Traveling abroad is the only time I feel American. It’s the only time when the color of my passport seems to matter more than the color of my skin. Personally, I consider it both a blessing and a burden to be Black. The blessing is obvious to me. Black American culture is celebrated and copied all over the world. Our music, style, and language (Ebonics is not “Gen Z slang”) have inspired millions, and when I leave the US, it’s never the country I long for. It’s the community I was raised in.
However, the burden is an insidious stain I have to carry as well; and even though the UN has finally recognized enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity, the trickle-down effect of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the weight the descendants of these enslaved people have to bear is heavier during the times of Trump and his administration.
Our Efforts Towards Humanity Are Always Thwarted
“Go back to Africa” is a top 10 remark used by racists in America. The thing is, we tried. The Back-to-Africa Movement was a program created by Marcus Garvey to encourage African Americans in the United States to voluntarily move to colonies in Africa.
It came about during the 19th century, although African Americans have continued to move to Africa into modern times. Some African Americans were able to move to countries like Liberia during this time, but the same people who were telling then freed African Americans to move themselves, created hurdles for them to do so.
The rise of Black Pride during the “New Negro” movement during the Harlem Renaissance and the push for Black self-determination were viewed with suspicion by both state and federal governments, especially with the rise of independence movements in Africa and the Caribbean. The government often associated any form of separatism, including Garvey’s repatriation movement, with anti-American sentiment (sound familiar).
European colonial powers still controlled most countries in Africa during the first part of the 20th Century, and they imposed strict border policies. This made the idea of “returning” to Africa difficult, since much of the continent was not under the control of African peoples themselves but rather of colonial governments.
African Americans might have been considered “free,” but where and how they move about in their lives was still being determined by a government that never had their best interest at heart, and this depressing truth still holds African Americans back today.
What Do Black Americans Do When the World Begins to Shun the US?
Trump has been loud, racist, and wrong about many things during his first and second terms as president. Unfortunately for Black Americans, everyone around the world can hear him. Recently, Partisan Bar, a bar located in Rio De Janeiro, made headlines after putting out a sign that said US and Israeli citizens weren’t welcome. Due to Brazil’s anti-discrimination laws, the bar was fined R$9,520 (about USD $1846.76).
To be honest, I’m surprised more of this isn’t happening around the world, and maybe it will in the near future. Yet I can’t help but wonder, and maybe it’s my selfish, westernized way of thinking, does this sign include Black Americans? Native Americans? Latin Americans who live in the US? Or will the very true fact that we are still chained to this country in a way grant us some kind of pardon internationally?
Don’t get me wrong, I recognize the privilege of being born where I was. But it’s harrowing that I’m considered privileged because I come from the colonizing country and not one that is currently being colonized. Even though the fact that I was born in the US is due to colonization.
With every incompetent move the current administration makes, my community feels it even harder domestically and internationally. I don’t believe the suffering of my ancestors was for nothing, but I do believe their suffering has been passed down because the leadership of the United States has only changed on paper.
