I had a friend who moved to the US from South Africa as a kid. When “African-American” started being used she was very confused. She would ask “How is X ‘African’ when he was born in New Jersey and only speaks English while I was born in South Africa and speak Swahili and Xhosa is not African just because Im white?” It was then I started realizing how racist some of the attempts to counter racism ended up being.
I had a friend who moved to the US from South Africa as a kid. When “African-American” started being used she was very confused. She would ask “How is X ‘African’ when he was born in New Jersey and only speaks English while I was born in South Africa and speak Swahili and Xhosa is not African just because Im white?” It was then I started realizing how racist some of the attempts to counter racism ended up being.