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It's disappointing to me to see such a knee-jerk misinterpretation of an apparently sincere article. The author merely pointed out an almost obvious aspect of h
by JabavuAdams 6y ago
It's disappointing to me to see such a knee-jerk misinterpretation of an apparently sincere article. The author merely pointed out an almost obvious aspect of human nature, and you attack him as though he holds this belief.
My father was actually colonized. He actually went to Nigeria, expecting to find a unified black Africa just waiting to throw off the shackles of colonialism. As the civil war erupted he actually watched tribalism consume the country and saw Igbos having their heads caved in with crankshafts wielded by other black Africans.
He would understand the nuance and ultimately truth of the author's argument.
It's weird and sad to see people in North America who have never been colonized, who have never picked up a weapon just completely lose their minds about stuff that doesn't bother the actual people who were actually colonized. Stop being outraged on others' behalf and talk to those with experience, or listen to people like this author. There's a lot you're missing.
- zzzeek 6y agothe US is a colonized nation. The relatively low population (because up to 95% were killed) of Native Americans in this country live with profound social problems and in horrid conditions (there's Native American reservations right here I have seen) and they are not happy about it. I'm outraged on their behalf. As kids we grew up playing things like "cowboys and indians" and naming our sports teams things like "the redskins". We as kids were fully ignorant of what any of this meant decades ago. Once we learned, if you decided to feel "pride" that we wiped out a whole culture, or revulsion, basically says a lot about what kind of person you probably are.
- JabavuAdams 6y agoSure, obviously. We seem to be straying a long way from this article about Nigeria written by a Nigerian. Maybe we should listen to and value the Nigerian's perspective about Nigeria instead of zooming in on an uncharitable interpretation of one sentence from his article, is all I'm saying. A friend's mother was put into a residential school in Canada. When she says "it wasn't all bad" is that a defense of the practice and institution? Of course not, but maybe we should listen to her, you know, lived experience and add it to all the other experiences. EDIT> Think of it this way: why are you telling a Nigerian how to Nigeria, in the spirit of anti-oppression? EDIT2> People and life are complicated. We live in a world where people beat the crap out of each other based on which sport ball jersey their team wears. Nuance and anti-knee-jerk are required if we're going to find our way out of this chimpanmess.