To wonder why it's so controversial to talk about white behaviour throughout history?

[BeachParty]

It's an interesting discussion to have, and makes you think.
Why do so many immediately go into "how dare you!" mode or "why are you being racist towards white people?!"
Instead of actually listening to what people are saying? History is whitewashed in this country, we usually learn it from a "hero" viewpoint.

I know I’m not to blame for what these countries do to their own citizens.

I note you keep avoiding that in Africa there is 7 million slaves and 11 million in India - today

Who is responsible for that …. Not Churchill surely - but the Indians and Africans who kidnap and sell them?? Or is that the U.K. fault too?

@coupdetonnerre

The point is that the term "white behaviour" is incorrect and needlessly divisive.
By all means lets talk about slavery or colonialism but lets not pretend that it is just a "white behaviour".

There are many on here that have posted about historical truth, but they don't want historical truth they want to blame "white behaviour" for the wrongs of history when pretty much all nations, creeds, colours and religions have been as bad as each other.

Agreed 👏🏻

Why are people being so obtuse? If you can't make a single comment without saying "but ABC did xyz" you aren't even trying to understand the point of the OP.

We understand the point - but balance is important.

Im not joining the band wagon of self flagellation.

What’s the point in saying ‘oh yes we are the baddies for what we did’ whilst TODAY those very countries have a slave trade of 18 MILLION people - Mass slaughter of whole villages, severe corruption, children being kidnapped to join wars.

Its not trendy or politically correct to discuss what’s happening now

The slave trade in Africa has been going on since before records began - way longer than the trans Atlantic slave trade and shit load longer that Churchill. I suggest you have a real look at it. Just Google it.

It’s embarrassing that you are refusing to accept that this is actually part of their ancient heritage. People were just tricked in to believing that it was the white men who started slavery.

You are so obsessed with the idea that it’s the ‘white mans fault’ that you are keeping your self ignorant to the very real problems millions of people are suffering through the

https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/country-studies/nigeria/

This explains the many reasons for slavery in Africa ( study on Nigeria) today - and you know what i think you’ll be surprised

after your last post I can see you’re extremely blinkered so won’t be discussing this with you any more.

I’m a History teacher at a state school in England. I’m not sure where you’ve got this idea we don’t teach the stuff you talk about above, but I can most certainly state many schools do teach both sides of the argument, History is for children to make their own minds up on so we show them sources and how to analyse them. Very lazy of you to not actually research then make wrong generalisations on what is taught in British schools. It feels like you want to make the political point that we are all purposely ignorant but you can’t back it up with facts. Well you are wrong

I think that a lot of those complaining about what is taught in history today are very out of date with just what is taught in history lessons today.
Which given the complaint is somewhat ironic.

I think that you are missing the point that if people want to talk about history then they need to be talking about the whole of the history of that subject area.

If we do not do this then we are given out false and biased information.

Exactly. And if the thread had been about the behaviour of any race other than white people then I guarantee it would have been reported and pulled by now.

I wasn’t even going to engage with this thread but just popping in briefly to say Forget it, they deliberately will struggle to understand the term, while simultaneously understanding exactly what is meant by male behaviour. What I’ve learnt from MN is a lot of white feminists are racists and fully complicit in the oppression of black and Asian people. Some are even justifying voting for parties like Reform because “brown men” make them feel unsafe - ha! As if White men are safer!

They refuse to accept it because it doesn’t suit their narrative that they are trying to peddle.

this is the case in the uk but not all white people are from countries where colonisation occurred . I’m from a predominantly white country that was historically poverty ridden and was colonised and treated appallingly by the uk government in the past . I don’t blame people in the uk for this . I don’t think it’s fair to say “white “ history. Not all white people have the same history .

It's not and shouldn't be controversial to talk about anything in history as long as the facts are correct. Sounds like you are trying to make it controversial. You have to consider who has written about history and whether they have missed certain aspects, and acknowledge that history involves all races, not to mention all sexes. That was lacking, it's good that other people's experience of history is explored these days. Including women's contributions, which were also lacking recognition until recent times.

This. The slave trade could not have happened without black slave traders. All sides acted badly.

Perhaps you should have said white English in your thread then. “White behaviour “ implies that people behaved in a certain way throughout history solely because of their skin colour. It’s a lot more complicated than that.

How come places like Singapore (independence in 1963) and HK in (1997) can be colonised by the UK, and then become some of the richest, well run places on the planet?

They were left with a template for order, and a great infrastructure and they built on it to become amazing, wealthy places.

Everywhere else just uses it as an excuse for being corrupt and chaotic.

This makes no fucking sense to anyone who knows more than one tiny sliver of history. I'm white. The whitest of pale white. My people were near genocided repeatedly over 800 years of occupation. The British didn't come here and oppress us because of colour. It had fuck the fuck all to do with it.

Mongolian invasions and colonisations of China had fuck all to do with colour. Manchu oppression of Han people had nothing to do with colour. Han oppression of Manchu people has nothing to do with colour. The Japanese imperial invasions of China, Korea, etc had nothing to do with colour. The Oyo colonisation of Fon or Dahomey had nothing to do with colour. The slave trade of the Dahomey had nothing to do with colour.

Stronger societies oppress their neighbours. That's it. People can use skin colour, religion, culture, political ideals, etc to justify taking what they want. But all people's of all colour have done that throughout history. And as history shows, when things change enough that the tables can turn, the formerly oppressed often go on to oppress their former oppressors as neither was inherently good or bad. Just weaker and stronger.

Who is actually responsible for improving our lives 200 plus years on? In those intervening 200 ish years, did descendents of slaves have no opportunity to improve their lot? Why did some former British colonies flourish yet others didn't? The unpalatable answer for some, is that corrupt governments created after the end of British reign looked after themselves and not the Country.

An excellent example of African exploitation of their own people is Ethiopia. I remember as a kid breaking my heart at the TV pictures of starving children, seeing Bono & Geldoff telling us to give up our pocket money to help those poor people. As I got older I discovered that Ethiopia is a relatively wealthy Country, has good agriculture and is mineral rich. It is their own governing rich that allow their people to starve. It was only very briefly invaded by Italy. So had it's entire destiny made by it's own people.

The subject of reparations is divisive. The biggest question for me is that, who is actually deserving of them if any. After all, millions of UK whites were in abject poverty during the same periods. They were slaves in every way bar name during the industrial revolution.

What's this we? My, incredibly white, people were oppressed to the point of near genocide? My family members, many who were alive right into my adulthood, had to fight for our independence and again in the civil war that resulted from the deliberately inflammatory conditions on our independence, designed to ensure it couldn't last. Meaning that years later we needed to engage in eight year long trade war to make it actually feasible.