Yes, sister Gloria.
Eurocentric education has compromised our critical thinking skills.
"Judging the ethics and morals of people with the standards of our own epoch" and similar phrasing often winds up perpetuating white supremacy. Why? Because it presumes (wrongly) that the racist/white supremacist in question was the only one with "ethics and morals" in a given epoch. There was never an epoch when oppressors were not challenged by the oppressed. You don't need advanced degrees to figure this out. People don't generally like being oppressed and they tend to resist their subordinate condition. Didn't black people challenge racism when Ghandi resided in South Africa? Yes they did! Did not people challenge the bigoted views of Hegel, Montesquieu and Churchil? Yes! Did not the Haitian scholar Antenor Firmin counter de Gobineau's with the extraordinary text "De l'égalité des races humaines"?
"The best weapon in the hands of the enemy is the mind of the oppressed" Steve Biko
kzs
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THE NEUTRAL SCHOLAR IS AN IGNOBLE MAN. Here, a man must be hot, or be accounted cold, or, perchance, something worse than hot or cold. The lukewarm and the cowardly, will be rejected by earnest men on either side of the controversy." Fredrick Douglass, "The Claims of the Negro, Ethnologically Considered" (1854).
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EVERY ARTIST, EVERY SCIENTIST MUST DECIDE, NOW, WHERE HE STANDS. He has no
alternative. There are no impartial observers. Through the destruction, in certain countries, of man's literary heritage, through the propagation of false ideas of national and racial superiority, the artist, the scientist, the writer is challenged. This struggle invades the former cloistered halls of our universities and all her seats of learning. The battlefront is everywhere. There is no sheltered rear. The artist elects to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice! I had no alternative! - Paul Robeson, speech about the Spanish Civil War at the Albert Hall, London,on 24th June 1937
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kwame zulu shabazz
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THE NEUTRAL SCHOLAR IS AN IGNOBLE MAN. Here, a man must be hot, or be accounted cold, or, perchance, something worse than hot or cold. The lukewarm and the cowardly, will be rejected by earnest men on either side of the controversy." Fredrick Douglass, "The Claims of the Negro, Ethnologically Considered" (1854).
===
EVERY ARTIST, EVERY SCIENTIST MUST DECIDE, NOW, WHERE HE STANDS. He has no
alternative. There are no impartial observers. Through the destruction, in certain countries, of man's literary heritage, through the propagation of false ideas of national and racial superiority, the artist, the scientist, the writer is challenged. This struggle invades the former cloistered halls of our universities and all her seats of learning. The battlefront is everywhere. There is no sheltered rear. The artist elects to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice! I had no alternative! - Paul Robeson, speech about the Spanish Civil War at the Albert Hall, London,on 24th June 1937
On Sun, Sep 6, 2015 at 9:44 AM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu> wrote:
"Arthur de Gobineau, Hegel, Montesquieu and Churchill held worst views.
I think we should not be judging the ethics and morals of people with the standards of our own epoch." Mailafia
Where do you draw the line? Will you give Hitler a free pass?
Professor Gloria Emeagwali
History Department
CCSU. New Britain. CT 06050
africahistory.net
vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora
________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Obadiah Mailafia [obmailafia@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, September 04, 2015 9:41 AM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - What did Mahatma Gandhi think of black people?
Very interesting historical revision here. I would have been very surprised if Gandhi, a high-born Brahmin had not held those views about Africans. Arthur de Gobineau, Hegel, Montesquieu and Churchill held worst views. I think we should not be judging the ethics and morals of people with the standards of our own epoch. Also, Gandhi went through several stages in his intellectual, moral, political and spiritual evolution. The Gandhi that left for England was different from the young proud Westernised barrister that tried to eke out a living in the South African Bar. And the traumas he encountered changed him. He was the same Brahmin who had a metanoia and renamed the low castes as "Harijan" (Children of God). We live in a cruel and sinful world. Every man and woman must carry their own cross. Gandhi carried his. He was not a perfect human being. But he sought a new way of capitalizing on the human spirit to fight injustice and oppression. MLK was an assiduous student of Gandhi and his adoption of AHIMSA made all the difference in the world. I went to college with the grand daughter of Gandhi, a mild-mannered young woman of beauty and grace. Her grandfather was not perfect, but because of the great efforts and sacrifices he made, the world of Humanity has been transformed by the sheer weight of his moral force. The challenge for us is to pick from the elements of what he did and apply it where we are at present. It can make a difference.
On Fri, Sep 4, 2015 at 5:29 AM, 'Ikhide' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>> wrote:
Was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the revered leader of India's freedom movement, a racist?
A controversial new book<http://navayana.org/product/the-south-african-gandhi/> by two South African university professors reveals shocking<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZn2TW2vdhM> details about Gandhi's life in South Africa between 1893 and 1914, before he returned to India.
During his stay in South Africa, Gandhi routinely expressed "disdain for Africans," says S. Anand, founder of Navayana, the publisher of the book titled "The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire."
According to the book, Gandhi described black Africans as "savage," "raw" and living a life of "indolence and nakedness," and he campaigned relentlessly to prove to the British rulers that the Indian community in South Africa was superior to native black Africans. The book combs through Gandhi's own writings during the period and government archives and paints a portrait that is at variance with how the world<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/17/AR2009021703040.html> regards him today.
[The dark side of Winston Churchill no one should forget<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/02/03/the-dark-side-of-winston-churchills-legacy-no-one-should-forget/>]
Much of the halo<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/11/AR2009061103859.html> that surrounds Gandhi today is a result of clever repackaging, write the authors, Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed, professors at the University of Johannesburg and the University of KwaZulu Natal.
"As we examined Gandhi's actions and contemporary writings during his South African stay, and compared these with what he wrote in his autobiography and 'Satyagraha in South Africa,' it was apparent that he indulged in some 'tidying up.' He was effectively rewriting his own history."
Prize-winning Indian author Arundhati Roy says the book, which will hit stores next month, is "a serious challenge to the way we have been taught to think about Gandhi."
Here is a sample of what Gandhi said about black South Africans:
* One of the first battles Gandhi fought after coming to South Africa was over the separate entrances for whites and blacks at the Durban post office. Gandhi objected that Indians were "classed with the natives of South Africa," who he called the kaffirs, and demanded a separate entrance for Indians.
- Rama Lakshmi
Nothing new here. Mahatma Gandhi was a thoroughgoing racist.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/03/what-did-mahatma-gandhi-think-of-black-people/?tid=sm_fb
- Ikhide
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