Cyprus-Forum.com

[tsukoui]

Are Africans "Black"? Just as "Whiteness" is being globalized by the hegemony of U.S. racist discourse to include Russians, East Europeans, even Arabs maybe, the U.S. concept of "Blackness" is also being globalized to parts of the world in which the indigenous identity is totally different. Here Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie discusses this in an interview with Aaron Bady: http://www.salon.com/2013/07/14/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_race_doesnt_occur_to_me_partner/

Also, race is something that one has to learn. I had to learn what it meant to be black. When I first came, somebody made a joke about fried chicken, and people said ‘Oh my God!’ And I just thought, ‘Why? What’s the problem? What’s going on?’ If you’re coming from Nigeria, you have no idea what’s going on. When I came to the United States, I hadn’t stayed very long, but I already knew that to be “black” was not a good thing in America, and so I didn’t want to be “black.” I think there are many immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean who feel that way, and will say very clearly ‘I’m not black.’ There’s the overriding desire to do well, to succeed. If it means absorbing the negative stereotypes of a particular group, then that’s fine, they do it. I think also that many black immigrants don’t realize that they’re able to be here and do what they’re doing because of the sacrifices of African Americans. They don’t know the history. I didn’t when I came. An African American man called me “sister” once, and I was like ‘No, no, no, I’m not your sister, I’m not doing that.’ It took about a year of reading, learning, watching, for me to really come around and realize that there’s a context— you know, I read African American history and I’m just amazed at how recent some of the things that happened were. I’m not talking about slavery, I’m talking about 40 years ago. But when immigrants come here they absorb stories that have no context and no history. So it’s ‘oh, black Americans are very lazy. They all live in the inner city because, you know, they don’t want to work hard.’ Sometimes you’re in a gathering of immigrants, and some of the talk can sound like you’re in Alabama in 1965.

It’s very depressing, because I’ve come to deeply, deeply admire African American history and African American people. Their story is the one I most admire, the one I’m most moved by. But then, there are different ways of being black, there are different blacks. I’ve come to very happily identify as black, and I like to joke about wanting to go back and find that man who called me sister, because I would hug him. But my experience is different. My experience of blackness is different from African Americans, and for me it’s still a learning process, because there are things that I can’t inhabit. Now I know racial subtleties, now I get it. But I don’t have the history, and it’s different.

I wish there was a bit more understanding of the many blacks, and the many sort of permutations of blackness. I would like every black immigrant who comes here to take a course in African American history. But speaking of stereotypes, the African stereotypes are very easily absorbed in the African American community as well. I remember how amusing I found it that African Americans were shocked that I can speak English. Because, you know, you came from Africa.

[Cap]

Explain this to me Tsuk.

[tsukoui]

Explain this to me Tsuk.

Interestingly, exactly the same example appears in the book "Racecraft" which I mentioned in an earlier post. I quote the following:

In 1988, a sports announcer in the United States lost his job because he enlarged indiscreetly - that is before a television audience - upon his views about "racial" differences. Asked why there are so few black coaches in basketball, Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder remarked that black athletes already hold an advantage as basket-ball players because they have longer thighs than white athletes, their ancestors having been deliberately bred that way during slavery.

Matthew Syed spells it out clearly in his article "Is it wrong to note 100m winners are always black?"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14679657

[Cap]

So you are admitting that genetic differences exist between the races that give black people an advantage.
Blacks are physically superior to whites?

[tsukoui]

So you are admitting that genetic differences exist between the races that give black people an advantage.
Blacks are physically superior to whites?

Did you read the article I referenced at all?

I shall quote it for your benefit:

The 100m final at the World Athletics Championships this weekend will be won by a black athlete.

Every winner of the 100m since the inaugural event in 1983 has been black, as has every finalist from the last 10 championships with the solitary exception of Matic Osovnikar of Slovenia, who finished seventh in 2007.

Assuming that this success is driven by genes rather than environment, there is a rather obvious inference to make - black people are naturally better sprinters than white people. Indeed, it is an inference that seems obligatory, barring considerations of political correctness.

Logically flawed
But here's the thing. This inference is not merely false - it is logically flawed. And it has big implications not merely for athletics, but for the entire issue of race relations in the 21st Century.

To see how...

And I shall leave the rest for those who want to follow the link...

[Cap]

I've read it, and I don't completely agree with it.
The United States slave gene pool encompassed a huge region of the African continent.
Nigeria, Ghana, Angola, Congo etc
With the proper opportunities and facilities this melting pot of African decent virtually dominated the Olympic track and field since its inception.
They didn't for obvious reasons manage to dominate the science and intellectual departments.

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/all/

As for the CV experiment, dude, you want the best for your company, if Tyrone and Co has a history of incompetence, substance abuse, violent disposition and underachievement you're obviously not going to hire!

Sorry to be so blunt Tsuk, I do respect you, but you have an uphill so steep, the odds so high that you can't possibly fathom.

[GreekIslandGirl]

Cap is excused as a "Cypriot" because he was deliberately bred whilst in South Africa to be lazy and slow ...

The man said:

... their ancestors having been deliberately bred that way during slavery.

So, no, he didn't say:

... genetic differences exist between the races that give black people an advantage.

Think:

Environment!

[Cap]

Yes, obviously its the environment.
We have to make excuses dear lady.

Please, don't let me stop you there.
What else?
Diet?
daylight saving time?

Please, don't be shy.

[GreekIslandGirl]

He said "slavery"!

[Cap]

their ancestors having been deliberately bred that way during slaver

Are you suggesting they were deliberately 'dumbed' down through selective breeding?
African Americans have an average IQ of 85 for Gawds sake! Subsaharan Africans have an IQ of 60-70. If anything African Americans have been elevated in terms of intelligence.

You people can talk the biggest load of utter bullsh**.
You pull sh** from out of the air to make a point.
I'm done with this thread.

Oh and let me guess....
IQ is a white man's invention.