Why do White-American kids/young adults know nothing of Africans?

• My mother was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa - while my father is an American. I was born in Johannesburg but raised mainly in the US and visited SA with my family in the summers. I'm starting my 2nd semester of college here in the US. Has anyone noticed that white teens and young adults (even many well established intellects) know NOTHING of Africa, it's countries or its people? When fellow students met my mother, whom is bi-racial (zulu and dutch), they asked why she didn't wear traditional african dress (I'm guessing they meant beads, loin cloths and bones??) and why she was a "light-skinned" black and not "dark". Also since I'm simply "tan" I'm not technically an African. I've realized that they expect my family to have a feather through their chins and eat monkey brains for a snack. I don't expect them to know everything, but the majority of young people everywhere in the US are so naive and incredibly ignorant. I told my mom I want to leave and continue my studies in Johannesburg. Anybody else ever felt this way?

• Answer:

  I was going to answer this because I'm an American, but then I see you were raised quite a bit here... Having been raised here, you should know the answer to your question. They don't TEACH about Africa here! Not much, at least. In Kansas, our studies on Africa consisted on strictly geography for our world studies course. As for world and cultural studies, we spent the entire first semester on European history, then the last was mostly Asian with 2 weeks for Australia and another ONE week for the entirety of Africa. And Africa was mostly Egypt and the pyramids, "OMG the people in Sudan are savages", Somalia has pirates, and South Africa had Apartheid. THAT was what we learned. If you want people to learn more about Africa, you need to put forth the effort to educate them. There ARE people like me who are fascinated with other cultures and very open to learning. Heck, I'm even learning Afrikaans now because I think it's such an amazing language. But you've got to be patient with people. My advice- try to find their mistakes more funny. It will grate at you occasionally, but a sense of humour about it goes a long way. People make hillbilly and redneck jokes at my expense all the time because of my accent, but that's how people are. And there will be ignorance everywhere you go. The Americas, Eurasia, Africa, the South Pacific... Nowhere is immune. Also--- It's not just "white people", chica. It's everyone. And separating out whites from the other races is ignorant. I am probably better educated on Africa than many blacks are about their "mother land" because I actually care about what's going on over there. It's a matter of who you talk to.