I'm Every Negro

The Dangers of Black American Exceptionalism

Hey Family,

At last years Brooklyn Brujeria Festival I stirred the pot with a few of my handmade signs. The one that received the most feedback on was “Diaspora Wars are a Govt Psyop”. I wholeheartedly stand behind that sentiment. There’s a lot to unpack in this post so I’ll probably break it down into a few others.

Something that has been wearing on my spirit for a few years, that I’ve actively been avoiding discussing publicly because it exhausts tf out of me, is the concept of Foundational Black Americans or FBA’s. If any of yall has had the displeasure of coming in contact with any of these accounts then you know how quickly the conversation can go from being proud of our ancestors who survived the Transatlantic Slave Trade to the outright denial of said slave trade. As a student of history and a lover of the Diaspora, I try to save my strength for more fruitful discussions. After many run-ins, online and in person, with these folks, I have come to the conclusion that there is a special office within the CIA that is personally responsible for this nonsense. At best, this is a faction of misguided Black folks. At worst, they are White supremacists in digital Blackface.

I know COINTELPRO when I see it. Y’all can’t fool me.

There is something insidious and sinister about Black American Exceptionalism. Yes, Black Americans who are descendants of chattel slavery are a unique ethnic group here in these United States. Yes, there are many other ethnic groups that have benefited from the sacrifices, contributions and organizing efforts of Black Americans. There is no civil rights movement without Black Americans. There is no immigration act of 1965 without Black Americans. These are facts. No, Black Americans who are descended from chattel slavery were never given reparations.

All of these things can be true and still, the enemy is not other ethnic groups - the true enemy is white supremacy, colonialism, American Exceptionalism and capitalism. This does not negate the fact that many ethnic groups immigrate to the United States and foolishly drink the Koolaid; that Black Americans are lazy, entitled and doomed to be the perpetual bottom rung of American society. The wild part about this is that Anti-Blackness is global. It goes further than the borders of the USA. Anywhere in the world, you can find the ills of colonialism rearing its ugly inbred head in the form of colorism, texturism, racism, abject poverty, over policing, and economic disenfranchisement. All of these things exist outside of the US as well as within it.

For so long America has exported an image of excellence and high ideals. Freedom, they call it. They make movies, tv shows, fashion, beauty trends and music based on these intangible ideas that America is a place where anybody can be anything they want. The only people who truly know what America is like are the indigenous people of Turtle Island and Black Americans who were trafficked here against their will. The erasure of Indigenous and Black American history, combined with the pervasive narrative of American Democracy For All is how we get this unique identity of the FBA. I truly do not believe all of these accounts are actual Black people at all but I have encountered a few of these folks in the wild so I can confirm that they exist. However, I would be remiss to not acknowledge the conditions that contribute to this mentality.

The lack of Indigenous and Black American history is not a slight oversight or an afterthought, it is a calculated and malicious attack on personhood and identity. The cost of White Delusion comes at the expense of Indigenous and Black American erasure. These are the only two ethnic groups that have never had full access or ability to assimilate into the cult of Whiteness. If people do not know the full history, if they are constantly being portrayed in the media in a negative light to the point where people from other countries, sight unseen, can form judgements against them, it can cause a form of psychosis. It makes me think about the ending of The Bluest Eye when Pecola Breedlove had told herself that everyone was staring at her because of her blue eyes when she was actually a victim of sexual abuse, incest, and carrying her father’s child. When I hear Black people deny the Transatlantic Slave Trade or liken themselves to Moors or Indigenous Americans, my heart breaks for them because on so many levels these people have been fed such a hateful narrative of themselves that they are doing what they can to make sense of their reality and of their condition in this society. When I see other Black people calling each other “tethers” and accusing people of cosplaying Black American heritage it makes me sick to my stomach.

White supremacy has evaded accountability again. Fuck.

I recently wrote about Black Exceptionalism for one of my classes. I hope y’all pick up what I put down:

“Black Americans are one of the most visible ethnic groups of African descent but we should be mindful to not fall into the narrative that we are different or disconnected from our kin in the diaspora. That type of thinking is a slippery slope into xenophobia and it feeds a spirit of superiority that further disconnects us from our origins. If we are only looking at our experience as Black Americans as the experience to be exalted and centered we will miss out on the expansive histories of Africans in the diaspora. Hyperfocusing on Black exceptionalism only contributes to the erasure of other political, cultural and resistance movements throughout the diaspora.

Black labor in the Americas has always been sought after for extraction and exploitation. This labor has existed in various forms from manpower for plantations to cultural capital through music, food, style and technological innovation. Reinforcing Black American Exceptionalism is one of the ways the U.S. continues the cycle of exploitation under the guise of Black Excellence. It is a carefully crafted narrative that only serves to highlight the ways in which Black Americans have adapted and performed humanity through the eyes of imperialism and colonialism.”

I believe in Pan-Africanism. I believe that Black people, worldwide, have a duty to themselves and to each other to examine the ways we have ALL been fucked by white delusion and colonialism. When I see Black people in Brazil having their natural hair renaissance, nearly 20 years after our natural hair renaissance, it makes me smile. It makes me realize we are all going through the same struggles on different continents. It makes me proud to be Black in the collective. Am I American? Absolutely. I’ll tell anyone that I’m a Brooklynite through and through and that my father is a Jamaican. I am just as much of a descendant of Low Country Gullah people as I am of mountain Maroons in Portland. I am Black no matter where I go. Black is the common thread. It might be flavored or accented a bit differently, but I am Black. Black and proud.

You can never make me hate other Black people. Even if they are ignorant and misguided. I won’t tolerate any disrespect but I will not fight with other Black folks of the diaspora while White Delusion and Colonialism gets to slink into the background and pick all of our pockets. Not while Black people worldwide are subject to some of the worst injustices and crimes against humanity. Not while every European nation owes a debt to every settler colony. Not when Haiti is still paying the price for being the first Free Black Republic in the West. Not while Louisiana still has a mf prison named ANGOLA. I will not do it.

Trinidad, Brazil, New Orleans, Haiti carnival celebrations this year

So on this beautiful Monday, where there are Black people across the diaspora from New Orleans to Jacmel Ayiti, from Bahia Brazil to Port of Spain Trinidad, in so many places this week, celebrating carnival and the testament of Black resistance and visibility in the face of colonialism, I will continue to assert that I am every kind of Black. I am very proud of our histories in these respective locales. I’m impressed with how we survived and we reverse engineered millennia of culture in the most unlikely of places with limited resources. I am in awe of how we continue to be connected by the invisible threads of bloodlines that extend across the Atlantic back to our ancestral Motherlands. Nations, borders, governments and languages cannot separate us.

Diaspora wars are a psyop, though. Stay woke.

Until Next Time,

Nikki