Microaggressions: A Black Muslim response!

 “Your Muslim? So did you convert? What’s your conversion story? …Oh, you were born Muslim? So where is your family from?

I cannot count how many times i’ve been asked by non-black Muslims if I am a convert. Obviously, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a convert to Islam.  However, the reason why African-American Muslims such as myself are often asked if we are converts is because we are viewed by some non-black Muslims as though we are just some Johny Come lately Muslims. Subsequently, they seek to display a sense of “religious superiority” over us in a very paternalistic way.

Let me say this very categorically to non-African-American Muslims: my ancestors in West Africa established some of the rigorous and prestigious Islamic Universities in the entire world. Timbuktu was a major center of Islamic learning in Black Africa where students of knowledge throughout the Islamic world came to study.

Black folks captured into slavery still had the mental strength to reproduce entire copies of the Qu’ran from memory even after enduring the traumatic middle passage. We are far from Johny come lately Muslims. However, we were  separated from islamic sciences for over four hundred years under the bondage of slavery.

My grandmother was exposed to the teachings of the Nation of Islam in the sixties. She told me that it was hearing from hearing the teachings of the Nation of Islam that it was the first time she was proud to be black. Later, my uncles and and other relatives worked in the community of Imam W.D Muhammad. In addition to that, I grew up being inspired by my father who worked in the Nation of Islam under the leadership of the Hon. Louis Farrakhan as a youth minister. The NOI played an instrumental role in the grow and development of Islam in America.

Often times, African-American Muslims are asked as to whether we are first, second, or third generation Muslims. The truth is we cannot answer this question accurately. Our forefathers in West Africa could have very well been Muslim for centuries prior to their enslavement and forced conversations to Christianity.  So naww, I’m not a Johny come lately Muslim and don’t ever address me like I am one.