Wow...That's a crazy story bro. Eres Afro-Americano en la sangre pero Latino en tu corazon!

You should take the ancestry dna test and vlog your results

I'll say this hermano.. The Peruvian rapper Immortal Technique said this very short but powerful statement. "there is a lot of Hispanics who are Black and don't even know it, and there are a lot of Blacks that are Hispanic and don't even know it" We are in a time where the Aboriginal people of this continent both Latino y Moreno light and dark are realising that we are essentially one in the same people.... As time goes on more and more people will start to have the urge to participate in different cultures of the Americas rather it be learning one of the four languages listening to different music of the continent or doing capoeira etc. Our culture's were always here and we always coexcited.. Where seeing our culture's once merge like they were before any Europeans showed up... These are exciting times we are in.

I'm 13 learning Spanish, all of my grandparents are Jamaican wish I knew what you were saying, keep making videos they really help

you are our brother from blood, saludos desde tu isla de Puerto Rico 🇵🇷

Estas noticias habrían roto mi corazón!!! jajajajaja! Pero me alegro que tu puedes ver tu propio individualismo durante este camino!! Buen video!

I grew up around Dominicans and Ricans all my life so my Spanish has always been a little bit better than most, I could mimic the Dominican accent but I only can take it so far lol. What steps did you take to become fluent?Also I applauded you bro for being so brave and standing up for who you are regardless of how ppl viewed you. My story is similar. Bendiciones Hermano🙏🏾

Hahaha yes a lot of black Americans do say they are half Puerto Rican lol or their grandma is Dominican. My friends sister used to do that and my little brother used to say my mom was Dominican because her hair is type 3c on the hair type charts. We know the all time favorite "I got Indian in my family" lol.

My brother I like to say that if you would have been born and any of the Latin countries you still will be you doesn't matter where you were born it's what's inside of you. So what I say to you is this you are more Latin then some of the Latin people that I know in my own family. And I say this to you with the utmost sincerity I am Puerto Rican by birth and I can honestly say that you are my Puerto Rican brother. And I know I speak for some if not many that you are or Latin Brother weather from Dominican Republic, Columbia or wherever you are family. Pues mi hermano te doy las gracias y te mando muchas bendiciones Que siga haciendo tu trabajo cómo lo está haciendo yo te digo con mucho orgullo qué tú eres hermano boricua Aunque te suena un poquitito a lo dominicano Pero eso también está bien conmigo porque Los dominicanos también son familia y son hermanos míos también son muchas bendiciones mi hermano Que Dios te bendiga

DUDE you inspire me to learn Spanish so much. I too am African American and often felt I didn't fit in sometimes. When I started learning and speaking it at my job people loved hearing me speak it and ask where I'm from. I just wish I understood them more. Spanish just feels like a gateway to many interesting and beautiful cultures within Latin America. Hearing you say you learned from scratch motivates me so much. Thank you!!!

First off, your Spanish is off the chain. Secondly, this was interesting to listen to. I started teaching myself Spanish in 2015 and now I speak like a Caribbean guy. I still aspire to be as fluent as you since my comprehension isn’t cien por ciento yet lol. Many Americans, including blacks, are starting to become fluent in Spanish. 👍 I’m a black American (both parents are black) and know I have some mixed heritage in my family also. Apparently we have some white , Native American, and Mexican heritage on my mom’s side . My mom told me that my dad’s side is supposedly similar, but with some Puerto Rican (?¿) I haven’t gotten the chance to ask him about it but it’s something that I’m curious to know about. People always assume I am from my looks or accent. Interesting vid mane

This is great! com glad I happened upon your channel today!

Dios te bendiga hermano, orgulloso de ti ,recuerda que nosotros los puertorriqueños tenemos sangre africana y esa sangre te nos une ha todos. pa ' lante mi hermano voy ha ti

People used to think I didn’t act black growing up or wasn’t Latino enough, but I’ve long got over it all. Respect to you man for just being yourself!

I can definitely understand where you are coming from. Soy African Americana, puertoriquena y Filipina. I identify as black because that’s half of my dna, as well as how i look, and i am more connected to that side. My grandmother is puertorican, born and raised on the island. Spanish is her first language. I spent a lot of time with her growing up here in the states so i was definitely immersed in the culture. When we went to church, it was a Spanish speaking church with a mixture of Cubans, puertoricans, and people from Latin america. I grew up mainly around dominicans, puertoricans, and african Americans. I can understand some spanish, i can read and write. I have the prononunciation down but struggle to communicate in Spanish. After years of trying to learn off and on i decided i am going to commit to learning Spanish so i can be fluent. It was rough growing up being mixed. I NEVER fit in. In the Hispanic community, I wasn’t considered Puerto Rican because i look black and didn’t speak the language. In the black community I wasn’t black enough so I wasn’t really accepted either. Now that i am grown, i have accepted myself and don’t care to fit in. But it was definitely a long and hard journey being content with who i am and being ok with not being accepted or fitting in. I just want to learn the language to be able to communicate and just be more connected to that part of my culture. I also want to teach my son. Not so fun fact, there is ALOT of racism ad colorism in the the hispanic communities. A lot of Afro-latinos experience alot of discrimination from the more European looking Hispanics. Most cultures strive to look and be more European unfortunately. That’s the consequence of colonialism. This video is 5 years old so you may have learned that since then. I love being a so called African American (look up deutoronomy 28 in the Bible, and see what group of people fit that prophecy. Hint: they ended up in the transatlantic slave trade. Love your videos. YAH de bendinga. Shalom hermano ❤

AWWWWWW BENNNDIIITOOOO...PERO SI ERES DE PUERTO RICO,SEGUROOOO ESO SE LLEVA EN EL CORAZON!!!!!!!!

Gracias por este video! I feel like I’m not alone. I have spanish people in my family and I’ve been so passionate about the language for the last couple of years, I am african American and I love the spanish language. Thank you so much for telling your story! New. Subscriber here! 🤗

I actually related to this a lot! My paternal great grandfather was Afro-Puerto Rican but he didnt raise my grandmother so she never passed down the culture and didnt meet him until her adult years. I've always liked learning languages but knowing that part of my ancestry comes from the island has inspired me to speak Carribean Spanish. I dont necessarily identify as Latino (I wouldn't check it on a survey or census) but I still recognize my heritage and want to embrace it along with my other heritage. Also In my family, like a lot of black families, there's claims of Cherokee ancestry from my great great grandfather. I was skeptical at first until actually finding more information about it (he actually died in the late 80s) and the fact that part of my family originates from North Carolina where Cherokees were originally located.

Esa fue una gran historia, me hizo reír a carcajadas también! 😄😅

Me gusta la honestidad, eres un top dude.

🇵🇷🌴🎉🎊 Happy 😁 to hear the news Ricky.

I wish you could spend time in these places.... our exchange after years of your times in these places would be classic.... love your spirit brother

Estoy aprendiendo Hebrew tambien! Un video...por favor?!

Omg, I'm so happy I just found this channel! I also have always wanted to be a Spanish speaker...so much so that I recently moved myself and my family to PR. TY for these videos. I have much to learn from you. Peace!

Wow man that’s is one wild story ... welcome to the culture that’s always open to all ... I m learning myself

And according to Dr Henry Gates, the Cherokee ancestry is likely a family myth as well...most African Americans are 75% African and 25% European. We had the same Native American myth going in my family until I took a DNA test....anyway, I love your channel!

I have the flag shoes with the coquis, too! Special edition Converses lol

¡Muy interesante! My dad is from Honduras and so he came to Estados Unidos when he was 11 but most of his spanish is lost he speaks real slow when I practice with him which is why I understand him for the most part. But anyways this story was so interesting and you speak really well! ¡Dios te bendiga! 🙏🇭🇳

You motivate me to learn about other languages and cultures. Sigue con el trabajo bueno!

I went down to texas to see my mom for a couple of weeks a few months back. I noticed that half the people down there spoke spanish and I too thought is was a very beautiful language. I started learning to speak it with duolingo, even after I came back to Indiana. The crazy thing is, my Mexican cousin, who I didnt know existed, got ahold of me sometime after that and she's been helping me learn. It can be confusing sometimes, but I know a lot more about it than I ever have before. You sir, are an inspiration.

1:00 Me encantó que hayas tocado ese punto, mi amigo afro americano juega soccer y le gusta bastante escuchar música Rock y bueno le gusta un poco el Rap pero mayormente el escucha Rock y mis compañeros negros le llaman “blanco” o le dicen cosas como “Vos no sos negro vos sos hispano o blanco” solo por ser un individuo y no seguir estereotipos ademas de que el se junta con un grupo donde la mayoría somos Latinos, muy buen video Rickie! Keep it up!!!

Hola soy cece. Im 9 years old and im learning spanish all by myself. I started to read articles in spanish listen to songs in spanish and im determined to learn the language 🙂

Saludos desde perú papu XD Me hiciste reir mucho, es el primer video que veo tuyo y pensaba que eras latino :D

Hi Rickie. As I said a couple of days ago I am impressed by you. It's incredible how the tone of people's voice changes when they speak different languages. I listen to you and you remind me of a dominican friend who spoke almost the same as you and i still can't believe how native dominican you sound. And for what's it worth, i like and respect black people no matter what. I like diversity. Last but not least, all your videos are both educational and entertaining. Keep up the good work. And if you don't mind my suggestion, i would like you to make a video where you go, say, to a dominican barrio or something like that and you surprise people just to get their reactions speaking spanish and then tell them you weren't born dominican. I think it would be pretty entertaining. Thank you.

Me gustan tus videos. Siempre estoy tratando aprender y mejorar mi español. Tambíen soy afro Americano. Mucahas personas creen que soy Boriqua o Dominicano. Tus videos me ayudará mucho. Siga pa'lante!!!!

You give me so much inspiration as a black girl learning spanish. I feel like i'll be judged for trying to learn a new language. I can also kind of relate to not being accepted in the black community. All my 14 yrs of life people(mostly blacks) used to say "oh you act white" or "you sound white" and "is you family ghetto?" I hated that last question most of all. because of the way i carried and presented myself blacks didn't want to hang with me. So in middle school i had little to no black friends and a lot of latino friends and other race friends. From hanging out with my latino friends started picking up on some spanish and sometimes spoke and practiced with them. fast forward to now in my freshman year at a new school ive made a lot a black friends who accept me for who i am. its sad to say this but now i feel like a black person. i don't feel like an outsider.

No es raro. Soy yo en realidad. Una Afro-americana quien habla con accento del caribe....

I speak Spanish, but I haven't mastered in the same way you have. Then again, I started learning 5 years ago today, not 10. So maybe that's the difference?? Mine is more academic than of the streets. I want to balance is out some to make it sound less stiff, you know??

MI HERMANO YO SOY LATINOAMERICANO, TU ERES BORICUA...NO IMPORTA SI TU NO TIENES FAMILIA O ANCESTROS HISPANOS, ERES BÁSICAMENTE UN ZAMBO O AFRO-MESTIZO LA MISMA MEZCLA DE RAZAS QUE NOSOTROS. SALUDOS, AMOR Y BENDICIONES.

Jesucristo, tengo la misma historia. Soy cien por ciento africano americano. Este vídeo hizo mi día. Perdoname por la mala gramática pero ya estoy aprendiendo. ¡Gracias por tus vídeos mucho!

iQué bien hablas español! ¡Representa cariño! Yes!!!!😊

Lmfao I'm mixed with so much stuff, but at the end of the day I ALWAYS SAY I'M BLACK 😂 pero muchas personas no entienden que puedes ser black y sabes español. Black and white are diverse races, with acestors from literally everywhere... not just one place, people still dont get that though. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I tell people I am German Samoan and really it is a lot easier for me to say German. But my mom's side of the family came out of Ostpreuße which today is part of Poland but before 1920 Ostpreuße was part of the German Empire and yes, they spoke German but ethnically they were Slavic and Baltic. When the Pacific Island of Samoa became a colony of the German Empire, my great, great grandfather on my mom's side came from Königsburg, which is today Kalinigrad and settled in Samoa. My mom, even though she speaks only Samoan, she looks white because of her ancestor. My dad is full Samoan and brown, so I have an olive skin color and because I had different skin color I was treated as never being Samoan enough and it didn't help that my parents never spoke Samoan at home when we moved to the US. Because I look different than most Samoan's I often get mistaken for being Mexican. Rather than play rugby like most Polynesian kids did, I was playing soccer. Always got put as goal keeper though, my size and height is at least the one noticeable Samoan thing about me. Lol. Even to this day Samoan's that don't know me think I am just a really big Mexican. Lol. Anyways, I learned German because I wanted to connect some way with my European ancestry. I am still not too good at speaking and because it is hard to find someone to converse with, even though German is the 3rd most commonly spoken language in Utah, the state I live in. Bislama, that language I learned fluently because I lived in the Republic of Vanuatu for years and of course me learning Spanish, specifically Dominican Spanish is because I being an islander felt I could relate and connect more to fellow isladers. Plantains, yucca and breadfruit are things we eat in the South Pacific all time and so does the Caribbean. We just eat these things with a lot of coconut cream. Lol. But yeah, I have a passion for German due to the reason I stated earlier. I have a pasdion for Bislama as well and Spanish because I felt more accepted by my Latin American friends and in Vanuatu than I did growing up with Samoans. One thing I was always called was "fia palagi" which if you're Samoan or Tongan you know they call you this when they think you are trying to be foreign, like being a traitor to your identity as a Samoan. Because I couldn't speak Samoan, I was called "fia palagi", because I didnt know the my own culture, I was called "fia palagi". So naturally as a young boy you go looking for acceptance else where when I couldn't find it among my own people. Don't get me wrong, I will always day I am Samoan and throw down for Samoa and be proud to be Samoan. But I owe it to my upbringing for making me who I am. I feel because I had that longing to belong I learned to get along with people from all backgrounds, but I will always throw it down for my Latin Americans because they were the first to accept me. My love for other cultures and languages definitely sprouted from my upbringing, but also I learned to love and accept my own culture at the same time. Other cultures taught me that, no matter what you faced, be proud of your roots.

Los datos como color de piel no es necesario. Eres conmigo, hermano. Estamos aqui en este mundo y te aprecio.

Don't worry if you're not Puerto Rican. You can be Dominican and everyone will believe it! 😂

Beautiful ❤️

Love how u speak Spanish.

How long did it take you to become fluent? I’ve been trying to teach myself Spanish for quite some time.

Eres caribeño de corazón 🌴🌞

Man im just finding you. You sound dominican!! Ive been there 3 times. I only speak a little. Time to step it up!!!

Yes ♡

Interesante

Man, I just found this video and relate to this so much. When I was growing up my grandmother told me my grandfather was half Puerto Rican and Ramapoo indian and that she was black. So I thought I was all three. only to do a dna test and find out that said Puerto Rican(ness) was Mexican. The kicker is when I asked why she said puerto rican she went, they all the same (like every other american on the east cost every Hispanic was Puerto Rican to her)

Yo soy Puerto riquena nacida en NY, y me da' orgullo de hablar el ingles y espanol. Hasta hablo SPANGLISH TAMBIEN!!HA HA Mis tres idiomas! Anyway, todos somos ser humanos, todos venimos en diferentes tonos de piel y diferentes looks. El racismo estan ridiculo e ignorante. TODOS nacimos, murimos, comemos, orinamos, (ya tu sabes), Bueno y un chorro de cosas mas. Todos envejesemos y vamos a morir de algo.

I can so relate to this.

Mera yo soy boricua y yo te considero puertorriqueño por que pasaste años aprendiendo el lenguaje

Your accent is going to be influenced by the people you learn the language from. I worked with men from Mexico, Ecuador, and Guatemala that learned English from the African American men they worked with in a factory and their accents sound like the men they learned from. So if you learned from people from the Caribbean, then I would expect you to have that accent. It doesn’t make you a fraud. Do you, papí and don’t let anyone tell you it’s wrong or not good enough.

Pana Boricua!!!!!

Have you tried Ancestry DNA test?? Maybe you do have some latino or Spanish in there. 😉

take the ancestry test. you will be surprised... I want to take it too.

La primera vez que te escuche asumí que eras Hispanoamericano (de algún lado de centroamerica).

I am a native spanish speaker. Grew up in a Spanish speaking country and everything. I even study Spanish in University. And when I tell you that I NEEDED these English subtitles😆😆😆😆. I love Dominican culture and music and food and all of that so I swear I mean no offense, but I had no idea what he was saying in Spanish lol. There's just something about the Dominican accent. I really cannot understand it.

¡Hablas español muy rapido! Necesité los subtítulos en ingles! 😂😂😂😂

How can we follow you on Facebook?

Yo también soy Puertorriqueño 😃

TU ERES BORIQUA. 100%. 🇵🇷🌴

I feel like at some point most of us have gone through some form of an identity crisis lol

es una historia muy graciosa. jajaja

se ve como el actor Bill Bellamy.

You speak Arabic?

I'm Straight Great British but I wish i had some caribe in me

Latino is a culture, not a race but I get what you're saying.

your boricua? damn bro learn puerto rican spanish like me!

I know what it feels like to be ostracized from your black community especially as a kid. It wasn’t until I was older that I first saw that my identity comes from Christ not a specific people group, and also I don’t care what people say! I know and love being black regardless of people making fun of me! And I love Spanish, that doesn’t make me any less black! It’s because people don’t know themselves that they make fun of others 💛

Dímelo 🇵🇷🔥🔥🔥

Truth be told almost ALL African americans have SOME mixed blood in them. It doesnt mean that they "are" a specific race to the exclusion of the remaining DNA make up. It's always a good thing in my opinion to educate oneself regarding their ancestry and embrace it. But never put one race over the other. And dont confuse a person's nationality with race and DNA.

¿Pueden tu hermano y hermana hablar español?

The Puerto Rican delegation selects Rickie Walls! lol

"boy, we're not puerto rican" ... the way you said it still had black mom all over it LOL even though you said it in spanish. "I used to be puerto rican" lmao

23 and me?

Please do a DNA test if you haven't done one already.

Tu acento suena caribeño por la pronunciación de la “r” como “l”, el seseo, etc, pero creo que no empleas el vocabulario o expresiones propias de allá. Por otra parte, para un español de Andalucía, se te entiende muy bien.

No te preocupes si no eres “Puertorriqueño.” Te adoptamos lol Ya eres uno de nosotros😏

Sweetie you’re Dominican!!!!!!

You should start learning another language such as French, Portuguese or Italian and do updates on that.

I know I'm 3 years late to the party but I just wanted to say the only difference between African Cherokee mix, African Spanish, African British, etc is culture. It's the same kinds of mix. There are some people on Puerto Rico that if they took a DNA test all they would have is European. There are some that would show almost completely African. I think the average mix, according to Ancestry.com, is like 65% European, 20% Black, 15% Native (Taino most likely). Honestly? All this proves is Puerto Rican isn't race, it's culture. Same for all the other Caribbean islands.

Una pregunta. Cuando hablas en español dirias . yo soy negro. yo soy Moreno o yo soy afroamericano. Porque decir yo soy una persona de color no creo.😂 Saludos desde España. ¿ para cuándo un video de trabalenguas?

Really bro, you weren't accepted by the African American community?😭 It saddens me to know that you feel this way, the African-American community has accepted everyone. Maybe I should have ended that last sentence with a ! The fact of the matter is that more likely you didn't want to belong. When you take away the language we are all one anyway, Dominican, Puerto Rican, African American Brazilian and so on. The only difference is we have different oppressors that have change the course of our DNA. My friend I pray for you but you may know truly who you really are for we are neither Puerto Rican or Afro-American. We are one the true Israelites, the people from The promised Land love you dearly my brother. and by the way I have subscribed to you because of your determination to learn such a language.

Que te parece si haces un DNA test?.. para que todo se quede claro

Mira mi hermano, si nos dejamos llevar por eso entonces los americanos blancos son europeos no americanos igual con los negros. Si a ti te gusta la cultura y sacastes de tu tiempo para no solo hablar español pero español Puerto Riqueño y te sumerges entre esa gente pues lo eres. Tu eres de los nuestros loco. Bienvenido Boricua!!!

Se te quedó el acento del caribe, como una mezcla de Puerto Rico Y Dominican Republic

damn that's foul Grandpa lied to you. smh

Puerto Rico es de los Estados Unidos 🇺🇸

The truth is every African American family says they have Cherokee LOL. And it always turns out they have none. It's only a myth. Don't believe me? Just look up DNA ancestry test results for African Americans. When I heard you speaking English I thought you were from Caribbean like Jamaican or from Barbados or something like that. I like to watch the content of your Spanish language videos.

Si te gustan los Sloppy Joes, entonces si eres afroamericano.😁

You are from Compton ca. Everyone speaks Spanish

Mi español no es tan bueno como el tuyo pero lo mismo me paso a mí. soy afroamericana pero cuando era joven mi papá nos decía que alguien en su familia era de Puerto Rico y emigró aquí a Estados Unidos. Y mi mamá averiguó que alguien en su familia era un español, y no un indígena como ella pensaba. Pero terminó siendo la verdad.... tengo primos en la isla y en Estados Unidos no se si hay gente en España todavía pero el español emigró aquí dejó su familia para emigrar a EUA

wow. interesting story. I was gonna ask you how black people felt about you learning the language. I will tell you what I think too because I am African American and I am passionate about learning Spanish. The thing is it should not matter as long as we don't forget who we are. at the end of the day, we are all the same people who just got dropped off at different places. Some people do it because of insecurity. African Americans are the only people who had their culture take away. think about it-the Jews although they suffered, kept their culture. The Hispanic world identifies themselves by their culture which unfortunately is why a lot of them don't consider themselves black even though they are. we as black people are searching to belong because we don't have a culture besides the American culture we were forced to adopt. they stripped us of our language, everything. overall, there's nothing wrong with that. As a Christian now, I love Spanish still but my purpose is also to win souls for Christ.

Ya tu eres dominicano olvidate de lo demas

una broma!. una broma!!!!: dios! que crisis existencial.... tu ya te quedaste como dominicano! sabes mas modismos y costumbres que los propios dominicanos.