Africa and Jill Scott look really good in her new HBO series The Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. The relationship between Africans and African Americans can be rocky because many Africans and West Indians view African Americans in a less than favorable light—weak, poor character, crazy, and no morals.
To use a term from the southern hip hop culture, I must say “naw dawg” to the idea of coming to a country we help build for free and inexplicably turning your African or Caribbean noses up at the descendants of slaves—the descendants of you. Dr. Martin Luther King’s quote about judging a man not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character should be put into to practice. Many African Americans think “Africans in America” reflect the whole vast continent but the only recent Africans the people in rural south Georgia have met is an occasionally pushy Nigerian businessman. Not to say most Nigerians are pushy or to say all Nigerians in Georgia are aggressive—MLK must be really proud of me right now.
To the original point, Jill Scott is lovely and a great test of character: would you still love an intelligent, sharp and beauty person if they got big…really big. Before the whole BBW movement, there were people who always like bigger people—more of them to love. I am personally disappointed with young men who marry or “start a family” with round behind young women without understanding that that behind will change with time and the relationship should be based on more…like her smile…okay, I am kidding.
The relationship should be based on many factors including moral and character matters. What about the complicity of the young lady who involves herself with a shallow guy and hopes it works out. Maybe those Africans in America have a point. And what about the contradiction that many bigger women would never date a successful and focused short man or the father from the projects who would never let his middle class daughter date a young man from the projects.
Should this rambling collection of generalizations and half thoughts be on a political blog? I think it should be because a better relationship with our African roots could help our American youth develop like a tree with roots—grounded and not fluttering in the wind. And the political and policy concerns of our community are the results of personal responsibility or lack there of. With skyrocketing government spending, we must find a way to reduce the cost of programs that address problems shouldn’t be problems at all. Crime, drugs, fooling around at school and poor parenting should be addressed by deliberate actions and reestablishing our moral compass as Black southerners and Americans of African decent.
Black, White, Yellow or Brown families should watch the whole Jill Scott series together. In fact, Scott’s image and style is also encouraging to a growing section of the population called everyone getting big and wearing it well. I need to run, literally.
http://www.hbo.com/no1ladiesdetectiveagency/cast/jill_scott.html
Project Logic Ga 
Nice thought but let face it, societal rules have never change and never will. It would be an awesome world to live in if everyone in it were non-judgemental. The rules do change with time, but only by moving those judgements onto someone else. Case in point your BBW, years ago it was favorable to be big and beautiful, a sign of wealth, and sought after. Today even though you are smart, intelligent, and have the high powered career, your still looked down upon because of your weight.
Bking: I don’t like it when big people drop weight and talk about how wonderful they are all of a sudden. Were you wonderful before? For health reasons, we could all watch our size but don’t be a hypocrite.
By the way, you always look nice.
I have a few African and West Indian friends. What I have noticed is that if you have the college degree- they are more accepting of you as a Black American. They expect Black Americans to be further ahead living in America all these years. But did they arrive to these shores in massive numbers during the Jim Crow and KKK years? Also the high crime rates and poor blacks drive a wedge between us. This is why I admired Marcus Garvey. He tried united all Negroes regardless of the country or status. Maybe Jamaicans are the key for uniting us. They have enough of the African heritage to appeal to Africans and schooled enough in western civilization/capitalism to relate to the Black American male.
Mainstream media bear tremendous responsibility for shaping foreigners’ and others’ perceptions of African Americans. To a lesser extent, some may argue, responsibility belongs to African Americans who perpetuate the stereotypes. How many African Americans, as children, believed that Africa was all jungle filled with nomadic tribes people who resembled the savage images in Tarzan movies? African peoples have, perhaps though concerted efforts to dispel those perceptions, largely overcome the world’s ignorance. African Americans have the power to do the same and can begin by defining values for themselves.
BV: I agree with you 100%.
Gentleman from Georgia: “Mr. Speaker, I rise to associate myself with remarks of the most astute gentlelady—Chairperson of the Committee on Common Sense- and move that the record reflect said association. “
Speaker: “Without objection, it is so ordered.”
The media and other mind-numbing medium can easily ruin a developing minds if the parents, church, school and the community has not properly prepared them. In America, West Indian and recent Africans are often more focused than are young and I think I can understand the slightly on some level.
Jerry: Your points are valid and you should know as a person who did the Peace Corp thing and as a person who has a million friends from other nations. I remember when I moved across the hall from your girlfriend and you in D.C. and you identified yourself as a person who came from New York.
As a proud southern Black person, I considered convening a meeting to kick you out of the Council of Black Southerners (not a real organization) when I learned that you were really from Greenville, SC, you knew how to properly season greens and that you attend the University of South Carolina. What did you do before I called you out; walking around telling people you were from USC and hope they thought you when to the same college as O.J. Simpson. For the record, “SC” in Columbia is an outstanding institution with their properly seasoned greens and all those attractive sisters with accents as sweet as Karo Syrup.
Are you saying that most Africans who come to America are overly class conscious? Yes, they expect us to be further ahead but do they realize the struggle we faced. With that said, many of the current Black youth have little excuse for under-developing and being weak.
It is funny that you did not discuss the fact that your girlfriend back in the day (who is now a noted PHD) was similar to Jill Scott—witty, personable, pretty and “healthy.” While she was actually a New Yorker, she could wear a summer dress like a Georgia peach.
Big-up from the NYC Jamerican,
A big “naw dawg” right back at ya. Lots of AfrAms don’t realize that the slaves in Kingston, Havana, Rio de Janiero, Bridgetown, Lima etc. had just as much to do with the building of the U.S. wealth as the slaves in the U.S. did. A quick review of 19th century and ealry 20th century economic history of the Western Hemisphere will show you that.
We went through the same struggle dawg, just different masters. Read about slavery under the French in pre-revolutionary Haiti or the Portuguese in Brazil or the Belgians in the Congo during colonialism. You might find yourself being glad for the American master you had 😛 It’s not our fault that AfrAms don’t want to know anyone else’s history let alone their own. Don’t hate the player as you all say….
I’m a BBW lover myself but the health issues that come with the excess weight are a real concern. Lots of sisters are focused on so many other things besides themselves (like takin care of the whole neighborhood kids, academics, money, material things) that the “within” gets let go. We can get real good at taking the medicine once it hits but a little “no thanks, I’m going to workout today” beforehand could mean greater healthy longevity. My boy Cedric the Ent. said “there is a difference between a girl with a fat — and a fat girl with an —”
I know you head hurts so I’ll stop writing. Big shout out to Jerry.
Furious Stylez
You are so right. I am had a good friend in D.C. from Jamaica….actually, Jamaica, Queens but his parents were from Jamaica and we played chess two nights a week—Bud Light vs. Red Stripe.
As a State Department employee, he took me to school on this same point by always highlighting the fact that the Caribbean and much of South America took more Black slaves than America. So I got my Blue passport and visited six Caribbean islands, four Latin American nations and Venezuela in South America. The recurring theme was “we are brothers and our feelings about the American government doesn’t extend to the people of your nation.”
I am not saying I was in Havana drinking dark rum on the Malecon because travel to that nation is banned but I am saying that the plans for the Confederacy (if they won the war) was for a slave-holding empire from Virginia to Venezuela. And when they lost the war, big plantation guys tried to do the same thing in Cuba and other parts of the Caribbean.
Then you find greed Black figureheads like Poppa Doc and Baby Doc in Haiti to sanction the exploitation and Americans wonder why people are pissed with us. The Wall Street mess points out that Corporation America (like Big Oil) can do dirt around the world and when the natives get upset at America we wonder why. (Did you see my Gil Scott Heron post from last month.)
I feel somewhat guilty about my attitude regarding big women. In my community, big legs and behinds are cool to a certain point but ladies who store fat in their bellies or who have shoulders like men….naw dawg. And the wild part is that my bbw friends will not think about going out with a short dude….it’s not happening. Talk about your contradictions.
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DS. I just realized that this is you……lol…. Hear I am talking about playing chess with you (beating you nightly) and I am actually responding to YOUR post. Thanks for taking the time to email; I know thinks are busy in Africa.
My sister with IBM arrived in South Africa today; which would be the first time a member of my family stepped foot on African soil since we arrived in what would be America in the hulls of ships.