5 ms·

Moving to Ghana to 'escape US racism'

15 points by bundze 7y ago

chewz 7y ago
> In 2018, he successfully led a campaign to force the University of Ghana to remove a statue of India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. Standing at the empty plinth, he gave the Black Power salute, and called for the recognition of African heroes rather than a man who had once referred to black South Africans by a highly offensive racist slur - and had said that Indians were "infinitely superior" to black people.
- kranner 7y ago
  Those statements were made as part of a legal petition when he was a young lawyer in his early 20s, freshly arrived in South Africa, and one who'd had little contact with the Africans. He later came to publicly support African rights and gave many more speeches which asked Indians to draw inspiration from Africans. Even Mandela forgave him: > Mandela was well aware of the racist statements made by Gandhi when he was young. He wrote in an article in 1995, “Gandhi must be forgiven those prejudices and judged in the context of the time and circumstances. We are looking here at the young Gandhi, still to become Mahatma, when he was without any human prejudice save that in favour of truth and justice.” Source: https://thewire.in/history/gandhi-and-africans https://thewire.in/history/gandhi-and-africans
einhverfr 7y ago
The structural racism that my family faces because of the fact that I am married to a non-citizen SE Asian is a big reason I don't relocate my family back to the US. And this is a bipartisan issue. The issues discussed in the article there or that I have experienced have very little to do with one party alone. The US built its industrial base on the backs first of slaves then of the freed slaves, poor immigrants (particularly from China) and dispossessed Latinos whose land claims were not recognized post-annexation. Until we understand that racism in the US is a tool of classism and we address the underlying economic injustices, there will be no social justice. But there is no political party willing to take that on and no real hope for the foreseeable future.
- wil421 7y ago
  All these things never have happened in SE Asia correct? I mean it’s not like the largest country in that region didn’t have a caste system with a huge population of untouchables with no mobility.
  - einhverfr 7y ago
    Poverty in terms of insecurity in food, water, housing etc has been increasing as India has been liberalizing, and that's a problem. I love how people come up with racist justifications for structural racism. Classy..... My wife's country (Indonesia) also had a caste system and some parts still do, but even poor people have better security in access to food and shelter than poor people do in the US. The economic problems are not so deep.
    - wil421 7y ago
      A quick Google search says Indonesia has around 3 million permanent homeless people vs about 500k in the US. 40 million people in Indonesia don’t have access to clean water. Half the population doesn’t even have access to sewer systems for waste.
      - einhverfr 7y ago
        But evicting homeless people camping on someones land is very very difficult without paying them off. You either have to pay the police to pay them off or you have to pay them to leave directly. Water is an issue. But then it is an issue in much of the US too (Flint for example).
        gamedori 7y ago
        Could you quantify the number of poor Americans who do not have access to clean water in the US, and provide some support to the idea that it is due to racism? My understanding is that the Flint situation is due to mismanagement, which was done after a certain political party created laws to remove elected leadership from indebted municipalities (most of the indebted municipalities were controlled by the opposing party). Which is to say that the Flint situation got a lot of press because it was rare, and that the motivations were likely political rather than racial. As such, in isolation it is not good evidence for your arguement. It would be appreciated if you could provide some statistcs.
hprotagonist 7y ago
As, famously, did WEB DuBois, who went so far as to renounce his Us citizenship.
bundze 7y ago
Sad to see my submission flagged! Posted it because I came across this story on a reputable site (BBC) and I was wondering what people abroad, especially US, might think of it. I've lived my whole life in Europe so I don't have much context about the issue.

15 points by bundze 7y ago

> In 2018, he successfully led a campaign to force the University of Ghana to remove a statue of India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. Standing at the empty plinth, he gave the Black Power salute, and called for the recognition of African heroes rather than a man who had once referred to black South Africans by a highly offensive racist slur - and had said that Indians were "infinitely superior" to black people.

kranner 7y ago
Those statements were made as part of a legal petition when he was a young lawyer in his early 20s, freshly arrived in South Africa, and one who'd had little contact with the Africans. He later came to publicly support African rights and gave many more speeches which asked Indians to draw inspiration from Africans. Even Mandela forgave him: > Mandela was well aware of the racist statements made by Gandhi when he was young. He wrote in an article in 1995, “Gandhi must be forgiven those prejudices and judged in the context of the time and circumstances. We are looking here at the young Gandhi, still to become Mahatma, when he was without any human prejudice save that in favour of truth and justice.” Source: https://thewire.in/history/gandhi-and-africans https://thewire.in/history/gandhi-and-africans

einhverfr 7y ago

The structural racism that my family faces because of the fact that I am married to a non-citizen SE Asian is a big reason I don't relocate my family back to the US. And this is a bipartisan issue. The issues discussed in the article there or that I have experienced have very little to do with one party alone. The US built its industrial base on the backs first of slaves then of the freed slaves, poor immigrants (particularly from China) and dispossessed Latinos whose land claims were not recognized post-annexation. Until we understand that racism in the US is a tool of classism and we address the underlying economic injustices, there will be no social justice. But there is no political party willing to take that on and no real hope for the foreseeable future.

wil421 7y ago
All these things never have happened in SE Asia correct? I mean it’s not like the largest country in that region didn’t have a caste system with a huge population of untouchables with no mobility.
- einhverfr 7y ago
  Poverty in terms of insecurity in food, water, housing etc has been increasing as India has been liberalizing, and that's a problem. I love how people come up with racist justifications for structural racism. Classy..... My wife's country (Indonesia) also had a caste system and some parts still do, but even poor people have better security in access to food and shelter than poor people do in the US. The economic problems are not so deep.
  - wil421 7y ago
    A quick Google search says Indonesia has around 3 million permanent homeless people vs about 500k in the US. 40 million people in Indonesia don’t have access to clean water. Half the population doesn’t even have access to sewer systems for waste.
    - einhverfr 7y ago
      But evicting homeless people camping on someones land is very very difficult without paying them off. You either have to pay the police to pay them off or you have to pay them to leave directly. Water is an issue. But then it is an issue in much of the US too (Flint for example).
      - gamedori 7y ago
        Could you quantify the number of poor Americans who do not have access to clean water in the US, and provide some support to the idea that it is due to racism? My understanding is that the Flint situation is due to mismanagement, which was done after a certain political party created laws to remove elected leadership from indebted municipalities (most of the indebted municipalities were controlled by the opposing party). Which is to say that the Flint situation got a lot of press because it was rare, and that the motivations were likely political rather than racial. As such, in isolation it is not good evidence for your arguement. It would be appreciated if you could provide some statistcs.

hprotagonist 7y ago

As, famously, did WEB DuBois, who went so far as to renounce his Us citizenship.

bundze 7y ago

Sad to see my submission flagged! Posted it because I came across this story on a reputable site (BBC) and I was wondering what people abroad, especially US, might think of it. I've lived my whole life in Europe so I don't have much context about the issue.