Throughout the country and wherever they may be, the people of the African diaspora tend to face a lot of prejudice from people of different races and cultures. For example, take a look at any movie or television show and watch how the character of the Black race is. Stereotypically they are often displayed as poor, loud, ratchet, junkie, drug-addicts, or live in a broken family. Although there are many amongst the African American community who do live in this way, there are also many who do not. There are those who are well mannered, religious, conscious, and living as a productive member in society. We shouldn’t brand them all the same as they choose to mainly display in the entertainment industry. There are different cultures amongst the people of the African diaspora.

There are the Southern African-Americans who speak with a different accent as opposed to Northern African-American’s. They also have a different way. There are those called pan Africanists who see themselves as part of the conscious Black community who have leaders that they admire such as Marcus Garvey, Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, Khalid Muhammad, the most recent Grandmaster Jay, and many more. They have even been the first people to begin a movement called Black lives Matter. Basically, the African American community is divided into two. The conscious and the unconscious. The group most commonly displayed and thought about in regards to African American’s is the unconscious. As mentioned before they are what most often come to the minds of so many people of different races and cultures. There has to be something understood about these two different groups.

While the unconscious African American’s continue in degrading themselves, the conscious African American community are working hard to restore themselves into who they are supposed to be such as learning where they come from and the ways of their ancestors. They are trying to establish a name for themselves and not be degraded by others. We all need to have a better understanding of the people of the African diaspora, and what got them to where they are today. Throughout the African American communities, names, traditions, clothing, music, art, and food are diverse. Through all this diversity, there is one thing that unifies all Blacks of the diaspora. There is the Pan-African flag which “first flew 100 years ago as a response to a bigoted song. On August 13, 1920, Black nationalist Marcus Garvey and the UNIA designed a horizontal tricolor banner to represent the African diaspora. The red represents the blood shared by the African diaspora, the black represents black people, the green is for the natural wealth of the land of Africa.” The African diaspora to me is very broad with a deep history that has many different points of views. 

Protesters gather near the scene where George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis

Amid a call from an employee at a Minneapolis grocery store for the cops due to a suspected case of forgery of a counterfeit $20 bill, George Floyd was pulled out of the driver’s side of a car by a cop and was led to an area of the sidewalk to sit down. Moments later he ended up face down and kneed on the neck by another police officer ultimately leading to his death as a result of suffocation. 

The thing that makes this event so enraging to many people is the fact that the victim was in no way a threat that needed to be held down in that position. According to a report, “Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, kneeled on his neck for at least seven minutes. During at least three of those minutes Floyd was handcuffed, lying face down on the road, and pleading for his life. Chauvin continued to kneel on Floyd’s neck for around four minutes after he stopped moving.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_George_Floyd George Floyd, an African-American man was killed by a merciless caucasian-American man. 

The former president of the United States of America, Barack Obama shared some statements he had with some friends about the video of George Floyd’s senseless murder. One came from a middle-aged African-American businessman stating in an email, “Dude I gotta tell you the George Floyd incident in Minnesota hurt. I cried when I saw that video. It broke me down. The ‘knee on neck’ is a metaphor for how the system so cavalierly holds black folks down, ignoring the cries for help. People don’t care. Truly tragic.” https://mobile.twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1266400635429310466?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Although the four officers involved in the incident got fired, George Floyd’s relatives felt that the officers should have been charged with murder. George’s brother Philonise Floyd said, “They treated him worse than they treat animals. They took a life – they deserve life.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/us/george-floyd-minneapolis-death.html There is a demand for justice for George Floyd as his killing stirred a furious fierce protest days after. The reason why is because so many people, particularly those of the African diaspora, are completely fed up and infuriated with the corrupt and blatantly hate inspired attacks the police system places on people of African descent. This is the true reality of what we as a people are up against.

Salam to you. Having grown up in a Soninke family in America, I could see a big distinction between us and how I witnessed many other African-American’s in my community live. I was born and raised in the Bronx, New York in a two parent household with six other brother’s and sister’s. My mother only spoke to us in Soninke while my father spoke to us in both Soninke and English. My mother was a homemaker and my father worked long hours every single day. Our family was very close, with my parents always keeping in contact with the rest of my family who were also living in the states and abroad. 

When I went to school I was often picked on and I knew it was because of my race. They thought I was retarded and they just treated me like I didn’t have any feelings. The school was 99% African-American and Hispanic. But I still stood out to them. I remember once when I went to the school restroom and I walked past this Hispanic girl and she was already mad because of whatever and she said “She stinks!” to her friend and said to her friend “you’re African but you don’t stink.” This friend of hers who was darker than me responded with “I’m not African, I’m Carribean”. And when they were leaving the Hispanic girl asked me “what’s your name?” I said “Ramata”. And then she said “That’s a nice name. But you stink!” 

I mention this one story but there were a lot of other incidences where I came across people who were of the African diaspora having such great hate for me. It made me feel like we are not the same and I thought this way up until I got married. Even though genetically we are all black, the vibe never felt the same. I even said to myself that I would never marry a “black guy.” 

Coincidently I did years later and had children. He taught me so much about why the other African-American’s are the way that they are and why they can be so hateful towards us. Our hope is that we stop all of this nonsense hate and division and become a strong united people all across the African diaspora.