In today’s episode of “Healing from Within” your host Sheryl Glick (http://sherylglick.com) author of The Living Spirit Answers for Healing and Infinite Love welcomes Professor Onoso Imogene (http://beyondexpectationsbook.com) author of Beyond Expectations which shares a look at the multifaceted identities of second generation Nigerian adults in the United States and Britain and offers an understanding of the challenges and achievements of African Immigrants and African Americans.
Sheryl and her guests share intimate experiences and observations into the process of self-investigation for personal growth and to understand the nuances of our physical and spiritual essence so we may better face challenges in more effective satisfying ways for better results and the improvement of health prosperity and well-being.
Professor Onoso Imoagene shares an interest in improving racial and ethnic awareness for success and shows us that Nigerian adults conceive of an alternative notion of “black” identity that differs radically from African American and Black Caribbean notions of “black” in the United States and Britain. We may come to understand how race ethnicity and class, shape identity and how globalization trans-nationalism and national context inform sense of self and improve community conditions that combat prejudice and racism.
In thinking back to her childhood Onoso shares that living in a predominately white neighborhood when she was four years old, her mother took her to several pre-nursery schools where she was rejected, because she was black and an immigrant. Sheryl shares a similar remembrance. When Sheryl was fifteen and a counselor in training at a camp in Pennsylvania her parents visited her, They proceeded to go for lunch to a local restaurant which was completely empty. The owner said loud and clear, “There are no tables available.” My parents just turned and left. Sheryl wanted to know why they didn’t talk up. They explained that some people do not like city folks but really we are Jewish and this is what they didn’t like. It was most probably the first time she had seen the ugly face of prejudice and religious discrimination. Sheryl shares with Onoso that she taught in the inner city of New York hoping to help improve the conditions for minorities and became very aware of the problems: a welfare state, drug addiction, single parent families, lack of fathers participating in raising their children crime and lack of opportunities. Beyond any discrimination faced by minorities we need to address and improve the conditions of family life while improving education and helping people lift up out of poverty and the problems associated with that .
Professor Imoagene writes about the differences between first and second generation African Immigrants and African Americans and that their perceptions of each other are different. Immigrants to the United States have perceive a huge chasm between African-Americans and African immigrants in the United States. That chasm has widened over the years. It has caused deep animosity between many African-Americans and their African immigrant cousins.
The problem stems from deep misconceptions, sometimes fueled by the U.S. media. Astonishingly, many African-Americans believe that Africans are backward and primitive. Some make crude jokes about Africans or do not acknowledge the great contribution Africa has made to the world.
For their part, many African immigrants buy into the erroneous notion that African-Americans are lazy and violent. They do not appreciate the great sacrifice African-Americans made, through advocating for their civil rights, to lay the foundation for Africans to be able to come to the United States and live in a country where both blacks and whites have equal rights, at least in theory if not always in practice.
To understand the deep division that exists between African Americans and Africans, one first has to examine the background of the two groups.
