CULTURE
Why Mocking Black Americans For Speaking English is Tone Deaf
The diaspora wars have taken a strange turn
“When two brothers fight, a stranger reaps the harvest" is an African proverb worth remembering, especially in the context of diaspora wars, where Black people from various cultural backgrounds bicker amongst themselves. Another way of saying this would be that when two groups of Black people fight, white supremacy reaps the harvest. At least that's how it felt seeing a viral tweet taunting Black Americans for speaking English and not any of their original African languages. While it's true that most Black Americans only speak English, it's tone-deaf to present this information without explaining why this linguistic phenomenon exists.
Africa is a continent filled with various countries, ethnicities, languages, and cultural practices. However, Black Americans whose ancestors were enslaved by European colonists come primarily from West and Central Africa. So, why don’t most Black people speak African languages? On plantations in South America, the Caribbean, and America, White people forbid enslaved Africans from speaking their original languages, afraid they would use their native tongue to plan uprisings. If enslaved Africans could have kept their language, spiritual, and cultural practices, they would…
