THere Is Just No End To What White People Have Done

[Me.]

This is in reference to the life of Ota Benga an African man who was brought to this country and exploited. This post and the bnext one are snippets about his life.

“As a member of the Mbuti people,[4] Ota Benga lived in equatorial forests near the Kasai River in what was then the Congo Free State. His people were attacked by the Force Publique, established by King Leopold II of Belgium as a militia to control the natives for labor in order to exploit the large supply of rubber in the Congo.
Benga's wife and two children were murdered; he survived only because he was on a hunting expedition when the Force Publique attacked his village. He was later captured by "Baschelel" (Bashilele) slave traders.[5][6][7]

In 1904 American businessman and explorer Samuel Phillips Verner travelled to Africa under contract from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis World Fair) to bring back an assortment of pygmies to be part of an exhibition.[8] Verner discovered Ota Benga while 'en route' to a Batwa village visited previously; he purchased Benga from the slave traders for a pound of salt and a bolt of cloth.[9][7] Verner later claimed he had rescued Benga from cannibals.[10] “

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ota_Benga

[Me.]

1. "St. Louis World Fair

“The group was brought to St. Louis, Missouri, in late June 1904 without Verner, who had been taken ill with malaria. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition had already begun, and the Africans immediately became the center of attention. Ota Benga was particularly popular, and his name was reported variously by the press as Artiba, Autobank,[13] Ota Bang, and Otabenga. He had an amiable personality, and visitors were eager to see his teeth, which had been filed to sharp points in his early youth as ritual decoration. The Africans learned to charge for photographs and performances. One newspaper account, promoting Ota Benga as "the only genuine African cannibal in America", claimed "[his teeth were] worth the five cents he charges for showing them to visitors".[11]

When Verner arrived a month later, he realized the pygmies were more prisoners than performers. Their attempts to congregate peacefully in the forest on Sundays were thwarted by the crowds' fascination with them. McGee's attempts to present a "serious" scientific exhibit were also overturned. On July 28, the Africans' performing to the crowd's preconceived notion that they were "savages", resulted in the First Illinois Regiment being called in to control the mob. Benga and the other Africans eventually performed in a warlike fashion, imitating American Indians they saw at the Exhibition.[14] The Apache chief Geronimo (featured as "The Human Tyger" – with special dispensation from the Department of War)[13] grew to admire Benga, and gave him one of his arrowheads.”

“Hornaday considered the exhibit a valuable spectacle for visitors; he was supported by Madison Grant, Secretary of the New York Zoological Society, who lobbied to put Ota Benga on display alongside apes at the Bronx Zoo. A decade later, Grant became prominent nationally as a racial anthropologist and eugenicist.[21]””

[Red Mountain]

2. Particularly nasty given the thin veneer of science applied.....

it strikes a chord in our modern society.

Earlier than that....really? Has any group identified by their skin color created a society free of bias?


All sorts of people with various skin tones have done terrible things. Plenty of blame historically.


What you are addressing is the power imbalance in very recent history. Ultimately, it's counterproductive to attribute normal (and awful) recent human behavior to a particular skin tone if your goal is colorblind society.

Maybe that's not your goal.

[Me.]

3. "Has any group identified by their skin color created a society free of bias?"

Your comment doesn't actually make sense when addressing the issue of slavery, or that associated with such. And sadly, it's not recent history. THe maltreatment and cruelty towards one specific group of people is more than a case of 'bias' and continues to this very day, along with the way indigenous peoples have been used and abused.

PLacing a man in a zoo exhibit with apes goes beyond the pale.

[Red Mountain]

4. Slavery isn't a recent invention

but the industrial nature of it was. Can that be attributed to white people? Yes.

Did other societies enslave people? Yes. In large numbers.

I don't get the association with skin tone in the historical sense.

Societies evolve.

[Me.]

8. Societies Can Evolve

that is the point of the protests, because the need, after hundreds of years, is still there.

[BGBD]

5. If it's not ok to make stereotypes or judgments

of people based on skin color, its probably not ok to do it to white people either.

[Me.]

6. I Get Your Point

However, the history is what it is and the reverse isn't/wasn't true.

[BGBD]

9. you sure about that?

I imagine I could find some atrocities committed by every race.

Yes, white people have done some horrible things and those things should be remembered. we also don't need to villianize a group of people based solely on what their ancestors did.

[Me.]

10. So You Think Subjugation & Racism Doesn't Exist To This Very Minute?

Wow, some horrible things?

[BGBD]

11. I dont recall saying it didnt

I also assume that you think all white people are racists.

Remind me what it is called when you judge people based on their race.

[Me.]

12. And I Did Not Say That

However I do not deny there is racism that exists to this very day and while the history is a problem to some it doesn't eradicate the fact that it is and was

[BGBD]

13. and there are better ways

to point it out than to say things like Look how bad white people are. saying thing like that forfeits the moral authority needed to combat racism.

[Me.]

14. Now You're Just Being Tiresome

Denial doesn't change the truth and never will. And the moral authority is the truth. Clearly this bother you and we will never agree so bye bye.

[DavidDvorkin]

7. Indeed.