First of all, this " dissertation of an inquiry" is amazing and I had to take my time to respond to you in a way that honors you. So thank you for giving me that time. Let us take it bite by bite.
1. You asked me to elaborate on these two lines: "Because of our different experiences and upbringings, we see the issues different. We have different vibes.”
#facts - Historically, African ethnic groups also had slaves. We enslaved people. If there was a war and we conquer the next town over, we take their folks as slaves and usually, they can become free after some time or they can be absorbed and become assimilated into their conqueror's town. So, growing up in the 70's we did not think of slavery in America as a big deal. It was not that different than what we did. we knew African Americans had suffered but that was in the past, right?
I had read a ton of books and enjoyed my TV shows with Black people and about Black people, but it was not until I watched "Roots" in 1978 did I get a clear picture of what African American enslavement really was. It was distant and not so real as I remember it. This is the general sentiment that everyone had in my environment. We were grateful for American civil rights legislation and looked up to it but our immediate concern was apartheid in South Africa since the race issue had been "resolved" in the US.
Furthermore, our socialization is totally different. Our leadership looked like us. I turned on the TV and newscasters looked like my father. I had a certain level of privilege since my mother was a white woman and I looked different from everyone. But I knew myself to be a Yoruba woman culturally even though racially, I was mixed. I grew up watching my father argue on shows on TV like CNN. He commentated often on states’ rights. I saw my father as a community. leader with influence everywhere he went. He was respected and upheld as a model citizen. Everyone around me was black. Every teacher, every role model every successful person, every doctor every lawyer. White people were the anomaly in our space and because unfortunately, we can be so arrogant, we often thought of white people as stupid and that they could be easily taken advantage of. In many ways, we did not and still do not see them as our equals. But like I said, my people can be so arrogant.
If you came from a middle-class family, you were expected to be a lawyer, doctor, or engineer. Failure was not an option. if you were not from an educated family, you wanted to be educated. Education was drilled into the very cells of our bodies. I came to the US at 16 to get my "education."
We are taught that we are no different from any other human being on the planet. Now we had a civil war which was oppressive to the Igbo people and many people died and starvation was rampant. They still feel marginalized until today. Also we were colonized and today, I can see much more of how colonization changed us and oppressed us but we felt we had our independence and that all that was behind us.
In the 70's, Fela was the only one talking and singing about colonization and it's negative impact. We all loved him but thought he was slightly off his rockers. As a post-colonial nascent country, we were more concerned about governance and positions of leadership, opportunities, money making, professions - these things were low hanging fruit for us. If you studied hard, you will do well.
That was our programming.
When we come to this country, we come with this type of upbringing, and experience. We know racism exists, but we feel it will roll off our backs like water off a duck's back. Our lack of comprehensive understanding of racism gives us a false sense of our abilities. We also think, "If I am the best at what I am doing, then no one can discriminate against me."
Well, you and I know that is not true. I have lived here for 42 years, and it probably took the first 25 years for the blinders to fall of my eyes and understand "systemic racism." For instance, if something happened to me, I would think it was because I am a woman not because I am Black. When people said the "N" word, I just thought something was wrong with them.
Yet after you live here for a long time, it is like death via a thousand papercuts and it accumulates and over time, our eyes open and especially when we have children here, our eyes really open.
So we see things differently from African Americans because we have different backgrounds. We have not had to reclaim Blackness and hold on to our identities against the full gale of racism. Like @EmmanuelAcho said, we have the "privilege and luxury" of knowing where we come from. I hate that he said it that way without explaining but it is a statement of humility.
Listen, I was speaking Yoruba to someone one day on a university campus and an African American sister walked past and then slowed down and lingered. Next thing I knew, she was crying. I asked what was wrong and she said, "When I hear African languages being spoken, it does something to me. I grieve. It hurts. I want to know the language of my ancestors. It is a pain I cannot bear." I talked with her for a long time.
The point is, I can empathize, I can hold space for that person, I can see the person, but I do not know that empty hole in her heart. I do not have it. I may have other wounds, but not that wound of disconnection from knowing who your people are. I do not want to co-opt that person's wound and claim it as mine as that is flat out disrespectful and does not honor that person. In no way shape or form am I saying that I am better than that person because my people were not enslaved. No way. No.
#2 You said: the ways you/your African peers experience textbook racism, so I can better understand how it’s different?
Most Africans find it difficult to read subtle racism. It takes friendships with African Americans to understand what that looks and feels like. So many times, things have been pointed out to me as racist and I say, "no way." I do not want to believe it but we understand overt racism, like the "N" word. Just like I said in the previous answer, the body of pain that is historical and flows into the present that African Americans have, is not the same as my experience. We receive racist tropes differently.
If a white person says to me, "Black people are not hard workers," my response would be "wow." And I would walk away because I know he is an idiot. No anger, just disdain for ignorance. For an African American, it is like reopening an old wound and there is a lot of anger there - and rightfully so.
#3. You asked, "Do you find that you hold certain social advantages as an immigrant who is racialized as Black or Mixed/Biracial in America? If so, would you provide examples?"
Absolutely I do. White people try to distinguish me from Black people, and I say, "No I am Black." Someone the other day told me, "But your mom is Irish American. Where is that in all your work?" Like I should not do anti-racism work. Sheesh. I just think that white people find me "palatable" so the first thing I teach them is "colorism" and how white and black people respond to it. My language, body language and behavior are more mainstream white as it is more British as that is how I was raised in Nigeria. So, in many ways, my appearance conforms to what white people might feel comfortable with. I don't wear braids, dreadlocks, etc. I wear batik dresses when I speak publicly but it does not yell, "Blackity Black." This is just how I am and who I am and who I have been my whole life.
Now, I do get Blackity Black and it always comes out in my workshops but I do think that white people receive me as they do not perceive me as a threat. I love this question as it is making me think.
Thank you so very much. You give me a dissertation; I give one back. Hugs!!! You see why I did not respond on time? I had to take time to write it.
First of all, this " dissertation of an inquiry" is amazing and I had to take my time to respond to you in a way that honors you. So thank you for giving me that time. Let us take it bite by bite.
I self-racialized when I came to the States as I had to - I wrote about it here: https://iyabo.substack.com/p/race-is-a-social-construct
I also wrote about it here: https://iyabo.substack.com/p/racial-identity-development
You are so right, it is an illusory race!
1. You asked me to elaborate on these two lines: "Because of our different experiences and upbringings, we see the issues different. We have different vibes.”
#facts - Historically, African ethnic groups also had slaves. We enslaved people. If there was a war and we conquer the next town over, we take their folks as slaves and usually, they can become free after some time or they can be absorbed and become assimilated into their conqueror's town. So, growing up in the 70's we did not think of slavery in America as a big deal. It was not that different than what we did. we knew African Americans had suffered but that was in the past, right?
I had read a ton of books and enjoyed my TV shows with Black people and about Black people, but it was not until I watched "Roots" in 1978 did I get a clear picture of what African American enslavement really was. It was distant and not so real as I remember it. This is the general sentiment that everyone had in my environment. We were grateful for American civil rights legislation and looked up to it but our immediate concern was apartheid in South Africa since the race issue had been "resolved" in the US.
Furthermore, our socialization is totally different. Our leadership looked like us. I turned on the TV and newscasters looked like my father. I had a certain level of privilege since my mother was a white woman and I looked different from everyone. But I knew myself to be a Yoruba woman culturally even though racially, I was mixed. I grew up watching my father argue on shows on TV like CNN. He commentated often on states’ rights. I saw my father as a community. leader with influence everywhere he went. He was respected and upheld as a model citizen. Everyone around me was black. Every teacher, every role model every successful person, every doctor every lawyer. White people were the anomaly in our space and because unfortunately, we can be so arrogant, we often thought of white people as stupid and that they could be easily taken advantage of. In many ways, we did not and still do not see them as our equals. But like I said, my people can be so arrogant.
If you came from a middle-class family, you were expected to be a lawyer, doctor, or engineer. Failure was not an option. if you were not from an educated family, you wanted to be educated. Education was drilled into the very cells of our bodies. I came to the US at 16 to get my "education."
We are taught that we are no different from any other human being on the planet. Now we had a civil war which was oppressive to the Igbo people and many people died and starvation was rampant. They still feel marginalized until today. Also we were colonized and today, I can see much more of how colonization changed us and oppressed us but we felt we had our independence and that all that was behind us.
In the 70's, Fela was the only one talking and singing about colonization and it's negative impact. We all loved him but thought he was slightly off his rockers. As a post-colonial nascent country, we were more concerned about governance and positions of leadership, opportunities, money making, professions - these things were low hanging fruit for us. If you studied hard, you will do well.
That was our programming.
When we come to this country, we come with this type of upbringing, and experience. We know racism exists, but we feel it will roll off our backs like water off a duck's back. Our lack of comprehensive understanding of racism gives us a false sense of our abilities. We also think, "If I am the best at what I am doing, then no one can discriminate against me."
Well, you and I know that is not true. I have lived here for 42 years, and it probably took the first 25 years for the blinders to fall of my eyes and understand "systemic racism." For instance, if something happened to me, I would think it was because I am a woman not because I am Black. When people said the "N" word, I just thought something was wrong with them.
Yet after you live here for a long time, it is like death via a thousand papercuts and it accumulates and over time, our eyes open and especially when we have children here, our eyes really open.
So we see things differently from African Americans because we have different backgrounds. We have not had to reclaim Blackness and hold on to our identities against the full gale of racism. Like @EmmanuelAcho said, we have the "privilege and luxury" of knowing where we come from. I hate that he said it that way without explaining but it is a statement of humility.
Listen, I was speaking Yoruba to someone one day on a university campus and an African American sister walked past and then slowed down and lingered. Next thing I knew, she was crying. I asked what was wrong and she said, "When I hear African languages being spoken, it does something to me. I grieve. It hurts. I want to know the language of my ancestors. It is a pain I cannot bear." I talked with her for a long time.
The point is, I can empathize, I can hold space for that person, I can see the person, but I do not know that empty hole in her heart. I do not have it. I may have other wounds, but not that wound of disconnection from knowing who your people are. I do not want to co-opt that person's wound and claim it as mine as that is flat out disrespectful and does not honor that person. In no way shape or form am I saying that I am better than that person because my people were not enslaved. No way. No.
#2 You said: the ways you/your African peers experience textbook racism, so I can better understand how it’s different?
Most Africans find it difficult to read subtle racism. It takes friendships with African Americans to understand what that looks and feels like. So many times, things have been pointed out to me as racist and I say, "no way." I do not want to believe it but we understand overt racism, like the "N" word. Just like I said in the previous answer, the body of pain that is historical and flows into the present that African Americans have, is not the same as my experience. We receive racist tropes differently.
If a white person says to me, "Black people are not hard workers," my response would be "wow." And I would walk away because I know he is an idiot. No anger, just disdain for ignorance. For an African American, it is like reopening an old wound and there is a lot of anger there - and rightfully so.
#3. You asked, "Do you find that you hold certain social advantages as an immigrant who is racialized as Black or Mixed/Biracial in America? If so, would you provide examples?"
Absolutely I do. White people try to distinguish me from Black people, and I say, "No I am Black." Someone the other day told me, "But your mom is Irish American. Where is that in all your work?" Like I should not do anti-racism work. Sheesh. I just think that white people find me "palatable" so the first thing I teach them is "colorism" and how white and black people respond to it. My language, body language and behavior are more mainstream white as it is more British as that is how I was raised in Nigeria. So, in many ways, my appearance conforms to what white people might feel comfortable with. I don't wear braids, dreadlocks, etc. I wear batik dresses when I speak publicly but it does not yell, "Blackity Black." This is just how I am and who I am and who I have been my whole life.
Now, I do get Blackity Black and it always comes out in my workshops but I do think that white people receive me as they do not perceive me as a threat. I love this question as it is making me think.
Thank you so very much. You give me a dissertation; I give one back. Hugs!!! You see why I did not respond on time? I had to take time to write it.