Shawn Williams in Dallas Morning News: A lesson from black immigrants
Categories: Culture, Featured, Shawn Williams
Written By: Shawn Williams
Here’s the DMN Points article that’s available online now, or in the early Sunday paper. Thanks to Nicole Stockdale for the real estate.
Who would have ever thought that America’s chief executive and top cop would be African-Americans, at the same time no less? And that their administration would be endorsed by one of the most beloved black military figures in U.S. history?
Yes Barack Obama, Eric Holder and Colin Powell are at the pinnacle of African-American achievement. But as I’ve reflected on these three men for the last few weeks, I keep coming back to one undeniable similarity: These three men are all the sons of immigrants.
We all know that Barack Obama’s father was born in Kenya and traveled to this country to pursue his education. But fewer people are aware that Colin Powell’s parents came to this country from the island of Jamaica or that Eric Holder’s father was born in Barbados.
While each of them have very different backgrounds and compelling stories that brought them to this point in history, it is worth exploring what their immigrant heritage and outstanding accomplishments mean for African-Americans who descended from slaves.
Whether from Mozambique or Mexico, Iran or Italy, those who choose to cast their lot on a move to America do so in hopes of providing a better life for themselves and their families. Yet what’s seen as the Land of Opportunity for some is viewed as a perpetual nightmare by others.
In the African-American community, we often give too much power to fear and hate mongers and not enough credit those who rally to defeat them. We overrate prejudicial institutions and their racist defenders and undervalue the strength that lies within us to overcome life’s obstacles.
Our mothers, fathers and grandparents are reluctant to give us firsthand accounts of their experiences in the Jim Crow South. That’s because the focus tends to be on the indignities they suffered rather than the fortitude they showed in prevailing over government-sanctioned discrimination.
I remember asking my late grandmother which of her ancestors was held in slavery or whether she knew how her family got to America. Her answer was always the same: “None of my people was slaves or from Africa. My people come here from Tennessee.” Even as a fourth-grader, I realized this could not be true.
It turns out that her maternal grandfather, Jack Woodard, was held in slavery in Tennessee until he was 15 and the Civil War ended. My great-great grandfather could not read or write, and yet he managed to relocate his family to Fannin County, Texas, where he purchased a 16-acre farm. He achieved much more than his background or circumstances would have dictated.
That is the same type of story of hard work and success you hear every day from immigrant families – but is all but forgotten in the annals of African-American history.
African immigrants are traveling to the U.S. in the same vein as my ancestors and unlocking the secrets to the American Dream.
Africans attain higher education levels than any other immigrant group in the U.S., including that of Asians. Nearly two-thirds of black students at Ivy League schools are African immigrants, rather than African-Americans who trace their roots back to slavery, according to The New York Times.
These numbers don’t just apply to first-generation immigrants, but second- and third-generation, as well.
Black immigrants – whether from the continent of Africa or the islands of the Caribbean – come to this country facing most of the same challenges and barriers that confront multi-generational black Americans; they have just done a better job of rising above them.
As African-Americans, we have to take the shackles off our children’s imaginations. We have to stop telling them what America won’t let them grow to be and instead encourage them to go out make their dreams come true.
African-Americans, Caribbeans and Africans share more similarities than differences. Obama himself once said that “some of the patterns of struggle and degradation that blacks here in the United States experienced aren’t that different from the colonial experience in the Caribbean or the African continent.”
African-Americans should celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama, recognizing that although America is a country that still harbors racist tendencies, it is also a place where blacks can overcome those impediments to achieve high levels of success. We can simultaneously fight injustice and teach our children of the incredible opportunities this country has to offer.
January 3rd, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Despite enslavement…overseers, Southern militias, shackles, the Underground Railroad, the Civil War, First World War and start of the Great Depression; over a million African Americans journeyed to The Promised Land. Because of that, opportunity for all is now possible. Obama, Holder and Powell are manifestations of dreams undeferred. Thank you Mr. Williams for an exceptional read. The day has truly come for the content of our character (as a people) to wake in awe of (our) reality.
Here’s to praying your fingers continue to stroke the keypad for the benefit of your readers.
Double kudos and two snaps on the article….
God Bless!
January 4th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Shawn,
Great article. On point! My folks are from Barbados so I can relate to the article. My family worked hard sometimes two and three jobs. My grandmother, grandfather and mother, always thought blacks born in America were lazy in their work and school habits compared to people from the West Indies. I think blacks in America can learn a lot from black immigrants - I know I did.
AAPP
January 5th, 2009 at 6:51 am
Great article Shawn!
“As African-Americans, we have to take the shackles off our children’s imaginations. We have to stop telling them what America won’t let them grow to be and instead encourage them to go out make their dreams come true.”
^^^^This is one reason I am working so hard towards a Ph.D. (that I do not want) because; my grandmother has it in her head that I am going to have more initials behind my name, and that’s just that no talking back.
My mom and granny did a great job of getting us ready for facing racism and understanding that we ultimately control our future with the decisions we make.
They never once told me that I could not be someone. I still remember in our bathroom my grandmother had a wrinkled yellowing piece of paper taped to the inside of the cabinet and it read loosely “I know I’m somebody because God don’t make no junk”.
January 5th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Kristin,
I had a sticker with that same slogan taped on my door. Maybe we just need to mass produce the message and just start hanging it up in peoples house.
January 5th, 2009 at 9:01 am
I agree with you Shawn. We must remove the self imposed limitations from our minds and then transfer that same determination to our children. We can no longer sit back and say that someone else has held us back. We must take personal responsibility!
January 5th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Kristen you sound just as bull-headed as me. Are you a Taurus, too? I have a 4 year old daughter and she wanted a doctor’s play set. She was playing with it at my mom’s house and my mom said “you want to be a nurse when you grow up”…and I replied “no…she’s a very smart child. She will be a doctor”. Not that I think you don’t have to be smart to be a nurse…but I didn’t like that limitation put on my 4 year old. My mom laughed and said “huh…whatever”.
January 5th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Shawn,
Excellent article. You make some very good points.
Duane
January 5th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I liked your grandma’s story about Tennessee. While it might have ignored actual history, it showed her pride in her family, her interest in her roots, and her unwillingness to buy into the politics of victimhood. Sounds like a great lady!
January 6th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Dear Sir,
I sometimes tune in to NPR and today was one of those days I’m glad I did. I heard your message about money and the comment about finishing well. I, in many respects, did not start properly but I have hopes to finish well. I’m taking measures to move in a better direction and your message helped me this morning. I just wanted you to know. I have rarely responded to anything but I was inspired.
Happy New Year! Peace and blessings to you, your wife and son.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Congrats on this POINTS piece. I thought you made great points and in a way that resonated. Happy New Year, Rawlins
January 7th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Don’t forget to add Susan E. Rice, Obama’s choice for the Ambassador to the United Nations. She is the daughter and granddaughter of Jamaican immigrants.
My argument has been told to several people that if they knew their history, they’d know that there was really no difference between colonialism and slavery.
The hard work ethic is ingrained in the mindset of many immigrants to this country not just those of African ancestry. The problem for many of our people as of now has not been racist policies but rather a lack of determination and hard work.
Any obstacles placed before anyone can be removed, those placed there personally are solely up to the individual to remove. Several people have limited themselves by being blind to numerous opportunities in front of them, only to have them recognized by the very people who have come here with nothing but a dream.