The New Face of Colonialism

'Take up the White Man's burden--

The savage wars of peace--

Fill full the mouth of Famine

And bid the sickness cease;

And when your goal is nearest

The end for others sought,

Watch sloth and heathen Folly

Bring all your hopes to nought.'

--Rudyard Kipling, 1899

The colonial era, we are told, is over. The imperialists have retreated to their shores and the third world now happily governs itself.

For much of the planet, this is true. India and China, two great colonial occupations of the 19th century, have wrested control of their economy and food security. It is largely sub-Saharan Africa, home to 1/6 of humanity, which remains the red-headed stepchild of international relations.

These rich lands were coveted by right-wing industrialists, and their people's uplift coveted by left-wing do-gooders. The footprint left by the former? Ports, canals, roads, railways, and a functioning government (their own). By the latter? Churches, missions, schools, hospitals.

What both camps agreed upon, though, was that the colonized were not able to provide these things for themselves.

Upon which they still agree today.

While many believe we live in a 'post-colonial' world, we here at Those Who Can See argue that we do not.  'We're all equal,' sing both the right and the left. But their actions do not match their words.  We believe the colonial project is, on the contrary, roaring along as full-steam as it ever did. What is the evidence?

Back to Work

 Image source

This is just to thank our faithful readers for their infinite patience; we shall shortly be back to sharing HBD data with any who may find it of interest.  Stay tuned.

Research Period

Those Who Can See will regretfully be closing up shop for a period of research.  We hope to be back online as soon as possible.  Happy New Year to those who can see, to those who cannot, and to those whose eyes are just beginning to open.

Whence Housing Segregation?

 

White Detroiters protest new federal housing project, 1942 

There is a widespread feeling that the segregationists of yesteryear (in both North and South) were profoundly different than us: immoral, misguided, perhaps even brainwashed.  We are unable to imagine what could have possibly pushed them to embrace these discriminatory policies.  But it need it not be so: They wrote their reasons down in books.  Let us then look more closely, and see

1) if their beliefs were based on fact or fantasy, and

2) if they are truly as alien to us today as we have been led to believe.


The first place we'll look at is the one closest to us--our neighborhoods.

Florida family leaving for New Jersey

After Emancipation and especially in the lead-up to WWI, Afro migration to cities (both North and South) exploded.  Those Whites who had fought hard to end slavery sang a different tune when the objects of their affection moved in next door.  A 1919 Chicago study found that:

No single factor has complicated the relations of Negroes and whites in Chicago more than the widespread feeling of white people that the presence of Negroes in a neighborhood is a cause of serious depreciation of property. When a Negro family moves into a block in which all other families are white, the neighbors object. This objection may express itself in studied aloofness, in taunts, warnings, slurs, threats, or even the bombing of their homes.' White neighbors who can do so are likely to move away at the first opportunity.

[...] A leading real estate dealer said that "when a Negro moves into a block the value of the properties on both sides of the street is depreciated all the way from $100,000 to $500,000 [$1,300,000 to $6,500,000 today], depending upon the value of the property in the block"; that it was a fact and that there was no escaping it.   (1)

Chicago South Side deli, 1941

Highly desirable neighbors should send property values up; undesirable ones bring them down.  Whence this negative reaction to Afros as neighbors?  An irrational fear of dark skin?  Or something else?



I. Neighborhood upkeep

Afros and Transport, Today and Yesterday

The host at Chateau Heartiste kindly shares with us the above schoolwork on White Oppression from our neighbors to the north.

One is led to believe, from this anecdote, that Canada's public transport system is in the throes of a white-on-black harassment wave.  Were this true, we would do well to educate ourselves about it.

But is it true?  While data on Canada is sparse, for the U.S., where the vast majority of North America's Euros and Afros live, it is plentiful.  What can it tell us of these two groups' relations while riding mass transit, today and yesterday?

New York City subway

I. Afros and Transport, Today


1) CITY BUSES

Old San Francisco Muni bus

How are white-black relations our nation's city buses?

Back online soon

Please forgive our inability to post; seasonal health annoyances have severely limited our time and energy.  We shall be back to normal posting the first week of November. Until then, Happy Halloween et Bonne fête de la Toussaint!

Please stand by...

The double whammy of human and canine illness has laid us low at Chez M.G. Please excuse our late posting; we shall be back on line as soon as possible.  Thank you for your patience.

Meritocracy and Its Discontents

Jewish pogrom in Prague, 1744 

We've considered the dangers inherent in a multi-ethnic society.  One of them is a policy that deserves special attention, because it (1) is getting ever more popular, (2) can lead to disastrous outcomes, and (3) has actual merit from a race-realist perspective.  That policy is affirmative action.

We've looked before at its history.  Though unpopular amongst conservatives, there are two plausible arguments that could be made in its favor:

I. Natives should restrict foreign immigrant groups' ability to dominate certain institutions.

II. It is a social good to 'insert' members of lower-perfoming groups into roles where they can feel productive.


Our first argument is one for which there is much evidence, both for and against.