African-American Bigotry

Very interesting link and commentary from Denny at Grouchy Old Cripple. It seems a 47 year old Ethiopian man moved to this country 20 years ago, got his citizenship and now considers himself to be an African-American. Guess what -- he can't do that: This is from the Denny's link bq. For a moment, the Ethiopian-born activist seemed to melt into the crowd, blending into the sea of black professors, health experts and community leaders considering how to educate blacks about the dangers of prostate cancer. But when he piped up to suggest focusing some attention on African immigrants, the dividing lines were promptly and pointedly drawn. bq. The focus of the campaign, the activist, Abdulaziz Kamus, was told, would be strictly on African-Americans. bq. "I said, 'But I am African and I am an American citizen; am I not African-American?' " said Kamus, who is an advocate for African immigrants here, recalling his sense of bewilderment. "They said, 'No, no, no, not you.' " bq. "The census is claiming me as an African-American," said Kamus, 47, who has lived in this country for 20 years. "If I walk down the streets, white people see me as an African-American. bq. Yet African-Americans are saying, 'You are not one of us.' So I ask myself, in this country, how do I define myself?" Denny comments: bq. Evidentally this has been going on for a while. The first I heard about this was when Terence Moore, a black racist sports writer for the AJC bemoaned the fact that the Atlanta Braves had only one African-American on their team. Funny, I had seen a lot of black faces but Terence said they weren't African-Americans. It seems that to be a real honest to God African-American you needed to have been born here. bq. Let me state upfront that I have always abhorred the term African-American. To me it means someone of African descent and not solely black African descent. For example, Tuh-RAY-sah Kerry is an African-American. So is Kim du Toit. They were born in Africa, came here, and became American citizens. To me, that makes them African-Americans. Kim would deny this and say, "I am a fucking American and damn proud of it!" Denny quotes a bit more and then goes on to say: bq. So let me get this straight. The only way you can be an African-American is if one of your ancestors had been a slave? This is getting even more ridiculous. Let's milk this victimhood bullshit for all it's worth. bq. But now we find out the real reason for this bullshit. And more from the link: bq. Bobby Austin, an administrator at the University of the District of Columbia who attended the meeting in Washington, said he understood why some blacks were offended when Kamus claimed an African-American identity. Austin said some people feared that black immigrants and their children would snatch up the hard-won opportunities made possible by the civil rights movement. bq. Several studies suggest that black immigrants and their children are already achieving at higher levels than native-born blacks. A study based on 2000 census data conducted by John R. Logan and Glenn Deane at SUNY-Albany found that African immigrants typically had more education and higher median incomes than did native-born blacks. A bit more from Denny: bq. And do you know why this is happening? These immigrants haven't been told by the black "leaders" and the Dimocrat Party that they are too stupid to make it without gummint assistance. They haven't been hit by the bigotry of low expectations. They know they are just as smart as anyone else and they do not need to be told by the black "leaders" that whitey is holding them back. bq. My friend Cindy worked with one of these immigrants. This lady was totally disgusted that blacks who had been born in this country were bitching about how bad conditions were. When another black would speak ebonics to her she would tell them to speak English. She and her husband make sure their children do well in school. They make them learn how to read and write proper English and they tell them that doing well in school is not "acting white" it's acting smart. Some of Denny's commenters are of interest too...