Tara King

You know it’s bad when White Americans hop in the chat to confirm what we’ve always known—what our parents always told us about the African, the Caribbean and the “me-no-blauk.” Antiblack racism perpetrated against us by black immigrants and other POC is a form of performative ass-kissing for the ruling class. The immigrant comes, gets a leg up by hating who the white man hates. This has ALWAYS included nonAmerican “black skins.” We are accustomed to it. It’s that they lie about it while trying to force their way into Black American society—DEMANDING the pairing of ‘African’ with ‘American’ as a label on us so that THEY can further benefit from a legacy they’ve contributed nothing to. This is the epitome of self-hate. And all while fleeing like orphans from lands they couldn’t care less to cultivate, leaving behind (and still selling) their own kin…to come and live in our house and talk down on us to historical enemies. I don’t care how much they’ve frustrated me, I’ve NEVER fixed my mouth to speak about what prolific failures they are in mixed company. Never. Half a millennia since “slave days” and not a thing to show for the sell of our ancestors on that wretched continent…That’s why they are here, deflecting: don’t look at how inept we are; just look at us—not being Black Americans. We have to accept that they, too, are enemies unless and until proven otherwise. And even then, “trust but verify.”