Names and Stereotypes

So there are so many stereotypes that you hear when you think of Africa and the funny thing about it is that Africa is spoken about as if it is one country. The amusing thing is that you never think about the things you will hear about America or what foreigners believe about America.
Africa is known to be very under-developed and although South Africa is developed a lot, it is not as efficient as I am use to and also not a good depiction of the rest of the continent. There are trained cheetahs here that visitors can pest for around 15 USD. The cars are on the opposite side of the road and I live in the suburbs of the city of Cape Town so, poverty is definitely not seen on a daily basis. I do know that poverty exists because I have been to townships and I have learned about the separations that apartheid has created. Although Apartheid is over legally, the legacy still has an affect on the way South Africa looks today.

Interesting conversation I had
V:what is your real black name? I
M: I don’t understand what you are asking. My name is Erica
V: You don’t have a shaniwa or rabonshine?
M: my name is Erica black or not.
**This was definitely not the first time I have had to deal with the name thing. I was told that African Americans have the craziest names and I was definitely asked that (what’s your African American name) again. I also was told to believe that names as such were African so, we were in a debate about it because my RA said that he has never met and that I will never meet a African girl with a WA Nay or something of that sort on the end of her name. I volunteer at this place CAFDA, shadowing social workers, and a colored girl walks in and her name is Kabanisha and I busted out laughing. It was rude and so funny at the same time that I had to write to my RA and tell him. He writes me back any say colored girls are different from blacks….always something ey? lol **

V: oh, so you live in the projects?
M: No, I don’t
V: Are you sure? All the black girls live in the projects right?
M: No, that is like me saying all the black people live in townships

This was very shocking to me because he is someone who is very educated when it comes to things going on in the world. I was taken back to hear these words come out of his mouth. He tells me that the boondocks is a good depiction of black life in America right? I said no and I had to laugh because so many people here have asked me if it is a good depiction of black America and from my opinion, black America is nothing like the boondocks. Just because we think that people in Africa don’t wear clothes and are very poor based on the things we see on TV, we have to remember that the Africans watch TV as well so, the stereotypes we go off of are very similar to those that they see about us and go off of what TV depicts as well.

Stay Royal :-)