In recent years, “Diaspora Wars'' between different ethnic groups across the African diaspora have repeatedly popped up on our social media timelines. We should never believe these lies that these interactions brew.
NEVER.
Lie #1: We're In Competition
We all know that Blackness is not monolithic. While we won't agree on everything, we don't need to. Sometimes our differences cause friction, but we're not in competition. We DO share a common enemy: white supremacy.
Lie #2: No Commonalities
One of the biggest commonalities across the diaspora is the food we eat. Rice, okra, ackee, and yams are loved across various Black cultures.
Language keeps us bonded too. Our accents and vocabularies differ from Brazil to Baltimore to Brixton, but many creole and pidgin-based languages have linguistic similarities.
Lie #3: No Unity
We've been practicing Pan-Africanism since enslavement when Black people from various ethnicities banded together to create new cultures and revolt against white supremacy. Despite our differences, there is no denying the strength of our unity.
Beyond all of these commonalities, the biggest one we share is Blackness."Diaspora Wars" are a tool of white supremacy. Although our culture varies significantly across the diaspora, we're a lot stronger together. In a world of white supremacy, the way we come together to build means EVERYTHING for the future of our people.