Miami rapper Trick Daddy is riling up the internet again as he now claims he does not identify as “African American,” noting, “I ain’t never been to Afro-ca, I have never been to Africa, and I’m not from Africa.”
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During a recent Instagram Live, Trick Daddy got real with his fans and straight up told them that he does not identify as African American simply because he’s “not from Africa” and has “never been to Africa.” In a clip from his livestream on Instagram, Trick Daddy said, “I’m trying to figure out how ‘Afro’ got in front of my motherf***ing race.”
Trick Daddy, who was born in Miami, Florida, continued to reveal why he simply wants to be labeled an “American” instead of “African American.” He said, “I ain’t never been to Afro-ca. I have never been to Africa. Afro- or Afri-ca. Never been there. I’m not from Africa. I’m born and raised in Goulds, Florida. I was born in Goulds and raised in Liberty City, in the Pork ‘N’ Beans Projects.”
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Continuing his rant, Trick Daddy said, “I ain’t never went to Africa. I ain’t thinking about going there. And I heard it’s a beautiful place, yes. I know it’s the Motherland, yes. But, not my mother, not her mother, and not her mother’s mother. That ain’t their land. America’s real, true land is right here. In the U.S. soils.”
Now, to note, the label “African American” usually refers to individuals in the United States who have origins in Black people in Africa and/or direct descendants of enslaved Africans. According to CBS News, Professor Celeste Watkins-Hayes, an African American studies professor at Northwestern University, says the nation-specific term “African American” was adopted as a “very deliberate move on the part of Black communities to signify our American-ness, but also signify this African heritage.”
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Watkins-Hayes added, “So, if we think about what’s happened post-1960s, what you’ve seen is rising immigration among Black people who were not born in the United States. People who are coming from Africa, from the Caribbean, from Europe, who identify as Black but don’t identify as African American.”
As we have seen with Trick Daddy and other Blacks living in America who don’t like to be labeled “African American,” Watkins-Hayes highlighted the layers of racial identity, noting they are extremely personal and nuanced. While there are some Americans who identify as both “Black” and “African American,” others prefer to be labeled “Black” over “African American” because they cannot directly trace their lineage.
Watkins-Hayes said, “Part of what was stolen, when we think about slavery, when we think about colonization, was that lineage. [They are saying] ‘I don’t even feel comfortable claiming African, because I don’t know the story of where my people have come from.’” She continued, “The move that you see now towards ‘Black’ is really to recognize the global nature of Blackness. So, I think that that is the more universal term.”
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