By Chido Nwangwu, Founder & Publisher of USAfrica
Exclusive commentary to USAfricaonline.com, CLASSmagazine and USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston.
Follow Twitter.com/Chido247, Facebook.com/USAfricaChido
USAfrica, Houston: On Monday night, October 21, 2013, the flat-earth ideologue, U.S Texas Republican Senator Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz (born December 22, 1970) who represents me in the U.S Senate dragged Nigeria and Nigerians — via a stereotype — into his fumbled partisan fight over ObamaCare. He told a rally of his fellow Tea
Party activists in our city Houston that “You may have noticed that all the Nigerian email scammers have become a lot less active lately. They all have been hired to run the Obamacare website.” This was quoted same day by the Houston Chronicle.
For context and clarity, Cruz was speaking to a group with some members who believe President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S., but Kenya. The birthers, you know….
Outside the awkwardness and intentional goal of insulting Nigerians, Cruz’s is a crude joke, an overly simplistic and reckless twist of the actions of only a handful of criminals (as they exist in all societies) to describe and characterize a country of almost 200 million people.
As a student of history and political science, I know that communities, ethnicities and groups have been decimated on the furnace of the assorted bigotries arising from stereotypes. “No one likes to be typecast or stereotyped…” wrote Susan Marg, the author of Hollywood or Bust. But Cruz, a young lawyer, does not understand those wise words; if he did, he has refused to profit from its historical value by stereotyping Nigerians.
The fact is: Nigerians contribute more to the U.S. than they take away. Nigerian students count among the top tier for ALL sectors of scholastic excellence in the U.S.
At another level of group politics and respect, the other issue which is very troubling is that U.S Senator Cruz operates from the greater Houston area which has the largest concentration of upwardly mobile, actively voting and business-owning community of Nigerians in the U.S. He has quite some chutzpah to stereotype the group. He can, in part, because the Nigerian Foundation and such other organizations masquerading as speaking for and organizing for Nigerians struggle over smaller, wasteful, inconsequential matters. Truth be told: were Nigerians better organized and effective as a group, Mr. Cruz would have focused his comments on important matters.
The problem of Nigerians are not made easier when the folks with financial clout and professional profiles of consequence avoid their community and its events as if they are running away from some kind of plague. When they run foul of the law, they say it’s because they are “Black…Nigerian… immigrants” and other watery apologia.
Without a doubt, there are cases where Nigerians are their own worst ambassadors in dishonor; yet in most cases, Nigerians work real hard, seek mainstream routes to their goals, show remarkable and creative channels for their talents. Nigerians have, literally, continued to emerge like fresh colonies of mushrooms on a tropical sunrise across the four corners of the world as the very best in most endeavors they pursue.
Hence, I have put in, in part, 20 years my multimedia, news and public policy works in the U.S to telling the stories of the African and American (USAfrica) lives, challenges, reporting the good and the bad while honoring annually, during the first weekend of May in Houston, those high-achievers and outstanding men, women and younger ones who I categorized as the “USAfrica Best of Africa” honorees. They are mainly Nigerians, Africans, African-Americans and other Americans and have included the greatest novelist and writer of African descent, late Chinua Achebe; the Nigerian-born founder of the largest Black-owned corporation in the U.S., Kase Lawal (CAMAC), headquartered in Houston, employing several hundreds of persons of diverse origins and bringing hundreds of millions of dollars into the Texas economy. Cruz and his Texas constituents benefit from those millions!
Despite the distractions of those who see Nigeria and Nigerians through the lenses of “Nigerian scammers”, we will continue to celebrate and honor at the “USAfrica Best of Africa” events the fact that the world class Houston medical center and allied healthcare institutions profit from the special skills of thousands of Nigerian nurses, pharmacists, radiologists, researchers and medical doctors. One of those doctors is Dr. Patricia Dike-Odimgbe, a pediatrician who has handled more than 5,000 kids, and seen 3 generations of some Houston families!
It is equally important to know that the USAfrica Data Index show that more than any other recent immigrants, Nigerian-born healthcare employees in the greater Houston/Harris County and Fort Bend areas bring a higher number and level of skills set.
We are a forward-looking community with an outstanding youth leaders who earn, daily, the highest accomplishments in education. In 2012, then 22 years old Nigerian, Emmanuel Ohuabunwa, Jnr (from Arochukwu), made history at the John Hopkins University, here in the U.S., adjudged as having the highest honors during the 2012 graduation by recording a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.98 out of 4, also becoming the first African-American to make such history in the school; and bagged a degree in Neurosciences.
Emmanuel made time to visit me at the editorial headquarters of USAfrica in Houston on August 8, 2012 where we chatted about his scholastic record, future and outstanding personal qualities. He’s on a scholarship to Yale University where he is pursuing a degree in medicine. Emmanuel is first class! Deservedly, inducted into Phi Beta Kappa Society, a prestigious honors group that has membership of 17 US Presidents, 37 US Supreme Court Justices, and 140 Nobel Prize winners. On Saturday May 10, 2014, Emmanuel Ohuabunwa will be honored at the “USAfrica Best of Africa” awards in Houston. I will invite Senator Cruz to present the USAfrica award to Emmanuel.
Evidently, Senator Cruz does not know Nigerians well.
“Sometimes stereotyping happens not because of any nefarious reasons but rather because people don’t know who you are or where you come from, so they go for the broad strokes about you, your culture, your faith, all that”, wrote the Pakistani-American actor Faran Tahir.
Only a month ago, about 200 of the top pharmacists, research scientists and scholars of pharmacology gathered for their convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to promote the business and research interests of Nigerians and Americans. Hence, I led a four-person USAfrica multimedia team to feature NAPPSA’s valuable 3-day event of September 2013.
Such important, professionals’ events, somehow, do not attract the attention of the likes of Cruz & Co! Only the salacious, scandalous and stereotypical items about Nigeria draw their interest. Sad but true.
Ordinarily, the same Rafael Cruz who dances, giddily, to the heady drums of partisan rhumba, ought to know better — especially for his being the first Hispanic to be elected U.S. Senator from Texas; and serving since 2013. He ought to know better — especially being mindful of the decades old stereotypes against his fellow Hispanics.
Increasingly, in his almost 10-month old public life in Washington DC as U.S Senator, Cruz has become a walking poster of poor judgement on the business interests of our great city of Houston, of the demographic outlook of our great state of Texas and an excited merchant of the xenophobia and assorted extremisms of the radical right-wing groups known as the Tea Party. Consequently, with such hideous agenda, misguided zealotry and peculiar recklessness, Cruz made a dog’s breakfast of his conservative Republican “strategy” of defunding of Obamacare by inflicting an unpopular “government shutdown.”
Singularly, Mr. Cruz’s face and name have since become the twin emblems of the neo-anarchism demand for the outright breakdown of government and suspension of America’s financial obligations by a radical, rookie senator….
The other issue for Nigerians is stereotyping of Nigerians as ‘Drug Dealers.’ Again, it is wrong to throw a blanket and misleading stereotype against a community. Nigerians have never, as a group or government, contrary to some media reports, set up “schools and academies” where they “train” scam artists and drug dealers. No! Of course, the pain and badge of dishonor these drug traffickers inflict on all Nigerians cannot be glossed over as if the community (here in Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore, and other cities) share in their lifestyle and activities. Our folks do not. And, never did.
A few minutes ago, I was looking through my records and I saw the U.S Attorney General, Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announcement of Friday, October 11, 1996 that a certain Jumoke ‘Kafi’ Majekodunmi and her heroine trafficking gang of women and some men had been bagged by law enforcement agencies. These human conveyor belts for hard drugs and destructive substances, as a matter of fact, constitute a very minor, criminal part of our community.
Most Nigerians, rich and poor, professionals and the artisans, in different parts of the world will tell you that one of the major problems they face is their image, and how they are presented in the international media and public policy circles.
It’s not too much to suggest that whenever Nigerians become serious with themselves, tackle the agents of dishonor among us, demand zero tolerance for dishonorable conduct, then the world will take them more seriously.
Will the Nigerian government, the embassy of Nigeria in Washington DC, or its well-paid lobbyists do as much as “condemn” the words of Cruz?
Do Nigerians know how to leverage group power politics in America? Or will the 1am to 6am same-routine ‘owambe’ parties remain our priority and highest budget item when those who came after we got here are elected to and appointed to fruitful positions of influence and empowerment?
Will Cruz’s comments awaken Nigerians to productive action?
Drawing from the talk-versus-action record of the Nigerian immigrants in north America, the answer to the questions, is blowing in the wind….
• Dr. Chido Nwangwu, former adviser on Africa business/issues to the Mayor of Houston Dr. Lee Brown and author of the forthcoming book, Mandela & Achebe: Footprints of Greatness, is the Founder & Publisher of Houston-based USAfrica multimedia networks since 1992, first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com; CLASSmagazine, AchebeBooks.com, the pictorials site PhotoWorks.TV, the USAfrica-powered e-groups of AfricanChristians, Nigeria360, UNNalumni, and several others. He was recently profiled by the CNN International for his pioneering works on multimedia/news/public policy projects for Africans and Americans. http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2010/07/29/mpa.african.media.bk.a.cnn
USAfrica: BOKO HARAM’s latest killings sharpen divide for security team at Nigeria’s presidency. By Chido Nwangwu
https://usafricaonline.com/2013/10/21/usafrica-boko-harams-latest-killings-sharpen-divide-for-security-team-at-nigerias-presidency-by-chido-nwangwu/
————————————
Dancing with “ghosts” of BOKO HARAM, President Jonathan, Sultan Abubakar and Nigeria’s national security. By Dr. Chido Nwangwu
https://usafricaonline.com/2013/04/05/dancing-with-ghosts-of-boko-haram-president-jonathan-sultan-abubakar-and-nigerias-national-security-by-chido-nwangwu/
Nigeria’s Federal Republic of Insecurity. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfrica, USAfricaonline.com and the Nigeria360 e-group. https://usafricaonline.com/2011/12/17/nigeria-federal-republic-of-insecurity-by-chido-nwangwu/ : IF any of the Nigerian President’s 100 advisers has the polite courage for the extraordinary task of reminding His Excellency of his foremost, sworn, constitutional obligation to the national interest about security and safety of Nigerians and all who sojourn in Nigeria, please whisper clearly to Mr. President that I said, respectfully: Nigerians, at home and abroad, are still concerned and afraid for living in what I call Nigeria’s Federal Republic of Insecurity. FULL text of commentary at USAfricaonline.com
- Eight lessons of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston. https://usafricaonline.com/2009/11/01/chido-8lessons-rwanda-genocide/
——
Margaret Thatcher, Mandela and Africa. By Chido Nwangwu, Founder & Publisher of USAfrica, and the first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com. Click for newscast video of London-based SkyNEWS, the global, 24-hour British international tv network’s interview with USAfrica’s Publisher Chido Nwangwu on April 11, 2013 regarding this latest commentary http://youtu.be/G0fJXq_pi1c )
There’s a compelling political trinity to Nelson Mandela: the man, the messiah and the mystique. https://usafricaonline.com/2013/07/18/mandela-95-hearty-cheers-to-his-footprints-of-greatness-by-chido-nwangwu/
——- ——
——
- Margaret Thatcher, Mandela and Africa. By Chido Nwangwu, Founder & Publisher of USAfrica, and the first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com. Click for newscast video of London-based SkyNEWS, the global, 24-hour British international tv network’s interview with USAfrica’s Publisher Chido Nwangwu on April 11, 2013 regarding this latest commentary http://youtu.be/G0fJXq_pi1c )
——–
‘POPE FRANCIS, champion for the poor and evangelistic dedication’ by Chido Nwangwu
Long Live, CHINUA ACHEBE! The Eagle on the iroko.
FULL text of this tribute-commentary at USAfricaonline.com click link https://usafricaonline.com/2013/03/22/long-live-chinua-achebe-by-chido-nwangwu
Ted Cruz is novice legislator and a scammer who scammed the Republican Party to believing he can defund ObamaCare by shutting down US government.
We now understand why the republicans lost the presidential election and will lose the next one.
Too bad the US still has the likes of Senator Cruz in a modern Soceity such as yours. The Nigerian Soceity in Texas should demonize him for these awful comments and ensure he fails re-election at the next polls.
Thanks to Dr. Chido Job well-done, for helping others Castigate this good for nothing Senator Cruz of Texas. He is definitely going to loose his sit to someone else coming next election. This son of Mexican drug Cartel and food stamp/other government beneficiary has the grudge to insult Nigerians. I do not blame him, l much blame the bad Nigerians that goes out to other countries, also at home in Nigeria, commit crime in Collaborations with those evil companies called e .g $hell Petroleum, e.t.c. Damage the reputations of the good Nigerians.
He's rude and arrogance. He worth nothing, maybe he forgot that Nigerians are more better than Spanish where ever he generated from, Lastly he's lack of home training. I do not blame him, l only blame the bad Nigerians that go out to disgrace the country image by committing crime, damaging the country reputations in collaboration with those evil company e.g. Shell etc. I believe he's going to loose his sit coming next election.
What else can lead that senator to such rantings except extreme ignorance, bigotry or being massively possessed by demons?
I wish a few more Nigerians will tow the footprint of Dr Chido Nwangwu on cultural consciousness and socio-political articulation of Nigerian issues particularly on stereotype .
Everybody makes fool of us from Obama to Cruz and other grasshoppers on notoriety of a few scrupulous individuals….we are often times our worst enemies in all facet of life…social,cultural, political and Economical
Senator Cruz should be concerned about his race's complicity in drug cartels,murder and gangs in America,defrauding of the welfare system,auto thefts,smuggling and general fraud of the highest order.His days in Senate are numbered and I am not worried about him but about us(Nigerians)…when shall we start changing our ways of cultural fatigue to defending ourselves for the sake our children and this ridiculous stereotype
Very Interesting Ted Cruz pls stay on the subject and leave Nigerian out of it.
Senator no doubt is an anarchist. A filibuster loser and no doubt a one tenure candidate. Society generally I'd better off if he remains a mere egoscentric enjoying his family wealth.