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There seems to be no functional relationship or cooperation on sustained basis between different communities of black people in the United States in the struggle against racism: African Americans, Africans, and Afro-Caribbeans. The initiative in the quest for solidarity among these groups seems to come from us, African Americans, although black people from Africa and from the Caribbean who come to the United States as immigrants and as students face the same problems we do as victims of racism. Solidarity with Africans on our part was demonstrated during the struggle against apartheid when African-Americans mobilized forces across the United States to support black people in South Africa in their quest for racial justice. But it was also, and this was a rare occasion on their part, demonstrated by Africans in a number of countries such as Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa – as well as others – where there was a public display of outrage against the brutal execution of George Floyd by a white racist police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020. African leaders also expressed a collective sentiment against Floyd's murder when they issued a statement as members of the African Union, a continental organization representing African governments, condemning this lynching of a black man in the land of “the free.” What we have is a global problem black people face in every country as victims of racism more than anybody else; a harsh reality that was even acknowledged by the United Nations Human Rights Council when it issued a statement in July 2020 condemning the victimization of Africans and people of African origin round the globe. The resolution was passed after a group of African nations called for robust action to be taken against such abuse and brutalization of black people worldwide following the death of George Floyd. George Floyd's brother also spoke at the conference. The United States withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council in 2018 for obvious reasons. It is as if we are victims of a global conspiracy against us as blacks especially when you see many people of other races also don't like us. Look at the brutal attacks on African students in India, China and Russia; also attacks and even murder of black people in Arab countries of North Africa. I even remember when President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana flew to Libya in a Ghanaian plane to take his people back home to Ghana because they were being brutalized and killed in a country whose leader during that time, Muammar Gaddafi, pretended he was truly a fellow African like black people and wanted Africa to unite under one government. There are even videos of such brutal attacks on Africans in India, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, and elsewhere on Youtube. Africans are also victims of racism even in their own countries even today; for example, in Tanzania, where Indians, Chinese, white immigrants from South Africa and other non-blacks, as employers and even in other settings, insult, mistreat, and dehumanize black people in their own native land. See, for example, an article by Charles Makakala, a Tanzanian, “Workplace Racism Is an Issue in Tanzania: How Should You Address It?”, “Tanzania: Guest Alleges Racial Discrimination at Sunrise Beach Resort,” excluding blacks; and “Racism Rears Ugly Head on Tanzania Tourism.” An American professor, Richard Schroeder, was shocked when he went to Tanzania and witnessed how whites from South Africa who moved to Tanzania after the end of formal apartheid as businessmen and as investors, insulted and mistreated black people in Tanzania in the same way they did in South Africa during apartheid and even called them “kaffirs,” a very offensive term meaning “niggers” and more than that, as he stated in his book “Africa After Apartheid: South Africa, Race, and Nation in Tanzania,” published in 2012. I have had a strong interest in Tanzania since the days of President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere because of his strong Pan-Africanist credentials, including embracing African Americans as fellow Africans and even inviting them to work in Tanzania and because of his strong support for liberation movements in southern Africa during white minority rule together with his commitment and determination to chart out a new course for Africa as a whole to achieve genuine liberation and independence using African solutions derived from African political thought and philosophy. I was equally impressed by and drawn to Ghana when Kwame Nkrumah was president with strong Pan-Africanist credentials like Nyerere. I believe the main reason black people from Africa and the Caribbean who are in the United States don't want to unite with African Americans to publicly condemn and fight racism is that they believe life for them in this country is far better than it is in their home countries in spite of racism. Some of them even dismiss racism as a minor problem or not one at all as long as they have jobs and earn a living even if not very comfortably. Yet when whites see them, they seem them as just black people like us; which they are. Even if they wore labels to identify themselves as “not black Americans,” whites and other non-blacks would still see them the same way: just black people. And they face the same problems we do. One example is Godfrey Mwakikagile from Tanzania who has written a book as a victim of racism in his home country, especially when he was growing up during British colonial rule, and also as a victim of racism in the United States. Even some of the white American Peace Corps who went to work in Africa in different areas including teaching in the 1960s and thereafter were not free from racial prejudice as the author witnessed and as he explains in his book which you can read here: https://sites.google.com/site/intercontinentalbookcentre/reflections-on-race-relations-a-personal-odyssey

Happy Birthday Cynique, from one Alien to another. Keep "watching" the sky, Del

Thank you! August 18th is my birthday. 'Can't believe i made it to the big 88 but my luck held out. I've been keeping up with the star\planet which my son has informed me is Jupiter. it's visible almost every night, there for me to" listen" out for. Tonight there's also a big half-moon hanging up there in the sky. A couple of afternoons ago, i got to see the moon in the daytime! There it was sitting up there in a cloudless blue sky. Meanwhile, over on the western horizon, the sun was shining away. Seeing both of them in the sky at the same time was a sight to behold, Something I've witnessed once before. Thank you, too, for the birthday greeting! Just wish it was a better world for me to still be living in. But you can't have everything. Longevity has a down side. But life goes on...

Yes Happy Birthday @Cynique!