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el-oh-her · 3 years

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You CAN be oppressed for being Christian. You CANT be opressed for being white: an opinion from a religion student

Okay so obviously the first thing you’re gonna want to say is how I’m wrong and just whining. That’s just an indication you don’t actually care what I have to say.

SO, let’s talk about this distinction.

Christians

You CAN be oppresed as a christianity. It has happened. A bunch of times throughout history! When Christianity emerged it was an oppressed group in Rome. In Japan christians were being tortured and executed for their faith in paranoia of losing parts of their culture (fearing culteral erasure is a valid fear, murdering people is still wrong). People moved to mainland america BECAUSE they were christians fleeing religious opression.

The fish symbol

This, was a symbol for christians to identify each other in secret.

Even in America it has happened. When the Irish were fleeing the famine, a lot migrated to the United States and one of the many reasons they were not liked was because the majority of them were Catholics. Catholics historically have had a terrible time in the united states, and are often blamed for a LOT of shit. JFK and Amy Coney Barret (look I don’t like the lady but it did happen with her) both faced an unusual line of questioning regarding their catholic faith that was not obersved with protestants who were applying for the same position. There’s a reason why Catholics will distinguish themselves from christians, because again it’s an idenity that unites them. So, even within the christian faith, there is a denomination that isn’t exactly loved.

Now, it’s worth to note this hate of Catholics comes from centuries of catholic opression in europe. So, is the anger unfounded? No. Does that mean everyone should be nice to catholics? NO. It’s the catholic’s job to be better than their ancestors, and if they’re not doing that, then they’re just as much as apart of the problem.

This same thing applies to modern christains in America. The hate and distrust towards them is due to 200 years of being oppressive. So, is the anger unfounded? No. Does that mean you should just be nice to christians? NO. If they are being assholes, they are just as bad as their ancestors.

There are christians who are not like the shit you see on TV, I promise. But don’t be nice to ANYONE who’s an asshole because they belong to one group or another. That’s just life. There is no community that will ever absolve you from being an asshole. But also, don’t be mean to a christian just because that’s what they are. Don’t be mean to anyone because they’re apart of one group or another. That’s just not nice. And no one is going to be able to get along if you’re just mean, even if it is a group that has been on top historically. A kind person is a kind person at the end of the day, and a mean one is a mean one.

And just to note: if someone is debating whether or not human rights belong to one group or another, that is not a nice person. I know plenty of christians (for example) who are very pro choice, pro gay, pro women, pro science etc. You don’t have to like someone if they really believe that your human rights aren’t necessary.

Are christians being oppressed in America right now? No. No they are not. The WORST thing happening is that genuine practioners are going to have to navigate the social sphere with the lasting effect christian conservative radicles. That is a challenge that christians will just have to deal with, and is a result of letting shit like this get out of hand.

So to conclude: Christians can and have historically been opressed, but they aren’t currently being opressed in America.

White

Now, I am sure that after offending the liberal side, now the conservative side is angry because I said you can’t be oppressed for being white.

Here is the important distinction: You can be a white person who has faced opression, but that opression will never be because you are white.

The concept of whiteness is not an old concept. It’s emergence was to “other” certain minority groups. It only exists to create a distinction between groups, most noteably the difference between white and POC.

Because when you think about it, what even is white? “White” is basically an umbrella term for “Pale skinned, usually european, usually protestant, usually straight, usually wealthy” or “Pale skinned americans who are usually european, usually protestant, usually straight, usually wealthy.” There is a white culture, but not in the way we usually talk about culture. It’s exclusionary at its base, and anyone who fits the bar gains all the benefits of being white.

Like I hate to be that gal, but if I were asked to describe a white person I would say “A white, straight, protestant, billionare man from the south.” And that doesn’t exist for no reason. Historically, (besides the south part) the white straight protestant wealthy man was a pinacale american, and it’s only through the fight for human rights that the tearm has broadened enough to where being white is mostly just being pale. Like, make no mistake, today the only checkbox you have to tick is looking white, and you’re going to be able to go far.

White supremecy is often tied to american patriotism. So let’s look at the things that people have said that makes others unamerican, or what is considered the socially undesireable in America in the eyes of white supremecists

Being Gay

Being transgender

Not adhereing to gender binaries

Being Mulsim

Being Jewish

Being homeless

Being poor

(in history) being a woman

Feminine men

Men wearing skirts and dresses

Being black

Being mexican

Fighting for Social Justice

Speaking languages that are not English (ASL excluded, since I’ve never seen it, but feel free to comment)

So, if these are the things that the white supremecists point as unamerican or undeseraible, it’s an indication that these are qualities that are considered “not white” That is the closest thing we can get to white culture--a culture based on exclusion.

In modern day, being white can get you far. It’s important to know that historically, being white alone wasn’t enough. we know this from the Irish who were catholic, and poor and fleeing a famine. White was this VIP club that was nearly impossible to get into.

So, if being White is this exclusionary club that only emerged to other minority groups, then you can’t opresss it. “White” is synonomous with “Oppressor” because of this historical context. What this means is that IF people were being prejuduced for being nothing but white, they wouldn’t be white anymore in this sense. The quality of being white would no longer be something that lets you into the this exclusive club.

And also, white people will NEVER be oppressed because that’s not really how society WORKS anymore. In a dystopic novel MAYBE, but in reality, all the oppressed groups aren’t like “kill all white people” but are rather like “hey, how about white people and anyone that’s not a white people be treated exactly the same socially and systemically.” Do you know how much WORK it would take to systematically oppress white people? Do you really think, that the people who want diveristy want to kick white people out of the circle? No! No! That’s NOT how it works! Diveristy is for everyone, even white people because guess what: there is more to you than being just WHITE!

You have an ethnicity that’s not white. You’re irish, or german, or french or African or something!!!. Just fucking pick one and be proud of being THAT and not an idenity that literally exists to oppress. Being proud of being AMERICAN isn’t a fucking bad thing, being proud ot be WHITE is.

Even if you are rich, male, straight, cisgender, and protestant, those are all still groups you belong to that can harmoniously co-exist with other groups.

BLACK people have a black culture because, ding dong, white people took them and enslaved them. They don’t have the privlage of knowing their ethnic origin, and were FORCED to make a whole ass new one. THAT’S why there’s a black culture. It’s a direct result of white oppression, so quit bitching about it.

PEOPLE OF COLOR have united to create a culture becuse of 2 CENTURIES of being othered by WHITE PEOPLE. THAT’S why they have a culture. Pan Indianism is a result of dumbass white people grouping them all together and stupidly thinking they’re all the same. They united in solidarity because it was the only way to keep a fragment of their idenity. The White Idenity has always tried to destory anything that doesn’t fit Whiteness.

Why, fucking WHY would you want to be proud of that?

You can be white and face oppression for being gay, trans, a woman, poor, akward or anything at all. YOUR SKIN COLOR WILL NEVER EVER BE THE REASON WHY YOU’RE BEING TREATED UNFAIRLY. YOUR SKIN COLOR WILL NEVER MAKE LIFE MORE DIFFICULT FOR YOU. YOUR SKIN IS A PRIVLAGE. I don’t care how much you don’t want to believe it: it will never be becuase you’re white. It will be because of something else.

In Summery: The concept of white is inherently tied to the concept of oppresssion, since they’ve historically tried (sometimes succesfully) to obliterate other cultures that don’t fit the white aesthetic. You cannot oppress something that’s was literally created to oppress, and is not an idenity worth being proud of.

The conclusion

As much as it feels like Christians can’t be oppressed, the fact of the matter is that the religion was not designed or intended to oppress others, and have been historically oppressed. That’s what makes being christian different from being white, because the concept of whiteness emerged as a method of oppression.

This doesn’t mean you should just be nice to christians because they’re christians. An asshole is an asshole, no matter what idenities they wear. Also, christians aren’t currently being oppressed. The “plights” that the radicales think they’re facing are more so just like, the USA being secular and not appealing to them.

I feel like they often get mixed together because of how tied up protestantism is with white supremecy. Which is fair, as being protestant is a part of this exclusionary white culture.

Disclaimer: As I have said many many times, this is not a post that is like “Stop being mean to christians!!!!” An asshole is an asshole. Don’t be nice to people who don’t believe in your human rights. Don’t be nice to people just because they belong to this group or that group. This post, also several times, has stated that in the current climate, christians are not being oppressed, not in the slightest. So when you read about some christian talking about their oppression, it’s most likely the American Government being secular, and refusing to bend for the christian agenda.

This post’s goal was to show you the distinction between christianity and whiteness, and most importantly show the real enemy: white supremicists.

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thechasefiles · 4 years

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The Chase Files 17/11/2019

Good Morning #realdreamchasers. Here is your daily news cap for Sunday, November 17th, 2019. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS), Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing a Sunday Sun Nation Newspaper (SS).

POWER SURGES AFFECT SEVERAL BWA STATIONS – The Barbados Water Authority (BWA) wishes to inform the public that it suffered power surges at several of its facilities Saturday night, which caused the equipment at the facilities to shut off. While crews this morning began the process of restarting those facilities, a few still remain to be put back online. The stoppages resulted in loss of water supply to some customers in various districts overnight. However, pumping should resume once power is fully restored. Meanwhile, work continues Sunday at the Newmarket Pumping Station to complete the repair of a pump damaged on Thursday as a result of the Barbados Light & Power Company’s electrical outages.This facility along with the Fort George Reservoir sends water to customers in parts of St George, St Michael and Christ Church. As the work progresses, the water supply is slowly being restored to some areas, while others may continue to experience low levels or outages until the repair work is complete. The Authority will continue to service customers in the affected districts via water tanker in the interim. The BWA apologizes for the inconvenience these outages have caused. (BT)

TEMPORARY CLOSURE OF QEH MAIN ENTRANCE – The main entrance of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital is closed to both vehicular and pedestrian traffic from today through tomorrow. This temporary closure is to facilitate the repaving of the roadway under the canopy of the hospital’s main entrance to mitigate against the pooling of water, and reduce the potential slip hazard to those traversing this area. Pedestrians accessing the hospital are asked to do so through the glass doors on the ground floor of the Lion's Caribbean Eye Care Centre. The drop off and pick up of non-ambulatory patients will be facilitated through the access arm of the private staff car park and entry point to the left of the hospital’s Martindale’s Road entrance. (SS)

FORMER LOUIS LYNCH PREMISES CLEANED – A clean-up operation has been undertaken at the former Louis Lynch Secondary School, Whitepark Road, St Michael. It came eight months after this newspaper published photographs showing the building overrun with bush and debris and in a rundown state. An official in the Ministry of Housing and Lands told the Sunday Sun that the clean-up was the result of Government’s commitment to bring back into use several of its unoccupied buildings. “Government has received a number of offers for buildings which are no longer in use and it is important that we still upkeep and maintain these buildings,” the source said. (SS)

BOGUS SALESMAN WARNING –A group of “foreigners” has been driving around Barbados trying to peddle garden equipment under the guise that they were acting on behalf of Carter & Co. Ltd. But management at the general stores is warning that these are fraudulent sales people and none of the equipment represents any of the brands sold by the company. Brian Hurley, a director at Carter’s, told the Sunday Sun these people were “foreigners” declaring that they are selling garden equipment which is under warranty by Carter’s. He said that the company did not conduct business that way. (SS)

FAMILY STILL AT A LOSS OVER DEADLY SHOOTING – It has been three years since handyman Edward “Eddie” Watson died at the hands of a gunman in Inch Marlow, Christ Church. And his family members are still at a loss as to who pulled the trigger and why anyone would have wanted “the loving man” dead. Watson, 48, a Dominican who came to Barbados 13 years prior to his death, was painting the residence of former Barbados and England cricketer Roland Butcher when he was gunned down. It was around 1:30 in the afternoon of October 2016 when residents heard several loud explosions before they discovered Watson, a father of three, lying motionless in the patio. (SS)

INNISS TOPS CLASS –The wait is over for Asa Inniss. Seventeen-year-old Inniss was the class of a seven-man field and walked away champion of the National Sports Council’s Mr Schoolboy Bodybuilding Competition at Combermere School on Friday night. The auto mechanics student at the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology also won the Best Poser and Most Muscular awards before an audience that included 2019 Mr Bridgetown winner Shaquille Lavine, multiple Darcy Beckles Classic winner Hoskins “Biscuit” Worrell, top bodybuilder Joe Bourne, professional bodybuilder Lindon Belgrave and former national cyclist Deidre Mayers. The improved Inniss, who competed in the Upper Junior Boys Bodybuilding segment last year, and showed undefined legs, was close to the entire package. (SS)

JAMAICA ISSUES ALMOST 100 MINERAL LICENCES – The Jamaica government says it is has granted nearly 90 exploratory licences for semi-precious minerals such as cobalt, copper, gold, silver and zinc, since March last year.

“Right now, almost every square inch of Jamaica is under a prospecting licence for some kind of mineral. The beauty of it, is that most of the companies that are prospecting… are Jamaican-owned. So if [for example] gold is found… in commercial quantities, the profits will stay here,” said Transport and Mining Minister, Robert Montague. He assured, however, that the government is encouraging and facilitating the exploitation of minerals “in a very sustainable and structured way” and that in a bid to encourage the mining of semiprecious minerals, the Ministry’s Mines and Geology Division hosted a series of workshops and training seminars for industry stakeholders. He told a Corporate Governance Seminar that these formed part of the three-year Euro 13.1-million African, Caribbean and Pacific-European Union (ACP-EU) Development Minerals Programme. This capacity-building initiative, conceptualised by the ACP Group of States, aims to enhance the profile and improve the management of development minerals. These include industrial minerals, construction materials, and dimension and semiprecious stones. The engagement is being implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which jointly finances it with the EU. According to a UNDP publication, development minerals provide crucial inputs for domestic economic development, such as infrastructure, manufacturing, construction and agriculture. Additionally, they have the potential to be high value, in terms of national development. Montague noted that the programme has benefited local jewellery makers who are now utilising semiprecious stones, “which is a huge market”. (SS)

DORIAN CAUSED BILLIONS IN DAMAGE, SAYS IDB – The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) says a new report estimates the total cost of the impacts and effects of Hurricane Dorian on The Bahamas in September at US$3.4 billion, with hundreds dead or missing and impacts on the economy that will last for years. It said the estimate comes out to over a quarter of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), or the equivalent of the United States losing the combined economic outputs of California, Texas and Florida. “The magnitude of the losses requires a new development approach to achieve climate and disaster resilience in areas that range from location of settlements to redesigning infrastructure and strengthening environmental protection,” according to the report, titled “Assessment of the Effects and Impacts of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas”. Hurricane Dorian lashed the archipelago on September 1 as a category five storm and while the official death toll has been put at 67 with 282 people missing, there’s a suggestion that the amount of people killed is in excess of 100. In addition, an additional 29,472 persons were affected by the hurricane by damages to their homes and assets. Hurricane Dorian struck Grand Bahama and Abaco with punishing winds and storm surges, with the island of New Providence also suffering some impacts. Inadequate construction and infrastructure located in vulnerable areas exacerbated the storm’s impacts. “It is important that those directly affected by the disaster feel the presence and solidarity of the government throughout the difficult process ahead,” said IDP representative, Daniela Carrera-Marquis,” adding “reconstruction efforts will last many years and will require a well-coordinated participation of public and private sectors, civil society and the international community.” The Bahamas government has asked the IDB to assess the impacts of Hurricane Dorian and as part of a long-standing partnership, the IDB teamed up with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) for technical assistance with the valuation. The taskforce was complemented by the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO). (SS)

INDEPENDENCE SERVICE ON NOVEMBER 24 – The National Service of Thanksgiving to mark Barbados’ 53rd anniversary of Independence takes place at the Garfield Sobers Gymnasium on November 24 at 3:30 p.m. Members of the public are invited to join Governor General Dame Sandra Mason, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, members of Cabinet, Members of Parliament and other dignitaries in celebrating the occasion under the theme One Nation, One Love, One Light. The preacher will be Bishop Dr Gerry Seale of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the West Indies while the officiant will be The Rev. Beverley Sealy-Knight of the Barbados Christian Council, but the service will embrace the range of religious faiths represented in the island including the Christian, Muslim and Jewish Communities. The newly-formed Barbados Youth Advance Corps will present the national flag and will also lead the intercessory prayers for young people. Rev. Dr Michael Clarke of the Anglican Church will lead the Liturgy of Light during which the youth and centenarians will play important roles, lighting the official national candle and reciting the national pledge. There will be musical performances by the Band of the Royal Barbados Police Force, the National Independence Service Mass Choir, the Moramus Singers, the choir of St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cathedral and the Royal Diadems. Persons attending the service are asked to be seated by 2:45 p.m. (BGIS)

There are 45 days left in the year Shalom! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram for your daily news. #thechasefiles #dailynewscaps #bajannewscaps #newsinanutshell

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