Walter Rodney, born in Guyana on this day in 1942, Pan-African, Marxist intellectual who was assassinated by the Guyanese government in 1980 at 38 years old.
Rodney attended the University College of the West Indies in 1960 and was awarded a first class honors degree in History in 1963. He later earned a PhD in African History in 1966 at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, England, at the age of 24.
Rodney traveled extensively and became well-known as an activist, scholar, and formidable orator. He taught at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania from 1966-67 and 1969-1974, and in 1968 at his alma mater University of the West Indies.
On October 15th, 1968, the government of Jamaica declared Rodney a "persona non grata" and banned him from the country. Following his dismissal by the University of the West Indies, students and poor people in West Kingston protested, leading to the "Rodney Riots", which caused six deaths and millions of dollars in damages.
In 1972, Rodney published "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa". Historian Melissa Turner describes the work this way: "A brutal critique of long-standing and persistent exploitation of Africa by Western powers, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa remains a powerful, popular, and controversial work in which Rodney argued that the early period of African contact with Europe, including the slave trade, sowed the seeds for continued African economic underdevelopment and had dramatically negative social and political consequences as well. He argued that, while the roots of Africa’s ailments rested with intentional underdevelopment and exploitation under European capitalist and colonial systems, the only way for true liberation to take place was for Africans to become cognizant of their own complicity in this exploitation and to take back the power they gave up to the exploiters."
On June 13th, 1980, Rodney was killed in Georgetown, Guyana via a bomb given to him by Gregory Smith, a sergeant in the Guyana Defence Force, one month after returning Zimbabwe. In 2015, a "Commission of Inquiry" in Guyana that the country's then president, Linden Forbes Burnham, was complicit in his murder.
"If there is to be any proving of our humanity it must be through revolutionary means."
- Walter Rodney
I hope you nerds have a great March. 
Remember no crackers
view the rest of the comments
Ethnic Minorities and People of Color
Official Title of this Community: Ethnic Minorities and People of Color
Why is the title different?
We like to have fun here.
What is this place? A safe space for underrepresented peoples and peoples of color to talk, chill, and vibe.
What are the basic rules of the community?
-
Follow Lemmy TOS and Community Guidelines. Non negotiable. This is the bedrock and mods will make decisions with this always in mind.
-
This community is for ethnic minorities and people of color. This is a safe space where such people can freely discuss their struggles, insight, and thoughts without fear. If you are not, we respectfully ask you do not post or comment here. A future community will be established to allow for racial discussions with a mixed userbase. However, remember, comments here must still respect Lemmy TOS and Community Guidelines.
-
Irony Racism is still racism. Racism is bad m'kay? We will treat irony racism and bad faith racist satire as racism. Will wield the ban hammer accordingly.
-
No sectarianism: This is an identity channel not a channel for you all to complain about why XYZ isn't the "one true leftism". Take that to another place.
-
Stupidpol is not allowed. Stupidpol is class reductionist. We are an identity community. Thinking like stupidpol ignores the struggles of the oppressed, their voices, and their need for unique support. Nothing says oppression more than someone saying that the identity you have is "not real" and that if you only thought like them you'd see what your "real" identity is. Mods reserve the right to ban users and content who promote stupidpol, stupidpol memes, and other class reductionist thinking.
FAQ
I don't look XYZ and/or sometimes I can pass as white so I don't know if I can post here. Can I?
-
This place is for ethnic minorities and people of color. This includes those of mixed heritage and those who may be "white" but are of an ethnicity that is a minority in their area (i.e. Kurds, etc) If you've experienced oppression due to your identity that is not based on sexual / gender identification, you are welcome here.
-
Moreover, for our American audience, we have people from around the world who are "white" but are oppressed due to being a minority in their country. They are and should be welcomed here.
What can I post?
- Anything you think is relevant to the mission of this community. Things will evolve over time.
- Topics and things relevant to EM and POC.
Suggested Posts
- [People of Spice]: Food recipes so others can taste your culture
- [Theory]: Vid/podcasts/websites discussing issues relevant to identity, anti-imperialism, etc
- [News]: Vids/podcasts/websites that talk about current events relevant to EM and POC
It pains me to acknowledge that a Western white leftist cannot truly have a decolonial mentality, and of course, this is why I'm having a difficult time taking their "leftism" seriously.
Preaching to the choir, sure, but damn...
They always have to shoehorn in some mealy-mouthed statement about zionism being bad for Jews too as if it has to be bad for Jews in order to be bad. They may not say it quite explicitly but that is what they're thinking. Is the KKK "bad for whites too" because it makes them look bad? Do we have to bring that up every time we talk about the KKK? Imagine Germans in 1945 going "we're also the victims here because we can't celebrate our culture anymore :(" like sit down and shut up. Palestinians don't even get to be the focus of their own genocide. But I guess white "leftists" have decided the best option is to adopt the Ziohran Copdani strategy and grovel for approval from people who despise you.
And of course you see Holocaust exceptionalism play out with the eurolib BS over the transatlantic slave trade. Not only are whites the most important genocide victims, they are the only genocide victims, even when they're the ones doing the genociding (and when haven't they been)?
White "leftists" (including some on this site) love to insinuate or just outright accuse POC of being nazis as if it's our fault that 99% of the european population is the second coming of Hitler. How many struggle sessions on this site haven't been primarily driven by cracker butthurt and backlash? We've seen how long it takes to get the mod making death threats and calling POC users nazis to get banned. Really shows you what matters and what doesn't.
"I hate the Westboro Baptist Church because it makes straights look bad!"
“Please be on guard for hateful anti-straight rhetoric when criticizing the Westboro Baptist Church. Keep in mind that straights are victimized too, just like whites are the real victims of white supremacy. The Westboro Baptist Church spreads anti-straight rhetoric to drive straights to their ideology. Your hateful rhetoric is basically forcing them to become bigots, just like the anti-German racism of the USSR forced Germans to become nazis.”
White “leftists” love to run interference for zionists by excusing their depraved ideology as a reaction to antisemitism. Extremely concerning how normalized the thought process of “a white nazi called me a slur” —> “I want to bomb every Palestinian hospital now” has become.
You can see that this cartoon version of how fascists become fascists doesn’t actually happen because POC don’t become genocidal fascists en masse due to experiences of racism, and centuries of genocide (but I guess those don’t count because the victims weren’t white enough to qualify as the only victims that matter).
White “leftists” will excuse liberal zionists (white-white solidarity) but will draw the line at a genocide victim for not dancing around the facts of the ethnostate doing the genocide.