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di-glossia:
ryoko-tatsuo:
armoredsoftie:
can we stop only blaming british people for colonialism and how they don’t take any responsibility today? because hi, spain massacred the entire center and south america. france? destroyed entire civilizations and ruled the worldwide slave market. european countries literally sat down and divided africa to themselves. y'all don’t get blame free just because it’s more trendy to be after british people on tumblr.
As a Brit, I heartily agree. The sins of our ancestors shouldn’t wash down to us. Otherwise you may aswell call me a murdering monster because I’m descended directly from Irish tribes that pillaged and murdered.
Let’s not forget if you’re also Christian and saying this, then you’re happily ignoring the crusades.
That is not what OP is saying. Britain’s crimes are better known because they conquered more and Tumblr is overwhelmingly an English-language site. Britain’s imperial past touches most of us on a fundamental level.
Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada, Russia, less so. You may not even be familiar with Denmark’s colonies or what the US did to Hawai'i. People in my country were shocked by King Leopold’s Ghost and we had some of the most brutal generational chattel slavery.
It isn’t really about “your ancestors did evil shit”. That’s pretty universal. It’s “you and your country benefits from and/or have failed to acknowledge that evil past”. It’s the Koh-i-noor and residential schools, making reparations for the Holocaust but not Namibia. It’s Eurocentric beauty standards and skin bleaching, the destruction of indigenous languages and cultures, the robbing of generations of wealth, and genocide. This stuff still affects people today. Africa and Central and South America would look wildly different if colonialism had never happened. Central Asia is still dealing with the fallout of the Soviet Union. Millions of people were slaughtered and enslaved around the world up until modern times.
People need to understand it wasn’t just Britain and Spain and the US and it wasn’t some distant past. There are countries that only achieved independence within living memory. Millions of indigenous peoples still have to heed colonial oppressors. Wealth is gone that colonial powers haven’t returned.
Also, many, many people have talked about how devastating Christian imperialism is in particular. The Crusades were horrifying. And idiotic. And Christianity is at the absolute center of European colonialism. God, glory, and gold, remember?
(Your picture was not posted)
di-glossia:
ryoko-tatsuo:
armoredsoftie:
can we stop only blaming british people for colonialism and how they don’t take any responsibility today? because hi, spain massacred the entire center and south america. france? destroyed entire civilizations and ruled the worldwide slave market. european countries literally sat down and divided africa to themselves. y'all don’t get blame free just because it’s more trendy to be after british people on tumblr.
As a Brit, I heartily agree. The sins of our ancestors shouldn’t wash down to us. Otherwise you may aswell call me a murdering monster because I’m descended directly from Irish tribes that pillaged and murdered.
Let’s not forget if you’re also Christian and saying this, then you’re happily ignoring the crusades.
That is not what OP is saying. Britain’s crimes are better known because they conquered more and Tumblr is overwhelmingly an English-language site. Britain’s imperial past touches most of us on a fundamental level.
Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada, Russia, less so. You may not even be familiar with Denmark’s colonies or what the US did to Hawai'i. People in my country were shocked by King Leopold’s Ghost and we had some of the most brutal generational chattel slavery.
It isn’t really about “your ancestors did evil shit”. That’s pretty universal. It’s “you and your country benefits from and/or have failed to acknowledge that evil past”. It’s the Koh-i-noor and residential schools, making reparations for the Holocaust but not Namibia. It’s Eurocentric beauty standards and skin bleaching, the destruction of indigenous languages and cultures, the robbing of generations of wealth, and genocide. This stuff still affects people today. Africa and Central and South America would look wildly different if colonialism had never happened. Central Asia is still dealing with the fallout of the Soviet Union. Millions of people were slaughtered and enslaved around the world up until modern times.
People need to understand it wasn’t just Britain and Spain and the US and it wasn’t some distant past. There are countries that only achieved independence within living memory. Millions of indigenous peoples still have to heed colonial oppressors. Wealth is gone that colonial powers haven’t returned.
Also, many, many people have talked about how devastating Christian imperialism is in particular. The Crusades were horrifying. And idiotic. And Christianity is at the absolute center of European colonialism. God, glory, and gold, remember?
(Your picture was not posted)
