Sugabelly recently came to my blog and left a comment on my Africa post. I thank her for that. Check out her absolutely fantastic blog. It’s full of interesting observations about Nigeria, Nigerian culture, and the world in which we live.
I especially enjoyed her podcast on Africans vs. African Americans. I’ve read about some of the cultural differences between the two groups before. It’s an interesting debate, especially with her observations about how each group stereotypes the other. With differences in the long legacy of African American slavery and the cultural background of recent African immigrants, it’s no wonder that there are debates. Check out her comment thread.
Personally, I would love to have an Asian American version of this debate. Some of the recent Asian immigrants have a culture that I don’t always understand. They do things I don’t understand, especially in business (I’ve wanted to say this publicly for a while now–and now I have). However, I think it’s much more difficult for us to have this debate because:
a) There’s often a language difficulty
b) The modes of expression between Asians and Asian Americans tend to be very different
c) We’re only a generation removed. Their children will be similar to our children, regardless of what happens.
Any thoughts on Asian vs. Asian American? African vs. African American? European vs. European American? (Hmm…interesting to note that European almost already connotes American…funny how these implications arise.)
No related posts.
But here is an...
I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
Hmmm, yeah; that would make for an interesting discussion, I think, because at the root of it (at least for me) is this question:
What does it mean to be Asian American?
I have a bi-culturalness. I’m not considered to be a “real” Chinese, yet, I’m fully assimilated into the American lifestyle. I simplay “am”, going about living my life. However, I don’t know if I’m seen by most of America as really ever being an American (and you can also thank the media for helping create that dynamic). Once you get out of the major metropolitan areas, do people in the flyover states consider me to be an American? How am I received? And should I even care what they think of me?
I was once in Caracas, Venezuela for work some years ago and just had to get my Chinese/Asian food fix. I managed to find a Chinese place and when I went in, they started talking Mandarin to me, they seemed happy to see someone else with the map of Asia on his face come into their place. I had to tell them, in what little Chinese I knew, that I couldn’t speak. So they switched to English and occasionally Spanish. They kept asking me where I was from and I answered the US but they kept insisting, no, no, where are you from?
I tried to explain it to them that my great grandparents were from Guandong province but they had moved to the US and I was born in the US. They seemed to have had a hard time grasping “American” when I used that to refer to myself. Then, I understood that they didn’t conceive of someone Asian as being American—I was “one of them”, Chinese. It seemed that in their mind, Americans are either white or black people.
Interesting, I thought.
Aww, thanks for mentioning my blog. I’m glad you like it. Honestly I had no idea any non-Nigerians even read my blog.
I think your blog is great too by the way!!!
Sugabelly,
It’s totally fascinating for non-Nigerians like myself because we see ourselves in your questions and struggles. Thanks so much for providing your commentary and forum!
I’m wondering if this tension is part of the immigrant struggle to fit in. It seems to be universal. You know, we have terms like “ABC” and “FOB” and why did we, collectively, come up with these labels? Because doesn’t the term “American Born” have an air of superiority? It sure seems to have this connotationn of “us” and then there is “them”.
I know that there are similar tensions in the Armenian community between new arrivals and long time residents. I bet that it’s pretty much a universal phenomenon.
Mojo,
Fitting in may be part of it, but there may be more to the story. On the business side, for example, Asian Asians don’t try to emulate “White” business practices nor Asian American business practices. It makes it hard to do business with…uh oh…”them.” Asian Asians in the U.S. often lose a lot of money and wind up getting fleeced because of these practices, which, by American standards, are often unethical. I actually did speak with one Asian Asian about it, and he mentioned stuff about things being different when you come from a culture where people can lose their lives to political factions or government policy. Trust means nothing, cash is king. I guess it makes sense. I do wonder if anything can change in the short term.