… with the implication being that such knowledge has somehow eluded African Americans for centuries. More tellingly is the way that many White Americans seem to be inclined to listen to immigrants with a patience and eagerness that they do not have for the Black population that has lived alongside them since before the nation’s founding. Black immigrants will often be given the type of audience not granted to African Americans. But to paraphrase sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom, you cannot access Black cool if you have not first experienced Black burden.