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My Scary Journey Into ADOS, the Anti-Immigrant Movement Led by Black Folks
American exceptionalism and xenophobia cleaves the Black struggle once again
Scrolling social media feels like, at any moment, I’ll get pulled into one of those haunted houses I hated as a kid. I didn’t know what was in them but didn’t want to terrify myself looking. I fell into one such spooky abyss last month — ADOS — and I’m mangling my nails trying to claw myself out.
The acronym stands for American Descendants of Slavery, which is an awkward phrase: Since the country was built on slavery, anyone American is a descendant. It’s hard to understand how a person can descend from a system. (I could call myself a Western descendant of capitalism, but I digress.) It’s supposed to signify Black people whose ancestors toiled on American soil and whose families remain here. That’s a huge category. But ADOS doesn’t seek to include most who belong to it. The niche group has become a trenchant faction of bullies who issue Blackness tests. Whatever its acronym, ADOS has come to stand for anti-immigrant invective and petty diversion.
Late last year, during an idle night of browsing rooms on live-chat app Clubhouse, I saw one called #NotMyFredHampton that caught my attention. The upcoming movie Judas and the Black Messiah centers on the iconic Black Panther, and since the movie’s writer-director is a friend, I was curious what folks were saying. In this discussion, the controversy was that Daniel Kaluuya, a Black British actor, plays Hampton, an American resistance icon. I clicked into the room. That’s when I heard the voice of Yvette Carnell.
Carnell is a Howard University alum and a co-founder (with Antonio Moore) of the organization and hashtag #ADOS. Chief among her takes is the idea that Black Americans cannot win a conjoined struggle for reparations. Immigrants, she claims, are usurpers of not only Black American culture but also opportunity. If this sounds familiar, it’s because xenophobia is as American as pill-popping and poverty.
On its surface, the grievance is valid. The rest of the Black diaspora often isn’t kind or aligned to the unique struggle Black folks in America have faced and continue to face. But ADOS latches onto American exceptionalism…
