I suppose I can come up with many questions before I experience the meeting of these two cultures myself in China, but that just seems counter-productive. In his article, McLaughlin concludes that "the two cultures have much to teach each other...but they must accept they have something to learn," and that seems like the big take-away: greater than any apparent cultural differences should be the desire to learn from each other.
I look forward to learning with all of you! :)
Trying to fit in
Chinedu Ezeamuzie, 21, of Athens, Georgia, arrived in 2003. He had spent the majority of his life in Jabriya, Kuwait, and came to the U.S. to pursue his education.
The recent Georgia Tech graduate said he considers himself Nigerian because his parents -- both from the village of Uga -- instilled in their four children strong Nigerian values of family, community, spirituality and self-betterment.
In Athens, Ezeamuzie found his ideals at odds with those who shared his skin color at Clarke Central High School, his first stint in a public school.
On his first day, he donned khakis, a button-down dress shirt and nice leather shoes. He caught the African-Americans' attention upon stepping into the cafeteria, he said.
"They give me the look," he said. "Why is this guy dressed like the white folks, like the preppy guys?"
Ezeamuzie didn't understand why so few black students were in his advanced-placement classes. He didn't understand the de facto lunchroom segregation or the accusing glances he got for eating with white classmates. One classmate called him a traitor and asked, "Do you not like black people?"
"My whole life I had reaped benefits from being in different circles and bridging them," so he wanted to fit in, he said.
He found clothes akin to what he saw many African-Americans wearing --- baggy pants and an oversized T-shirt. He relaxed his British-trained tongue and tried out for the basketball team, the 6-foot-5 Ezeamuzie said.
Ezeamuzie recalled finding himself more confused by his experience with some African-Americans: Why were they so cliquish? Why did they mock students for being intelligent? Why were they homophobic and bent on using the n-word? Why did every conversation seem to involve drugs, girls or materialism?
"They kind of accepted me. They saw me a little differently, but I was thinking this is a very narrow mindset," Ezeamuzie said.
Ezeamuzie and other Africans say they feel African-Americans too often dwell on slavery and the racism that has persisted for more than a century since the Emancipation Proclamation.
"We have all been tortured," said iReporter Vera Ezimora, 24, a Nigerian student living in Baltimore, Maryland. "Now that we are free, holding on to the sins of white men who have long died and gone to meet their maker is more torture than anything we have suffered."
Values at core of misunderstanding?
Martin Mohammed, president of the U.S. African Chamber of Commerce, estimates there are 3 million African immigrants in the U.S. -- about twice the U.S. Census Bureau estimate. He has heard from numerous immigrants struggling to find commonalities with Americans who share their skin color.
Mohammed emigrated from Somalia in 1998 and is now naturalized. He considers himself African-American, but "it does not mean that I have already assimilated into the culture."
Values and upbringings may lie at the center of the cultures' misunderstanding of each other, he said.
Many Africans come to the U.S. to escape dire conditions such as poverty or civil war. Their objectives are often advancing their education or finding good jobs, Mohammed said.
They also strive to reunite their families, or at least support them back home. Remittances from the U.S. to Africa total about $20 billion annually, according to the World Bank.
However, African immigrants find that education and good jobs elude their African-American brethren, and there is a perception that many African-American men aren't committed to supporting their families, Mohammed said.
The two cultures have much to teach each other -- especially politically and economically -- but they must accept they have something to learn.
"Honestly, what we need to do is realize both cultures are important," Mohammed said.
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