The academic definition relates to actions, general practices and expressed views that stem from a belief that one biologically distinct group is superior to another (Wikipedia). These people believe that race is the primary determinant of human traits (Merriam-Webster) and that one race is superior to another. Racism is also any system of government, policy or law that fosters discrimination.
Speaking from my own experience, Arabia is definitely racist. I could relate many instances but the one that sticks out was when my vehicle was trapped by a vehicle traveling in the wrong direction on a one way road. The police told the Arab driver to wait there and forced me to get out of the way. I had to back up and turn into a side road to let him pass. This means that the law is arbitrary and we know that arbitrary law is cruel.
In my view, African racism is different in several aspects. There white Africans believe they are truly superior and black Africans hate them for it. In a sense this means that white tribes are true racists while black tribes play tit-for-tat racism. I have tried to discover the root of this and have arrived at some conclusions.
It seems to me that here are legitimate reasons for whites’ beliefs. It is firmly rooted in their European ancestry: there are examples of technological and architectural achievement in the West at a time when Africa was firmly rooted in the Iron Age. France’s King Louis XIV built the Sun Palace at Versailles in 1664 – merely years after Oom Jan landed in the Cape. The tower in Pisa was constructed from 1173 to 1507 and the Industrial Revolution happened in 1760. During this period black Africa had not ventured into the fields of astronomy, mathematics, global travel, fabrication and production – the things that seems to have pre-occupied the Arabs, Europeans, Chinese and the Incas.
If technological advancement was the only yardstick to measure superiority by then it seems a done deal but it is not. I live in a country where things are easy to come by and cheap. Work is a hobby and should preferably commence at around 9:00 and conclude by 14:00, after lunch which is at 13:00. Sleep time is from 13:00 to 16:00. If it is hard then someone can be hired to do it and if one of the hired hands is lazy then hire one more to help him. To fire the lazy one is too much work and, besides, it is not like the money is going to run out or anything: we can always pump more gas.
Now imagine Africa 1,000 years ago or 2,000 years ago: there was enough to eat and people had everything they needed. They were the truly blessed on this green Earth. They did not need big ships, telescopes and gunpowder. They were content and everything else was attributed to the great spirits in exactly the same way as the Europeans attributed the unexplainable to their gods and the Incas to the space people. There was simply no reason to change the status quo…unlike the bitterly cold and seasonal North where it was important to produce in sufficient quantities and where technological progress meant survival.
The notion that all Africans are black and that all Europeans are white is fallacious because it would imply that all peoples were “created” where they were at some arbitrary point in the past. Several genealogical studies have confirmed what is patently obvious anyway: we are all family with one single ancestor. Not only that but because all life, as far as I know, is linked by DNA it seems perfectly obvious to me that all life had to have had a single ancestor somewhere at some time.
Besides; what have the flat screens and fancy cars brought the Europeans, happiness? Perhaps not; in fact, people now grow older so that they can endure their misery for longer. The eternal rat race, greed and corruption are by-products of the ‘improvement’ that ‘advancement’ has brought. Better gunpowder and steel makes bigger guns that kill more people with less effort: Columbine school (13), Utoya Norway (at least 87), Baku Azerbaijan (12), WW I (57 million est.), WW II (80 million est.). And the numbers keep going up…
It is my contention that Africa, had it been left alone, would have been a shining example of advancement on another front: civilization.
Jonas Barbarossa
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