The Danish health minister should “get on a plane and visit” some of the thousands of women thought to be living with the consequences of being forcibly fitted with the contraceptive coil as children, Greenland’s gender equality minister has said.
In an attempt to reduce the population of the former Danish colony, at least 4,500 women and girls are believed to have undergone the medical procedure, usually without their consent or knowledge, at the hands of Danish doctors between 1966 and 1970 alone.
The total number of those affected by the procedures, thought to have continued for decades, is understood to be far higher. Victims and their lawyers say generations of Inuit women were left traumatised and suffering reproductive complications, including infertility, as a result of the Danish state’s policy.
Earlier this month, a group of 143 women sued the Danish state over the alleged violations, but they have yet to receive a response from the government, despite the Danish prime minister visiting Greenland – now an autonomous territory of Denmark – soon after.
Reverse racism is bullshit because “white” as a category is only exclusionary. It does not exist to acknowledge any culture or nationality. I am white but would lose nothing from my identity if the concept were abolished tomorrow.
It is a political category that exists purely to discriminate against those who fall outside of it. In that sense, this eugenics program was indeed “a very white way of thinking”.
You don’t have to identify with that if you’re white. You can reject the concept of race as being valid - it is unscientific and entirely socially constructed - whilst still recognising that racial categories and racism have real consqeuences and do real harm.
EDIT: I’m not interested in continuing to debate with people who have no interest in understanding. For anyone who actually cares to educate themselves, here is some information.
Dictionary definitions of racism aren’t enough, you need to actually study the subject. This is a decent article on the subject, which paraphrases my favourite saying on the matter, “noticing racism is not the real racism”: https://www.vu.edu.au/about-vu/news-events/news/what-is-reverse-racism-and-whats-wrong-with-the-term
And they reference this paper, which gives an academic definition of racism: Racism equals power plus prejudice: A social psychological equation for racial oppression.
Racism requires a power imbalance on a societal level. Without that, you can have prejudicial attitudes, but they don’t rise to the level of racism. As a white person, you can say whatever you want about white people to me and it doesn’t threaten me much, because white people are not oppressed in our society.
There’s nothing reverse about it, it’s plain racism.
This is the definition:
Except the minority everything checks out. Note the word “typically” when referring to minority.
Unless you want to change the definition of racism (which many of you fellas seem to want to), racism against white people is just racism, nothing “reverse” about it.
Where did you get that definition? What is the context? And even then, the point is not to find a dictionary definition but to understand what race is and what it means.
Dictionaries describe how words are used, they are not complete academic breakdowns of concepts. Yes, some people - like you - will call reverse racism actual racism, so the dictionary captures that usage, but even it acknowledges that that is atypical.
Once you understand that white is not truly a part of anyone’s identity but a political category that is imposed by a power structure, you can stop getting butthurt whenever anyone attacks the concept, because you’ll realise that you don’t have to take it personally.
Honestly it’s pretty insulting to the racism that non-white people face every single day to apply the same word to what white people deal with. It is not in any way equivalent.
I could take the time to paraphrase every sentence you used with black people, but I’m kinda tired today, so you just have to believe me it can be done.
But I’ll write this: You don’t get to decide what is and isn’t part of someone else’s identity. That’s called oppression, you know? The exact same thing that has been done to minorities over centuries and millennia. We have a name or two for that, one of those names is “racism”.
Goodbye.
White isn’t a race. White is a lack of pigmentation.
Is Black not a race, just the presence of pigmentation?
So is black, what’s your point?
Black is not a lack of pigmentation. If you believe that may I suggest heading back to Biology 101 for an upgrade course.
Yeah, let’s pretend that’s what I meant. You should feel proud.
Lol
As a mixed-race individual, it’s not about whether race is a valid identifier in any objective sense or not. Our society still puts a great deal of emphasis on race regardless.
I wouldn’t consider my identity particularly ‘white’, but when that’s used to denigrate me, like I’m only part-valid? That feels like shit. Something between rage and absolute isolation.
Your point fails to recognize that the US isn’t the only country in the world. ‘black’ as a concept makes no sense on the global scale either and the internet does exist in other countries too.
European empires colonised the world centuries ago and invented the concept of race to justify why they were treating everyone else as sub-human. Britain exported that ideology to the US, and both of their empires, amongst many others, exported the concept globally. No continent on Earth was spared. I live in Australia and the Indigenous people here talk about “black fellas” and “white fellas” to describe their particular experience of racist oppression.
To claim “black” as a racist concept only exists in the US just proves that you don’t know very much about the topic.
As if european countries were the only others-invading empires. Spain was a colony of some muslim caliphate for centuries and the ottomen once made it all the way to the gates of vienna. And I didn’t say black only exists in the US, I said it doesn’t make sense outside of it. Your australia-natives anecdote onls slightly changes thats
…and? We’re talking about the roots of racism, not which empire was worse. The most recent imperial expansions were global and done by white people, which is why colourism works the way it does, globally. If some other group had done it, it might be different, but they didn’t, and it isn’t.
This is such a basic point, did you think you could actually distract me from it by talking about the Ottomans or whatever?
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That’s a nice point actually
I would be considered white now in the US, but 120 years ago, I wouldn’t have been.
And personally, I don’t identify one way or the other, because it’s not an aspect I measure people by.
Thank you for saying it. :)