Tariq said aboriginal Black Americans are fighting to reclaim their economic benefits from the American system. He wants Africans to do same
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
For more than seven hours, Nigerians and other black people tackled a black American, Tariq Nasheed, who wants fellow blacks restricted from emigrating into the U.S, something similar to Donald Trump’s Travel Ban.
On his Wikipedia page, Tariq is described as a filmmaker and dating expert.
The heated conversation was during a live conversation on Twitter Space on the topic: “How Does Immigration Benefit Black Americans? #SecureTheTribe.”
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The conversation lasted for at least seven hours with the majority of his callers from Nigeria who pooh-pooh his divisive rhetoric, which is that Black immigrants were economic leeches on the U.S. economy
Tariq’s argument was hinged on the premise that in the 1960s, at the peak of White oppression of aboriginal Black Americans, foundational black Americans voted politicians into the U.S. Congress to pass legislation that was favourable to immigration. He said the reason no longer suffice, hence the immigration of Black people into the U.S. does not benefit Black Americans.
Tariq said aboriginal Black Americans fought and are still fighting to reclaim their economic benefits from the American system. He suggested that Africans should do the same too in their native lands and not come to the U.S. to steal their jobs.
The conversation had at least 27,000 people connected, with the majority of the callers from Nigeria or Nigerians either resident in the UK, Australia, Germany, Italy and other parts of the globe.
The volume of chatter on the topic puts Tariq as the number one trend on Nigerian Twitter, with at least 145,000 tweets referencing it.
Many of the callers dismantled Tariq’s argument. One of them told Tariq that the looting of Africa by Europeans who later founded America, was responsible for the collapse economic and political structure of Africa, hence, the reason Africans have been heading to the destination of the loot.
One caller reminded Tariq that the Nigerians in the U.S. are in highly skilled labour like doctors, college professors, tech gurus, etc. He wondered if Tariq, who says he is a High School dropout, could fill any of those vacancies.
A caller from Ghana told Tariq that it was naïve for him to have complained that Black immigrants should integrate with the Black American culture, saying being black does not mean having the same culture. He said even within Ghana, the culture is diversified.
