The White Man's Virtue Signalling

 The white man is protesting against the intolerence in our country. I hope he is doing so after he has signed and honoured every pending treaty with each indigineous community he has defrauded. I am waiting for that news item first.

• Nath Kal

  Not all white men are evil. I married one 

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  • Aparna Krishnan

    I said earlier. We have enough White Men in Brown Skins walking in my country ! And vice versa 

    

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  • Nath Kal

    in the US, the are nicknamed Oreos. Slang white centre, brown outer.

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  • Aparna Krishnan

    And what would be implied ?

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  • Nath Kal

    that they have a generic white man's outlook on the world. That they see solutions not in the local, but in the received western narratives and culture etc.

    

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  • Aparna Krishnan

    The white man first ensured that breed in each country he colonised. And to his credit I must say he did a through job. Decades after he's left that indictrination stays strong and deep.

    

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  • Nath Kal

    yup. Right now even in the Caribbean, we have forgot our families' own traditions as we rush madly towards western solutions. Some are just realising that this wholesalw rush has been a huge mistake and are looking for more local solutions. But the allure is still there, that everything north of Miami is wonderful, and everything south is worthless.

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  • Aparna Krishnan

    Modernity intoxicates.

    

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  • Nath Kal

    there is a lot of good, but that comes at a huge price that many don't even want to contemplate.

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  • Komakkambedu Himakiran

    We have a native term for them; Coconuts, brown outside, white inside!

    

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  • Aparna Krishnan

    Komakkambedu Himakiran Anugula

     By the time you are english-medium-schooled you are a full fledged (coco)nut !

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  • Komakkambedu Himakiran

    if you don't do well at school or if you hate that education, then you escape being a coconut!

    

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  • Aparna Krishnan

    yes, and if you got expelled early on you probably maintain your integrity best ! I wish those schooled in Indian language medium got to run the country. But these snobs in the corridors of power cannot bear the thought.

    

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  • Aparna Krishnan

    'the coconuts in the corridors of power'

    

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  • Komakkambedu Himakiran

    It's a grove out there in Lutyens!

    

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  • Aparna Krishnan

    yep !

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  • Shashi Enarth

    Aparna, We should learn from the follies of our ancestors, white, black or brown. Beyond that I am not going to burn my energy ranting about who did what centuries or even decades ago. I will concern myself with what we are grappling with right now. SO the question is: have we learnt? quite clearly not! We (elites in INdia) seem to have only refined and mastered the art of repression and discrimination that so many colonized people suffered in the past. So rather than settle accounts with the past, we can chose to listen to people who warn us today. If the warning comes from the while people or black people or our own, we should listen. Again, I am not saying history is irrelevant. For the type of conversation we have been having here, it it most relevant for the lessons it teaches us. I am also quite disturbed when someone swipes an entire community with rather regressive characterization. "white people", "urban people", "rich people" are not one monolithic entity. I have seen as many white people standing for love and compassion as I have seen black or browns. The very idea of caricaturing people like this is neither reflective of the reality nor serving any purpose of making this a better place.

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• Gopal Krishna Iyer

  Kindly do not discriminate white brown black.There are good and bad people everywhere. Intolerance is in every human being all over the world with some exceptions. Do not deprecate White men for God's sake

  You are a Good girl and be it.

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• Aparna Krishnan

  I simply said he has many broken treaties with the Maoris and the Native Americans and many others, and he should honour them quickly. Otherwise people will talk and say he is a cheat !

  

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• Mark Johnston

  Perhaps there can be a difference between the ruling elites of majority white countries criticising what they still see as their former colonies and campaigners in these 'white' countries showing/giving support to local and indigenous campaigns that have asked for it. It is still a difficult judgement to make without having an innate knowledge of the local context and being, whether or not we like it or chose it, part of a historically privileged and controlling elite in world terms. I hope I never come across as a cheer leader.

  

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