Boobie Traps

"Boom Boom Pow" by Black Eyed Peas

...I'm so 3008 / you so 2000 and late...

Immigrants. It is some hard, sad stuff to be an immigrant. On Sunday night, I went to my best friend, Ravi's house for a inner party that his parents threw and invited me to. I was conversing with my other best friend, Forrest's father about what I want to do with my professional life and going back home to Sierra Leone after earning my degrees, my family's experience as immigrants, etc.

I haven't always been too proud of being African, but as I have gotten older, I have been more and more and more proud of my nationality, my culture, my language, and all that.'

However, it is a very, very hard, sad, and alienating experience sometimes. The United States is a wonderful country in that one has civil liberties people don't even fantasize about elsewhere and one has the opportunity to succeed in a way that is not possible in other places of the world (some social and economic inequities aside).

It is also hard to be a person of color in this country, even if you are "American". The hyphenated populations (African-, Asian-, Hispanic-Americans, etc.) are separated from "Americans" (=White Americans) by their prefix. They are somehow American, but not categorically so. The hyphen is almost a condition of being able to be called American if you are not White. You can call yourself American, but you must identify the kind of American you are, almost as if you are not as American as those without a hyphen. It is a difficult middle passage to navigate.

The issue of race in this country is especially peculiar, no? There is a social segregation that is unaddressed and there are White people in positions of power trying to maintain that segregation. Additionally, some White people seem antagonistic about immigrants and racial minorities, despite the fact that the United States is a product of a tradition of immigration and diversity.

So, I am driving my Auntie Kadiatu down to Short Pump to shop for some things for her trip back home to Sierra Leone. As we merge onto Broad Street, my Aunt says, "I am an American-American". I look at her and ask "What?" and she points to a white pick-up truck ahead of us.

Sigh. First of all, what the hell is that even supposed to mean? I am an American-American. Clearly, this is a disrespectful reference to the hyphenated Americans, no?

I am not even really sure what to say about this other than it pissed me off. The majority (hate to say it but...White people) made sure to categorize the "non-Whites" (this is also a ridiculous term...to qualify people by what they are not...let us call men "non-women" from now on). They provided the terms African-American, Chinese-American, Japanese-American, Mexican-American, etc. to distinguish themselves, as White people, from anybody else that comes here.

How did they provide these terms? Basically by making it mighty hard to assimilate into Whiteness, even if you want to because visually, you [colored folks] can never be White.

So why are you upset about these categories of colored Americans? Are you better because your "American" isn't hyphenated? Are you special? If by special you mean stupid, useless, purposeless, ignorant, and a maggot on the dying flesh of civilization, then yes my man, you are so damn special.