Black People World Wide

I was instructed that my blog is boring as it currently exists. I was told by my close friend DJ Bam that I should add something, maybe some music or better yet, perhaps a video of me crying like Stephon Marbury. Say what you want, but he got alot of hits with that. However, there were many things that made me want to cry this week. Most recently, I was teaching a class. The demographic is as follows: 3 continental Africans, one haitian (American) woman, and a Chinese (American) woman. The haitian woman was born in the US, but you would never know if judging by her accent. She was raised in South Florida in a Haitian community, so she was probably inundated with creole and Haitian culture. Through most of this summer class, the students have nodded their heads in agreement as I have gone on my 20 minute long rants about white supremacy. However, today was different. A woman from the Ivory Coast suddenly stated that "Nigerians are not to be trusted. One Nigerian man stole my purse. Another Nigerian man stole 9 thousand dollars from me." I immediately stepped in and said that her examples were anecdotal and certainly not representative of most Nigerian people. the Haitian woman then chimed in by stating "no it's true. A Nigerian man swindled my parents. Now, my family does not trust them. They are sneaky." Despite my efforts to calm this nigerian bashing session, this situation persisted with both woman defiantly claiming that they were not being "racist", "prejudiced" or even "discriminatory." It is so interesting that people can make blantantly prejuidiced or racist comments, then defend them merely by saying they are not racist, but indeed "true." The Haitian woman then went on to try to connect Nigerian men to rape, and also stated she would never marry a haitian man. I admit, i was blind sided by this entire exchange. It seemed no matter how eloquently or forcefully I stated my case, they would not be moved. It just made me realize what we are up against. If black people feel it is necessary to discriminate against one another, how will we keep other from discriminating against us as a whole? I realize that in a six week course it is difficult to dispel ideas they have been developing all their lives, but it can be upsetting. Hazmatic and I'm gone....