tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post1757687645715958529..comments2024-03-06T08:29:13.333-08:00Comments on stuff white people do: quotation of the week (w.e.b. du bois)macon dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07795547197817128339noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-87888443962804843022010-07-05T19:51:48.607-07:002010-07-05T19:51:48.607-07:00[Proud2be, thanks for the rant, but I've heard...[Proud2be, thanks for the rant, but I've heard it all, many times before. In fact, I basically addressed <a href="http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/2009/07/describe-white-people-who-point-out.html" rel="nofollow">this post</a> to people who say things like what you said. You're really missing the whole point. ~macon]macon dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07795547197817128339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-35066261514464625702010-06-18T10:57:35.936-07:002010-06-18T10:57:35.936-07:00@ Hatshepsut,
Yes, I'm relatively familiar wi...@ Hatshepsut,<br /><br />Yes, I'm relatively familiar with Egyptian history. My point, however, is that the same way we view the conscripts who built the pyramids (well-fed, enthusiastic, etc) is the <i>exact same</i> justification neo-Confederates use to smooth over U.S. slavery today. (There's also the matter of the Hebrews/Israelites, and what constituted "slavery" for them). <br /><br />Furthermore, when you learn in school about Greco-Roman history, the one thing that's always stressed is "Hey, slavery wasn't so bad back then." Again, it may be historically accurate, but the way the <i>emphasis</i> is placed on that fact, and on how the crews who built the pyramids saw it as an honor, just creeps me out. It's like the teachers are purposefully teaching students to think U.S. slavery was A-OK.<br /><br />(And yes, I've heard people defend U.S. slavery on the grounds of Greco-Roman slavery, not just w/respect to the Bible, and on how "archaeologists discovered it wasn't really slavery; they *wanted* to do it." I grew up someplace scary).<br /><br /><3 your screen name, by the way; she was awesome.Willownoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-18228379097634570582010-06-18T09:52:10.171-07:002010-06-18T09:52:10.171-07:00"Africa had slavery, too!"
Yeah, we kno..."Africa had slavery, too!"<br /><br />Yeah, we know. That changes nothing, though. Please read <a href="http://abagond.wordpress.com/2009/10/03/the-arab-trader-argument/" rel="nofollow">this</a>. <br /><br />tl,dr version: Just because Person A does Bad Thing X, doesn't mean that it's okay for Person B to do it too, nor does it make Bad Thing X acceptable.<br /><br />Articles regarding who built the pyramids: <a href="http://harvardmagazine.com/2003/07/who-built-the-pyramids" rel="nofollow">here</a> and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/11/new-discovery-shows-slave_n_419326.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Whether they actually WANTED to be doing the work, well, I guess we can't really know.Kraasnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-88528011605906804172010-06-18T08:41:41.845-07:002010-06-18T08:41:41.845-07:00@Willow - slaves didn't build the pyramids - w...@Willow - slaves didn't build the pyramids - when it wasn't time to farm pyramid building was like a public works project and the labor was considered a form of taxation. We know the laborers weren't treated as slaves because archeology and other research shows they ate high quality nutritious food and were well cared for. This t-shirt is about saying - Africa had slavery, too!Hatshepsutnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-16271196590671574172010-06-17T05:54:30.221-07:002010-06-17T05:54:30.221-07:00Thanks August and riche. I just adjusted the link ...Thanks August and riche. I just adjusted the link color, hope it's better. For now, I've made the "already-visited" color the same as the unvisited color, because I haven't found a good color for already-visited yet.macon dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07795547197817128339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-84008216472583466692010-06-17T05:32:42.055-07:002010-06-17T05:32:42.055-07:00The color of links, especially the coral color for...The color of links, especially the coral color for already-followed links, is really hard to read on this background.richenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-53258227538790884102010-06-17T05:19:35.553-07:002010-06-17T05:19:35.553-07:00It's much better now, thank you macon!It's much better now, thank you macon!Augustnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-45644359940639524102010-06-16T21:45:14.548-07:002010-06-16T21:45:14.548-07:00what color would you call this, seafoam or mint lo...what color would you call this, seafoam or mint lol?caribbellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10137650720775191230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-54873380155577551782010-06-16T21:25:48.181-07:002010-06-16T21:25:48.181-07:00I definitely smell the Arab trade argument...but w...I definitely smell the Arab trade argument...but what else is new?Starving Writerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13021868010368078441noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-23275852141192974032010-06-16T20:14:16.521-07:002010-06-16T20:14:16.521-07:00@Mike,
I like the new format ....
Thanks for you...@Mike,<br /><br /><i>I like the new format ....</i><br /><br />Thanks for your input, and to others who've commented. Mike is responding to my second try for a change -- I got rid of a white-on-brown color scheme after five readers wrote here and via email that it was hard to read (though a couple said they liked it). I hope this green scheme is easier on the eyes of all or most readers. If you think any further tweaking would help, I'm all ears.macon dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07795547197817128339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-69759934549214967682010-06-16T20:08:00.321-07:002010-06-16T20:08:00.321-07:00I like the new format ....
"There's the ...I like the new format ....<br /><br />"There's the rub -- it pays. Rubber, ivory, and palm oil; tea, coffee, and cocoa; bananas, oranges, and other fruit; cotton, gold, and copper -- they, and a hundred other things which dark and sweating bodies hand up to the white world from their pits of slime, pay and pay well, but of all that the world gets the black world gets only the pittance that the white world throws it disdainfully."<br /><br />I suspect Free trade policies help create exploited conditions abroad.The arguments for free trade stress that jobs are created in country's with weak economy's and that the goods created are significantly cheaper which passes the savings to the consumer which is a trickle down way of helping poor people in the West stretch their earnings.Those against Free trade argue that it destroys business and take jobs away from workers who live in country's that import the inexpensive items.In the U.S. for example their are tariffs on tires made in China so that American tire manufactures can stay in business.So the 30.00 dollar tire Americas working poor could afford to buy is never allowed on the market at actual free trade cost.A few years back I remember reading about Nike and how it cost them only a few dollars to make a pair of tennis shoes and Niki would turn around and sell them for a few hundred.I think Fair trade policies need to be extended to include manufacturing allowing the workers in developing economy's to make a decent income.Then you could eliminate tariffs in the U.S. and allow the items to compete on the open market.Thus the inexpensive import tire is made available to those on a budget and those who made the tire are compensated a fair wage.At least in theory ....Mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00985247445476558468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-83358279475627765372010-06-16T14:46:37.301-07:002010-06-16T14:46:37.301-07:00Chris Allin said...
"I'm not sure what I&...Chris Allin said...<br />"I'm not sure what I'm doing discussing this, I just fail to see how the beginning of the first world war can have a racial basis when it's centered around the European nations. "<br /><br />yeah European nations who wanted to maintain their control of the colonies i.e. the ones in Africa. That's why the colonies fought for independence so strongly after the WWs. The colonial empires treated them as completely expendable resources for their war efforts, and that included the humans lives to fight the war as well. Are you getting the connection now?caribbellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10137650720775191230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-90671550922278870062010-06-16T09:35:14.748-07:002010-06-16T09:35:14.748-07:00If you prefer dark text on light background, try h...If you prefer dark text on light background, try highlighting it. That should give you blue on white, at least in Firefox, although I *think* you can change the colors if you wish.<br /><br />(I for one like it, but then again, I've been using it in MS Word since about 2001. :P )<br /><br />/OTWillownoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-47928533939237835862010-06-16T09:33:25.157-07:002010-06-16T09:33:25.157-07:00@August
Its very nice on the eyes to me.@August <br /><br />Its very nice on the eyes to me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-29882015532822863902010-06-16T06:20:22.775-07:002010-06-16T06:20:22.775-07:00Totally OT: I'm not really a fan of the new te...Totally OT: I'm not really a fan of the new template, macon. It's kind of hard on the eyes, as Jerry mentioned.Augustnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-31918887012915090582010-06-16T04:45:19.017-07:002010-06-16T04:45:19.017-07:00@Jerry
Re: Afghanistan, the writer (Kit) was talk...@Jerry<br /><br />Re: Afghanistan, the writer (Kit) was talking about the "discovery" of vast mineral deposits that, according to the Pentagon, have the potential to lift Afghanistan out of its sad state. All the country needs is for a few American capitalists to go over there and put everybody to work as slaves--er, miners. <br /><br />Google it; you'll find it's not new information, just newly manipulated by the Pentagon, which IMO is laying the ground work for resource extraction. One of the minerals in plentiful supply is lithium, which powers technology.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-62272034398286690712010-06-15T23:54:20.052-07:002010-06-15T23:54:20.052-07:00@macon
"... the plundering US efforts in bot...@macon<br /><br />"... the plundering US efforts in both Iraq and Afghanistan."<br /><br />Exactly what plundering is the US doing in Iraq and Afghanistan? The last time I checked the wars were contributing towards bankrupting this country, and even evil US-based multinational corporations haven't got much loot out of them. For example:<br /><br />http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1948787,00.html<br /><br />So again, what does the DuBois quote have to do with the US presence in Afghanistan?<br /><br />(p.s. the white type reversed out of the dark brown background is hard to read after awhile imo)Jerrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-82884336530431050672010-06-15T22:01:24.728-07:002010-06-15T22:01:24.728-07:00@ Laggania,
Nope! That's largely one of the l...@ Laggania,<br /><br />Nope! That's largely one of the lovely myths about Columbus that U.S. textbooks like to propagate. He did use spices as one of his arguments before Ferdinand and Isabella (the other being gold), but all the records from his time on Hispaniola--even the very first voyage--show him as obsessed with finding gold from the very beginning. (Although many of the sources are filtered through Las Casas, who, um, had a distinct point of view. To put it mildly). The <a href="http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1z.html" rel="nofollow">Internet Medieval Sourcebook</a> has some good documents and links about this.<br /><br />I also recall reading something about travel to the actual Indies not actually being that difficult, but I don't remember where it was so I can't verify that right now. ;o)<br /><br />In the letter to Spain in which Columbus announced his "discovery," he mentions spices once and gold over and over (he had, at that time, found neither). Plus, he introduced a system of slavery--first to send slaves back to Spain because he hadn't found gold; then once he did, he forced the Arawaks to work in the gold mines in horrendous conditions.<br /><br />It was, in other words, all about the Benjamins.Willownoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-21345033808199426452010-06-15T21:07:58.414-07:002010-06-15T21:07:58.414-07:00“Manifestly it is expansion overseas; it is coloni...“Manifestly it is expansion overseas; it is colonial aggrandizement which explains, and alone adequately explains, the World War. How many of us today fully realize the current theory of colonial expansion, of the relation of Europe which is white, to the world which is black and brown and yellow? Bluntly put, that theory is this: It is the duty of white Europe to divide up the darker world and administer it for Europe's good.”<br /><br />It’s an indictment of the Anglo mindset- a tragic fusion of racism and manifest destiny on a global scale. Fated by providence to expand his ambitions, he navigates the savage continents, subjugating people of color wherever they may dwell. Much like the fictional Borg of star trek, “we will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.” Ostensibly, we will descend upon your borders and we will annex your lands; your valiant struggle to preserve your history and culture is irrelevant. <br /><br />Under the guise of liberty, (The War on Terrorism for instance) American values have been sold as a bill of goods- sustained by the racist notion that the vanquished will be better off somehow. Ascribing civilian loss to generic terms like collateral damage makes war bearable to the citizenry back home. Such carnage is noted by the media and yet easily forgotten. However, the death of one white American is enough to occupy a 24-hour news cycle for days on end. It would seem Dubois knew the white man better than he knew himself.M. Gibsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15412079628160690200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-26375585020860040452010-06-15T20:18:57.292-07:002010-06-15T20:18:57.292-07:00When I was studying WWI in school, we spent about ...When I was studying WWI in school, we spent about three months before hand looking at the situations leading up to it and the conflicts that set the stage, so to speak, for the war. The vast majority of those conflicts, which in turn caused the formation of networks of alliances between the colonizing powers, took place in the colonies, particularly africa. I was taught that before anything happened in the Balkans, tensions were building in the struggle for more and more profitable, colonies.<br /><br />By contrast, the areas where self-determination was a big motivator were...Serbia, and Austria-Hungary. The former because it didn't want to get swallowed, and the latter because it had so many internal ethnic tensions it was tearing itself apart. Serbia was a small country, that served more as a spark than a major player, and Austria-Hungary disintegrated and dropped out of the conflict pretty quickly. <br /><br />[/off topic][on topic]<br /><br />Besides which, the point about the comparative amount of screaming is much more interesting (and relevant to this blog) than arguments about the cause of WWI. regardless of what the cause, the fact is, people of other races, in other parts of the world, were suffering plenty before the war, and white north americans ignored it. Then something bad happens in europe, and it's a big deal. Reminds me a bit of how we tend to get really upset when a european/north american soldier or aid worker is killed or hurt in someplace like iraq and afghanistan, but when it's "only" the people who actually live there we ignore it, or say they should have just avoided the fighting better.sumgattornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-79909249632926441732010-06-15T19:55:09.287-07:002010-06-15T19:55:09.287-07:00"How lovely that gold was the reason Columbus..."How lovely that gold was the reason Columbus set forth (and then embarked on a massacre spree) back in the 1400s. "<br />I thought Columbus was looking for spices, and it was the guys who followed him who were after gold...Lagganianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-29004987496148672002010-06-15T18:39:53.085-07:002010-06-15T18:39:53.085-07:00*adding on to Kraas' comment*
And not just de...*adding on to Kraas' comment*<br /><br />And not just determined for their state to hold onto their colonies in Africa but elsewhere on the planet too. And there's the european powers also using their colonized people to fight for them then giving them the shaft after the war was over. And then repeated the performance in WWII.Juannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-21433857338086193982010-06-15T18:04:39.522-07:002010-06-15T18:04:39.522-07:00Jerry,
As a start, this veteran's explanation...Jerry,<br /><br />As a start, <a href="http://afpakwar.com/blog/archives/5283" rel="nofollow">this veteran's explanation of his own apostasy might help</a>. Racist conceptions of dehumanized Others buttress the plundering U.S. efforts in both Iraq and Afghanistan.macon dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07795547197817128339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-2514635593889208262010-06-15T16:53:30.442-07:002010-06-15T16:53:30.442-07:00I'm not seeing the connection between DuBois&#...I'm not seeing the connection between DuBois' quote and the US presence in Afghanistan. Could the author or someone else help make the connection a little more obvious please?Jerrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-38315991660542516582010-06-15T15:44:03.878-07:002010-06-15T15:44:03.878-07:00"I'm not sure what I'm doing discussi..."I'm not sure what I'm doing discussing this, I just fail to see how the beginning of the first world war can have a racial basis when it's centered around the European nations."<br /><br />Self-determination was certainly a major factor of World War I...but the key term here is "<i>World</i> War". The rest of the world was involved, not just Europe. Africa became another battleground for the European nations, because they wanted to hold onto the colonies they had already establish and then gain even more territory. Your opinion isn't invalid, but neither is Dubois'.Kraasnoreply@blogger.com