#aa identity

[bonespugsnharmony]

So I have to questions since you seen to be able to find this kind of stuff. 1. Since I’ve heard that Jesse Jackson’s “African American” term was forced on black Americans, where they’re any documentation of suggested names? Maybe well liked suggestions that wasn’t negro,black or mulatto? 2. Do we have any kind of historical embroidery, Maybe clothing patterns,Design or adornments significant to us?

Hey! Ya know for some reason I never saw this message. Tumblr never gives me in- app notifications when I get messages. I just so happen to come into the messages after who knows how long and saw I had some. ANYWAAAYS 😅 so yeah I have done a lot of research on AA history and culture. I’ve compiled files of information over the years on my computer but my computer stopped working a while ago so don’t have access to it for now 😓 but I can help with stuff I had on my phone.

So as for Jesse Jackson creating the term African American and “forcing” African Americans to identify with the term, that is definitely FALSE. There are many African Americans who identified as such since we came to these shores and developed our own communities. From what I’ve seen, there were many publications by AAs over the past few centuries, referring to themselves as African American. Including these:

Other names that I’ve seen and heard older African Americans (whether in person or from old publications) referring to themselves as are: American, county born, country born Africans, African, Afro-American, Anglo-African (which only caught in for some considering not all AAs were around that many/enslaved by Anglo-Europeans, even in states that were colonized by anglos). Here’s an example of that:

Ya know it always bugs me when people try to use Jesse Jackson openly using the term African American in the 80s (or whenever the hell it was) to invalidate AA identity, as if a term for people’s identity isn’t valid unless it’s 100s of years old (which ours is). No identity has existed until people created it, especially in the western diaspora, but did you see people trying to invalidate other black people for referring to themselves as Afro/African-(insert country)??? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Jesse Jackson did not create the term, he simply popularized it in mainstream media and like everything else nonAAs get a hold of, people really abused and misused the term and always want to put our cultural traditions and identity up for debate when they don’t know a thing about us! As you can see, I identify only as AA or American and don’t like to be referred to as black American or “black” in terms of my ethnicity because those are broad terms that aren’t specific to our experience and cultural identity that’s been passed on for years.

Tumblr won’t let me attach all of this in one post so the rest will be in a reply. ☺️

[bonespugsnharmony]

Hmmm I wonder if there’s any discussions or research about the racialization of the terms creole (american) and Cajun. My mothers side is Cajun (both black and white) and I’ve always known that I’ve had “creole” family. I also know how the term creole can be a bit murky for some because not many people know the history behind it. But anyways I was speaking with my grandma about our family history and she tells me about how a lot of her (black) family would consider themselves creole or creole and Cajun but once one of my male relatives (I forgot how many greats away this grandpa was) started marrying out of their race, particularly to white Cajuns, their white wives and extended families taught their kids to identify as Cajun because creoles were “what black people were”. This was just interesting to me because it makes so much sense and would explain why so many Cajun foods and traditions are so African in culture and are literally the exact same thing as creoles or other AAs, but these white Cajuns refuse admit that and will give credit to every country in Europe. I mean obviously is Cajuns have our own culture but it’s interesting cuz I never really seen a white person id as creole and haven’t seen too many black people (that aren’t family) identify as Cajun??? I know “Cajun culture” became a very polular term relatively recently but I feel like a lot of Cajun identify and culture (for whites I mean) is based out of refusal to accept how Africans have shaped a lot of our culture and is rooted in a colonial mindset. It’s weird and I didn’t think I’ve ever seen anyone talk about this.

[bonespugsnharmony]

I'm sorry I just wanted to say thank you so much for your response to that post about AAs appropriating "African culture" -- specifically your second paragraph. I completely agree -- I totally understand and empathize with the sadness and struggle of not feeling an explicit connection to a specific country/culture within the continent of our ancestors, but at the same time we don't NEED that -- we already have a culture, one that is our own, one that represents the resourcefulness, spirit, and survival of our enslaved ancestors. And YES just like you said, contrary to popular belief there are actually plenty of vestiges of our West African roots in AA culture if you're willing to do the research. AAs ourselves are generally a mix of several West African ethnicities due to the mixing during enslavement anyway. We really do ourselves a disservice by reinforcing this narrative that we are some lost, cultureless people. I am legit scared for the younger generations of AA people who are being exposed to this dangerous rhetoric online and are growing up internalizing the idea that we have no culture of our own and developing an inferiority complex toward their African, Afro-Caribbean (etc.) peers. I swear African Americans are the ONLY Afro-diasporic group that has to put up with this BS and I'm sick of it. 

[bonespugsnharmony]

Honestly, if you’re a non-AA black person and you say that african americans pointing out the fact that we’re different in our cultures and experiences, that you have a privilege due to AAs being the fulcrum of anti-blackness, and AAs setting cultural and identity boundaries is divisive and oppressive, you can choke. Like yall really be on some white people tactics, talking about we’re all black, if AAs wanted to have more we should build our own and work harder (clearly having NO context of OUR HISTORY), etc. Like y’all just sound like straight up white people and the way yall react is very telling.