No, Africa was always a craphole, and much of it is still a craphole.. well anything south of the Sahara anyway. Most of sub-saharan Africa was hunting with spears when we began colonizing it. The only places that have ever spawned any kind of civilization are along the mediteranean and the nile.
Solution? Like I said, I just think the entire world is better off being segregated. I mean, do we really want half this country filled up with muslims? Do you have any idea what kind of daily war that would be? Racial differences are kind of like that, but not quite as bad. It just feels like a perpetual war between us all, and no one is happy. Its just that everyone knows they are still better off here than somewhere else, so no one wants to leave.
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RSTDT.
On much the same topic, my daughter just emailed me from South Africa. Her observation is that the class divisions in SA seem to be far stronger than the race ones, and that for middle-class and higher, it really seems to be a "rainbow nation". (As an aside, they're calling Trump "worse than apartheid".) America is very lucky, in that most immigrants come from the educated classes. Is that too sweeping a generalization? Perhaps. But that difference is no longer in place when we talk about involuntary immigrants, that is, refugees. Or, for that matter, slaves.
Complete bullshit, evidence of someone's who's never read a history book in their life. Even Wikipedia has enough on that region, so that's evidence you must be a fucking idiot.
Africa would've kicked Europe's ass had they worked together. If someone like Samory Touré realised the real enemy was France and not local Africans, as well as incorporated machine guns into his army--known in Africa--he would've utterly destroyed any French or whoever army. And even the spear-wielding armies of Ethiopia still kicked Italy's ass at Adwa (even if most weren't using spears).
Muslims aren't a race. What will you do with atheist "Muslims" (Arabs, Persians, Kurds, what?), oooh?
I'm not seeing the link. Most of Sub-Saharan Africa is Christian. And black.
Meanwhile, while Europe was in the dark ages, the Middle East was doing pretty well. Algebra, anyone? So not sure what so-called 'backwardness' of Africa would have to do with the Middle East.
@Kanna
True, to a certain point. The discuss of poverty almost always goes hand in hand with race, and race still dominates politics. Though the ANC has pretty much turned their backs on the growing black middle class, dismissing them as 'clever blacks' and likening them to slaves of a white minority who still rules the economy. However, I think the rhetoric is no longer working as it used to, given the recent election results. Their loss. Democracy's gain. We were truly stuck in a rut with one party continuously ruling. Their arrogance cannot be denied. Even after the elections, they're continuing with their antics. 2019 General Election cannot come soon enough.
And yes, I don't think I know any Trump supporter personally. He's reviled here.
Access to metals, access to tamable animals, access to building materials.
These are the things that give a civilization a boost and help them build. Europeans were *lucky*, that's it. It has nothing to do with the individual abilities of one skin color or another. It's about resources.
Tamable animals is one of the most important. Africa does not have a lot of animals that lend themselves to being tamed easily. Most of those were found here and there but it was the middle east and European populations that hit the jackpot with food and labor animals.
Wood to build with, minerals to mine, the ability to build trade routes without a giant fucking forest in the way before the invention of the sail. Sub-Saharan Africans weren't lesser civilized because they're black, but because Sub-Sahara Africa is piss poor in easily obtained resources.
It's the same reason Native Americans were so far behind. Copper is the only easily obtained metal, there are no easily tamed animals native to the Americas and there was no hope for trade without the ability to get up to the sail.
If Europe (in particular) and Asia weren't so abundant in these things, we'd all still be living in what amount to third world conditions, never knowing the difference.
The only places that have ever spawned any kind of civilization are along the mediteranean and the nile.
Ethiopia, Dahomey, Ghana, Songhai. All sub-Saharan, all civilised empires.
What StoneSpiral said, pretty much.
Mineral resources - especially metals and coal, tamable species, building materials and easily navigable trade routes. That's the make or break for any civilization. Specifically trade routes - Europe and China had its rivers. Sub-Saharan Africa got shafted from this perspective - not much to tame and not much in terms of navigable rivers.
@Unbeliever
Honestly, the fact Sub-Saharan Africans were able to create functional empires at all - much as racists may deny such empires existed - is proof of human ingenuity. So little to work with, and they still soldiered on to create civilisations and ancient wonders!
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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