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Grow Some Labia's avatar

...And there was so much more you could have refuted. I'm surprised you didn't note one of the most important points I usually bring up with the SLAVERY IS THE WORST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED IN AMERICA AND IT'S THE ONLY THING THAT DEFINES US! set - that Africa is once again the global hub of slavery and in some countries it's never gone away. Also, pre-colonial Africa may have been great for men, but perhaps not so for women, especially those forced to undergo female genital mutilation - believed to have been invented *by* Africans (probably in Egypt, but the origins are murky, so far back in time has it been since Africans, and others, butchered their baby girls' genitals. (I'm against male circumcision as well).

As for the notion that Africa was doing 'just fine' before us Evil White Folks showed up, indigenous peoples everywhere were violent ratbastards to each other, even as some had some fairly advanced civilizations. I say seriously, honestly, and unironically: Every race subjugated by white people would have done the same if *they* had has the opportunity to be the dominant race. Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs & Steel" does a great job explaining how it wasn't because of white superiority, but more animals, agricultural, and mineral resources for those living in the Fertile Crescent. People suck universally.

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Steve QJ's avatar

“ I'm surprised you didn't note one of the most important points I usually bring up with the SLAVERY IS THE WORST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED IN AMERICA AND IT'S THE ONLY THING THAT DEFINES US!”

Well, unusually enough for a member of the Wokerati, he didn’t actually mention slavery. His concern seems to be much more to do with the financial oppression of various nations across the world. Which, don’t get me wrong, is a fair point.

The problem is that “overthrowing the west” is just asinine as a solution to that oppression.

And I don’t necessarily agree that “every race would have done what white people did”, but mainly because I think your framing is wrong. The Atlantic slave trade or genocide of Native Americans and the stealing of their land isn’t what “white people” did, it’s what Americans and Europeans of that time did.

I have no doubt that there are many other cultures who wouldn’t have done the same thing. And, in WWII say, “white people” fought against other “white people” as they tried to genocide another group of (mostly) “white people”. People of colour (the Japanese) we’re on the same side as the Nazis.

I’m constantly at pains to de-racialise these issues. Race, in addition to not being a real thing, is an almost uniquely unhelpful lens through which to view human behaviour.

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