Well, there have always existed good and evil, as well as the potential for good and evil, in all human communities across gender, race, ethnicity and any other construct by which we have tried to classify human beings or by which human existence manifests itself on earth. That's not necessarily in dispute here. I submit, with all due respect, that that factor is not the issue at stake. From my standpoint, reminding us of this reality of human existence adds nothing constructive to the discourse; instead, it makes us look like a Pontius Pilate—a judge who cannot, for whatever reason, pronoun a verdict of guilt or innocence where one option seems obvious.
By playing a referee that cannot call a spade a spade when it's warranted in the course of a game, ostensibly because all sides of the game have the potential to commit foul, we come across as if we are trying to sit on the fence, ignore instances of foul play that a fair-minded referee must recognize, and settle for playing the role of an umpire who seems to be unable or unwilling to blow the whistle when foul play manifestly occurs on the side of the game which is populated by the powerful and the mighty. Were this same foul play to occur on the other side, would we have been all too quick to blow the whistle, issue a yellow or even a red card? The fact that stares us in the face is that we have a "national" leader at the helm that, by his publicly known actions and pronouncements, seems bent upon imposing a particular ethnic hegemony upon the rest of us, instead of taking steps to promote national cohesion, national harmony and national peace.On Sun, Jul 7, 2019 at 12:10 PM Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
Some postings on the Fulani that I rejected have bothered on hate speech.
Let us all exercise caution and to remember the following:
1. Evil and Good are equally distributed all over the country. All ethnicities have their evil leaders.
2. The victims are the poor
3. Hate speech can trigger genocide
Moderator
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Sincerely,
Victor O. Okafor, Ph.D.
Professor and Head
Department of Africology and African American Studies
Eastern Michigan University
Email: vokafor@emich.edu
Tel: 734.487.9594
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
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