You. So I was having a conversation. Happy Sunday. First. Happy Sunday. Twelve family, friends and followers. So I was having a conversation, and it brought me to some questions. So I want to ask them on here. And I want to get different people. I want the different perspectives, male, female, want the different perspectives. And then after a few people have responded, then I will give more. I'll give more context. So what makes you black?
Angela Kaye
@AnngieKaye · 3:28
Andrea, this is a tough one, and I'm gonna tell you why. Because I've been studying lately, not even lately, like, in the past five years. So, first of all, I don't call myself african American. Not at all. I am not an african citizen, and I'm just gonna be real. There's a good chance that myself and a good number of people with my skin color are not from Africa
Andrea Piggue
@Andrea_Speaks · 1:41
No, you're actually dead on. Thank you for commenting. I'm still not going to comment because I still want to hear some other people's. Some other people's. I'm sorry, I probably was covering the mic. I want to hear some other people's comments, so I'm still not going to comment yet. However, I believe everything that you said and everything that you said makes perfectly good sense to me
Kitha Larie
@chitchatwithkk · 0:50
So that's why I'm black. Just plain and simple. That's what makes me black, because that's who I see myself as. That's why. Just simple. Just a simple answer for me. But I don't care how society judges me, but I do care how I see me, and I see me as black
Andrea Piggue
@Andrea_Speaks · 1:55
For me personally, I don't know how other people are going to respond or what they're going to think or what they're going to say on this. Well, however, I want people to be their authentic self and really, truly answer how they feel and how they see themselves because that's what matters. Right. Yeah. Listen, honestly, I really just want to get different perspectives because. And I'm going to put mine on here. I'm going to put on here
Maurice Aoki
@mauriceaoki · 2:06
I'm glad this topic came up, and I appreciate everybody's comment who commented before. And thank you for the to the person who initiated the topic. And I'm responding because this jars a lot of thoughts inside of me. First of all, black. I consider myself to be black. I'm aware partly that I have some origins from Africa, from my lineage, way back my predecessors, West African, just because I only got a partial 23 in me
Evelyn Phipps
@LadyFi · 4:23
Most of us have come from someplace in Africa and have descended to America, and that's what makes us consider myself. I don't call myself an african American unless I'm addressing a question that's posed to me in that specific manner. Other than that, I am a black woman. Now, if you want to get scientific. Now, the black women have what we call the Eve genome within us
Lolita Eaddy
@Woodiemountain · 1:07
The love of my ancestors is what makes me black. My sophisticatedness, my strength, my elegance, these are the things that makes me who I am black and
Robert Jenkins
@Guruball1 · 1:35
Well, I say I'm black because I have melanin, which is a high rate in my body, which causes our skins to be melanated, to be colored deeply. Also allows me to taste oranges for the exact flavor of what they're supposed to be. We actually see color and exactly what the color it's supposed to be
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Moe Johnson
@NeophyteSavant · 5:00
It doesn't tell where a person come from, and it doesn't tell who a person is. Another thing is that being identified as black doesn't necessarily connect you to a homeland. It don't. I'm not going to say that I'm african. I'm not going to say I'm african american or Afro American. I'm not gonna say I'm from Africa, not because I wasn't born there, and I'm not talking about the origins of humanity
Angela Kaye
@AnngieKaye · 3:11
The way I see it, if roots have been established here for generations and we need to talk about before slavery, I'm just going to be real. Do I think over 2 million Africans were captured or sold into slavery from their homeland and brought across the ocean? I do not. I am not going to give the colonizers that much credit. That was quite the undertaking. That ain't happening
Andrea Piggue
@Andrea_Speaks · 4:59
So my mother is mexican, my father is black. And so he was like, well, which one do you choose? Because you have two races to choose from. So you technically could date a mexican person and still be dating inside your race. And I was like, well, no, not for me. I said for me, because I was raised by a black couple and I identify myself as black, right? I identify myself as black
Andrea Piggue
@Andrea_Speaks · 2:42
And it made me really question, why do I identify myself as black, right? And what makes me black? And so when you said the absence of or void of light or the absence of whatever, right? And when you said the absence of your history, that makes sense to me. And that actually resonates with me, right. Especially on my adoption journey where I found my biological family
Andrea Piggue
@Andrea_Speaks · 1:54
And then we could say that some of our lighter skinned brothers and sisters who, who are lighter skin, lighter complexed, they don't have as much melanin either. Right. So then does that make them less black? Right. I'm just throwing it out there. But yes, a lot of people say that that's why they identify as black is because of the melanin in their skin. And I understand that. Right. I understand that
Andrea Piggue
@Andrea_Speaks · 4:43
Because it doesn't matter for me, when anybody tries to call me african American, I always correct them. I'd always tell them, I'm not african american, I'm american. And this is going to sound really bad. I really don't have a desire to go to Africa. I know some people are like, oh, I want to go to the homeland. I want to go to Africa. Yeah. I don't have that desire
Andrea Piggue
@Andrea_Speaks · 4:05
Yes, my ancestors, probably years ago, were from Africa. Yeah. My ancestry DNA says that I have nigerian blood in me. Right. So, yeah. You know what I mean? So, yeah, that is there. But where is it? Right. Because my dad has never been to Africa either, and he doesn't identify as african American either. Right. So those are just words that people put on us the same way as the word black was put on us
Maurice Aoki
@mauriceaoki · 5:00
And then you can begin to explain why you might like certain rhythms, why you might have a knack for a particular talent, why your Persona is xYz. Whatever attributes or characteristics you have, where do they stem from? What people, what group of people are responsible for making up the beautiful, multifaceted person?
Moe Johnson
@NeophyteSavant · 4:57
Now, let me create a scenario really quickly. Let's say, for example, you have Mr. And Mrs. Blase blah. Mr. And Mrs. Blase blah have a baby we're going to call a baby. Baby blase blah. Baby blase blah, somehow, for whatever reason, is raised by Mr. And Mrs. You know who. Baby blase blah grow up not realizing that Mr. And Mrs. You know who are not the real parents
Angela Kaye
@AnngieKaye · 4:14
In your example, I don't want to misquote your example, but in your example, you talked about the heritage of the people, and I think that's what I'm getting at. We come from people. We don't come from places. And so, like you said, even if your baby is born in Canada on a vacation, that baby's not canadian. That baby's not from Canada. That baby is from their parents. And so what is the parents'heritage?
Maurice Aoki
@mauriceaoki · 4:00
It's a great travesty that went on with the experience of being black or brown or melanated or however you want to say. Thanksgiving Day was not a happy time. It was a massacre. People were taken from their sense of self by force. So for me, it is very important for me to one day retrace those steps and find out where my lineage derived from my tribe, my culture. Because a lot of people have a country
Andrea Piggue
@Andrea_Speaks · 1:20
It's not like the baby's going to have dual citizenship. You know what I mean? Canada and United States. That's not how it works. So. Yeah, I get that part. I get that part. And again, it's okay to disagree. It's okay to have differing opinions, differing perspectives. And really, I made a, made a post. Made a, I replied in here and, and said why? I actually made this
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 2:25
You. What a great question, and I'm so excited to share my thoughts with you, because blackness isn't one thing. It doesn't come in one shape, one color, one hue, one hair texture. It is a multitude of, essentially, a rainbow within a rainbow. And what I love about being black, and I do identify as a black person, is for a variety reasons. First. Absolutely. I think genetics play a role in it
