Dear Mr. Saidy,

This is Bulli Dibba saying Hi. I was your chemistrystudent at Gambia High
School. I would like to talk to you regarding some info in Canada. Could
you please email me your phone number so that we could talk.

Thank you

Sincerely

Bulli  Dibba
On 29 Aug 2004, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/national/29african.html
>
>
> 'African-American' Becomes a Term for Debate
> By RACHEL L. SWARNS
>
> Published: August 29, 2004
>
>
> SILVER SPRING, Md., Aug. 27 - For a moment, the Ethiopian-born activist
> seemed to melt into the crowd, blending into the sea of black professors,
> health
> experts and community leaders considering how to educate blacks about the
> dangers of prostate cancer. But when he piped up to suggest focusing some
> attention
> on African immigrants, the dividing lines were promptly and pointedly
drawn.
>
> The focus of the campaign, the activist, Abdulaziz Kamus, was told, would
be
> strictly on African-Americans.
>
> "I said, 'But I am African and I am an American citizen; am I not
> African-American?' " said Mr. Kamus, who is an advocate for African
> immigrants here,
> recalling his sense of bewilderment. "They said 'No, no, no, not you.' "
>
> "The census is claiming me as an African-American," said Mr. Kamus, 47,
who
> has lived in this country for 20 years. "If I walk down the streets,
white
> people see me as an African-American. Yet African-Americans are saying,
'You
> are
> not one of us.' So I ask myself, in this country, how do I define
myself?"
>
> That prickly question is increasingly being raised as the growing number
of
> foreign-born blacks in this Washington suburb and elsewhere inspires a
quiet
> debate over who can claim the term "African-American," which has rapidly
> replaced "black" in much of the nation's political and cultural
discourse.
>
> In the 1990's, the number of blacks with recent roots in sub-Saharan
Africa
> nearly tripled while the number of blacks with origins in the Caribbean
grew
> by
> more than 60 percent, according to demographers at the State University
of
> New York at Albany. By 2000, foreign-born blacks constituted 30 percent
of
> the
> blacks in New York City, 28 percent of the blacks in Boston and about a
> quarter
> here in Montgomery County, Md., an analysis of census data conducted at
> Queens College shows.
>
> In recent years, black immigrants and their children have become more
visible
> in universities, the workplace and in politics, with Colin L. Powell, the
son
> of Jamaican immigrants, serving as secretary of state, and Barack Obama,
born
> to a Kenyan father and an American mother, leading the polls in the race
for
> a United States Senate seat in Illinois and emerging as a rising star in
the
> Democratic Party.
>
> The demographic shifts, which gained strength in the 1960's after changes
in
> federal immigration law led to increased migration from Africa and Latin
> America, have been accompanied in some places by fears that newcomers
might
> eclipse
> native-born blacks. And they have touched off delicate musings about
ethnic
> labels, identity and the often unspoken differences among people who
share
> the
> same skin color.
>
> This month, the debate spilled into public view when Alan Keyes, the
black
> Republican challenger for the Senate seat in Illinois, questioned whether
Mr.
> Obama, the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention, should
> claim
> an African-American identity.
>
> "Barack Obama claims an African-American heritage," Mr. Keyes said on the
ABC
> program "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos. "Barack Obama and I have
the
> same race - that is, physical characteristics. We are not from the same
> heritage."
>
> "My ancestors toiled in slavery in this country," Mr. Keyes said. "My
> consciousness, who I am as a person, has been shaped by my struggle,
deeply
> emotional
> and deeply painful, with the reality of that heritage."
>
> Some black Americans argue that black immigrants, like Mr. Kamus, and the
> children of immigrants, like Mr. Obama and Mr. Powell, are most certainly
> African-American. (Mr. Obama and Mr. Powell often use that term when
> describing
> themselves.) Yet some immigrants and their children prefer to be called
> African or
> Nigerian-American or Jamaican-American, depending on their countries of
> origin. Other people prefer the term black, which seems to include
everyone,
> regardless of nationality.
>
> Mr. Keyes's comments reflect the views of a number of black Americans,
> including those who challenged Mr. Kamus at the meeting on prostate
cancer
> earlier
> this year. Many argued that the term African-American should refer to the
> descendents of slaves brought to the United States centuries ago, not to
> newcomers
> who have not inherited the legacy of bondage, segregation and legal
> discrimination.
>
> Bobby Austin, an administrator at the University of the District of
Columbia
> who attended the meeting in Washington, said he understood why some
blacks
> were offended when Mr. Kamus claimed an African-American identity. Dr.
Austin
> said some people feared that black immigrants and their children would
snatch
> up
> the hard-won opportunities made possible by the civil rights movement.
>
> Several studies suggest that black immigrants and their children are
already
> achieving at higher levels than native-born blacks. A study based on 2000
> census data conducted by John R. Logan and Glenn Deane at SUNY Albany
found
> that
> African immigrants typically had more education and higher median incomes
> than
> did native-born blacks.
>
> And earlier this year, officials at Harvard pointed out that the majority
of
> their black students - perhaps as many two-thirds - were African and
> Caribbean
> immigrants or their children, or to a lesser extent, children of biracial
> couples. Sociologists say foreign-born blacks from majority-black
countries
> are
> less psychologically handicapped by the stigma of race. Many arrive with
> higher
> levels of education and professional experience. And sociologists say
they
> often encounter less discrimination.
>
> "We've suffered so much that we're a bit weary and immigration seems like
one
> more hurdle we will have to climb," said Dr. Austin, 59, who traces his
> ancestors back to slavery. "People are asking: 'Will I have to climb over
> these
> immigrants to get to my dream? Will my children have to climb?'
>
> "These are very aggressive people who are coming here," said Dr. Austin,
who
> is calling for a frank dialogue between native-born and foreign-born
blacks.
> "I don't berate immigrants for that; they have given up a lot to get
here.
> But
> we're going to be in competition with them. We have to be honest about
it.
> That is one of the dividing lines."
>
> Mr. Obama says such arguments do not reflect the views of black Americans
who
> have joined forces over the years with Africans and people from the
Caribbean
> to fight colonialism and poverty. He says black descendants of slaves
share
> more similarities than differences with black immigrants and their
children.
> He
> says his grandfather worked as a servant in Kenya and was described as a
> "house boy" by whites even when he was a middle-aged man.
>
> "Some of the patterns of struggle and degradation that blacks here in the
> United States experienced aren't that different from the colonial
experience
> in
> the Caribbean or the African continent," Mr. Obama said in an interview.
>
> "For me the term African-American really does fit," said Mr. Obama, 43.
"I'm
> African, I trace half of my heritage to Africa directly and I'm
American."
>
> Shifting ethnic labels have long inspired fierce debates and discussions
> among blacks in this country, reflecting changes in socioeconomic
> circumstances,
> political strategies and evolving views of identity since Africans were
first
> brought here as slaves.
>
> The term "African" was used sporadically during the 17th and 18th
centuries,
> said Michael Thornton, a professor of Afro-American studies at the
University
> of Wisconsin who has studied the issue. In the 1800's, "colored" started
> gaining popularity because it was viewed as more inclusive, referring to
> those of
> mixed-race as well as full African heritage, Mr. Thornton found.
>
> Often several terms were in use simultaneously. In the 1890 census, for
> instance, blacks were asked to choose among four ethnic labels: black,
> mulatto,
> quadroon and octoroon, depending upon the degree of white blood in their
> ancestry.
>
> And in the 20th century, many black Americans shifted from colored to
Negro
> to black and, most recently, to African-American, sometimes within one
> generation.
>
> "I've had to check several different boxes in my lifetime," said Donna
> Brazile, 44, Al Gore's campaign manager in the 2000 presidential race.
"In my
> birth
> certificate I'm identified as a Negro. Then I was black. Now I readily
check
> African-American. I have a group of friends and we call ourselves the
colored
> girls sometimes, to remind ourselves that we ain't too far from that,
> either."
>
> The term African-American has crept steadily into the nation's vocabulary
> since 1988, when the Rev. Jesse Jackson held a news conference to urge
> Americans
> to use it to refer to blacks.
>
> "It puts us in our proper historical context," Mr. Jackson said then,
adding
> in a recent interview that he still favored the term. "Every ethnic group
in
> this country has a reference to some land base, some historical cultural
> base.
> African-Americans have hit that level of cultural maturity."
>
> Since 1989, the number of blacks using the term has steadily increased,
polls
> show. In a survey that year conducted by ABC and The Washington Post, 66
> percent said they preferred the term black, 22 preferred
African-American, 10
> percent liked both terms and 2 percent had no opinion.
>
> In 2000, the Census Bureau for the first time allowed respondents to
check a
> box that carried the heading African-American next to the term black. In
> 2003,
> a poll by the same news organizations found that 48 percent of blacks
> preferred the term African-American, 35 percent favored black and 17
percent
> liked
> both terms.
>
> The term has become such a fixture in the political lexicon that many
white
> politicians, including President Bush and Senator John Kerry, his
Democratic
> rival, favor it in their political speeches these days. In fact, Mr.
Kerry's
> wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who is white, has referred to herself on
occasion
> as an
> African-American. She was born to Portuguese parents in Mozambique.
>
> Many whites use the term for all blacks. But among blacks there is much
less
> agreement, particularly in places like Silver Spring where Africans,
Haitians
> and Dominicans mingle in the town's coffee shops, nightclubs and beauty
> salons, or in neighboring Washington, where the City Council voted this
year
> to
> include the Ethiopian language Amharic as an official language to
accommodate
> the
> growing Ethiopian community.
>
> Even adherents of African-American acknowledge that shifting demographics
> have made the term's meaning more ambiguous.
>
> "It's a comfortable term for me personally and for people like me who are
of
> African descent and have been in this nation for a long time," said
Michael
> Lomax, the president of the United Negro College Fund, which raises money
for
> 38
> historically black colleges. "But it gets more confusing when you
recognize
> that this nation is full of all kinds of people of African descent."
>
> "It's a much richer and more complex variety than when we started
asserting
> that we were African-American," said Mr. Lomax, who argues that recent
black
> immigrants from the Caribbean and elsewhere should feel free to use the
term.
>
> Foreign-born blacks are also divided. Angelique Shofar, the Liberian-born
> host of a weekly radio program in Washington called "Africa Meets
Africa,"
> prefers to call herself an African, even though she has lived in the
United
> States
> for 28 of her 39 years.
>
> Phillip J. Brutus, the first Haitian-born state legislator in Florida,
favors
> the term black because it includes foreign-born immigrants and black
> Americans. Mr. Brutus lives in Miami, where more than a third of the
blacks
> are
> foreign born.
>
>
> "African-American has become the politically correct term to use, but I
still
> say black," Mr. Brutus said. "I say I'm black and American. That's what's
> most accurate. I think, by and large, black is more encompassing."
>
> Here in Silver Spring, Mr. Kamus is still searching for the right label.
He
> says he would like to be described simply as a universal man, but he
knows
> that
> the United States, like many countries, has a long history of
categorizing
> its people. And he would like to find a way of stitching his twin
identities
> -
> one Ethiopian, one American - into a whole.
>
> With that in mind, Mr. Kamus and some of his Ethiopian-born friends plan
to
> sit down next month with Dr. Austin and Dr. Austin's American-born
friends
> over
> a meal of savory meats and Ethiopian bread. They want to start a dialogue
> about their similarities, their differences and issues of identity at a
time
> of
> demographic change.
>
> "We are in a critical stage of defining ourselves, who we are as
Americans,"
> Mr. Kamus said of African immigrants and their children here. "But one
thing
> is clear. We are here and we are not going home. This is our home now.
That
> is
> the reality."
>
>
> --
>
***************************************************************************
**
> *
> ***************
> *  Madiba K. Saidy, Ph.D
>
> *  Research Scientist, Atomic Energy of Canada
>
> *  Department of Energy & Natural Resources Canada
>
> *  ====
>
> *  Secretary/Treasurer
>
> *  Joint Division of Surface Science
>
> *  The Chemical Institute of Canada & The Canadian Association of
Physicists
>
>
***************************************************************************
**
> *
> ***************
>
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