Between 2010 and 2017, I had an opportunity to engage with African Americans through online platforms. And one of the topics on those African American communities was about African immigrants. They complained the attitudes of African immigrants in America. I laughed because when shit goes in South Africa, they forget about these African immigrants with stinky attitudes towards African Americans and assume a Pan-Africanist approach when dealing with issues in Africa.
The real question that should be asked, who are these African immigrants? I'm not saying that South Africans are perfect, but South Africans, especially indigenous South Africans rarely travel to America. Even in America, we don't hear African Americans complaining about South Africans.
We now know that West Africans, Central and East Africans make up a bulk of African immigrants in America. Particularly, immigrants from West Africa are known to interact and even marry African Americans. Green card marriage scams, stinky attitudes and seizure of American jobs reserved for African Americans are patronized by West African immigrants.
African Americans even complain about African immigrants refusing want to associate with them and distancing themselves from their American counterparts. Information on African immigrants being instructed by American agencies, especially Homelands Security to not mix or associate with African Americans is widely available on the internet. Relations between African Americans and African immigrants have been strained to a point of African American creating anti-immigrant organizations such as the ADOS, and religious cults like Hebrew Israelite and Black Indigenous American/Native American groups.
It's the same feeling that South Africans feel when they are mistreated, shamed and not prioritized in their country. Then resort to start movements such as Put South Africa First and Operation Dudula. Jobs, housing, education, businesses, and health care facilities are handed out to immigrants while native South Africans are sidelined.
When South Africans raise this issue; they are emotionally blackmailed as "xenophobic" and "afraid of the white man who took their land." After all, South Africans are lazy cowards who don't bother the white man, Indians and Chinese in South Africa. All they are good at is xenophobia and causing trouble for "hardworking and intelligent" immigrants. But tough questions still remain: if African immigrants are hardworking and intelligent, then why don't they return to their countries and put those hardworking ethics and intelligence to good use for the benefit of their homelands? Why are Africans seeking to escape their countries and be second class citizens in other people's countries?
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