Today I liked a tweet that referred to South Africans reclaiming their land from white colonists. Almost immediately I received a tweet reprimanding me, No Vengeance; it’s Palm Sunday. The tweeter went on to imply POC were ‘useful idiots’ for not thinking like him.
Now I mean no disrespect, I only want to understand. Is it white privilege or white arrogance or both that make white people, in general, feel they can not only dictate morality but control the voices of other groups?
South Africans want their land back. If they can find a way to do so, I applaud their efforts. But to call that genocide is a lie and an attempt to erase history. Wasn’t it through genocide that white colonists in South Africa stole land from South Africans?
Why not tell the truth? Instead of race baiting and using #whiteprivilege to silence others from speaking out why not write about the real genocide that occurs daily in the US and in Palestine.
Israel is not only taking land by brute force in Palestine but also murdering women and children to get that land. In the US, a similar outcome using #policebrutality as the means.
Why is the truth so challenging for the prevailing culture?
Dear Angela, obviously there are People who cannot stand historical truth! It will take time until the majority of Whites understand: also they like all other People in this world are for the powers that be just either vegetables or weed! In face of Neoliberal-Capitalist-Fascist profiteers and warmongers we´re all in the same boat! Time for them to wake up!
Cordial regards
Thanks Andreas. Why do you understand so well? The majority of white people not only don’t care to understand but become resort to ad hominem attacks and race baiting.
Dear Angela, maybe the answer to that question is to be found here:
https://wipokuli.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/blog_editor_personal2.pdf
&
„My Big Thanks to a Giant of Literature: James Baldwin!“: https://wipokuli.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/my-big-thanks-to-a-giant-of-literature-james-baldwin/
My life has been intertwined closely with Africa and the Afro-German community.
Let´s keep up the struggle!
Happy Sunday and cordial regards
Hi Angela, I am a so-called black person and trying to figure out what’s on the mind of anybody let alone so-called white people is impossible. I just go by their actions or better yet inaction. I like to believe most see the injustice but don’t want to rock the boat or afraid to say anything. The so-called white supremacists are the most vocal and for the most part go unchallenged by whites who disagree.
Hi Rudy, I believe most are too busy enjoying their privileged status to give a shit. And most don’t see us as real people but as objects to command and control.
I heard about South Africa’s land reclamation without compensation rule, and it is crazy how the alt-right has their collective panties in a bunch. These are also the same people who want deportations of nonwhite immigrants and travel bans, but once the Black South Africans dared to reclaim the land, so the hypocrisy is immense. Did you know there are more White people in Africa than there are Black people in Europe? I didn’t know that until recently. In another note about African news, Namibia is actually trying to sue the German government for their colonization efforts during and after the Scramble for Africa especially since the Namibians faced genocide over in their own land. I’m not saying that some kind of Wakanda will happen overnight (pardon the Black Panther reference), but its fascinating how the Africans are fighting back.
I applaud South Africa for their land reclamation. Didn’t know about Namibia. In the future I fear Africa will be without African blacks. Hope I am wrong.
It’s mandatory to learn about the Jewish holocaust. They received reparations, retribution and justice. In addition they got Palestinian land and are now doing to Palestinians worse than Germany did to them.
There was slavery then Jim Crow yet American blacks have not had stood their ground in demanding reparations. I guess affirmative action was to be some kind of quasi-reparation.
American blacks forget power is not given but taken.
Yeah, South Africa finally got to stand up to right a colonial wrong. I’ve noticed a wave of African nations trying to stand up. Ethiopia stopped adoptions to foreigners this year after stories broke out of White American couples adopting their kids more than any other group in the world and the adoptees have been getting tortured, abused, neglected, and even killed. One family actually got convicted of child murder this year and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I hope Namibia wins this lawsuit and some of the locals said in an interview [paraphrased] “If Germany be punished for the Holocaust, then why can’t they pay us for the Holocausts our ancestors suffered?”.
Don’t get me wrong, the Jewish Holocaust was a horrific event and people need to know about it. However, I find it atrocious how other genocides aren’t covered in mainstream academia like Namibia, Congo (Leopold II had a body count of 10 million Congolese and NEVER got punished), the Afro-Argentinean genocide in the 19th century, and one can certainly argue about the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade at large.
Right on. Affirmative Action barely even counts. I’ve also heard some stupid people saying that welfare is a form of reparations which is racist and intellectually insulting, to say the least.
It’s so true, and I’ve been realizing it recently.
Exactly! Th educational system force-fed knowledge of the Jewish holocaust as if it was the only act of genocide that mattered. One never quite understood why the Germans chose the Jews as opposed to some other racial group? Why were Jews rejected in Europe? How did they emerge from WWII so victoriously– gaining a country, reparations, and retribution? Today Israel is an appalling peek at human evil, greed, and power.
Being awake with some knowledge of history can be depressing especially in these times. If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t be bothered by what I see. We could do better and more if we worked together.
Of course. Sure, some other genocides are mentioned like Rwanda, Bosnia, and Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (I used to work at a high school and they did teach those things in World History), but they are never emphasized that much. People should learn about ALL genocides and not use just one as a benchmark which is horrible. We should learn about people such as Leopold II just as much as people learned about Hitler. From what I do know about the Jewish Holocaust, part of the reason involved sanctions against Germany by the Jews after they were dealing with the fallout of the Treaty of Versailles that lead to currency hyperinflation after WWI. The sanctions were set because of some anti-Jewish rhetoric going on even before the Nazis came to power. I also notice a strawman argument when some people say that criticizing Israel’s politics means they are Anti-semitic. If any Black person gets called that, then you can remind those people that Semitic branches (cultures, languages, etc) are AFROasiatic which also extends to African groups such as Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Somalian people to name a few, so that argument crumbles.
That’s very true. It can be depressing, but I feel more intelligent and enlightened. I do wish I could’ve learned more about historical and cultural aspects when I was younger instead of focusing on more trivial things.
I remember there was a time if you mentioned Jews were involved in an atrocity, such as slavery which they were, you were labeled anti-Semitic and faced a permanent loss of job/career plus sensitivity classes. You could not tell the truth or criticize out of fear.
That had the impact of creating subdued resentment. When I was younger, it surprised me that in private many whites despised Jews. I was appalled at the anti-semitic jokes and comments.
The Jews of today were not the ancient Hebrews or Israelites in the Bible, yet many Bibles interchange Jews with Hebrews and Israelites. It’s confusing and deceptive as you think the Jews of today were the ancient Israelites. How they became the chosen people is another interesting myth.
I can believe it.
Really? I’ve heard some people making Holocaust jokes before, and I told them to knock it off.
That’s something I’ve been learning about and there are historic truths to it. I know Ethiopia has one of the oldest Jewish/Hebrew communities with the Beta Israel people. I even recently found out that there were similar communities based in Eritrea and Sudan after hearing about the issue going on with the mass deportation of those refugees being sent to Kenya and Uganda despite having completely different languages than Hebrew, Tigrinya, and/or Arabic.