Can two things in opposition, both be accurate?

So I’ve been struggling with how to write this for a few weeks / months and clarity finally came to me in Porto, Portugal last week.   But more on that in a few minutes, paragraphs. 

As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, I am kinda struggling with this idea of being a member i=of the African diaspora.   So growing up in the United States, we are taught for better or worse, that we are ‘Black”, no ifs and or buts; just Black.  

At a certain point in one’s life, you discover that the United States is not the world and the world is not the United States.  At some point you learn that of all of the enslaved that left Afrioca during the trans-Atlantic slave trade, roughly 5% came to the United States, 45% went to the Caribbean, 45% went to Brazil (Brasil) and the other 5% went to the rest of the Americas (Argentina, Chile, Canada, etc…). And one wonders what does that mean, and what does that look like. 

And at some point one understands that each country’s history and history of enslavement and “race relations” is completely different and those differences are seen clearly in 2026.    

The presence of the World Cup has also amplified these differences.  One hears narratives about the French national team, not being French.   The obvious response to that is “what is French?”   And I am certainly not going to try to answer that question.  There are obvious reasons why the Colombian team has “Black” athletes (or Afro-descendent).  Japan, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland all have players of African descent and each of these players have their own unique story and motivations.  I am sometimes surprised by my own ignorance. 

A few years ago, a coworker of mine who is of European descent, and married to a West African woman was talking about their biracial children.   He commented that his wife 1) did not want to be confused for African American, because she was not African American, and 2) she did not want her children to be confused for African American, she wanted them to represent their mother’s West African heritage.   My first thought was ‘I get that but society will see them as black and even if they see themselves as West African, they will still be black. 

And I have come to realize that both of those statements are true and in conflict; 1) they can identify as West African and enjoy west African food, and still been seen by the larger society as ‘Black’. 

I was recently in Porto, Portugal and took an African Heritage tour, which was super cool.   The tour was led by a Cape Verdean woman who was adopted by a Portuguese family in the early 2000s (That’s another story for another time). Also on the tour was another African woman from Amsterdam who was also adopted by a European family in the early 2000s. 

It was an very informative tour and the things that struck me were 1) How European Africans (“Afropeans”) look to African Americans for inspiration and 2) “In Europe; Africans are just surviving.” 

Let me unpack that a bit.  1)  ‘Afropeans’ in the tour guide’s words do not have a unique culture and are the perpetual foreigner.  The question always gets asked “Where are you from?” The assumption is that they are not really from Europe but came from Africa and are not really like “us.”  This is in contrast to African Americans who have a narrative and a right to claim that “We are from the United States”, and that that statement embodies.    We also have HBCUs and a defined culture that speaks to our collective history, and we ‘know our story’ and that story is universal among us.  There are of course countless Lebron Jerseys, Chicago 23 Jerseys and Tupac T-Shirts.   2) Most ‘Afropeans’ can trace their ancestry back to Africa or the Caribbean back to 2 or 3 generations, and the post World War 2 world.  You also have migration patterns that do not follow a traditional narrative, Senegalese in Spain, Nigerians in France.  And this is all in response to my question of ‘If Afropeans ever thought about leaving Europe and moving back to Africa or another destination.” And the response was “where would we go?  Our parents or grandparents came here (Europe) for survival, jobs, opportunities, etc….  We would feel guilty about abandoning their struggles to go back to Africa.” In addition, there was no sense of connection with immigrants from the Caribbean or South America (Colombia, Brazil or Venezuela)  

So to answer my original question, can two ideas in opposition to one another both the true, Yes.  You can be West African and perceived as and treated as African American and Africa (al 45 countries) can be seen as both a destination that was worth fleeing from and a safe space that is worthy of being fled to.