If they're anti-FBA, then sure. There are some Black immigrants who are cool, so I can't paint them all with the same brush.
Yeah, I think some tethers are okay, I'm cool with a bunch of them actually. The tethers who like to take away from our culture are the ones that i'm not too fond of, and also the illegal immigrated tethers too I don't like also. But if you're an honest tether living in someone elses land, then I have no problems with them whatsoever. All I've said also goes with YTs also.If they're anti-FBA, then sure. There are some Black immigrants who are cool, so I can't paint them all with the same brush.
However, I look at the tethers who try to claim our culture/struggle/achievement/holidays/etc. the same way I look at white folks who try to eat off of us. They're culture vultures.
I'm not really using it as a insult though, it's just less wordy to not say "Caribbean and Africans", or "Foreign born Blacks that aren't African-American ethnically", or something along those lines. Don't take the word that serious, it has barely any history behind it anyways. It has a nifty use if you look past the people who use it to offend other people (Which it's not a very offensive word to begin with anyways).I hate the term "tether" when it is used as a synonym for "Non-Black American". When you call everyone that is not Black American a tether you are basically making your own version of akata. But tether in the since of it being an Black immigrant coon then I feel the same about them as I do Kanye West and Larry Elder.
That's the same thing the Nigerians say when we take issue with Akata. Calling a Black person that is not a coon, that's on code, a tether simply because they are not Black American is offensive. Nothing about the word tether is good. equis is Caribbean and that's a stomp down dude, I wouldn't dare call him a tether.
Not all immigrants are tethers. The term "tether" is reserved for the ones who try to tie (tether) themselves to our culture and leech off of us.
It's not supposed to be a good word. It's a purposefully vitriolic term that's used to describe off code & offensive behavior. That word is for culture thieves.
Yet another right wing ideology that Tariq has injected into Black society.
Why would WE of all people take offense to a word from a Nigerian LMAO
Exactly. My main thing is folks being able to have dialogue. When I see these campaigns that break that down and turn our negative energy into a destructive force instead of a constructive force, it's huge red flags.
Because that word is a pejorative towards us. It's like when a Mexican person calls us a "mayate" it's calling us the "N-Word" but in their language. Disregarding someone calling us the "N-Word" because it is in another language is not a smart move.Why would WE of all people take offense to a word from a Nigerian LMAO
Idk if Akata is a good word or bad word, but it has no history with us so I don't even care, nor do I associate with any Nigerians to begin with. But from what I heard, Akata is a word for an animal (I think a wild cat), which is basically calling us out of our humanity, while the "tether" word isn't just downright saying that they're not human like Akata is. Tether used as an insult is a kindergardener insult, it has no punch to it, so I doubt any tethers would take any offense to the word tbh.
I don't really see any Africans, nor Caribbeans rioting over the stupid word I'm not even using in a derogatory manner. Why are we always outraged for other groups, if they hate the word, then they would say it; they just simply do not care as much as you think they do.
I fully agree. That dude Mel from Secure the Tribe is one of them who is in a FBA group while pretending to be one of us.
I second this! A lot of people will use tether as a carpet bomb style term against all blacks of non US descent. I see it used in that context more than any other. Someone like me might be dispassionate about the word, but most people will take offense to such a term since people are people and one thing that comes with that is egos and pride. If someone's intention isn't to offend, then I'd be careful with the use of the word. But if folks want to keep using the word in broad terms that's fine. People just have to recognize how folks are gonna react to it.
What about those who were born and raised in the US around American blacks and don't strongly identify with their country of origin? Of course there's no excuse for usurping FBA culture like Busta Rhymes did by trying to say Jamaicans formed hip hop. That kind of line crossing should be checked. But besides examples like that, where are the lines in the sand drawn?
I'd liken the people who you described in your first question to white people who grew up in Black areas. Wiggers. The type of white folks who feel like they can say the n-word because they grew up around Black people. They may not identify with white culture (whatever that is), at all. However, just because they'd prefer fried chicken to kale salad doesn't change the fact that they aren't us.
Exactly. How can we be upset with them calling us Akatas if we are calling them Tethers?
That's a different case with white people since they're from a different racial group and they don't have a history tied to things such as slavery. So in this example a black person who had Bermudan ancestors but grew up in America would be wrong to identify with American black culture? If so, would he be better suited to turn away from his American upbringing and try to reconnect with his Burmudan culture?
White people absolutely DO have a history with American chattel slavery; they were the ones who enslaved us. They're actually a great example, because we're two sides.of the American coin.
For purposes of reparations, I would agree with anyone saying he shouldn't get it. There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of blacks in America who aren't FBA but all they know is black American culture and actually roll mentally with black American culture than their ancestral culture. So much so, natives from his ancestral culture don't even see him as one of their own. I know a sista in Senegal who brought her kids there from the USA at an early age to 'build in Africa', single mom, FBA, kids born FBA, but her kids speak 100% no accent wolof, move like Senegalese and you wouldn't know they were FBAs on the street. At home their mom speaks like an FBA and they can to some degree. They don't visit the states and its all they know. So, I've seen it in reverse.
It took whites 60 years to enslave us, with the help of Spaniards & Indians. They damn sure couldn't have done it without help, even with their weapons!
I do want to clarify what I meant when I said the white person in your example didn't have a history of slavery. I meant a history of being enslaved themselves. Of course whites were the ones doing the enslaving.
My father's parents are from Jamaica. My mom from Harlem. I put Caribbean on here from the jump. No secret.
Agreed. However, even though most Black people in The Americas were affected by slavery, the countries who enslaved our ancestors differ. The United States owes me reparations, England owes you. I have no right to the check you get from England, and you have no claim to to what I am owed. We need to keep the accounting straight.
You actually already provided a great answer to that in one of your earlier posts when you mentioned Busta Rhymes (and Fat Joe) trying to claim credit for Caribbeans creating hip hop.
I'm a fan of history. One of my favorite historical figures is King Shaka. As impressed as I am by his military accomplishments, as a Black American, I have no cultural connection to anything that he did. On the flip side, my African brothers can't claim a connection to Dr. Charles Drew's medical accomplishments.
In this case I wasn't bringing up the shared history in order to overlap our struggles in the context of reparations. I'm referring to the daily social interactions between FBA and non-FBA blacks. Yes the US and England are two different countries now, but before July 4th of 1776, FBA were still enslaved under the English crown. Us having a shared history doesn't take away from the fact that the United States owes FBA reparations and Non-FBA shouldn't be impeding on that at all. There's definitely an agreement there. But I've been noticing that there's a growing animosity towards non-FBA blacks due to this notion that they're somehow going to take reparations from the FBA. While I do agree there's plenty of money hungry non-FBA negros with no integrity that would gladly take a slice out of that pie, the main thing barring FBA from reparations isn't other blacks, it's the white supremacist system. This fear of the non-FBA coming and scavenging off the reparations owed to the FBA has shifted the focus and conversation from fighting white supremacy to "we've gotta do something about these tethers".
I could get with that more or less. I do believe that there should be more international black support for the FBA fight for reparations though, but these are getting into some deeper topics though.
This.I hate the term "tether" when it is used as a synonym for "Non-Black American". When you call everyone that is not Black American a tether you are basically making your own version of akata. But tether in the since of it being an Black immigrant coon then I feel the same about them as I do Kanye West and Larry Elder.
I think what could be changed to combat this, is just respect other Black peoples differences. We are not all the same (obviously), and that can be used to our strength, because when outsiders to your culture try to lay claim to something that's not theirs, it creates alot of division too, I'm okay with anyone gatekeeping their culture if they feel like the individual at hand are disrespecting them. We are all Black, but we gotta remember we are all humans, and humans look for a sense of an exclusive community and customs, and they like to preserve them too, so I understand why someone would feel some type of way about it.
I absolutely have no problems with non-FBAs, as long as they're on code, then I'm okay with them, but I like to keep safe sometimes and expect the worst out of tethers until proven otherwise.
My biggest issue is how it was used so loosely in the beginning. When it started getting out of control that’s when the “non-Black coon” definition was reinforced.
I can’t co-sign this at all. Maybe superficially but culturally two Black Americans will have more in common than someone of a difficult culture. A Black New Yorker and a Black Californian are not that different when you get passed the regional differences.
