I found yesterday's discussion on the identity of black adolescents vs white adolescents particularly interesting. There were many interesting points made; however, there was one that stuck out and left me pondering on whether or not the statement made was valid.
When discussing whether or not to refer to darker skinned Americans as Black or African Americans, Sara made a comment that she took the term out of her vocabulary early on because she was told that not all Black Americans have African ancestry and may come from places as Jamaica and so forth. I informed the class that I disagreed however could not get into the topic too deeply because of the amount of time it would have taken. I can understand why many people who are not of African descent and those of African descent who are not properly educated on the subject may believe this to be true; however, the statement made is false.
For one, there is a term used known as the African "diaspora" which refers to people of African descent throughout the world which includes people from the Carribean and other countries. History shows that when slavery began, Europeans traveled to the continent of Africa and brought Africans back to the Americas and spread them not only throughout the Americas bu to other countries such as Jamaica. This caused children to be born in other countries other than Africa, which is why many say that their ancestors come from places other than Africa.
Despite this being true, Black ancestry can be traced back to Africa.
A great link of information is here: http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/history/overview.htm and there are countless history books, documentaries, and more that can further explain this complex subject.
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