African immigrants learn to cope with Maine winters

[kandace]

kandace--



http://www.sunjournal.com/story/1005032

Interesting. I recalled Ebony did an article about Blacks in Vermont way back in the 1980s. One AA woman recalled going to see a physician about headaches. He said her headaches were caused by her Afro.

[pepper]

Nice human interest story. The real surprising fact is not that there are Africans who migrate to the US, it's surprising how relatively few do so. Since immigration reform in 1965, roughly 900,000 Africans have migrated to the United States, with the bulk having arrived since the late 1980s/early 1990s. That seems like an impressive number but when one considers that 21 million Africans migrated from their home countries in 2010 alone, the smallness of the Africa-US immigration flow becomes apparent. [Interestingly, about 60 percent of Africans migrate to other African countries] In a normal world, the number of Africans migrating to the US would be/would have been much higher than the recent growth spurt we have witnessed since the 1980s/90s. The American economy is huge, about $14 to $15 trillion GDP and in contrast to the European Union, America has a large, historically rooted Black community. The US should be a huge draw for Africans, but, alas America's historic White Supremacist society makes many Africans reluctant to migrate here.

Your last sentence...is that your opinion or do you have something beyond that?

White racisim and all, the US obviously presents a better opporotunity than "other African countries". Getting out of your own hellhole to a slightly less hellish hole makes sense, but I bet cost is a huge factor in the decision to get to America, moreso than the way white people will treat you once you get here.

"in a normal world" lol. Actually, the current world is "normal" due to the Humans. The utopia you imagine would not be normal at all.

[BlandFood]

Interesting. I recalled Ebony did an article about Blacks in Vermont way back in the 1980s. One AA woman recalled going to see a physician about headaches. He said her headaches were caused by her Afro.

Maybe it was weighted down by critters living inside of it?

[kandace]

Your last sentence...is that your opinion or do you have something beyond that?

White racisim and all, the US obviously presents a better opporotunity than "other African countries". Getting out of your own hellhole to a slightly less hellish hole makes sense, but I bet cost is a huge factor in the decision to get to America, moreso than the way white people will treat you once you get here.

"in a normal world" lol. Actually, the current world is "normal" due to the Humans. The utopia you imagine would not be normal at all.

The U.S. as a whole had a pretty bad reputation among African elites due to incidents where African diplomats would be denied service in establishments due to their skin color. The incidents began during the latter part of the Eisenhower administration and continued throughout the early to mid 1960s. Remember the nations' capital was segregated and African diplomats who attended UN meetings also had to drive through segregated Maryland and Delaware to get to New York City. The gains of the Civil Rights period were viewed with caution, as educated Africans were aware that the US had enacted similar laws during Reconstruction only to roll them back later. When Africans did begin to migrate to the US in the latter half of the 1980s, they tended to congregate in areas where there were already large AA populations such as Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago, etc. Significant African migration to southern states, North Carolina and Texas being prime examples, didn't really pick up until the 1990s.

As for cost, African travel to the US is not tremendously expensive compared to say, travel to Europe or China. [The ease with which China has attracted where large numbers of Africans despite its economic, political and social pitfalls is pretty amazing when you think about it.]

[kudzu]

Apparently Black folk are getting used to cold winters. Vermont, which competes with Maine for the title of Whitest state, has seen an influx of African Americans over the last decade:

Dude/dudette:

My ancestors left Sub Saharan Africa a long time ago.

Some of them settled in northern Europe.

Which is why I'm lily white, not black.

But nowadays, everyone of every race runs as fast as they can from the bitter cold.

Unless they happen to have been born there.