I respect this piece, but I feel like it’s missing some nuance.
Often, when Black Americans speak about conflict and fundamental differences with non-American Black folks, it’s not about ‘they are not Black enough’.
Black Americans are defensive over the identity of Blackness with reason. Of course, Blackness is global and the diaspora is not limited to the USA. However, for Black Americans who’s lineage is traced on this soil, Black is a term we used to give us an identity, rather than except the ones handed to us by colonizers (which is why ‘Black Power’ had such significant meaning in the 60s and continues to today). There are many non-American Black folks who do not use or relate to the term Black, and it has a lot to do with the fact that they haven’t had to, which is okay. Black Jamaicans don’t often refer to themselves as Black, they refer to themselves as Jamaican, just like Haitians, Black Cubans, etc. I’ve heard just as many non-American Blacks say they don’t consider themselves ‘Black’ as I’ve heard Black Americans claim that the term is exclusively for Black Americans.
In regard to diaspora, we all have to deal with racism and discrimination, no matter which part of the globe we exist in. However, there’s no denying that everybody — even and especially non-American Blacks are conditioned to view Black Americans as inferior. This isn’t just an opinion, there are many non-American Blacks who can attest that in their country they were warned from picking up our ‘ways’, behavior, work ethic and otherwise. That conditioning has an impact on how they view Black Americans when they come to this country. Honestly, I think they had Amanda Seales fucked up because I’ve never read or heard her say anything that would suggest she plays into believing such stereotypes or conditioning. However, for Luvvie, sis has a long record of making derogatory comments about Black American people and culture, and then re-iterating that her African upbringing ‘others’ herself from said people and culture, even though she grew up here.
Basically, the issue is not ‘are you Black enough’ the issue is, have you adopted the conditioning that told you that being Caribbean, Latinx, African, etc. makes you ‘better’ than the average Black American. Unfortunately, when we perpetuate the narrative that Black Americans are being divisive, we’re only silencing those who are actually trying to bring light to such conditioning, as well as shaming Black Americans who are really doing nothing more than trying to preserve our culture. People like to think that we are cultureless on this soil, but that’s a fallacy (and, Amanda Seales is really good with pointing that out and celebrating Black American culture). We have our own foods, our music, our own communities, religions, etc. But, all that gets dismissed when we reduce the conversation to ‘Are you Black enough?’
