How can it be that the killing of white aid workers is now seen as a “turning point”? That newspapers are NOW saying “Enough” ? Like, it was all ok up to now - killing 40,000 people, systematic starvation, destroying virtually the whole of Gaza - but now it’s “Enough”? All of this so problematic.
But yes, of course I too hope that this is a turning point; that Western support for Israel’s war is waning. #Gaza
@pettter yes. Of course it is racism and white supremacy. I should have just said it, like you did. Now wondering why i often stop short of saying that. Like - i’ve been doing a little thread on #Eurocentrism here and actually what i want to say is: eurocentrism is racism and white supremacy and nothing else! But i never use those words. I have to just start doing it.
What is #Eurocentrism? A few ways to think about it - not based on specific reading, just my thoughts. Feel free to add!
#Eurocentrism is talking about “European values” as self-evidently good, without stopping to think where that idea comes from & what it says about you and your knowledge of attitude to the rest of the world
#Eurocentrism is being a white European living in Europe, never thinking about colonialism and how your comfort & wealth, your morning coffee, derives from it
1/n
#Eurocentrism is being completely comfortable with only reading European/US authors, only listening to European/US music, not realising that there is so much you are missing out on (“world” music doesn’t count - what an awful Eurocentric concept in itself).
-#Eurocentrism is not having any real interest in or knowledge about the rest of the world and thinking that is ok.
(And yes i am writing certain family members. That’s what this is about).
-#Eurocentrism - understood as the mainstream views of the so-called Western world – means unwittingly committing to never tasting the best food Earth can offer, nor listening to the best music, nor witnessing the most breathtaking landscapes. And to consider it all as expendable in the name of not having be moderately inconvenienced.
#Eurocentrism is: truly believing that the EU is a genuinely benign project that is about peace, harmony and cooperation, a beacon of goodness in the world; and not knowing or wilfully ignoring that it is also, or even primarily, a project by and for capital interests, and that in general it protects European interests over others (and that its borders, eg #Ceuta, are violent, killing people). And yes, still talking about certain family members
#Eurocentrism is living in a “Gilded bubble”, as Naomi Klein puts it here in this briliiant recording, and simultaneously not fully realising that it is a gilded bubble but also doing everything to protect it. Not letting a genocide elsewhere that is actively sponsored by your own government, in which every day more people, more children die, prick your conscience, your sense of moral superiority.
#Eurocentrism is not benign or innocent. I mean, you might think it’s just people who don’t know any better, whose horizons are a bit limited. But let’s at least recognise that this ignorance is deliberately fostered by our education systems and collective moral narratives; and that many of us are complicit in constructing and maintaining these narratives and wilful collective ignorance, ignoring of the suffering of others.
When discussing #earlymodern European diplomacy, it is important to widen the perspective and look beyond Europe. This helps to understand #emdiplomacy in its diversity and counteract the classical #eurocentrism. For the @emdiplomacy#handbook Birgit Tremml-Werner has taken up the global perspective.
“The moral bankruptcy of Habermas’s statement on Palestine marks a turning point in the colonial relationship between European philosophy and the rest of the world. The world has been awoken from the false slumber of European ethno-philosophy.”
Excellent piece by Hamid Dabashi #Eurocentrism is awful and so over.
Does anyone have any advice here on how to make your Mastodon less eurocentric? I do regular searches, follow people from outside Europe/US whenever I come across them, etc, but it’s quite slow, hard work. I was wondering whether there is a more strategic way - ie is there a list of instances that are not Europe/US based, and from which I could follow one person each or something? Not interested in changing my own instance, just to get more global connections. #Eurocentrism
Thank you! I didn’t actually so much mean that i had personal technical problems with mastodon (though no doubt i do) , it was more just general reflections on how its federated, decentralised nature (all good!) mean it is is more difficult to really connect different groups and contributes to #Eurocentrism here, and how it could be overcome.