You don't even need to go that far, you can just point out Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Mkrumah, Marcus Garvey*, Leonard Howell, Toussaint Louverture, Masna Musa, and someone educated on world history can probably name many more without reaching.
*Immigrated to America, might not count for our purpose
To be fair, they probably also think the most influential Jews, Hispanic people, Asians, Arabs, and every other non-white groups in the world were also American.
While you definitely have a point, I think there is a special level of myopia here because of how Africans in America were deliberately separated from their cultural heritage and ancestry during the slave trade, largely unlike those other groups, which I think creates some of the disconnect in how African nations are discussed compared to, say, Brazil or India. It makes it easier to develop a hyperfocus on "the people of Africa" being African-Americans rather than the people who currently live in Africa, who are treated as an afterthought.
If you look at how Hispanic or Indian people in America are treated almost like they are immigrants even if they are 5th generation, i.e. that they are "from" their ancestors' countries rather than their actual birthplace, I think this becomes apparent.
"The most influential black people in the world have been American"
Ignorant piece of shit.
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You don't even need to go that far, you can just point out Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Mkrumah, Marcus Garvey*, Leonard Howell, Toussaint Louverture, Masna Musa, and someone educated on world history can probably name many more without reaching.
*Immigrated to America, might not count for our purpose
To be fair, they probably also think the most influential Jews, Hispanic people, Asians, Arabs, and every other non-white groups in the world were also American.
That’s not true. The most famous Asian is Jackie Chan, and he’s British
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While you definitely have a point, I think there is a special level of myopia here because of how Africans in America were deliberately separated from their cultural heritage and ancestry during the slave trade, largely unlike those other groups, which I think creates some of the disconnect in how African nations are discussed compared to, say, Brazil or India. It makes it easier to develop a hyperfocus on "the people of Africa" being African-Americans rather than the people who currently live in Africa, who are treated as an afterthought.
If you look at how Hispanic or Indian people in America are treated almost like they are immigrants even if they are 5th generation, i.e. that they are "from" their ancestors' countries rather than their actual birthplace, I think this becomes apparent.