| There are many racist Asians1--and there are many racist Europeans. And Latinos, and Africans..... What is extremely ludicrous--and, yes, even infuriating--is the idea prevalently floating around FR that Europeans are such saints2. Their empires were as much about exploitation as the Chinese are doing now, and the extent was far larger. The Chinese are building infrastructure for Africa, giving aid, giving funding; similar to the very few 'good' things given by European powers to their colonies, without the insult of taking them over and looking down on them, even if with condescension or paternalism. Nor are the Chinese carrying out genocide nor do they have a policy of racism which circulates in respected circles. Their racism is basically the same racism you find on FR--prejudiced views, but not the mainstream, accepted, quasi-sanctioned one. Europeans did do those things, however. The closest you could pin on the Chinese is doing business with Sudan and therefore facilitating genocide in Darfur. And if this is not clear to some, this argument is not to type that Europeans are any more racist or bad than other people, but is to type that they are not any more noble or honorable, or otherwise 'good,' than other people. Any good to have come out of European dominance for the last few centuries is down to the Europeans' religion, Christianity, and not something innate to Europeans themselves. Indeed, before the advent of Christianity, much of northern Europe was as savage as some of the most barbaric cultures on Earth today. As the light of Christianity seems to be fading in Europe and even the United States, and the light seems to be shining ever more brightly in Africa and especially Asia, maybe racists in a distant future3 will be typing of how great and grand, and magnanimous--to use the word of another freeper--the Asian and African races were in the past when their empires4 were dominant over humanity, and those pathetic Europeans should shut up and accept how kind and beneficent the Africans' and Asians' enlightened rules were over them. If that is the case, they would be as off target as the one common on FR--and apparently among many Europeans--glorifying the European race, because if good came from Asian or African rule, that good would have also come because of Christianity, not from an innate trait in either 'race.' Romans 3:10-12.5
1Asian descendants, European descendants, African descendants.
2Of the Roman Catholic or Orthodox variety. Actually 'saint' could be synonymous with 'Christian.'
3Completely hypothetical, of course.
4Actual empires, not the 'empires' as the one in this thread's article.
5All includes Europeans. And Asians. And Africans. And Latinos. And.... |