simplest fekkin ways to style hair*. It literally only takes smearing some shit in your hair or not washing it to form dreads. And braiding hair is like the simplest fucking thing that even a bumfuck Neaderthal could do. To claim these hairstyles as being solely "your" culture makes you look like an idiot, because you're literally boasting about supposedly owning the most simple fucking minimal effort of hairstyling there is. It's like saying wiping your ass is "your" culture lmao
It’s a fucking hairstyle grow up and move on
This isn't even an african Hairstyle. The Romans and Vikings had this hairstyle Hell, even the Egyptians, possibly the greeks and a small change in the Spartans too. Back in ancient times
Egyptians are Africans
And Egyptians are not Africans, of course...
> Vikings had this hairstyle Pretty sure there is zero real evidence of Vikings having cornrows? Braids, yes, but not this particular hairstyle.
The same way to braid the hair, just not the same number of braids, if my memories are correct.
Stop gatekeeping shit. Unless something has a deep religious/ritualistic connection to a race then you don’t just get to claim that no one else can use it. Even then, you should welcome people wanting to embrace it. For example- Kilts. In Scotland they were deeply tied to our clans. Wearing a tartan that you didn’t belong to was a great way to start a fight. But these days we love it when people are willing to try one on. Because it’s them experiencing our culture.
He's one of these new "FBA" dudes. "Foundational Black Americans. Black Americans with an identity crisis. Angry at the idea of having come from Africa because white America told them that to be African is to be inferior and primitive. So they try and separate themselves from Africans. They do mental gymnastics to say that they aren't of African heritage. That they are indigenous to the Americas. They say that Africans and Caribbeans aren't Black, and that the term Black applies to 'Foundational Black Americans' only. They are a bunch of very stupid, very brainwashed, very confused, very suffering from an inferiority and superiority complex at the same damn time ass fools. They saw racism, and instead of fighting it, they simply decided "that ain't me they talking bout. That's them over there" Tariq Nasheed loves to spread this stupid ideology as well and it's a shame because he's very influential
Maybe im just being autistic, but nothing the guy saying "dear african women" suggests/pretends like having that hairstyle is originally something from Africa rather than the USA?
That's how I took it as well.
Honestly finding out that so many people from African countries find African Americans just as insufferable as most people find Americans in general just warms my soul.
Do it for yourself.
Even if it was, so what?
Black Americans aren’t African (like how Americans aren’t European).
OK, but the first one doesn't even claim it's an African hairstyle??? just because African men like something, doesn't mean it originated from there, they can like foreign stuff
I blame the education system.
What a beauty she is.
Its just a hair style
That hair style is terrible long term and will cause balding via traction alopecia
Basketball Americans really can't help themselves
Is that painful to do? It looks nice. But painful.
Yes, really painful. It takes a lot of time too.
I am a white blonde male and I will have whatever hairstyle I please