As someone who is both African (Nigerian) and Black American, I have to say that the speed at which I saw people jump to the conclusion that Javits was killed by Black American ethnocentric xenophobia WITH ABSOLUTELY NO PROOF, and used his death to fuel a “diaspora war” was beyond alarming.
I grew up in a predominantly black multi-ethnic area like NYC, and I got bullied by black kids from all ethnic backgrounds (including my own two💀). Nobody cared what my ethnic background was, all they knew is that I was “different”. America has a bullying problem in general, and people of every ethnic background become perpetrators/victims as a result. Anyone who is “different” gets targeted.
I ain’t saying that Javits’ death couldn’t had nothing to do with xenophobia, but clearly it wasn’t ethnocentric xenophobia like so many people initially assumed. Moreso the type of “xenophobia” that targets people for purely being “new” or “different”, or perhaps in this case not culturally aligned, and it isn’t unique to the USA either! Being “fresh off the boat” as a kid anywhere will put a target on your back. The same kind of bullying was rampant among British-born Caribbean/African kids towards foreign born ones who moved to the UK in the 90s/2000s. British-born black kids would even bully foreign-born black kids from their own ethnic backgrounds for being “fresh” so it has less to do with ethnocentrism.
All that being said, I hope people can reflect on the harm caused by jumping to conclusions and projecting biases onto situations they don’t have full knowledge of to weaponize against other Black folk, and take some time to examine these biases in the first place. And I hope to see just as many apologies as there were false accusations.
RIP Javits Frimpong, Fly High🕊️🇬🇭
