Africans trying to be African American

With no disrepect to my Afirican brothers and sisters I want to discuss a strange phenomenon I noticed when I came from Los Angeles to Shanghai.  That is that I saw Africans from the continent wearing what is considered hip-hop clothing.  At first glance I thought they were from the US and I wondered how these cats made to China.  It was after I spoke to them that i found they were indeed from the mother land. 

Interestingly enough I have been asked by some Chinese and Africans what part of Africa I am from and when I say I am from the US they are surprised.  This never happened in the US.  In the states those of us of African descent can tell the Americans from the pure bred Africans based on the differences in appearence in spite of skin tone (needless to say the accents are different too).    Last year I worked with an African man, who's name I will not mention, and once he found that women were more excited to find that I was from America he started claiming that he was from New York!  I suppose my question is what is the status of Africans or, better yet, Blacks in China?   From your experience is being from America better than being from Africa?  If so, why?  Is it becuse the ladies respond better or are there other benefits.

In the US the so called African American, at least the conscious ones, are trying to get back to their African roots.  All that stuff about wearing corn rolls and promoting Black Power is to show that we are not white and that we want to embrace our African heritage.  Many of us feel that "mainstream" hip-hop is nothing but exported exploitation and it's the last image that we would want to spread across the world.  If we are mistaken as an African from the continent then we are proud.  We do everything we can to show that Africa is a storng and beautiful land.  In short, we are tired of living in the white mans country and having him spread lies.  Personally, when I came to China and found that Africans were embracing "mainstream" hip-hop I was disappointed.  I feel like the filth from the US has spread out and infected the motherland.  How can we promote an Exodus of the disenfranchised Africans in America if there is no place for us to go?

   Personally, when I came to China and found that Africans were embracing "mainstream" hip-hop I was disappointed.  I feel like the filth from the US has spread out and infected the motherland. 

When this happens do you try to put people on the non mainstream hip hop?

  How can we promote an Exodus of the disenfranchised Africans in America if there is no place for us to go?   

Let me make sure I have this right........relating this question to bad mainstream hip hop influences and such......there are no places to go because Blacks are tainted by mainstream hip hop.   Well if I have your question right, the answer would be to so to treat it like water, go to the  source of the mainstream and change the temp, turn it off, redireect it, ect. Not too sure about any exoduses. Some people might have to stay. Somebody's gotta stay and and live the right example right?


Hmmmm....what do you consider some good non mainstream hip hop? Immortal Technique, Little Brother, etc.   Your other points I see where you are coming from. I had to highlight the hip hop thing some because I consider myself somewhat a hip hop head.  Paz.

I admit that I came to China unprepared.  I had only heard about the world wide spread of hip-hop.  I didn't expect to see it, let alone interact with it, because I was so far away from Los Angeles and the concept was unrealistic.  That is my own fault.  I don't consider myself a hip-hop head.  However, LIBradio.com plays songs by many conscious hip-hop artists that do not include Imortal of Technique or Little Brother (I don't really like their material that much).  Some artists  I would like to promote are Omeikongo Dibinga: http://www.omekongo.com/  and the artists at http://www.nypoets.com/  , especially Scorpio Blues (I am having her CD mailed to me from the US and with her permission I will spread it around).  I would really like to improve the image of Blacks rather than let the degenerate stuff perpetuate.   

I will check out some of that myself. Paz. 

I gotta point out the fact that this so called global village we live in is nothing more than a justification of present day imperialism in all its facets. America is the biggest shareholder of it.  Africans where ever they may be, are not immune to cultural influences from the US. The consistent bombardment of American movies, music, accents, food,sport,etc, has a lot of people shell shocked into a pseudo-American existence, this you (MingHei) say you witnessed right here in China.

In my point of view if a person flaunts what he is not at the expense of what he is, then there is a serious problem. I personally listen to a healthy amount of hip hop, but not the stuff that denigrates black women and advocates the extinction of the black race. Good hip hop is good, it is afterall, black culture, hence the attraction to it by a sizable amount of African youth. I hope the guys you met just wear the clothes and not live the songs. What is/was the case?

I am not a model Casanova, but my experience with women is that the more real you are, the more likely you are to get that thing.. that has a name that reminds one of a cat. So your boy who claims to be from New York will ultimately fail in his pursuits and so will any other guys out there who claim what they are not. Faking never works !!

Point well taken!  The young cats I saw in China appear to be caught up in the image only.  What surprised me more is that the college I am teaching at has a hip-hop club and one of the students called me "Nigga."  I wasn't offended.  I was too shocked to be.  It really just compounded my fear that the degeneracy I see in the US amont young Blacks might be spreading.  I am thankful that i haven't seen any miss treatment of woemn, but I fear it's not too far away. 

I suppose I am also surprised that Africans accept hip-hop as Black culture.  In the US I have come across more than one African who stated that so called African Americans have no culture.  Some of them go as far as calling us "cotton pickers," but I must point out that these incidents are few and are overshadowed by the amount of Black love.

In fact, now that i have had more time to think about it, there are African Americans in the US trying to pass as Africans (faking the accent and style of dress) in order to attract women.

And yes..the best way to "get that thing" is to be honest! 

Tell me this student who called you "Nigga" was he black or Chinese?

He was a Chinese student!  I assume the he didn't know the gravity what he was saying. 

I think i will agree with you on that. I think the word Nigga as potrayed in movies, and music has numbed some (dumb) people of its true meaning, i once overheard two white guys excited to meet each other refer to one another as "my nigga", that was at a hiphop club in Shanghai, i found that very strange, although i could see they were acute cases of the Eminem syndrome.