African Diaspora and National Belonging Essay

The perception of a particular race and its capabilities plays a vital role in determining its identity. For African Americans, their identity was equivalent to property that is the source of profit and further riches. African Americans had not been considered human until slavery was abolished, which was the first step of many in obtaining the same rights as any other race. After the emotional turmoil that is being treated as objects, and persevering when segregation was enforced, African Americans now have the same rights as every single American citizen. Their identity was that of property, and after abolition, their identity remained inferior to that of whites, and currently, their identity is soaring due to established equal rights.

It is essential to note that the term African Diaspora does not describe any single event, group of people or set of customs. It represents a current state of being for many citizens of the world and provides context for understanding the social structures and intercultural relationships of the world we live in today. Collin Palmer provides great insight into the context of diaspora. He writes that there have been several movements, massive migrations of people, throughout history. There is no single “diasporic movement or monolithic diasporic community” to be studied, but rather a confluence of people, events and ideologies that span thousands of years, across every continent. Each period of movement, each diasporic stream, happened for different reasons. Palmer’s approach to the African Diaspora begins with a look nearly 100,000 years into the past. He identifies five major streams, with the first African diaspora that occurred as a

In this essay, I will be discussing Race and Ethnic Identity, and how it is racially constructed. I found the presentation very interesting, to the point that most of my guesses were wrong, just based off the looks and perception of the celebrities. This presentation made me actually look at race and appearance in a different way because you never know what the person ethnic background is by just looking at the person. I have learned a lot on race and ethnicity and how things were categorized in the past, and as the years passed that other categories were put in to place for people to choose the identity that they were comfortable with choosing.

Meanwhile, from 1852-1920, East European immigrants joined the lives of the German immigrants. They were orthodox and devout Jews who cared passionately about their Jewish culture. Eventually, the harmony between the Germans and East Europeans faded when the East Europeans wished to overthrow the power of the Germans. However, the Germans refused to give up their power and by the 1920’s, the two groups were on their own, separate paths. Lastly comes the American Jewry period, which began in 1921. By this time, the Jews were considered natives so cultural and social intermarriage was practically unavoidable. These “American” Jews had little knowledge of their European background. The lives of the children of the East European were increasingly better because they joined the white-collar class, were largely in commerce and trade, and acquired higher educations.

Issues of identity are always a popular topic in art. Every culture always wants to express their own identity. They don't want to be absorbed by the other's culture, especially after world wars, the period of cross cultures.

When we think of Israelites we typically think of Christian Bale on God and Kings or even the everyday Rabbi walking the streets of Gaza. In this paper I will tell a story of an African that was born in America in the city of Chicago. Leading 48 families to the Promised land of Dimona, Israel, free of sickness or disease, free of crime, and honoring the Father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Questions you might ask are who is Ben Ammi? Who are the Hebrew Isarelites? Who are the Jewish will be answered in this paper.

Despite the ancient Jewish diaspora, in which the Israelites and Judahites were exiled from Judea, the Land of Israel has continued to hold both cultural and religious significance for Jewish people throughout the world, even in the modern day. This is demonstrated through the Zionist concept of "making aliyah," sometimes known as "the act of going up," which equates the return of Jews to the Land of Israel with a spiritual and cultural ascension. This is additionally supported by the Law of Return, a piece of Israeli legislature which was introduced in 1950. The Law of Return supposes that Jews have "a 'natural right' to return to their historic homeland," and thus grants any Jew, and eligible non-Jewish spouses and children, the legal right to migrate to Israel and to instantly acquire Israeli citizenship. While Judith Shuval argues that the uniqueness of these attitudes towards Jewish migration are

Sid Lemelle hoped for his book, Pan-Africanism for Beginners, to be a comprehensive guide to the complex concept of Pan-Africanism. Lemelle begins the book by broadly defining Pan-Africanism to mean the inclusion of “all people of African ancestry living in continental Africa and throughout the world.” This definition sets the foundation for his analysis of Pan-Africanism.

Far off in the Gondar Regions of Ethiopia, a group of Jews lived for thousands of years in relative isolation. They called themselves “Beta Israel” or “House of Israel” but their neighbors called them “Falasha” or “stranger”. They practiced a pure form of Talmudic Judaism that was based solely on the most sacred texts and they adhered to extremely strict religious law. The Jews ruled much of Ethiopia for many years until new leadership came to be, and they faced deadly persecution. European Jews eventually recognized the plight and challenges of the Ethiopian Jews and the case to try to bring the Ethiopian Jews to Israel was strong. Today, upwards of 60,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel and yet they continue to face challenges that negatively affect their quality of life in their new

Apart from the labour market the immigrants also face discrimination in housing market, they are charged higher rent then what a native would be charged or are refused accommodation. Most immigrants lie in segregated less privileged neighbourhoods in very poor conditions. Calais and Banlieues are examples in of this in France. In credit market (if at all they are given loans) they are charged with higher rates of interest due to lack of trust of banks in them. The recent European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey have even highlighted the fact that public services such as schools restaurants and institutions of police, courts practice discrimination and social exclusion of immigrants. The feeling of ‘alienisms’ or of ‘not-belonging’ to the host country is not only prevalent among the first generation of immigrants but also among the successive generations. The children of the immigrants face constant discrimination in school and are seen to perform far worse than others academically. Teachers generally label them off as underachievers, disruptive and having discipline problems. The cultural uprooting and establishing themselves again in the host society leads to high levels mental and psychological agony in immigrants. They are the chief victims of police harassment as they are stereotyped as criminals and petty thieves. Even after being naturalised or granted citizenship the migrants are still referred to and treated as ‘refugees’ by the society.

However, Israeli Jews pride themselves on high moral standards and a policy of acceptance, factors that caused them to question their judgment of the Soviet Jewish immigrants today. Israeli hostility towards Russian immigrants can be seen in stereotypes and myths. Israelis think that the new wave of immigrants are handicapped and are trying to exploit Israel. Russians are also stereotyped as thieves and prostitutes (*).Youth are influenced by their elders. Since mature Israelis projected negative ideas about Russian immigrants it became prevalent in their children. In a survey conducted by Hafia University, two-thirds of Israeli teenagers polled stated that they would not be close friends with a Russian immigrant and believe that Russian immigrants take jobs from Israeli Jews (*). Undefined Jewish credentials upset Israelis as well because of their Jewish

In simple terms, the Diaspora as a concept, describes groups of people who currently live or reside outside the original homelands. We will approach the Diaspora from the lenses of migration; that the migration of people through out of the African continent has different points of origin, different patterns and results in different identity formations. Yet, all of these patterns of dispersion and germination/ assimilation represent formations of the Diaspora. My paper will focus on the complexities of the question of whether or not Africans in the Diaspora should return to Africa. This will be focused through the lenses of the different phases in the Diaspora.

Pan-Africanism is a sociopolitical worldview, and philosophy, as well as a movement, which seeks to unify both native Africans and those of the African Diaspora, as part of a "global African community".

History is subjective because it is a subject that is based on a person’s knowledge and opinions. While some events have obvious causes, other events must be analyzed to find their true impetus. One complicated era from history that has a debatable cause is Apartheid. While some historians cite complex causes for Apartheid, most people in the general public simply believe racism was the root of the institution. While racism did factor into later practices of Apartheid, racism was merely a byproduct of the social and cultural effects of the institution. When evidence is examined, the real cause of Apartheid becomes obvious. This era of South African history was not simply based on social practices such as racism; Apartheid was rooted

The phrase and idea of a lost generation in studies of African youth, has been closely associated with the work of Cruise O’Brien. In 1996, O’Brien identified a generation of young people (loosely defined)[1] who, as a consequence of factors including political unrest, violence and economic collapse leading to the breakdown of social structures, were unable to complete a socially constructed transition from youth to adulthood – therefore remaining indefinitely young. This generation where described as lost (in a liminal and lamentable world); their inability to mature through social institutions was compounded by their respective inability to economically support themselves,