tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post1305552111155704112..comments2024-03-06T08:29:13.333-08:00Comments on stuff white people do: homogenize people from over fifty different countries into one group: "africans"macon dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07795547197817128339noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-46386586508081020692010-02-12T12:07:31.617-08:002010-02-12T12:07:31.617-08:00Hi fromthetropics!
First off, I have to say how m...Hi fromthetropics!<br /><br />First off, I have to say how much I enjoy reading your posts! I relate a lot to your experiences, esp. since moving to Minnesota (a northern US state that exalts Scandinavian/Irish/German cultures ... I've heard, more than once, Italians, Spaniards and Greeks referred to as "not white." Even the French are suspect (wish I was kidding)). When I first moved here, I was stunned by the overtly racist, anti-POC comments many white Minnesotans felt no qualms about sharing with me. This site is really helping me making sense of a number of painful experiences. Much of what you've written reflects a lot of my experiences, even though we live in different parts of the world, and we are ethnically different. Maybe there's quite a bit of commonality in being a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_culture_kid" rel="nofollow">Third Culture Kid </a><br /><br />I'm def. familiar with white Zimbabweans/South Africans, who, in my experience, do identify themselves as white South Africans or white Zimbabweans (or, more perjoratively, "Rhodies," as in Rhodesians). I worked in Zimbabwe for a short while and I noticed the emphasis on "white" had nothing to do with recognition of, say, Shona or Zulu people as the original owners of the lands now known as Zimbabwe and South Africa, respectively. Rather, it stemmed more from a desire to elevate themselves above those "savages." (And, yes, they did verbalize those beliefs to me - to which I had to wonder, <i> You know I'm black, right? </i> lol...I guess not being a black person from those countries made me "safe" to share such racist comments with. But I digress.) <br /><br />I understand your point re: white S. Africans, etc. being the more common groups and wanting to distinguish who's who. But I never qualify African (or Kenyan, etc.) with black, and even the Americans* who think Africa = country assume that I'm referring to blacks. Maybe it's due to the relatively high East African (Kenyan, Ethiopian and Somali) population in the Minnesota.<br /><br />______________<br />*I don't mean to imply I think all Americans are this way.TABnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-64825062858194499272010-02-12T09:57:56.297-08:002010-02-12T09:57:56.297-08:00Ooops! Meant to say:
And just because there are ...Ooops! Meant to say:<br /><br /><i> And just because there are Africans (irrelevant of nationality) who use the term <b> doesn't </b> make it right: </i><br /><br />Unfortunate place to have a typo. :o)TABnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-72429044539176579512010-02-12T09:57:28.334-08:002010-02-12T09:57:28.334-08:00@TAB - Hahahaha. Nice timing. Thanks for pointing ...@TAB - Hahahaha. Nice timing. Thanks for pointing out about the term "black African" because I was guilty of using the term just today (in the presence of a predominantly white group). I wonder why I say it. I suppose somewhere in the back of my mind I worry people might picture a white African (because many white Australians in my city seem to have white African friends (e.g. white Zimbabweans, white South Africans) when they do have African friends)...which, as you point out, makes little sense.fromthetropicsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-8248261004648307232010-02-12T09:25:17.420-08:002010-02-12T09:25:17.420-08:00One more thing:
I hate the term "black Afric...One more thing:<br /><br />I hate the term "black African." I understand the US qualifier (black American, etc.) but to apply that to a predominantly black continent is absurd. It's as if we can't even claim our own continent: to call us "black" Africans, as if the norm is <i> not </i> black, linguistically displaces us from our own land.<br /><br />Why aren't non-black citizens referred to that way instead? For example, why is a North African (or, Morroccan, Libyan, Algerian, etc.) just North African (or Egyptian, Tunisian, etc.)? Why aren't the non-blacks referred to as Arab (or white? brown?)Algerians/Tunisians/etc.? It's as if non-blacks = the norm (just like in the US white is treated as the American norm, therefore whites are referred to as just "Americans," as opposed to "white Americans"), but blacks = exception.<br /><br />Compare to "Sub"-Saharan (love the "sub" ... sub-human, sub-standard....) "black" Africa, where we must be distinguished as such, lest the reader/listener mistake "African" (Kenyan/Nigerian/Somali/etc.*) for something else. There's something sinister about the "distinction" (and I think it has something to do with the mischaracterization of ancient Egypt as a non-black civilization because, well, blacks can't be civilized (see "tribes" in previous post), and there can't be any other great civilizations anywhere else on the continent. BTW, Arabs invaded Egypt = 7th century AD, long after what's now known as ancient Egypt disappeared.) This is not much ado about nothing. Why we are not given the courtesy of acknowledgement that we are the indigenous, predominant possessors of our own lands definitely bears examination. <br /><br />I hope I'm making sense. IOW, why isn't Europe (or any other continent) labelled this way? Not everybody who lives in Europe is white (and hasn't been for MANY centuries), so why isn't there an appellation "white" European? You know, to distinguish them from the non-white Europeans? Now, if it's because the majority of Europeans are white, then why not give Africa the same treatment? (Yes, not everybody in Africa is black but guess what? The overwhelming majority are! Even in north African countries (where people who look like me call themselves Arab and when I was in Morrocco and France, I kept being mistaken, by Morroccans, for being one of them - go figure; in the US, I am black)). I do not see this distinction applied to any of the other continents, either.<br /><br />I find the singular distinction revolting and racist. And just because there are Africans (irrelevant of nationality) who use the term does make it right: I know plenty of blacks Stateside who often use the "n-word," so does that justify its use? Or is the word inherently offensive, not only due to its history but because of the implicit dehumanizing, "otherizing" component of the word? Same ethnicity use is not proof of acceptability.<br />/rant<br />____________________<br />*BTW, I only ever refer to myself as "Kenyan" when interacting with people who aren't; otherwise, I identify by my father's ethnic group. That's because the ethnic groups in Kenya are distinct: physical appearance, language, culture, etc. Identifying as Kenyan is just another level of homogenization but one that's understandable.TABnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-15570754796969217952010-02-12T08:29:03.400-08:002010-02-12T08:29:03.400-08:00Thank you for this post. I know I am waaaay late i...Thank you for this post. I know I am waaaay late in posting but I would also like to share my experience. As someone who is Kenyan (w/one US parent), I'm well-acquainted with the trivialization of the entire African continent (e.g., "Can you do African dance?" ...cuz there's only one dontcha know and we black folks are soooo good at dancing...and singing! or, "Can you speak African?" or "Kenyanian?" (at least she got points for originality, lol)).<br /><br />The parentheses address a pet peeve: referring to distinct African languages as "dialects." NO. Are French and Spanish Latin dialects? Dholuo (Luo) and Gikuyu (Kikuyu) are two, distinct languages, NOT dialects, spoken in Kenya; they have separate linguistic roots (Nilotic vs. Bantu). It's as if there's one African language and we all speak a "dialect" of it, similar to a Southern dialect of American English. *headdesk* There are hundreds of distinct African languages. Africa's the 2nd largest continent but it's viewed by many as a city/country where everyone's identical.<br /><br />People tell me I can't be Kenyan (why would I lie? Is there a high social status conferred upon Kenyans in the US that I don't know about? *snort*) b/c I don't fit their uninformed stereotype about what an immigrant, and especially an "African," should sound/look/act like. Since I don't look like Alek Wek, people here want to know if my mother's white. We don't all have the same skin color, hair texture, nose/lip sizes and body types. There are many people in the east African nations who don't look like Alek Wek but more like Iman.<br /><br />Another thing I've noticed is the derogatory characterization of all Africans as "tribal." Tribal = primitive. I see this also occurs with "Indian tribes." Why is this applied to these groups but not, say, Europeans? In France and Germany, what passed as "regional pride," seemed very "tribalistic" to me...yet.... <br /><br />Another thing: referring to an African nation like it's a city in a country: Kenya, Africa. What other continent is referred to that way? It reinforces the idea that Africa is a country. Oprah's not helping (I know she's not white, which is the subject of this post, but she routinely refers to Africa as a country or applies her experience with one city in South Africa to the rest of the continent, e.g., she said she would won't eat meat in Africa (I ate meat all the time in "Africa," and was extremely healthy); I bring her up b/c she's an icon for many white US women I know, who then feel justified to spew the same ignorance, and to "correct" POC who actually know what they're talking about.) <br /><br />In the same vein, I love when white Americans correct my pronunciation of "Kenya." And it's only whites and always the ones who've never been anywhere on the continent, let alone *my* country. Apparently, I'm not intelligent enough to know how to pronounce the name of my own country.<br /><br />Thanks for bearing through this extra-long post.<br /><br />ps - whoever said American/US culture comes from Europe: thanks for erasing all the contributions made by POC. Gotta love coopting cultures without attribution. POCs have been here the whole time, including before the US was a country. That's why I agreed w/the poster on the white history month thread who said we don't need, e.g., black history month, latino history month, etc., but to have these, and other POCs, integrated into the schools' core curriculum.TABnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-87579471276798459002009-11-18T01:29:46.800-08:002009-11-18T01:29:46.800-08:00Great post, and I loved Chimamanda Adichie's l...Great post, and I loved Chimamanda Adichie's lecture. <br /><br />To be fair, though, this is not just an american problem. Two weeks ago, brazilian author Felipe Costa wrote an article pointing that the same happens here in Brazil. Not only the media homogenizes Africa, but it does that to the poorer regions of Brazil (North and Northeast). He calls it "the lazy geography syndrome":<br /><br />"The (economically) poorer or (politically) weaker a country (or region), the more its boundaries must be widened so that we, news readers, are able to detect said country (or region) in our lazy mind radar".<br />(In Portuguese: http://www.observatoriodaimprensa.com.br/artigos.asp?cod=562FDS001)<br /><br />And yes, that applies to how brazilian people see Africa, too. Actually, to how we see the rest of Latin America.<br /><br />Personal note: I remember when I was 9 years old, playing a Risk-like board game, and I was overwhelmed by tha fact that Egypt was in Africa. That didn't fit in my mind frame, since for me Africa was equal to lions in the savannah, and Egypt meant pharaohs (who were supposed to be white like Elizabeth Taylor and Yul Brinner).Marcos Fariahttp://www.almanaque.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-8073683224663280092009-11-17T11:42:36.175-08:002009-11-17T11:42:36.175-08:00While Americans certainly are the worst with Afric...While Americans certainly are the worst with Africa and not recognizing the individual nations... Brazil gets it pretty bad too. How many times have you heard people ask Brazilians to say something cute in Spanish?<br />http://heatherleila3.blogspot.com/2009/05/espanhol-e-portuges-common.htmlHeather Leilahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13976618777906647641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-49248889644347594512009-11-07T11:27:30.659-08:002009-11-07T11:27:30.659-08:00Here's where the problem originates, in my opi...Here's where the problem originates, in my opinion. In places like Asia, or Europe, nations are generally associated with a definitive culture, (e.g France contains French people), with some exceptions (i.e Belgium). In Africa, because of the extreme artificiality of the national borders, this nationality-ethnicity tie is less prevalent. For example, in Nigeria, there are over 250 distinct ethnic groups, none of which are blatantly Nigerian. People should be educated about the ethnic groups of Africa, but they're not. And because there is no cultural marker for Nigerian, other than being born in Nigeria, people don't know how to describe them.Sidney Helferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11317717315074908085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-46192602898562416332009-11-07T08:35:47.796-08:002009-11-07T08:35:47.796-08:00I wonder how much the recognition that the contine...I wonder how much the recognition that the continent was carved up along European-colonist borders as opposed to cultural ones factors in. There are plenty of ethnic groups that cross political boundaries, so the political borders might not be meaningful ways to divide people.<br /><br />When I was born, the part of Europe my family's from was "The USSR." My grandmother gets pretty upset if you call her Russian though. "We're not Russian! We're Rusyn!" Rusyn? That's not a country. Rusyn sort of means you're from the mountainous parts of Eastern Europe.Mackenziehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03695808411116664337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-14670173779747132622009-11-04T18:41:57.452-08:002009-11-04T18:41:57.452-08:00and this is why I'm beginning to not like the ...and this is why I'm beginning to not like the label: African-American. My history and culture spans more than two continents. I have yet to explore any nation on the continent (I plan to in the very near future though). My experience has no borders. Some people will, with no malice or ill will intended, ask me what tribe I come from. I'm beginning to want to shoot back with "you tell me", but I don't. I'm in no way denying my "African" ancestry, but don't lump me nor other "African-Americans" into some group. I'm simply American, more specifically Virginian and fearfully and wonderfully made : HUMAN.thundernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-56522508824788762472009-11-04T03:59:31.253-08:002009-11-04T03:59:31.253-08:00White folks lump Africa into one big, homogeneous ...White folks lump Africa into one big, homogeneous whole because to them, Africa is nothing but the home of the ni**ers, just one, big giant darkieland. It's the whole "Well you've seen one, you've seen them all" and "all Black people look alike" monolithic, negative, destructive view of Black people shared the world over.Witchsistahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01603586060096649666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-78260100030800146102009-11-03T10:57:29.626-08:002009-11-03T10:57:29.626-08:00Elsariel said...
I think it really boils down to ...Elsariel said... <br />I think it really boils down to a lack of education regarding non-European countries. A one semester geography class in high school doesn't really cut it. There really needs to be more emphasis paid towards world studies in the US education system.<br /><br />I agree 100% with this statement. When I meet people from non-European countries, they're surprised that I know where it is--as there is a stereotype that Americans are geography illiterate.<br /><br />I have a friend from Nigeria and she says she can't count how many times people have said to her, "You mean they have running water over there?" When she tells them that yes, we have cities, too! she just receives surprised looks from people.Starving Writerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13021868010368078441noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-3690734870155165032009-11-03T09:33:22.032-08:002009-11-03T09:33:22.032-08:00What an absolutely brilliant talk. So many ideas ...What an absolutely brilliant talk. So many ideas to chew on! Thanks for posting it.<br /><br />First of all, this reminds me of the time when my grandmother told me that in Africa, the people pretend to listen to the missionaries, but when the missionaries turn their backs, they go right back to their tribal religions. That was her single story of Africa. It was as if she didn't realize that there are modern cities in Africa, that not everybody lives in a tribe, and that Christianity actually has quite a strong presence there.<br /><br />Secondly, Cloudy is absolutely correct when (he? she?) says "The point you seem to be missing is that this is wrong <i>when the person doing it does so because they believe it all to be one and the same</i>."<br /><br />In other words, when we do it ("homogenize" people) because we have a single story of a place. Sometimes we do talk about "Europeans," but not because we have a single story of Europe. A lot of people do have single stories of specific European countries ("Oh you're French, you must know all about wine"), but not of the continent as a whole. The same goes for Asia. Japan has tentacle porn and China has an oppressive government. Those are single stories, but on a continental level, we know that Asia has multiple stories and so we don't "homogenize" it the same way we do with Africa.<br /><br />Sara said: "The more Americans paint a picture of "poor tribal Africa," the less they/we are forced to recognize the full atrocity of slavery."<br /><br />Sara and Miriam were, incredibly, the only two people in this entire thread to make a connection between American racism against black Americans and our single story of Africa. And I don't think the connection they made is particularly accurate. People - complete assholes - sometimes do say that black Americans are lucky to have been taken out of Africa.<br /><br />More importantly, I think a major feature of racism against black people in America (I can't really speak for other countries) is that we apply our single story of Africa to them too. The single story of catastrophe and incomprehensibility - it's the story not just of Africans, but of <i>black people</i>. The idea that black people in the US have benefited from slavery fits in perfectly with the idea that those devil-child Africans need to be saved by kind, white foreigners. Just think of all those white-teacher-with-disadvantaged-black-students movies. And think about how we associate black Americans with welfare and black Africans with international aid efforts. And there's so much more - gang/tribal violence, poverty, oppression, etc. are all part of our concept of black people the world over.<br /><br />We have a single story of blackness. It's not entirely the same thing as our single story of Africa, but it's very closely related.<br /><br />I wonder if our ideas about black Americans might change if we knew more about Africa - if we truly understood that black people can do things like build entire cities and write literature and make movies and so on - that they have civilizations of their own.bluey512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-35065523756632112232009-11-03T06:47:55.310-08:002009-11-03T06:47:55.310-08:00And just a reminder to anyone who thinks this is u...And just a reminder to anyone who thinks this is unique to Americans, the European view of Africa is no better: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/jul/25/savingafricainblackfaceJillianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792137126898623243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-77224545005537042142009-11-03T04:12:31.040-08:002009-11-03T04:12:31.040-08:00@Shaunee
Thanks, just ordered that book ('Mis...@Shaunee<br /><br />Thanks, just ordered that book ('Mistaking Africa') on Amazon, can't wait to read it.<br /><br />@Miss Lynx<br /><br />As someone from Nairobi, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. For a time at a previous job I had an aerial picture of Nairobi as my background (similar to this one <br />http://www.kenyaodyssey.com/images/nairobi_nairobi_top_843_1.jpg). <br /><br />People would come over<br /><br />Them: 'Where is that?'<br /> <br />Me: 'Nairobi'<br /><br />Watch co-workers head almost explode as their pre-concieved notions of Africa crashed headlong into the picture.Baiskelinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-91631526149860416232009-11-02T17:03:12.279-08:002009-11-02T17:03:12.279-08:00That was one of the biggest headdesk moments for m...<i>That was one of the biggest headdesk moments for me with the reasoning for the invasion of Iraq - when Bush said Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium... from Africa.</i><br /><br />Oh that's RIGHT! Ugh. And most of us Muricans saw no reason to call him out on that, especially the cowed corporatized media whores. Damn shame, a real, national shame, that he's not rotting in jail now for those kinds of f'ing lies.AEnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-57174090205599917942009-11-02T16:46:33.702-08:002009-11-02T16:46:33.702-08:00This was a great post and a great TED talk, thanks...This was a great post and a great TED talk, thanks Macon! I love Chimamanda Adichie, and I loved this talk.<br /><br />I've noticed this tendency for a long time. As a young child I was fascinated by Kenya and Tanzania, and devoured anything I could read about the area and Masai culture (this was a long time before the Lion King :p, but of course everything I found to read was by white people). So I developed a concept of Africa as continent and not country very early on, and noticed the lack of knowledge in others.<br /><br />That was one of the biggest headdesk moments for me with the reasoning for the invasion of Iraq - when Bush said Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium... from Africa.<br /><br />@Aan, I liked your comment, but something you said stuck out to me and I'd like to respond to it because I see it said often. <br /><br />"<i>Its almost like there's something personal going on with our knowledge about Europe.</i>" Um, there is something personal going on... your culture comes from there. The USA grew out of colonialism. <br /><br />But I wonder about this: "<i>We all know the history, culture, traditions and peoples of each European country. We know what makes them tick, what foods they like, etc.</i>" Do you really think so? How much do you know about the Hungarians? Moldovia? Lichtenstein? Croatia? Portugal? Denmark? Finland? Lithuania? Luxembourg? Iceland? Estonia?<br /><br />Americans and Australians know a lot about English, French and German culture because the three countries have been culturally tied for a thousand years and spread that culture to the USA. We know a bit about Greek and Italian culture because of migration and Classical antiquity. But there's a lot more to Europe and European cultures than that...<br /><br />My background is from one of the 'unknown' European cultures, so this is something I've thought about a lot.cinnamon girlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08547856129124479433noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-14413473427904002482009-11-02T16:14:59.409-08:002009-11-02T16:14:59.409-08:00One of my most memorable encounters with that &quo...One of my most memorable encounters with that "single story" was back in grade 8, when my geography class was divided into groups that were each assigned a city somewhere in the world, and had to write a brief assignment from the point of view of someone living in that city, about what it was like to live there. <br /><br />My group was assigned Nairobi, and I thought that was convenient, because I had a friend whose family had moved there a year earlier, and we'd kept in touch, so I knew a certain amount about Nairobi. <br /><br />Unfortunately, what I knew of it didn't mesh at all with my classmates' idea of what "Africa" was all about. They didn't believe me that it was a large city, or that it could possibly have a university in it (it has several, actually, at one of which my friend's father was a professor), or anything like that, and insisted on describing it as a village of grass huts! <br /><br />Everything I tried to tell them was countered with "But it's in <i>Africa!",</i> as it that automatically negated anything else that could be said about it. As far as they were considered, "Africa" meant one very specific thing, and that thing was tribal peoples living in grass huts, so anyone believing otherwise clearly had to be mistaken. <br /><br />Now granted, we're talking 13-year-olds here, but the scary thing is there are probably a lot of adults out there whose idea of "Africa" isn't much different than that.Miss Lynxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06629471302519416452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-75507002031181162602009-11-02T13:29:53.369-08:002009-11-02T13:29:53.369-08:00An upper class white Amerian once asked me: "...An upper class white Amerian once asked me: "Do you speak African?" I doubt that anyone would ask a Japanese person if they speak Asian. So, while Chinese, Japanese, Korean people, etc. are lumped in as Asians, I think Americans generally understand that Asia is not a country. Many on the other hand refer to Africa as a country. Considering how big and diverse the continent of Africa is this is really problematic. I think it's symptomatic of the cultural superiority Westerners feel over individuals from the African continent. They view them as small and this thinking reveals itself when they liken Africa to a country. My father's from Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa. There, you'll find members of different ethnic groups who discriminate against each other. A Yoruba may give a job to another Yoruba rather than a Hausa or a Fulani or an Ibo. If in one country, people view themselves as extremely different, it's perhaps doubly offensive to lump in Africans as one.<br />That said there are times when Americans lump in Europeans together. We refer to a "European sensibility," for example.Nadrahttp://racerelations.about.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-64696303683891588402009-11-02T12:49:06.269-08:002009-11-02T12:49:06.269-08:00I LOVED THIS. She is wonderful!I LOVED THIS. She is wonderful!BlkSmarTeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03927491067161534228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-86958268611922444282009-11-02T11:56:25.239-08:002009-11-02T11:56:25.239-08:00Yes, yes, and yes. But, I would also like to poin...Yes, yes, and yes. But, I would also like to point out that people like to refer to the countries of central and south-central Asia as "the Stans." Also, the war has made people only slightly less ridiculous regarding their knowledge of the Middle Eastern countries and I personally got confused when a friend, who is Iranian, explained to me that a certain Indian restaurant is a lot like the food her family makes. I had no image at all of Iran's proximity to India and Pakistan. Finally, just sample 25 people, telling them that someone you know is Dutch and then asking them where that means they're from. I do think that people are familiar with Germany, France, Italy, and Greece (thought often in a very warped sort of way) but I don't think the same can be said of "Europe" in general. <br /><br />However, general geography ignorance aside, there is a much more malignant problem in association with Americans' ignorance toward Africa and I think that Miriam has a very good point. The more Americans paint a picture of "poor tribal Africa," the less they/we are forced to recognize the full atrocity of slavery. <br /><br />Also, I do think people are more likely to sort of wave a hand toward a person from an African country and say, "(S)he's from someplace in Africa." Even though my friend who is now living in Germany is dating a Dutch man and it took me months to get to the place where I remember that he's Dutch. Had she been dating a French man, she only would have had to tell me once.Saranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-90481859501355538422009-11-02T10:38:38.353-08:002009-11-02T10:38:38.353-08:00There's a great book, 'mistaking africa...There's a great book, 'mistaking africa' that details how the US systematically, through its educational system and popular media, creates the idea of 'Africa' as a monolithic space; an idea that's primarily based on the stereotypes Europeans and Americans created and perpetuated about the peoples on the continent. What's also interesting to note is that in general when people (white or otherwise) reference 'Africa', they are talking about subsaharan (aka Black) Africa. Northern Africa, with it's cultural ties to Europe, is implicitly exempt from those references.<br />On a personal note, I'm Jamaican and the powers that created the idea of 'Africa' have as well created 'the West Indies' or the 'Caribbean' to homogenize other groups of Black peoples.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12340508381251802361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-60332549605591463212009-11-02T08:55:14.627-08:002009-11-02T08:55:14.627-08:00Awesome post. Thanks for posting the TED talk. I c...Awesome post. Thanks for posting the TED talk. I can relate to this from so many different angles (some of which I'm not proud of). <br /><br />I do think Africa is clumped together much more often and unapologetically than, say, Asia or Latin America...In fact, it's rare that Africa doesn't get clumped together, even <a href="http://savageminds.org/2008/05/15/a-taiwanese-view-of-the-world/" rel="nofollow">in Asia.</a> Okay, so this one clumps together all sorts of places, but the Africa = starve is there. <br /><br />Yes, you can argue that most people are ignorant anyway. But I find that there are some who are ignorant, but their ignorance has no power over you because they don't actually regard you as inferior, and then others whose ignorance can feel very insulting because of where that person positions themselves in relation to you. If they perceive themselves as higher, then it can be insulting and patronizing. <br /><br />[3:57] <i>It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could actually 'make' something. All I had heard about them was how poor they were so that it had become impossible for me to see them as anything but poor. Poverty was my single story of them.</i><br /><br />This is very true when you live a privileged life in a world where the wealth gap is so great. I was like this too. She describes it so well. It's also a strange feeling to see how life can seem real cheap when someone is poor. <br /><br />[0:45] <i>All my characters were white and blue eyed. They played in the snow, they ate apples, and they talked a lot about the weather...this despite the fact that I lived in Nigeria, I had never been outside Nigeria. We didn't have snow. We ate mangoes...</i><br /><br />Totally. Same goes for international schools the world over. I grew up wondering: Why do they have snow on Christmas trees when we have make believe cotton snow? Why do their mothers know how to make brownies and mine doesn't? And what's a gingerbread man? Is it edible? Why do they get to sell lemonades on the streets? How come we don't have nickles and dimes? And my biggest childhood crisis: HOW IS SANTA GONNA DELIVER MY PRESENTS IF WE DON'T HAVE A CHIMNEYYYYY!!! "He'll squeeze through the keyhole. Santa is magical that way," said my wise mother (no joke). Lucky for her I was very gullible.fromthetropicsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-55935270909527223852009-11-02T08:00:26.528-08:002009-11-02T08:00:26.528-08:00I think it really boils down to a lack of educatio...I think it really boils down to a lack of education regarding non-European countries. A one semester geography class in high school doesn't really cut it. There really needs to be more emphasis paid towards world studies in the US education system.Elsarielnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-87394928153920855662009-11-02T07:46:25.441-08:002009-11-02T07:46:25.441-08:00You know, I think you're being way too generou...You know, I think you're being way too generous: I hear white Americans say "Asians" as a homogenous group all the time (and "Latinos" too).<br /><br />That said, I think it's somehow worse with Africa because, while most white Americans know the difference between Japan and China (even if they can't tell Japanese and Chinese people apart), they rarely know the difference between Ghana and Kenya, or in some cases, even Morocco and Namibia (when I moved to Morocco, some of my less enlightened college friends told everyone "she's moving to Africa!" and I received more than one letter or package addressed to me in "Morocco, Africa").<br /><br />Also wanted to add that I've seen this from non-white people abroad too...In Morocco, I would occasionally have a student from a sub-Saharan country (usually Benin, Togo, or Burkina Faso) in one of the classes I taught...The other (native Moroccan) students would sometimes actually just refer to the student as "the African" - not even the student's name, just "the African."Jillianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792137126898623243noreply@blogger.com