Permanently Deleted
Yeah, but all of that shit is informed and subsumed by white supremacy thanks to colonial legacies
This ain’t a competition, European social systems have simply been hegemonic these last few centuries, that has a long term effect on expressions of bigotry the world over
all of that shit is informed and subsumed by white supremacy thanks to colonial legacies
It was definitely played into during colonial occupation. But westerners didn’t create the Soviet-Sino split. Nor did westerners force Japan to do a genocide in Manchuria. Westerners didn’t create the Sunni/Shia split or the Hindu Caste system.
This ain’t a competition
It’s a simple acknowledgement that removing western influence does not somehow sanitize a culture of its own bigotries. European hegemony has normalized whiteness globally and positioned white men at the top of existing social hierarchies. Removing them from power won’t remove the hierarchy.
Westerners didn’t create the Sunni/Shia split or the Hindu Caste system.
Their modern iterations they absolutely did, the tensions between Sunnis and Shia (when it’s not being exaggerated by western media) is 100% a US/Saudi led project decades in the making
And the British quite literally modified, racialized, and expanded the caste system during the Raj
It’s a simple acknowledgement that removing western influence does not somehow sanitize a culture of its own bigotries.
I don’t agree with a pessimist take like this, historically the removal of western influence was followed by immense social change and a progressive flourishing, however short it was; Burkina Faso, Bolivia, Cuba, Vietnam, United Arab Republic, the undermining or removal of a social ideology installed by colonial powers over the course of centuries absolutely can change a culture overnight, power structures bereft of a material basis and social narrative don’t magically maintain themselves, and it doesn’t automatically imply new bigotries will just emerge out of a vacuum fully formed
Their modern iterations they absolutely did
The modern iteration is simply “European aristocrats go on top”. Where as, for the vast majority of the history of the country, they would have lived near the bottom. And while they happily played up the conflicts between Muslim migrants - whose religion had spread rapidly all along East Africa and South Asia - and Hindu natives where it was convenient, they also routinely found themselves pincered between warring factions within the greater Hindu state (the northern border wars with the Pashtuns, the tug-of-war over Kashmir, etc).
the tensions between Sunnis and Shia (when it’s not being exaggerated by western media) is 100% a US/Saudi led project decades in the making
The US/Saudi regime replaced the Ottoman Empire, which managed cultural splits by doing periodic pogroms and genocides (most notably the Armenian Genocide). Old boss same as the new boss.
historically the removal of western influence was followed by immense social change and a progressive flourishing, however short it was; Burkina Faso, Bolivia, Cuba, Vietnam, United Arab Republic, the undermining or removal of a social ideology installed by colonial powers over the course of centuries absolutely can change a culture overnight
The civic nationalism and egalitarian socialism necessary to overthrow an imperial power often requires those social changes predate the revolution. What you see in the aftermath is a generation’s worth of work to unify disparate peoples coming to fruition.
But consider the hostility between Vietnam and China or Iraq and Iran following their revolutions. Or, again, the Sino-Soviet split. Once nations have congealed and developed their own internal politics, the interests of factions within the state won’t necessarily align with those on the outside, regardless of how ideologically aligned they might be at the roots.
“Colonialism could only come from Europe” isn’t a sound materialist assumption, nor does it bare out historically. Everything from the Congo Wars to Imperial China / Japan to Pre-Columbian Native Civilizations suggest the drive towards imperialist control is a chronic condition within human populations.
