Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire

by Akala

Most people, it seems to me at least, hate poor people more than they hate poverty.

the idea that one should be grateful that your government does not kill, torture or imprison you for your criticisms is an extremely low bar of expectation coming from people who are apparently proud of their nation’s democratic credentials.

Class affects everything, even racism, but in complex ways, and a phrase like ‘white privilege’ is not an absolute but a trend,

Are we really trying to encourage and normalise black academic excellence in the UK? Or would we prefer the extra cost of imprisonment and crime that comes further down the line after neglect, just so one can still feel superior?

Though, of course, the dehumanisation of anti-black racism gave transatlantic chattel slavery a particular sadism.

How will our children and their children after that navigate being born black in Britain and of Caribbean heritage without the wisdom and laughter, the cooking and the cussing, of Caribbean-born grandparents?

The idea of race, i.e. the idea that human phenotypes or ethnic/religious origins tell us something significant about the genetic, moral and intellectual capacity of human beings, and that this something is permanent, unalterable and hierarchical,

In addition, Cuba has offered free – that is, the cost is borne by the Cuban people – medical scholarships to thousands of students from across the world on the condition that they return and serve the poor in their own countries.

the Cuban people elect to do this work out of genuine revolutionary solidarity with other, overwhelmingly poor black and brown people in the global south.

The message is clear: white people’s hurt feelings are conceptually equivalent to black humans’ actual lives.