Stereotypical : Unraveling the Stereotypes about Africa

Stereotypical

      December 5, 1998, the day my mother, Charlotte Kyei, set foot in America. She had just arrived from a long trip from Ghana, West Africa. She was very excited as a Ghanaian, for many like her had wished for the chance to go to a better place than the environment they were living in. My mother had been waiting to experience new things and live a new life that was different from what she was used to.

      Sixteen years later, my mom isn't as happy as she was back then. She likes America and would like to stay compared to her homeland, but she has gone through 16 years experiencing the negatives of the U.S.

      The main reason why my mom came was because my dad, Yaw Kyei, had invited her. See, my father was very smart and was able to get a scholarship at A&T and a student visa. This made my mom slightly disappointed because she couldn't get a fruit visa; she was only invited as the wife. "When I arrived here, I had expected the government to fund me," my mom nodded sadly.

      My mom was also worried about how unsafe America was. "Of course Ghana wasn't completely safe either, but not in the horrific way of kidnappings and school shootings. In fact, many Ghanaians did not have the money [cedis] to purchase.

      When my mom finally did get a job, she experienced her share of racial hatred. Her bosses disliked her because she was a foreigner. "No to mention the many questions people would ask me because of the commercials they saw of Africa on TV. She wasn't the only one, but I too have been asked such questions. It's things like, 'Do Africans live on trees' or 'Are Africans poor, like the starving children on TV?' There were also times when some people would call me 'Kunta Kinte' from the movie Roots. (At the time, I had no idea what the movie was or what it meant.)

      When people ask me those stereotypical questions, it makes me laugh because I know they're not true. They don't bother me as much as they do my mom and the rest of my family. Before I used to feel a little offended and would deny my heritage, but now I feel proud of what I am and would never change my racial heritage for anything.

      "You can come [to America] but it's not all as easy as you think....you must work your butt off. I mean it is what it is. You can't just come and hope the government will give you money. You have to struggle [car, house, money, clothes etc.,]. I'm okay here, but not as happy as I was when I first arrived," was my mom's advice to worldwide immigrants trying to live abroad.

 

Marilyn Kyei