There appears to be a lot of commentators who are asleep at the wheel lately. What is happening in the US is a dangerous rerun of the past. In Chicago & Detroit many years ago during a severe crash the corporations laid off their black workers under cruel and severe conditions. The White workers showed no solidarity. Clearly they thought that it was better for them to keep their jobs and for the black workers to take the hit….
Following our earlier blog we have found further astonishing examples of the hold of alt.right editors on the content of Wikipedia. According to Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genocides_by_death_toll, if we look at the list of genocides, the total death toll of native Amerians is between 12,000 and 120,000 and only occurred in California. Even Adolf Hitler knew better and praised the US where Americans had ‘gunned down the millions of Redskins to a few hundred thousand,and now keep the modest remnant under…
On 9 July, in a piece entitled: ‘Segregation still blights the lives of African-Americans’ The Economist wrote: “If something isn’t done, and done in a hurry, to bring the coloured peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed,” Martin Luther King Jr told striking workers the day before he was shot dead in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1968 black Americans had only just realised formal…
Independent Sage has produced a report on the impact of Covid-19 on ethnic minorities. This is quite breathtaking….and disappointing Recall Boris Johnson diverting attention to pre-existing conditions and comorbidity as he scrambled to channel Dr Fauci. Many contributors to this report had no time for such baseless and evidence -less speculation. However there are strange and contradictory statements in this report. claims that among the ‘likely’ causes are overcrowding, yet ONS figures show overcrowding is greater in Asian families…
There has been many individual complaints to us about the culture of Wikipedia editors. There is a strong contingent of alt.right editors who haze pro Black contributions. These people appear to be well funded as they have endless time to revert edits and make snide comments at all times of day and night. One contributor informed us that she had made over 50 edits/contributions and every single one was reverted without clear explanation. Sometimes the only comment was ‘controversial’…
We spoke about Bim recently (https://african-century.org/bim-afolami-a-great-disappointment/ ) but overlooked a small matter. We were desperately trying to be as charitable as possible. We attributed some foolish comments to Club table talk. But there were some statements in that interview which cannot be excused so easily. In defence of Cecil Rhodes’ statue he said that it should be remembered that several Black Africans have become recipients of the Rhodes scholarship! Cecil Rhodes, a staunch believer in white supremacy and that…
![[:en]Bim Afolami[:]](https://i0.wp.com/african-century.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/bim-afolami.jpg?fit=151%2C151&ssl=1)
I had such high hopes of Bim. He is bright , personable and engaging. Quite an ambassador. Today, 23 June 2020, on the BBC he revealed a rather shallow side of his nature. Asked about the tearing down of statues he commented that if we tore down statues of all racist imperialist politicians there would be none left in UK. He smiled and thought he had made a witty point, not a huge gaff. Let me show where this…
Cornel West was once considered part of a triptych including Skip Gates, and Anthony Appiah, representing the Black Academy. This triptych can be viewed as either the leading edge of the Black Academy or a rogue’s gallery. Let us put this in context so as to understand the connection with Trump. We need to understand the historical dynamics that generated this context. For several decades ‘the conservative moment’ involved suppressing dissent of both left and right by denying it…
We wrote of the prejudice and mistreatment of Africans by Turkish airlines. I wrote at that time to the senior directors to complain. I recently travelled again on Turkish Airlines (the only flight available at the time). I am pleased to state that the treatment of Africans was punctilious and fair. I could not see any difference in treatment of African travellers from non-African. I thought my communications had been ignored as no acknowledgement was received. But better than…
After the widespread diffusion of the video of the assault on George Floyd rioting broke out in US cities calling for the arrest and charging of the police officers involved. There was considerable expressed surprise that when the demands were met the riots escalated. ‘The turmoil was on display a short distance from the White House, where President Trump had called earlier in the day for his supporters to rally. Instead, hundreds of protesters mobilized on the streets of…
