By Montana Couser
For years there has been tension and some may say racism between Africans and African-Americans. Many African-Americans feel that they are African and have the right to embrace their roots while Africans classify them as a different group because they aren't directly from Africa or share the same experiences and values.
Aside from cultural differences the two groups both are facing the same types of racial discrimination from other ethnic groups. Fifty percent of black people said they've experienced racial slurs or derogatory comments about their race and sixty-one percent believe that police officers will use unnecessary force on them than a white person, according to a survey done for npr.org.
The separation of Africans and African Americans stems from mainly the misunderstanding of the two groups. Dr. Ben Fred-Mensah, a political science professor at Howard University, originally from Ghana, also addressed the stereotype of African Americans being lazy.
“In Africa, it is common for their people to work hard, as well as the African Americans in the U.S., each group is a minority and must work to provide for themselves and their family. Regardless of the area you live in, hard work is necessary and neither of the two groups should be considered lazy, some people get comfortable in their situation but aren’t lazy,” Dr. Fred-Mensah said.
Jazmin Tunstill, a senior African-American studies major at Temple University, believes that there is tension between the two groups.
“Regardless if I was born in Africa or not, I am black and have the right to express who I am, whether I want to wear a traditional outfit or listen to certain music. Having problems within our race isn’t the main problem we should be focused on because other races don’t accept us because we’re black, African or not,” Tunstill said.
Lately it seems as though African-Americans have been trying to become more in touch with their roots. Many people are going on websites like ancestry.com to discover their family history and where exactly they are from and there are currently over 20 billion records of family history are currently on ancestry.com. Many African-Americans are curious to know what parts of Africa they originated from while others are curious to know whether or not they are mixed. While there isn't an exact racial breakdown to which race uses this site the most, over 150 regions make up the ethnicities displayed on their DNA test.
Senai Brooks, a senior psychology major at Kutztown University, is interested to know which part of Africa she is from because she attends a predominantly white school and feels like a part of her is missing.
“If I could know where I’m from I could grow a deeper love for being black. I’m constantly surrounded by other races and see things like Confederate flags and I just want to be able to learn more about myself and have that appreciation instead of just white history,” said Brooks.
During elementary school there were always the light skin and dark skin Black people and darker skinned people were always teased for the color of their skin or their hair texture. Terms such as “African booty scratcher” have been hurtful throughout the years to African children but if you were lighter, derogatory terms were never associated with you. In a study done at New York University, black students have experienced discrimination from adults more than students and that includes teachers, police, and store owners.
Sarah Amoyaw was the first person in her family to be born in the U.S., her family is from Ghana and she is currently a senior English major at Towson University.
Aside from her parents being Ghanaian she never felt a connection with her nationality until she got to college.
“I have friends who are also African at my school and I met them by becoming part of the Black Student Union, but a lot of the African Americans have zero connection to Africa and just claim it like they're originally from there,” Amoyaw said.
Amoyaw also explained that when she was younger she was teased at school for wearing traditional outfits, but since her family moved from Ghana before she was born, they still followed the traditions they had in their homeland.
While many older African people lived in Africa they had different career opportunities compared to in the United States. Amoyaw’s father once owned a pharmaceutical company in Ghana, but decided to move to the U.S. so that his children would have access to better education and job opportunities.
Amoyaw considers Africans as hard workers because they are trying to provide a better lifestyle for their families and will take on any job to achieve their goals.
Gladys Ackah, 58, is originally from Ghana but now lives in Philadelphia. She thinks that citizens of the United States are not as industrious as Africans. “The people are lazy here and take their jobs for granted,” Ackah said.
While in Ghana she attended college and became a teacher and later moved to the U.S. in 1983 for more opportunities. She didn't become a teacher in the U.S. because she said there was an extensive process to go through, much different then in Ghana so she became a bank teller and now works at a church.
She also has a son that attended college in the U.S. and has been working at a law firm for the last 13 years, an opportunity that Ackah doesn't think he would have had otherwise.
At the time she was excited to move but if she were to now she would question it because of the negative portrayals of Africa and Africans. Ackah said she's experienced discrimination from all races. “Some people are really ignorant and don't want to learn about other cultures,” she said.
“Now that people are traveling and researching they can really see what’s going on in Africa,” Ackah said.