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> Constructing an inaccurate one to justify the current distribution of wealth and power is a racist act. Good thing it doesn't try to justify anything. > Why
by tom_mellior 9y ago
> Constructing an inaccurate one to justify the current distribution of wealth and power is a racist act.
Good thing it doesn't try to justify anything.
> Why, when the Maori obtained firearms, was one of their first acts to go massacre a nearby island's population, while when the Hawaiians got them, the result was a war of unification?
All I know about that "war of unification" is what I just read on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_of_Hawaii https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_of_Hawaii, but "the introduction of European weapons gave some Ali'i an advantage over others, and they began aggressively taking over their neighbors" sounds pretty much the same as "go massacre a nearby island's population".
What's the difference you are trying to construct between these two cases of people going out and killing their neighbors?
- madhadron 9y agoYou're right. Justify is not the right term. Explain the existence of. But mechanistic inevitability is considered justification in our culture for accepting what is and moving on. We don't inveigh against the injustice of not being able to levitate out of our seats when we wish. For Polynesia, the difference is that in one case they used force to impose a political structure on the population. In the other they completely wiped out the population.