They lumped themselves together when they first got here.

We didn’t do anything.

They banded together as a superior group as compared to the Native Americans that they encountered upon arrival as well as the Africans that they shipped to North America, in order to justify the obvious contradictions between their actions and their beloved Constitution. They are completely fine with cultural homogenization and actually much prefer assimilation, as they continue to aim such ideologies at those of us who do appreciate our cultures while living in this country. This is what they wanted.

In that respect, the loss of culture is less of a cost and more of a mindful and willing trade-off.

The Irish plotted and worked to keep African Americans on the ground grabbing for the socioeconomic ladder, while themselves climbing closer to whiteness and kicking dust in the faces of those with whom they were once near equals (don’t get me wrong, neither the Irish, nor any other people group, was subjected to the permanent servitude/slavery that black people endured). Then they happily shed their “white negroes” title, instead assuming their position on the top rung, not hesitating to exercise their white privilege at the expense of the black man. The Irish earned their whiteness, and now they wear it like a badge. They don’t care about any loss of culture, because they can just claim whatever culture(s) they want. Quite honestly, they can make one up if they want.

Ever heard a white person describe “what they are”?

“My grandparents say we’re probably German, Irish, and Polish, and a little French… and part Cherokee, too.”

By simply being called Caucasian, white people are literally stealing from a real group of people, erasing their culture, bleaching the demonym and using it as a coat rack for the sordid cloak that is whiteness. A cloak shared by cowards, I might add. They are afraid of culture because through our culture, black people have power. White people would rather lose their own culture in order to keep us down than keep it and have to face us as equals.

So, yeah. Nobody lumped them together but themselves. If anything, white people lumped black people together. But, unlike the Irish, we refuse to break down or compromise our culture for acceptance. Regardless of our behavior or respectability, we will always be considered as less-than, so we might as well own our blackness and rather than trying to become one big happy American family, crowding in together on the top rung of the socioeconomic ladder and singing “Kumbaya” before taking cheesy family photos and throwing down burgers in between American laughs.

All I know for sure is you won’t catch me homogenizing anything; I’m proud of my Nigerian heritage.

Unlike oyinbos, my culture is something I can never compromise.

Thank you for reading! ❤ if you feel me

Follow me: Onyeka C. Arah

Check out my other pieces, “What Woke Feels Like” and “We Don’t Cry Pretty”