AfriPoppin

AfriPop Magazine

The other day I got a tweet from AfriPop magazine with a link to an archived interview I did with them a few years ago.  At the time I hadn't been home in a little while but they got me thinking about a number of issues related to African identity & culture.  After receiving the link, I re-read the piece and it reminded me again of both the challenge & the value of an immigrant identity.  The current backlash against illegal immigration has a lot of Americans taking what strike me as very reactionary positions against immigrants and particularly Latinos.  The public rhetoric is that the anti-immigrant sentiment is targeted exclusively against the undocumented, but I look at the current  nationwide brouhaha about the building of mosques (as reported in yesterday's NYTimes) and I think the issue is much deeper than most would care to admit.

I believe there is a genuine and understandable indignation about the idea of people "taking advantage of the system" particularly during difficult times.  But the kind of heated invective that we hear daily hurled at so-called "illegals" seems to be about a lot more than law & order.  In my interview w/ Sheriff Dupnik of Pima County, AZ he flat out stated that he believed bigotry was a factor.  When I look at the all-out rhetorical assault on undocumented workers, combined with a concurrent assault on fully documented American muslims, combined with the inane yet persistent allegations of President Obama being foreign-born despite all evidence to the contrary and I think...hmm, might some Americans have a problem w/ foreigners?

I mean in every case you can dress up the drama in a veneer of earnest rationality that sounds something like:

a) An appeal for law & order and securing our borders (ie. why we need to ship all the brownies back across the border)

b) A concern that terrorists will claim victory when a mosque is built in America (ie. why freedom of religion means some religions are freer than others)

c) A need to protect the Presidency & the nation from foreign interlopers (ie. facts & evidence be damned get that Hussein boy out the White House!)

However much lipstick you put on it, there's a whole lot of BS in this bacon.  It seems to me like "outsiders" are the scapegoats of the day, in perfect accordance with historical precedent.  Fortunately we live in a world where we can make our voices heard more widely & effectively than our forebears could have imagined.  So here's my message to the nation:

Dear America,

Hi, I'm an American.  I'm also an immigrant.  Unlike the president I was actually born in Africa.  I am very proud of this. I have two homes, one in Ghana where my grandma lives and one in California where my baby girl will soon be born.  She's not an anchor...she's a baby, just like yours.

I like cheeseburgers, Kosher hot dogs, Jollof rice & fried plantains.  I am also big on arroz con pollo.  I carry Accra and Brooklyn in my heart & in my voice.  I love them both.  I believe in law & order.  I also believe it can live in harmony with human compassion and rational social & economic policies.  Estoy aprendiendo Español although I still suck at it.  I came here long ago from a place far, far away.  I believe America is all the greater for being home to people like me.

Picante Wishes & Apple-Pie Dreams,

D.N.A

Black Star Shining

So everybody & their mommy is asking me who I'm rooting for in today's US v Ghana match.  There is no right answer to that question! lol  My dad called me yesterday w/ the argument that he needs a visa to go to Accra, but he doesn't need one to go to Manhattan.  So that wise old man born & bred in Ghana is rooting for...yup you guessed it USA!!

Once my pops made this declaration my Auntie & I spent about 3mins hurling partisan invective at him.  It reminded me of the intra-familial divide during the Obama v Clinton primary.  My sister & I were early on the Hope train, while our foks were convinced that Hillary was "The One."

Well we know how that turned out.

I'm broadcasting in an hour & will be watching the first half of the match online before racing to get to the local pub where fans of all stripes will be raising pure heck!  And I will be there, loud & proud rooting for GHANA!!!

No it's not because I'm not patriotic, and it's not because I don't love the stars n stripes.  But when I took my citizenship they said I had to renounce all foreign princes & potentates.  They didn't say anything about soccer teams...

I ain't never showed love to another potentate. I'm Obama all the way! lol  But it's times like this when you get to meet the REAL Africans.  I'm talking about the ones that eat fufu & palmnut soup son.  Hawaii is sunny and all, but it ain't the same - don't let the birthers fool you.  Everybody knows real Africans live in the Bronx (though I still rep BK all the way)!

The greatest irony is that Ghanaians LOVE the USA!  And most Americans who know anything about it LOVE Ghana!  The flag above is one that was designed for Obama's first visit to Africa as President, and where did he go?  GHANA.  And he loved it.

So here we are, brothers & sisters in a house divided.  I usually give Team USA full dap in all sports.  But until the US gets rid of these laws that prevent people like me from being President, I'm a' keep a special place on the football field for the African skies under which I was born.

Today Ghana represents Africa's last World Cup hope for the next four years.  In the first World Cup on African soil, we are the only African team to advance past the opening round.  So as always let me say God Bless the USA.  But may God make the Black Stars shine BRIGHTER today! :)

GO GHANA!!

D.N.A