#western colonialism

[violottie]

alt text included. from Ricardo Gamboa, 10/Mar/2024:

#oscars #academy awards #western imperialism #western colonialism #anti white supremacy #palestine #free palestine #gaza #free gaza #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #i stand with palestine #rafah #save rafah #all eyes on rafah

[workersolidarity]

I mostly just want to highlight this little tidbit from the history of Colonialism and Imperialism:

#history of imperialism #imperialism #western colonialism #western imperialism #us imperialism #uk imperialism #socialism #communism #marxism leninism #socialist politics #socialist news #socialist worker #socialist #communist #marxism #marxist leninist #progressive politics #worker solidarity #workersolidarity #colonialism #neocolonialism #neoliberalism #mint press news

[gemsofgreece]

I don't know if here in Greece we do the same with our own artifacts and marbles, but for the British museum to own 100.000 plus artifacts and only displaying 6.000?? Yeah doesn't make any sense then not to give them back what is ours.

If fact not only it would be a smart choice but the museum could show to the world the other artifacts they have not yet shown to the world. That means people would come expecting nee stuff to see and we get our marbles.

Side note but the british museum also has The Nereid Monument, finest of the Lykian tombs found at Xanthos, in what is now SW Turkey, which is huge aside from many ancient Greek vases, small statues, plates etc.

Typically all large museums have big store rooms where they keep a lot of artifacts. Some are in maintenace, some are used for loans, some for seasonal exhibitions etc

In the museum of Ancient Olympia they have like 100 Corinthian helmets in good condition that are not exhibited at all, probably because there are, well, dozens of them, and only a handful are in the proper exhibits. Joke's on them though, I am still waiting for them to make an extra room / hall where they will exhibit all those helmets with mystical placement and lighting. Wouldn't that be cool? Besides, these helmets were offerings of ancient soldiers to the place they held sacred (Olympia), it's a pity for these helmets to be locked in store rooms for nobody to see.

But for a FOREIGN museum to do it, that's insane. And let's just say they are keeping an extra collection for the aforementioned reasons. 100 thousand artifacts?????????????? Like this can not be explained or justified no matter how hard one tries. This is some inexcusable insufferably entitled shit right there.

#greece #british museum #anti british museum #western colonialism #museums #peloponnese #ancient olympia #elis #ilia #peloponnisos #mainland #greek culture

[thatheathen]

source

#alejandra caraballo #free Palestine #lgbtq community #LGBTQ rights #gay rights #trans rights #israel apartheid #genocide #lgbtq Palestine #palestinian lives matter #palestine under attack #Palestine will be free #fuck homophobia #western colonialism #fuck transphobes #death to Colonizers #gaza #Israel #palestine #homosexuality criminalized #LGBTQ laws

[mileenaxyz]

Our judicial system is beyond trash.

"A federal appeals court on Tuesday refused to hold five major technology companies liable over their alleged support for the use of child labor in cobalt mining operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"In a 3-0 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab, Dell Technologies (DELL.N), opens new tab, Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab and Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab, rejecting an appeal by former child miners and their representatives."

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-appeals-court-dismisses-child-labor-case-against-tech-companies-2024-03-05/ (link function wasn't working)

#free congo #democratic republic of the congo #congo genocide #dr congo #congo #cobalt #coltan #the us addicted to slavery and genocide #without africa the west is nothing #colonial violence #colonialism #this is colonialism #western colonialism #american imperialism

[readingsquotes]

2.2 | Theory: White ignorance and coloniality "Universities have a history of ignoring rather than engaging with students' antiracist campaigns (Grosfoguel, 2007; Saini & Begum, 2020). As Edward Said observed, universities and their academics have for the most part been unwilling “to make the connection between the prolonged cruelty of practices such as slavery, colonialist and racial oppression, and imperial subjection on the one hand, and the poetry, fiction, philosophy of the society that engages in these practices on the other” (as quoted by Mills, 1997, p. 27). Anibal Quijano (1992, 2000) introduces the concept of coloniality of power to underscore the intricate links that epistemes have with colonial domination and capitalist exploitation, particularly how racial logics undergird these deeply entangled systems of oppression. The concept emphasises that colonialism is not simply a historical event that ended with decolonization and independence movements. Rather, it is a complex system that continues to shape power dynamics, social hierarchies, and knowledge production. In other words, the coloniality of power sustained by knowledge producing institutions also demands a cognitive model or curriculum model, that is, “a cognitive and moral economy psychically required for conquest, colonisation, and enslavement” (Mills, 1997, p. 19). The coloniality of power is thus justified by what is referred to as the coloniality of knowledge, which “requires a certain schedule of structured blindness in order to establish and maintain the white polity” at the national level (ibid). This evidences the longue duree of academia's role in upholding whiteness and coloniality, in its multiple permutations (Fúnes‐Flores, 2022; Fúnes‐Flores et al., 2022; Lugones, 2007, Wynter, 2003). In the space of the academe, racial inequalities are viewed as “existing outside of the institution rather than produced through the academe,” to paraphrase Mirza (2006). Angela Davis also draws on this stating, “we live in a society of an imposed forgetfulness, a society that depends on public amnesia” (Hutton, 2020). This is what Mills referred to as white ignorance. Mills describes “white ignorance” as the idea of non‐knowing, which is not simply absence or lack of knowing, but is a motivated project that differentiates the dominant group by various interests. In other words, it is a willful ignorance about racial injustice and how whiteness maintains its position within a modern world that revolves around the racial, epistemic, gendered, and capitalist axes of coloniality. "

Inside the ivory tower, the view from a “space invader”: An exploratory study into the ways racialized PhD students experience white ignorance in elite universities in the UK Elif Lootens & Jairo I. Fúnez‐Flores

https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.13199

#colonization #settler colonialism #ivory tower #western colonialism #academia

[zestingbloodorange]

westerns finding out about "greater Israel" and saying omg neighboring countries need to see this and how are people seriously have not been speaking about this are you seriously this dumb and self centered ?? neighboring countries know because they're getting bombed and threatened as you speak and have been for decades. who actively invades the swana who actively threatens and bombs the swana who is supporting "Israel" right now what's not clicking in your brain?? There's so much fucking history your fried ass brains don't know about you lack context you lack knowledge you're not our spokes person and most definitely you're not our news outlet ! I'm so fucking tired of people acting like we are stupid and we don't know our own politics I don't give a shit if it's in good faith to spread information we don't need you to tell us these news because we have been telling you it and living it for generations.

#palestine #free palestine #Israel #greater israel #swana #middle east #africa #zionism #western colonialism #فلسطين #zionist occupation of palestine #israel is committing genocide

[irithnova]

It's very obvious when people are "anti West" because they're against so called "woke" Western politics but when it comes to talking about Western colonisation, imperialism and the after affects and how it is still affecting people, there's radio silence, or these people are even like "it's not a big deal" lmfao ok.

#embarrassing behaviour #Politics #Me #Rant #western imperialism #Western colonisation #Western colonialism #global south

[arkadasy]

#colonialism #colonial violence #truth #western colonialism #genocide

[violottie]

this is the way of the world, if you havent realised it yet:

human rights ❌ white rights ✅

diversity and inclusion ❌ white nationalism ✅

intersectionality ❌ white feminism ✅

anti racism ❌ white supremacy ✅

cultural appreciation ❌ white western colonialism ✅

equality ❌ oppression ✅

this is the world we live in. it never got better. it has always been this way. it still is this way.

#every western ruling power is this way. there is no tolerance or acceptance. there never was. its clear to everyone now #white supremacy #colonialism #imperialism #racism #fuck colonialism #fuck racism #fuck imperialism #fuck white supremacy #palestine #israel #gaza #rafah #western colonialism #christian nationalism

[workersolidarity]

Modern Pirates of the African Coast

"Okay, what do you do with this money?"

-

"The money? I use to buy ammunition and speed boats, and the rest to take care of our families. Because we do our jobs. That is why we are doing this dirty job."

"You come to exploit here and don't want to employ me. That is why, that is the major reason why we are doing this. You don't want to employ us and you are exploiting from us."

-

I find this very sad. These people have ZERO prospects for their future from the moment they were born. Their country has been used, abused and had the wealth sucked out of it over the last 4 centuries, continues to be exploited to the extreme and they grow up in harder circumstances than Westerners could ever fathom. They take from this a lesson: their lives are meaningless to the powers-that-be and if they want any shot at wealth or security, then they must fight to the death to take it.

Is it really surprising then that some of these men with no future and no security turn to kidnapping, smuggling and extortion to give their lives some meaning?

#africa exploitation #african pirates #pirates in africa #us imperialism #western colonialism #western imperialism #imperialism #colonialism #neocolonialism #us hegemony #worker exploitation #socialism #communism #marxism leninism #socialist politics #socialist worker #socialist news #socialist #communist #marxism #marxist leninist #progressive politics #politics #workersolidarity #worker solidarity #exploiting africa #Youtube

[personal-blog243]

The Horniman Museum and Gardens will be returning 72 artifacts, including a collection of Benin bronzes, to Nigeria. Located in London, the museum will be the first government-funded institution to return items that were looted by the British military during an invasion in Benin City, Nigeria, in 1897.

‘The evidence is very clear that these objects were acquired through force, and external consultation supported our view that it is both moral and appropriate to return their ownership to Nigeria,’ said Eve Salomon, chair of the Horniman Museum.

Thousands of Benin artifacts are held in more than 150 museums and private collections globally — including London’s British Museum, which has the largest collection in the world with 900 items. Nigeria is expected to receive more artifacts from UK institutions, after Oxford and Cambridge Universities announced that they would return hundreds of items to the country.

#good news #colonialism #western imperialism #imperialism #western colonialism #anti colonialism #anti imperialism #united kingdom #uk #nigeria #blm #black lives matter

[gemsofgreece]

https://twitter.com/FreshSummerWind/status/1623961164416688130?t=yNPRu014GXgk50jAvxCIXg&s=19

It's a small clip but as a Greek i didn't know that this man did it to Sparta and other regions in Greece..i mean why does it brought him joy destroying ancient ruins? For what? France? It makes no sense and it's sad because they took advantage of Greece being occupied by the ottomans back then they did as they pleased.

Call it envy? Jealousy? I have no idea why destroy history. Thankfully now archeologists fixed many ruins but still..

So when I first saw this, I was convinced it was some hoax, because I couldn’t wrap my head around it. But no. It really is true. I searched Wikipedia about this asshole.

The video is about French priest Michel Fourmont (1690–1746).

“He was one of the scholars sent by Louis XV to the eastern Mediterranean to collect Byzantine inscriptions and manuscripts. He is now best remembered (what a phrasing, wiki) for the destruction of antiquities in Ancient Sparta and for having presented as genuine some forged inscriptions.

Fourmont made collecting ancient Greek inscriptions his primary focus. Fourmont would report to Count Maurepas that he copied 1,500 ancient inscriptions (300 in Sparta). His technique was brutally direct. Workmen were hired to dismantle any structure that might contain ancient stones with letters on them. Fourmont reported paying 1,200 man-days of labour to dismantle monuments in search of ancient marbles. In a letter to Bignon dated 20 April 1730, Fourmont wrote:

For more a month, although ill, I am working with 30 laborers for the complete destruction of Sparta; hardly a day goes by without finding something, and some days have produced as many as 20 inscriptions. If I could do at Tegea, Antigonia (Mantineia), Nemea and one or two other cities what I have done at Hermione, Troezen, and Sparta, it wouldn't be necessary to send anyone here. There would be nothing left. I have not been able to knock down the remains of the former places, because of the plague, without which they would be totally destroyed. For lack of books, these destructions shall be the only way to make illustrious a voyage which has caused such a stir. (…) Speaking frankly, I myself am astonished at this expedition. I have read nowhere that, since the restoration of literature, anyone has had the idea of turning whole cities upside down to find these marbles, which are the only irreproachable evidence of antiquity, the only things capable of shedding light on the dark corners of history, of the administration and religion of ancient peoples. Only in this manner can one contribute usefully to science. So convinced am I that Sparta is the fifth city of the Morea I have destroyed. Hermione and Troezen have had the same fate. I have not spared Argos, Phliasia, and some others. I am currently working to dismantle the temple of Amyclaean Apollo down to the foundation stone. Every day one finds things you will be pleased to see. ... I would destroy others with the same ease if I were left to do so.

Fourmont was called back to France before he could visit ancient Olympia as planned. (Thank God). Later travelers to Greece were horrified at Fourmont's descriptions of the ancient monuments he destroyed. Fourmont is alleged to have written in one of his letters that he had destroyed certain inscriptions after transcribing them. The British traveler Edward Dodwell reported that when he visited Sparta (in 1806) he was shown marbles that Fourmont had mutilated so as to make their inscriptions illegible. That some of Fourmont's most important inscriptions from Amyclae could not be relocated helped fuel scholarly suspicions that he had either forged or seriously misrepresented the inscriptions he reported.”

Like, this is an actual person that existed. Not a Disney villain.

And for some visual context:

What’s left of Ancient Sparta

Ancient Hermione

Ancient Troezen

In case you wondered why mighty and famed Argos isn’t a better known archaeological attraction like others, apparently we have this gent to thank

#Greece #ancient greece #western colonialism #Ancient Greek ruins #history #greek history #Sparta #Laconia #peloponnese #peloponnisos #mainland #anon #mail

[ausetkmt]

Avatar Films Have Always Been A Gross Reimagining Of Colonialism

After 13 years, the sequel to Avatar(2009) has finally arrived. The original science fiction epic, written and directed by James Cameron, broke multiple box office records in its theatrical run and became the highest-grossing film of all time for a decade. Many will remember accompanying their families to sold-out theatres mere days before Christmas for a film that employed the use of groundbreaking technology which would change the art of filmmaking forever. However, Avatar (and its sequel Avatar: The Way Of The Water), is in fact a problematic analogy of indigenous oppression. 

To recap, Avatar follows disabled ex-marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) as he learns the ways of the Omaticaya clan of the Na’vi people in an avatar body that looks and functions just like theirs. Along with their culture, he falls in love with one of the Na’vi, a fierce warrior named Neytiri (From Scratch’s Zoe Saldana), and switches sides against the humans, subsequently leading the Omaticaya people in their war against Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and the Resources Development Association (RDA).

Many will remember the blue alien species facing adversity, but not many will remember (or have even noticed) that the central conflict in Avatar is an allegory for colonialism. An ignorant, aggressive, money-hungry corporation supported by military enforcement wishes to destroy the sacred homeland of indigenous communities in order to obtain valuable resources — sounds a little familiar to me. In fact, James Cameron has admitted that Avatar is based on the colonisation of Native Americans. In court documents from a 2015 plagiarism case where visual effects artist Gerald Morawski claims Cameron stole the idea from him, Cameron produced a sworn declaration detailing how he came up with the idea for the film. “Avatar is a science fiction retelling of the history of North and South America in the early colonial period,” read the statement. “Avatar very pointedly made reference to the colonial period in the Americas, with all its conflict and bloodshed between the military aggressors from Europe and the indigenous peoples. Europe equals Earth. The native Americans are the Na’vi. It’s not meant to be subtle.”

Indeed, Quaritch and the RDA are very obvious symbols of colonial whiteness; they even use a slew of derogatory, colonial verbiage, referring to the Na’vi as “savages” on multiple occasions. Sadly, this focal conflict follows into the sequel, with previously deceased Colonel Quaritch returning as the story’s villain via an avatar body that had all his memories stored in the event of his death. This time, he has one mission: getting revenge on Jake Sully. Colonel Quaritch is now even more bloodthirsty and dangerous, eager to destroy Jake and his new family, and he is willing to go as far as becoming the very beings he hates the most in order to exact vengeance. With the RDA and their weapons backing him, Quaritch lays waste to several Na’vi communities, burning down their homes and killing them in cold blood.

“The truth is, reimagining colonial violence and the suffering of indigenous people through the eyes of an alien species isn’t the epic story Cameron thinks it is.”

Indigenous people have taken issue with the themes in Avatar for years, but it’s only now with the increasing visibility of social media that there is a wider platform for them to share their opinions and continue a discourse about the problematic nature of this story. Now that indigenous people are being heard, some are calling for a boycott of the film’s highly anticipated sequel.

Much of the recent criticisms got louder following the resurfacing of a 2010 article by the Guardian that details the involvement of Cameron and Avatar’s Sigourney Weaver and Joel Moore in the Brazilian Xingu peoples’ campaign against the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam project. Acknowledging that the Avatar had created “a bit of a spotlight on [them] right now to raise awareness in certain key areas”, Cameron expressed his desire to make a 3D “experiential” documentary on the Xingu’s battle.

After watching indigenous ceremonies and meetings Cameron made extremely disparaging comments about the Lakota. “I felt like I was 130 years back in time watching what the Lakota Sioux might have been saying at a point when they were being pushed and they were being killed and they were being asked to displace and they were being given some form of compensation,” said Cameron. “This was a driving force for me in the writing of Avatar – I couldn't help but think that if [the Lakota Sioux] had had a time-window and they could see the future… and they could see their kids committing suicide at the highest suicide rates in the nation… because they were hopeless and they were a dead-end society – which is what is happening now – they would have fought a lot harder.”

Cameron has since addressed the subsequent accusations of racism in a UNILAD article, noting that he wanted to “listen and to be sensitive to issues that people have.” However, Cameron has not apologised directly to the Lakota people for his degrading comments. 

Simply acknowledging people's feelings as “valid” is not enough. The truth is, reimagining colonial violence and the suffering of indigenous people through the eyes of an alien species isn’t the epic story Cameron thinks it is. It’s an appropriative and tasteless virtue-signalling of a traumatic issue that still affects millions of native people today.

Despite Cameron claiming that he wishes to move away from the white saviour trope, the backstory of Avatar’s central white character says otherwise. By positioning Jake as the Na’vi’s saviour, the film’s “fuck white people” metanarrative conveniently disavows whiteness as inherently bad. Even in Avatar: The Way of Water, despite bringing even more death and destruction to the beautiful land of the indigenous Metkayina tribe who provide a safe haven for his family, Jake pretty much remains the hero of the story.

This representation of Jake as one of the “good” whites implores people to view whiteness as an institution and a system, rather than individuals who can be complicit in a system of violence and oppression. In doing this, Cameron suggests that sometimes, whiteness can save us. It feels like some weird colonial wet dream that appoints certain well-meaning white people as the saviours of native people in the perpetual struggle against other white people. Both Avatar films’ metanarratives are framed as counter-hegemonic, but they ultimately end up reproducing hegemony by positioning white people as heroes — thus supporting and legitimising white supremacy. 

The franchise props up whiteness as something special and unique that enrichens and sets you apart from everyone else. In Avatar: The Way of Water, Jake and Neytiri’s kids are seen as outcasts, similar to Jake, because they were born with five fingers like humans instead of four like other indigenous Na’vi. Because of this, they are teased by other Na’vi. However, throughout the course of the film, the Sully kids are revealed to have special abilities; Kiri (Weaver) the daughter of the late Grace Augustine’s (also Weaver) avatar body, has a particularly special connection with Ewya, the Na’vi’s omniscient deity. It’s interesting that in both films, the characters that are connected to whiteness (apart from the RDA) are treated as different and special among the indigenous communities they make a home in.

Ultimately, colonialism is a real-life monster that has and continues to affect indigenous people globally for generations. Though the story of Avatar is fictional; its themes aren’t, and it’s imperative that we think critically about the on-screen representation of certain issues and groups because the media largely informs our understanding of the subjects depicted. It also informs our application of these issues — from individual to collective praxis. It’s even more important when you consider the global visibility of this film.

James Cameron most likely thought that this film would implore pro-colonialists and Western imperials to think about their empire’s history differently. But if he really wanted to fight for the rights of indigenous people, he could have directly provided aid, reparations, or any kind of tangible support to these communities instead of producing a multi-billion dollar franchise that emblematizes their trauma. His net worth is literally $700 million. But do the people whose struggle inspired filmmakers like Cameron and line his millionaire pockets see even a cent of those profits? No. Of course not. 

It’s true: Western colonialism begets a debt that cannot ever be repaid. But white Westerners, at the very least, can make a start — and putting a spin on indigenous trauma for profit isn’t it.

#racism on film #Refinery29: Avatar Films Have Always Been A Gross Reimagining Of Colonialism #avatar #avatar 2 #color #global lies #cameron is a racist director #western colonialism

[mileenaxyz]

Thank you, Rich Siegel. This is a responsible citizen. This is a moral, ethical man.

Makes you wonder how long "sales events" like these have been going on.

#west bank #justice for palestine #palestine protests #palestinian holocaust #support palestine #save palestine #free palestine #palestine #free the west bank #don't let isntreal profit from genocide #this was never about hamas #colonial violence #western colonialism #settler colonialism #settler violence

[niteshade925]

LMAO I knew I would trigger a butthurt defender of Western imperialism with that post about Yuanmingyuan/Summer Palace/圆明园.

"Cultural revolution destroyed it" my ass. If it wasn't for the fucking British and French invaders burning it down in 1860 (mind you, 1860, the cultural revolution happened more than 100 years later) and looting everything including fucking fountain parts and leaving it abandoned, would looters have gotten in in the first place? Fucking idiots.

#:) #chinese history #yuanmingyuan #western imperialism #western colonialism #the summer palace