7 insensitive questions Africans ask African Americans

Why can’t you get over race/racism?

For many Africans, racism in America is tied to slavery. Some falsely believe that African Americans should get over racism because slavery existed almost 400 years ago. They forget that the Emancipation of Proclamation which outlawed slavery in the United States was only issued in 1863, just over a century and a half ago.

Still, post-emancipation, African Americans continued to face incredible odds tied because of their skin color. Jim Crow, the legal segregation of Blacks and Whites, led to unequal and inferior access to education, housing, and employment for many African Americans. In fact, school segregation was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court until the mid 1900s. It was in 1954, only a little over 60 years ago, that the Supreme court ruled that segregated schools are unconstitutional in Brown vs. Board of Ed.

Even after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s ending legal segregation, Black families and communities still faced incredible feats because of their race. U.S. presidents declared the War on Drugs which wreaked havoc on Black families, killing many and leading a significant number to prison.

Today, issues such as food desserts (lack of healthy food options in poor communities, often Black), police brutality, zoning (Black families being kept out of more affluent communities in the country), redlining (predatory financial practices), mass incarceration (The New Jim Crow), are all examples of institutional racism which continue to wreak havoc on the lives of African Americans.

The question to Africans who want Africans Americans to get over race: How do you get over something that has a direct and negative impact on your livelihood each and every day? The vestiges of slavery live deep in America’s moral fiber.