Quote:
Originally Posted by mikemhg
The idea of voodoo and witch doctor magic is a major issue in Africa and needs to be addressed. It's truly holding back much of the advancement in Africa, much akin to the superstitious ideas in Chinese medicine in China.
It's an educational and tribal issue that I hope is corrected at some point, though looking at the radical ideas and thoughts within the right-wing side of a first world country like America, I have little hope.
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The National Museum of African American History & Culture had released a (
now deleted) infographic on the "White Dominant Culture" in the United States.
When I read it, I honestly believed it was a 4chan prank.
The infographic is critical of many Euro-centric ideas including
Emphasis on Scientific Method- Objective, rational linear thinking.
Cause and effect relationships.
Quantitative emphasis
It was incredibly disappointing to hear that this was actually developed by an institution associated with the Smithsonian, one of the country's most prominent museum cooperatives.
It shows that the priorities of some African Americans is to reject actual scientific basis, and although I didn't want to believe this to actually be true the evidence is clear in the priorities this organization has stated in their efforts to "de-colonize". It was incredibly disappointing to read.
Also, it is troubling to read things like "Work before play", "Plan for future", "
Delayed gratification", and "Be polite" listed as some of their other criticisms.
The list and the statements are made not as things the black community should move away from, but as criticisms of "internalized white culture" which have been "normalized".
Incredibly short-sighted because I would expect that the Revscene community (skewing heavily in the Asian-heritage demographic) would see these values as some of their OWN cultural norms, not just "white" norms.
The "witch doctor" belief system, both in African cultures (as evidenced in the video I linked above) as well as the absolute bullshit that Trump Doctor is espousing reveals a troubling shift in thinking that accompanies "decolonization".
It serves to do two things.
1) It throws the baby out with the bathwater. It presumes to approach science in a, well, less scientific way.
Home remedies may succeed for some, but perhaps we should leave treatment to the doctors.
2) It plays into ugly stereotypes that fringe wingers will use to justify their own racist beliefs.
If a prominent source on Black American thinking writes an article stating that the belief that "hard work is the key to success" is a "normalized white mindset", racist people may respond asking "
What, you think its better to be lazy?" or that "being polite" and "avoiding conflict" is a "white norm", the racists might decry this categorization as black using anger and violence for solving problems
(playing into the violent black stereotype).
Its wild that the anti-Semetic and blatently racist mindset that lets
Nick Cannon skate by is so
wildly accepted in America, but reading this chart makes me wonder if I should be surprised.
I haven't even talked about the bullshit going on in Asia mikemhg was touching on.
Thats a whole other conversation.
