An Ahistorical Analysis

For John, BLUF:  It seems to me that some of what we see about racism is from a narrow focus on the last four hundred years and on the area now known as the United States.  Thus we have distortions of reality, being used to bully people.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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'Whiteness is going to have an end date' says Rutgers professor of gender and Africana studies

Here is the sub-headline:

A 2021 video of a critical race theory scholar claiming that "white people are committed to being villains" and warning that "whiteness is going to have an end date" has resurfaced on social media sparking renewed outrage.

From The Post Millennial, by Writer Mia Ashton, 4 January 2023.

Here is the lede plus three:

A 2021 video of a critical race theory scholar claiming that "white people are committed to being villains" and warning that "whiteness is going to have an end date" has recently resurfaced on social media sparking renewed outrage.

Brittney Cooper, who is Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies and Africana Studies at Rutgers University, made the comments during a podcast interview with The Root, during which she also said "We gotta take these muthaf*kers out."

Cooper further portrayed the world before colonialism as a utopia of peace and tranquility, with black and brown people traveling the seas and oceans spreading friendship and prosperity.

"White human beings thought there’s a world here and we own it," said the professor of gender studies. "Prior to them, black and brown people have been sailing across oceans, interacting with each other for centirues without total subjugation, domination, and colonialism."

This seems a tad ahistorical.  When Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue Spain had just emerged from a period of being colonized longer than the period from 1492 to today,  The colonial occupation was from Africa.  Granted, it was North Africa, but it was Africa.  China began buildung the Great Wall some 1800 years before Ferdinand and Isabella won the Battle of Granada.  And, there were the various empires in the Western Hemisphere, oppressing others.♠

This idea of the fall of the "White" race does strike me as racist.♥  Actually, I prefer the term Caucasian snd find the term "White" offensive.  Printer paper is white.  I am somethihg different.

I also think that some of those attributes deemed less desirable, but attributed to "White People", such as individualism; control; a sense of urgency; perfectionism; focusing on measurable goals; emphasis on the written word and strong writing skills; politeness; and belief in objectivity, are more a result of the Anglo-Dutch development of individual freedom and not something long embedded in Europe as a whole.  Blame those on the Barons at Runnymede.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  And, the oppression of the Aztec Empire provided local allies to Spanish Conquistadors.
♥  Wikipedia tells us "Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another."