S4E144 More of the diaspora grift

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Transcript

Speaker 1 (0s): Good morning bows and bow ties. So I, you know, I don't know why, but I haven't been wanting to come on camera lately, but I'll do a brief cameo. Hello? Hello. Yeah, I'll do a brief cameo. I'll see how long this lasts, but I don't know, lately I just haven't been feeling this whole camera thing. But I just wanna talk a little bit about, I hope you guys can hear me. What is, what is going on? Okay. I just want to talk a little bit about the diaspora Grift.

So I'm always torn because on the one hand, I don't wish for there to be any division between people who look like me, who live here in the States and those in the Caribbean, and those who are in Europe, and those who are on the continent. But I think for me, it just seems so scuzzy for me because when I see what's happening, like when I see what comes up in my feed, and sometimes I just try to like get past it, right?

I see so many people who look like me, but not necessarily, you know, from Black American culture. And I find that they tend to create all kinds of content about black Americans. And it's, it's, it's, it's coming off to me. You're just dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty. It, it's the feel that I get almost as if like, when they make their content, they make it about black Americans, right?

When they're not really of this culture. And I'm sitting here like, what is happening here? Because you have a whole rich culture that you could be making content about, and yet you don't. And there's so many ways of slicing it, you know, I have all kinds of opinions on it. I, I, I'm not quite sure where I'm settled on, on my thoughts on this. I say this because on the one hand I'm like, are you embarrassed of your culture?

And I say this on the other hand, is it more so that you want to be part of my culture, even though I don't like to claim all parts of it? I know that's shady, right? I just find it to be just, it's, it's giving real scuzzy, real dirty. Because when they are reporting, a lot of times it's not necessarily favorable. And I shouldn't say reporting, I would say creating content. And yet there, there, there's this hyper focus on, on black American culture.

I see many of these female contents, these, they get out here and, And they, they, they clip, they take all these clips primarily from TikTok, from Black American women, and then they create content about it, surrounding it, of it, et cetera. And I'm like, why aren't you creating content on your culture? Everybody wants to piece a black culture. I think everybody wants a piece of black American culture, black women culture, really.

And so, like, if, if I thought it was balanced, then I'd be like, eh, you know, but I, I struggle with it because it's, it's the, the, I don't know, it's, the optics of it don't necessarily look good. I, I know I did a video on this before when I remember, I'm gonna go back and I'll put a part up like linking directly to the video, but I just don't understand why there is this hyperfocus. They, they, they talk about how we don't have culture and all these other things.

And yet there's this hyperfocus on black record culture. I noticed that there are so many, like black, I would say British actors, cosplay a black American. Yes, they're cosplaying people at this point. They're cosplaying culture. Like, I, I don't understand the, the fascination, like, I mean, I guess 'cause we're just living our lives. Like we're not going out of our way to coplay anything related to them.

We're not trying to pretend we're a black Caribbean or black European or any of those things, right? We don't do that. But they try to mimic our culture. And, and yet the very thing that they say they, that we don't have is a very thing that is, is happening. And, but like I said, they play these roles oftentimes and or, or whatever it is. And, and it's like not always the most favorable. They are studying down to the way we, our culture, our accent, et cetera.

And I'm like, well, the question is, do you not tap a culture over in Europe then, right now? Of course we know the answer to that. Of course, they have culture, but we don't seem to really be interested. I I would say in mass of black European culture, that's not to say that there is no interest, but en mass, we're not interested in taking on those roles, creating roles centered around it, centered around everybody like that. Because, you know, if you're born here in America, we tend to be self-centered.

We tend to think it's all about us, right? But it's just so interesting to me that I see these diaspora content creators creating these videos about, and it's usually centered around the Black American issues or, or whatever's the zeitgeist other day, whatever's at the moment. And then there, there, there's this, this, like, when you listen to people, like whenever they're being interviewed or whatever, they, they don't really always speak of black Americas favorably.

There's so much I wanna say about this, but I don't really have tons of time as I, you know, make my way into an easy day at work, hopefully. But yeah, so like, you know, I can think like now, like a lot of times I don't go out of my way to support a whole lot of work. Actually. I'm not really interested in a whole lot of black work anyway. And I'll tell you the reason why, because I usually don't see anything worthy of my time.

We don't just do regular stuff, like, like a science fiction or I don't know, a, a romance or like a fun, a fun movie, right? It's usually something centered around some sort of oppressive topic like slavery, poverty, drugs, bad black love. I don't wanna see that. So I usually do not, I do not, you know, participate in watching those movies.

Now, many people will probably, you know, question my support of the people. I'm like, well, my people need to support me. My people need to start enriching me too. Uplifting me too, and giving me something else. Because as far as I'm concerned, I am, you know, as a person who looks like me, I'm more than a person who, who wants to watch the same stuff. So usually when there's something that comes out, I don't even wanna see anything historical at this point, because most of the historical stuff that they bring out is always negative.

I don't wanna see anything on slavery. I don't wanna see anything on poverty. I don't wanna, I don't wanna see people overcoming like, you know what I wanna see, I wanna see somebody go into space and I wanna see, you know, a comedy that doesn't have to be so crass all the time. I wanna see, it could be something educational and uplifting. Like, I don't know the woman who invented penicillin part two. I mean, like, you know, I don't wanna, I don't want to see anybody's tragic horror, like tragic story played by a British person who does not know this culture.

But nevertheless, where I'm going with it is, I, I'm seeing these, these, I call it the diaspora grifters because they continually see, create these videos where they cosplay not, well, let me rephrase that. They're not cosplaying. They, the, the people who are on social media are creating content around black Americans. You got these home people who are not even part of the culture, not from here, whatever, but they wanna make all this content And they provide their thoughts on it.

I'm like, why aren't you making content about your own culture? What is going on about your own homeland? Why aren't you talking about what's going on there? And, and the next time somebody says, oh, black Americans don't have culture. I'm like, I would beg to differ. I would challenge them on that. I'm like, because you sure seem to wanna be everything that black Americans are. I'm like, what is going on in South Africa, Tanzania, I'm having a break up Zimbabwe, and I know those, that's, I know that's not the western portion of Africa.

What's going on in the Congo? What's going on in Nigeria? Nigeria? What's going on in what's going on in those places? What's going on in Sierra Leon? What's going on in Liberia? Now I know that I'm going up from the northern park. What's, what's going on in, in, in the Congo? I don't know. Did I say the Congo already? Did I say Congo? I wanna know what's going on in the, I don't know much about Maia, what's going on in those places? Because see, I see these, especially these women getting out there, creating northeast cliques, And they want to talk about black, black American issues, especially like female issues.

I'm like, yes, you are black, but you are not of the black American culture. Stop talking about things that you don't know. Stop disparaging a group of people. Won't you focus on your own? What secrets are you hiding? Now, the one thing I will say that they do right, is they do gate, gate, keep their homeland culture. But then I always say, I would challenge, I would push back on that, is if they're going to gate, keep your culture this day outta my culture, good, bad, or ugly.

You continues to say we don't have any culture, and yet you don't bring us into your culture. You don't invite us to the Nigerian and, and, and Ghanaian picnics, right? So, but I think the reason why I wanted to make a comment about this is, you know, on the one hand it's like you want to bring everybody in, but it's never really equal. It's never, it's never just right. It's never, it's never reciprocated. And I just kind of feel like, oh, wait a second.

If you are not gonna share a part of who you are and your culture, the good, bad, and the ugly, right? So we can get a whole picture of you this stay out of ours. We already know we have a messed up culture. This culture is jacked up, but then just have these randoms sitting there commenting on it. I'm like, but you don't get to talk about ours until you fix what's going on in your own country. If you flag in your own country, then you talk about what ails you for your country.

That's why I'm not with it. I mean, look, these are just, it is just an opinion. Okay, I've been wrong before. I'll be wrong again. But I mean, can my opinion really be wrong? I mean, I'm practically perfect in every way. I could do no wrong, right? And let me just say for the record, it's not that I don't want that kind of, you know, integration and collaboration, but I just feel like it's not reciprocated. And I feel like what they are putting out is just holistically not good stuff.

It's terrible. They would be upping arms if I started making content on Nigeria, they would lose their mind. So I guess this is a good time to end this video. It's like a little short rant, you know? But I mean, I said, what? I said, look, y'all just have to be mad. I'm, I mean, I don't hate anybody, but I'm just calling to think a thing. I'm like, because we know that y'all are out here in these streets doing us dirty, the constant, the constant judging and negative comments.

And yet I'm like, what are you hiding about your culture? What are you hiding about your culture? And why are you over here? All right? Don't be mad at me. Don't be mad at somebody else. Go fight with your mom. I don't know, but don't fight with me. Leave a comment. All right?

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