As soon as it was announced that filming would start for the Harriet Tubman biopic with British-Nigerian actress Cynthia Erivo as the lead, a social-media fury erupted.
An online appeal went up, demanding an African-American woman be recast as Tubman, the woman who, after escaping slavery, made more than a dozen trips to lead others to freedom on the Underground Railroad.
In the change.org petition that garnered 1,123 signatures by Oct. 17, organizer Tyler Holmes wrote: "We will boycott the film 'Harriet' until you hire an actual black American actress to play the part."
This, after a tangle in August when Nigerian-born blogger and author Luvvie Ajayi wrote that Tevin Campbell was too obscure a choice to sing at Aretha Franklin's funeral. "Under what rock did they pull that name from?" Ajayi quipped. Twitter's response was livid.
But these arguments, dubbed by some "the diaspora war," reveals more than preferences over movie roles and pop culture.
The rancor provides a peek into a broader debate about identity in America, raising questions about how a changing black population _ increasingly diverse with immigrants and refugees from Africa, the Caribbean, Britain and elsewhere _ sees itself and is seen by the majority.
Who is black in America? Can there be unity based on skin color alone? Who gets to speak for African Americans?
Although there is more nuance to the arguments, the two sides often go like this: Black immigrants are respected more than black Americans, all the while benefiting from reparations meant to right evils of America's past. It's led to some black Americans redefining themselves as "American Descendants of Slaves" to spotlight their special claim on America's promises. Meanwhile, black immigrants discover they're newly identified as "black" in a white nation _ an unnecessary distinction in Nigeria, Ghana or black Caribbean nations _ and say when pulled over by cops, no one cares whether they have a charming accent.
These identity issues are showing up at universities, during marches, at movie theaters, and it raises questions of whether these diverging groups can, or want to, build coalitions for political change.
We talked to a number of experts _ immigrants and Americans _ to help explain the origins of the tension and how the complicated issue is playing out.
