It was recently reported that around 400 American troops attended a training seminar on white privilege in our society. One of the powerpoint slides said,
“Consider the “black woman” in Africa who has not experienced white racism and does not identify herself as a “black woman”. African, a woman, but not black.
She only became “black” when she came to the U.S. where privilege is organized according to race, where she is assigned to a social category that bears that name and she is treated differently as a result.”
I’m not going to go into the theory of white privilege, and the pros and/or cons of the philosophy. What I am going to tackle is the idiocy of this fictitious African woman!!
For background, I am married to a naturalized citizen, a Kenyan, who immigrated as an adult. Yes, that means she’s from the country of Kenya, which is on the continent of Africa. (Crazy, right?)
First of all, does the author of this powerpoint not know the history of African colonization? IF you don’t know, let me just say that it was not a nice thing. Also, how about the apartheid regime of South Africa? I’m sure most Africans know about that. Every African woman I know loves Nelson Mandela.
What does this all mean? It means they know about racial segregation, and other forms of racism.
This military author is probably a person who is surprised that Africans wear clothes, a majority of Kenyans speak English (probably better than most Americans or Canadians), and the author probably believes that lions roam their capital cities (oh, wait, that did just happen).
While there is some racism in the United States, and some African immigrants may see it, most of them are viewed and treated differently than African Americans by white society here in the US. (Now that’s a whole other discussion.) If you doubt me, ask practically any black person from Africa, and they will tell you that once they start talking, with their accent, people start to react differently to them, and generally in a good way.
I would also add that most Africans, straight off the boat, don’t see these social categories that place blacks beneath whites. However, if they do it’s probably a view that they learned from the West taking advantage of Sub-Saharan Africa, since before the slave trade started.
On the whole, most of the Africans that I know are living the “American Dream”. (I won’t say all, because I won’t speak for everyone.) Most of them have found that it is harder than they thought it would be, but that’s because many Africans think that money is easy to come by in the US, and they tend to know nothing of the high expense of living here. (Just so you know, this really can cause issues when going back to visit friends and family, and that one is from personal experience.) In the end though, they have found a good life, and they love the opportunities that America has given them.
With all that and more in mind, my wife has nothing in common with the fictitious African mentioned in the training powerpoint, and she has been fortunate enough to thrive with her personal and professional skills in this imperfect country. Just like many of her fellow Sub-Saharan Africans.
So please, let us not allow ignorant people to make powerpoint presentations, and at the very least, let us point out their ignorance.