REPOST

Well I was born in Africa and spent the first 16 years of my life there. I find that whenever I tell someone that I am from Zimbabwe, they immediately assume I am from South Africa. There is NO sense of political differentiation between the politics, cultures or economics of the two countries. Neither has anyone EVER engaged with me to ask me about these issues. They must merely assume that because I came from the third world, and they were born in the West, they already know more than I do. So, I find a lot of people tend to relate to me on the basis of their stereotypes and really rather extreme ignorance.

 Also, I have found that there is often a sort of rush among folks within academia, to make sure my views on Africa fit the ones they have developed. Generally, this comes down to keeping the race and class distinctions, so that I don’t think that I am less privileged than any other black folk who were born there, but come to accept my rightful place as supplicant to the Greater Liberal Order due to various colonialist errors. So I am told not to make generalities about Africa, and to treat everybody with respect, and not to joke around with any black person, make threatening gestures — in effect not to treat them anything like I would treat an equal to me. After all, “They’ve had a hard time.”

Presumably, I haven’t.