Race, guilt and colonialism
Sep. 21st, 2006 10:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annwfynHere is an interesting blog entry written by a Nigerian living in London. It was quite a tough read for me - I got as far as the title which is 'why I resent white people', and started to feel myself bristle.
This person resented me? Why did she resent me? What right did she have? I don't own slaves. I'm not trampling on the backs of black people right now!
Then I read the rest of the article. And somewhat sadly, it was a really good article. There were some really good points, including some fairly harsh truths about the ongoing bad behaviour of our government in dealing with Africa today, and on the impact that colonialism and the slave trade had on Africa. Not on the lives of Oprah, or 50 Cent, or a load of African-Americans far away, but actually on Africa, where people fled from the arable farmland by the coast to avoid the slave trade, and wound up migrating to less fertile land, starting Africa's problems with famine, where nations were created by the European powers, cutting through traditional tribal boundaries, and creating these fractious and divided nation states with a tradition of civil war.
And I felt bad.
And then I thought about myself. Now, I'm fairly financially stable. I've got no debts, I own a house, and I'm about to start my second Masters. Some of that is due to my father working hard, but a lot of it comes from inheritance money from my mother's family. And I know that inheritance money was originally earned in Sri Lanka, mostly in the days of the British Empire. I'm someone who is still directly profiting from colonialism. Colonialism isn't the slave trade, but at the end of the day the British Empire was, in many ways, a system which did benefit the British at the expense of India, and Africa, and there is a level of economic privilege in this country which is still a direct result of that. And maybe I should feel bad about that.
Not sure what more I can do, however, other than feel bad, try and not be a bad person, and perhaps spread this article around a bit. Coz I think it is worth reading.
Oh, on the topic of race, I have a quick poll based off a couple of debates I've seen online re: the definition of 'racism'.
[Poll #826459]
I'm just curious about which meaning is now in common parlance. I must admit, I always thought the first was the normal definition, but I've seen it argued very strongly in a lot of communities -![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
feminist amongst them - that the second is now the standard and acceptable definition.
This person resented me? Why did she resent me? What right did she have? I don't own slaves. I'm not trampling on the backs of black people right now!
Then I read the rest of the article. And somewhat sadly, it was a really good article. There were some really good points, including some fairly harsh truths about the ongoing bad behaviour of our government in dealing with Africa today, and on the impact that colonialism and the slave trade had on Africa. Not on the lives of Oprah, or 50 Cent, or a load of African-Americans far away, but actually on Africa, where people fled from the arable farmland by the coast to avoid the slave trade, and wound up migrating to less fertile land, starting Africa's problems with famine, where nations were created by the European powers, cutting through traditional tribal boundaries, and creating these fractious and divided nation states with a tradition of civil war.
And I felt bad.
And then I thought about myself. Now, I'm fairly financially stable. I've got no debts, I own a house, and I'm about to start my second Masters. Some of that is due to my father working hard, but a lot of it comes from inheritance money from my mother's family. And I know that inheritance money was originally earned in Sri Lanka, mostly in the days of the British Empire. I'm someone who is still directly profiting from colonialism. Colonialism isn't the slave trade, but at the end of the day the British Empire was, in many ways, a system which did benefit the British at the expense of India, and Africa, and there is a level of economic privilege in this country which is still a direct result of that. And maybe I should feel bad about that.
Not sure what more I can do, however, other than feel bad, try and not be a bad person, and perhaps spread this article around a bit. Coz I think it is worth reading.
Oh, on the topic of race, I have a quick poll based off a couple of debates I've seen online re: the definition of 'racism'.
[Poll #826459]
I'm just curious about which meaning is now in common parlance. I must admit, I always thought the first was the normal definition, but I've seen it argued very strongly in a lot of communities -
feminist amongst them - that the second is now the standard and acceptable definition.