African Vs. African American | Are we Divided? | Bridging the gap

[@rosalynj2639]

I'm so proud of you dealing with this topic 👏👏👏

[@AntonsClass]

Thank you so much! I know you understand the importance of such a topic 🙏🏽☺️

[@Luhje]

​@@AntonsClass God bless you brother. As an east African (🇰🇪🇺🇬🇹🇿🇪🇹🇷🇼🇧🇮🇸🇴) I just want to say this to AAs: we love you. Africa is our motherland and from 2025 it's going to be the safest place to live on earth. Just because most slaves came from west Africa, doesn't mean you have to restrict yourselves to west Africa. Please consider settling in other African countries as well. The east and southern parts of Africa have beautiful weather, friendly people, developing economies, and lots of opportunities in business, arts, sports, music and entertainment. Because of what's happening in the world right now and what's coming in a matter of years months Africa, the Caribbean and South America are going to be the safest places to live on earth. The smartest people right now are either making plans to move or have already moved. To those of you who cannot move back to Africa, consider the Caribbean or South America for your safety. Those places are nearly as good as Africa as some of our ancestors established themselves there. I know it's hard to believe this but I'm saying this as one who wishes his brothers well. Please don't listen to the lies and distorted histories written about Africa. We've been pitted against one another from the time they mapped our boundaries but God gave us the grace to accept our tribal differences and live peacefully with one another. Yes here and there we disagree and fight, here and there there's poverty and hardship but those realities are everywhere. Even white nations fight each other, middle eastern nations fight each other and asian nations fight each other. When it comes to Africa they report it so negatively and badly to give it a horrible image because they know that if we ever take control of our challenges, we will forever be on top. Just look at the c-nineteen fiasco. They said we would die in masses but we didn't. They said Haiti would perish but it didn't. Then they dumped poison in Africa to make claims in future that it's the poison that saved us. Hahaa😋. It's the Almighty that saved us from them. Funny how the most impoverished nations came out alive compared to them with so called best healthcare systems. We that know whats going on will continue to educate ourselves and protect our motherland. We don't hate you AAs. We've been lied to about you guys just as they lied to you about us. Welcome (karibu) back home. Karibu is the Swahili word for welcome.

[@AntonsClass]

@@Luhje thank you so much for this warm, friendly and beautiful response! You remind us that we are truly welcome and at home in the continent, including East Africa.

[@bluejay9968]

Personally I believe that Black African Americans should be proud of their ethnicity, and not worry about Africans. We are two different people.

[@building_keevo]

Powerful! The most important lesson I learned is that hip hop does not at all represent black America. It's waaay too fragmented and regional to effectively serve that purpose. Instead, shows like 'The Chi' and 'Love and Hip Hop' are a much better representation. They offer valuable and valid insight into what the average black American thinks and how they perceive the world.

[@waynewheeler379]

Speak truth. I loved this video! I’m not sure about others, but I’ve adopted the term Black not as anti-African but as more inclusive of the diaspora in America and elsewhere-Black Americans as well as Black Africans (with so many whites on The Continent), Black Asians, Black Europeans, etc.

[@AntonsClass]

Thank you for your support!

[@plumsgalore]

I've been listening to all of the back & forth between AA & African people over the past year & it's made me really sad. But I think you handled the topic in a way that is honest & fair to both groups. Thank you, Anton

[@AntonsClass]

I truly appreciate that. It was my goal to try my best to be as balanced as possible with my approach, so thank you! 🙏🏽

[@bebisterling6571]

Thank you thank you, you are the first AA that is asking the Africans to understand us and to welcome us to the Continent and for us to working together💯

[@AntonsClass]

Thank you for your support! 🙏🏽

[@deandredavies4557]

I’m happy I came across your page. I’m really planning to come to Africa. I’m pretty established here in the states so I don’t think I’m open to relocating. But I want to learn more about culture and potentially date. I don’t know where to start.

[@AntonsClass]

I personally recommend starting in Namibia or South Africa.

[@kobyyA]

It has not been working, it’s not working, & it’s not going to work. If you’re still looking for unity you’re living in the past. Just be you & stick to your people. I do. I’m African.

[@AntonsClass]

I've seen it work. "stick to your people"? Well according to your logic, I can also say that there is no unity within Africa itself, so sticking to your people would mean only sticking to your tribe.

[@kobyyA]

@@AntonsClass Well, which ever way it works. Stick to your tribe.

[@AntonsClass]

@@kobyyA I hear you, bro. You're entitled to your opinion.

[@kobyyA]

@@AntonsClass You’re welcome

[@meekulunadulanghelo920]

Africa is where life is. I'm loving it here🥀

[@AntonsClass]

Africa is so beautiful. I love it ❤️

[@ramzrover2607]

It was Black Americans who came up with the term African American we told them who we were supposedly ... they ain’t bust no moves for us yet

[@AntonsClass]

I respect your opinion. What do you prefer to be called?

[@ramzrover2607]

@@AntonsClass I just don’t want to be called a foreigner in my own land and since some people have a problem with calling ourselves simply American which we are I find comfort in the term Foundational Black American ,

[@AntonsClass]

@@ramzrover2607 I hear you. You're right, we shouldn't be labeled foreigners in our own country.

[@taste-a-liciouse1397]

Thank you Anton for the illuminating education!

[@AntonsClass]

Thanks for being here! Looking forward to your next recipe video!!

[@taste-a-liciouse1397]

@@AntonsClass unfortunately I need someone to help me. I'm a tech fobe.

[@tashas9531]

Good topic! I've always liked to say American of African descent because, although we are American, we are American by way of the slave trade from the African continent. It expresses our American background without forgetting where we came from. Also, the divide between AAs and AAs is saddening. It's 2022, and I still hear about colorism issues and the divide between some black men and black women. I feel before AAs can truly accept Africans and their African descent, we need to address the issues at home and heal from years of division caused by the Willie Lynch syndrome.

[@AntonsClass]

I couldn't have said it better. Thanks for sharing your input! Your thoughts are appreciated.

[@Yahawadah70ad]

The 9ender war was pushed on BM by BW through Pheminism and wanting so bad to be a separate entity. The destruction it's caused got so bad that many of us have decided to abandon ship and go overseas. It's not a community issue back home, BW must change their devise ideology that has caused the divide.

[@queenb4270]

Beautifully said

[@AntonsClass]

I appreciate you, Queen!

[@Ekowaidoo]

Lets bridge the gap fam. we are stronger together .

[@AntonsClass]

Absolutely! Let's do it. It's necessary

[@roberthornbrook8374]

So proud of you dealing with this topic I am a white man from a romany gipsy family and our ancestors came from India 🇮🇳 Rajastan Domori and sinti tribe yes we were dark look black originally. We were in slavery transformed to the Americas in 1498. We migrated to Europe and we were the first Indians in Europe we were very good at metal work and skills like fortune telling basket making well by 1834 in the uk 🇬🇧 we already started marrying out so now we are white. I love all the tribes you mentioned I really love history but when I read the Bible I see Moses marrying Zipora who was an Ethiopian 🇪🇹 not as we know Ethiopian now there were two tribes now 186 I actually believe that we were all black my ancestors were Domari we seem to still have the noses and green eyes. We are all classed as thieves but it isn’t true Europeans treated the gipsys so bad we were very good at black smithing they said we were skilled with horses 🐴 and in king James the 1st protected us so that how romany gipsys got the name James Eastwood and Smìth . Smìth means keeper of horses. You look like you have kushmite DNA 🧬 there is one race the human race we are all linked to

[@lungakuduva4042]

Love from Namibia

[@jacksonphiri2251]

Come to Zambia , you will enjoy

[@AntonsClass]

You're not the first to say so. I will have to check it out! 🙏🏽

[@solorider2607]

The question that has constantly been on my mind is what (Tribe) do African American belong to like what is their ethnic traditional group

[@AntonsClass]

Great question! We are a mixture of many different tribes. Mainly Igbo & Yoruba from Nigeria, Mandinka and Fula from Guinea, and several others from Mali and other regions in West Africa. As well as some Bantu tribes from Congo and Cameroon.

[@jewelniles4041]

When are you going back? Planning on visiting there... Would be nice to know of someone there!

[@sicko_the_ew]

Looks like just about everyone took the request to be ordinarily decent-human in the comments as a challenge of some kind. Oh well, takes all sorts, hey? I think I get this feeling you have of "coming home", coming here. It would be something like I feel about England. I "own" a piece of that place, and it owns a piece of me. (Not quite to the extent of feeling like it's "home" - which is what my granny - born here - called it, but it's somehow familiar. It doesn't feel "foreign" like other places do.) It's probably a good idea to try to set up two "spirit homes" instead of just one. Be a "heritage billionaire" instead of picking which segregated neighbourhood you "belong" in. I have a much stronger sense of Australia being home. I lived there for a year. It started out quite alien, and I cried when I left. (Last time I cried was probably when my dad died. We were taught that boys don't cry.) It would take me less than six months to become pretty much anonymously Australian, and I think I'd fit in quite easily in the UK, even. So if I had the option of migrating or ex-patting or making extensive visits I'd have quite a lot of homes. It's not like it would make me a heritage billionaire (since the differences between these places are much smaller than they're made out to be), but I'm pretty sure it's possible to have multiple "homes" if necessary. (And that's the point, since this is about you, not me. You could just diversify your identity, instead of seeking truth in places where you might end up finding only fiction or legends.) I suppose I'd need to break out the distinction sought to be drawn between fiction and legends into a new paragraph? Legends are the Truth, but generally not the truth. (?) I think I'll give up trying to make a distinction, instead. A lot of the history we put into our stories is more a sequence of accidents than the outcome of some plan - certainly for most of the participants in that history. (So that means that's going on to this very day, if I'm right. People are making very short term plans with insufficient information all the time, everywhere, and to some extent that turns out to be the story of your times as it's currently unfolding.) This is more-or-less the generic story of how many of my ancestors became settlers, here: Some church group got to hear of land for sale at prices that sounded too good to be true (but actually it would've been more like "too bad to be true" if they had done proper market research first - so if they had gone back, gotten born again, gotten more education than just lessons in how to read the Bible, lectures on certain Bible verses, and maybe a tiny bit of arithmetic and then done the market research they could've counter-factually done with that counterfactual rebirth process.) Most of them got ripped off. From their point of view, that was their first experience of going to Africa. (Of course there's a big picture story that's more than just their little personal experiences of making that great new start in life that didn't work out - at least to begin with - but for some part of a proper understanding of that aspect of history which is just a sequence of accidents that more-or-less fix and determine what the next accident will be it has some small relevance. And everyone knows the Big Picture story, anyway. (Or at least one of the official versions, anyway.) That's not to say there wasn't some kind of grand scheme to colonize, just that they weren't privy to any part of the planning of it. Strange thing: 2020 was the 200th anniversary of the 1820 Settlers. Nobody celebrated. Nobody even texted people about it. The bicentennial just passed by without more than the odd comment on certain parts of social media. The plan was to make the Cape more English, for one thing. The existing settlers were "Dutch". The secondary plan was to reduce the expense of maintaining "The Frontier". Get some small yeomen to settle their on parcels of land appropriate to their class. Organize them to defend themselves when attacked. After a few attacks, and a bit of collateral damage, leave the defence of the Frontier up to them. (I'm descended from at least one item of collateral damage from those times. His wife and children got to see him being killed before their eyes, as everything was burning, but were spared to find their own way to safety in the night that followed. They didn't sign up for this. They signed up for a whole 20 acres of land - already a disaster waiting to happen - and a chance to build a better future. They would've probably been Wilberforce supporters before they left, to some extent or another, since they were mainly Methodists. They would've imagined something like England, only with 20 acres instead of five. Everyone wipes his own arse, as the saying goes. They weren't there for the slaves or the exploited labour.) There goes one little plan up in smoke, and there follows the short-sighted fix. Rinse and repeat, and a social structure evolves. It's based on what its "founders" "know" - on what's "normal" - so on what seemed natural in early Nineteenth century England combined with what had become normal in the Cape over the previous 150 years or so. I'm not saying that the end result was right, just that there's a certain element of near-inevitability about it. One sin follows the next, if you judge the steps correctly; or one error generates the next, if you suspend judgement and just treat it as something like the growth of an orb web spider nest in the corner of the barn. And into whatever develops from these events, occasionally some infant is born, grows up in whatever world is Normal, learns from this How Things Are ... and this can be a vicious circle. I'm well aware of the fact that this under-emphasizes some very important aspects of the story, but then it also tells the inconvenient parts that get left out, and everyone knows the Big Picture this takes place within - as well as the more Important Issues the events create - so it's not as bad an omission as might first seem. Anyway, dinner calls, so that's as good a time as any to shut up, which I now abruptly do.

[@ramzrover2607]

I don’t like the term African American because my family dosnt have any ties to the continent , that’s making us foreigners in our own land ... Africa never reached out to black Americans for any support or anything so we would rather be call just Americans & some of us do have Aboriginal American linage

[@cielobluestar]

European whose migrated from Europe should tell European American. But they don't tell that as like African Americans.

[@siyabonganxumalo4574]

You are welcome to South Africa. I can help with Zulu

[@AntonsClass]

Thank you! I may have to hit you up for some help with the Zulu.

[@amapolotv5201]

Hey Anton Are you still in Namibia??

[@iykejnr6296]

I agree but African highlife is different from hiphop far different

[@takatsophawe4156]

But u guys don't have culture moss and feeling offended when we say that won't help and music and culture is hell'a different

[@AntonsClass]

We have a culture which is very frequently emulated by Africans on the continent. You are sounding ridiculous! Smells like jealousy to me...

[@jewelniles4041]

Oh ok so you are working full time in amerikkka and wanting to isit other African countries ! So you probably won't be going back to Namibia? Or for awhile?

[@proudfba3803]

Obviously you have a very negative view of Black Americans. Are you truly Black American or are you a Pan African? You ask Africans to welcome us home? Why don’t they speak to their government to offer us duel citizenship as we did for them in America? You say we are divided, that’s not on us. We fought and died for them to come here. I dare you slander Black Americans.

[@AntonsClass]

I am Black American and I have every right to share my experiences, which are valid. And no, I don't have a negative view of my own people. Were you offended by something I said? Nothing I said was "slander."

[@proudfba3803]

@@AntonsClass Generalizing based on your experiences. Just because you chose to leave and move to Africa, that’s all well and good for you. It seems as if you are kissing up the Africans and wagging your fingers at Foundational Black Americans. You could never offend me just because of the Black Americans that you know don’t know African history. If those are the type of FBA you hung around then I feel sorry for you. Maybe that’s a reflection of you. To be honest, learning about Africa is not our cross to bear, most Africans claim not to know our great American history either. I don’t see you wagging your finger at them. I understand that you feel the need to kiss up Africans because you are living on their land and you know what the consequences will be if you spoke of their tribalism and disdain for FBA, not all but far to many. Wagging your finger at us to get browny points is not cool either. Why don’t you answer the other questions I asked?????

[@AntonsClass]

@@proudfba3803 I never generalized anyone. Anyway, it's more than clear to me that you're offended by my choices, and that's fine. If you chose to remain closed off to the African world, that's your business. I'm going to continue to explore, travel and broaden my horizons. You're missing out on a world of adventure and education, but you do you. ✌🏽

[@proudfba3803]

@@AntonsClass just because I don’t identify as African, you assume I haven’t traveled the world. Once again you are wrong. I’ve been to several countries including Angola, London & Thailand to name a few.

[@elijahlyrics3790]

@@proudfba3803 you can not hate the root of a tree, without hating the tree - Malcolm X