Another basic tenet of CRT exposed as false: examples of non-white imperialist, supremacist and genocidal aggression
As much as today’s college-educated liberal elites and Black nationalists like to pin the charge of “supremacist” thinking upon only whites, recent past history and events provide ample examples of such discriminatory behavior perpetrated by people of color. Rather than admit that all cultures are basically guilty of such behavior, today’s Marxist-influenced intellectuals who dominate academia have simply replaced the once-reviled bourgeoisie with Caucasians. Their aim remains the same—the overthrow of today’s ‘existing social order’ in the West and the establishment of a supposedly utopian, classless society that rests upon authoritarian practices. For those who admire the principles of an egalitarian society where opportunity is equally available to all, today’s new Marxists like Ibram Kendi now openly call for a return to the past where every decision is based upon race. In their world, the color-blindness of Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan and Dr. Martin Luther King has no place.
For centuries, cultures on every continent rose to positions of dominance by practicing the subjugation, enslavement, and sometimes even genocide against others who were different from themselves. Thus ancient Greeks considered all others ‘barbarians,’ non-Latin peoples all sought the advantages of Roman citizenship, and African and Native America tribes indulged in wars of conquest and demanded tribute from ‘inferior’ groups. Although African and Native America tribes are almost always portrayed as victims, the historical record includes the Iroquois obliterating the Eriez, the Sioux being driven onto the Great Plains by other Indian groups, Mayans and Aztecs requiring the human sacrifice of their captives, the African Nubian people conquering Egypt, and Mongol and Chinese armies establishing some of the world’s largest empires over other ethnic groups. Nor have such practices by non-whites been confined to the long-forgotten past. The modern era is replete with anti-CRT examples that have witnessed the following “supremacist” events by people of color:
The Mfecane, or ‘the crushing,’ was caused by the violent expansionistic wars of the Zulu empire in South Africa between 1820 and 1840. It caused an estimated 2 million deaths and displaced less powerful African tribes throughout the southern half of the continent.
The Fulani War (1804-1808) which pitted the Fulani people against the Hausa and created the Sokoto Empire in West Central Africa—an Islamic state that became one of the largest states in Africa in the 19th century.
During the course of World War I and in the years immediately following that conflict, the Turkish nation engaged in the systematic genocide of their non-Islamic Christian Greek and Armenian neighbors who were viewed as less than-equal members of that society. Millions were brutalized, raped, starved and tortured in one of the most massive ethnic and religious cleansings of the last couple hundred years.
In 1947 when India and Pakistan both declared their independence from Britain, the ‘religiously’ and ethnically supremacist beliefs of both groups prevented their being able to co-exist with one another. Over hundreds of years, scores of millions of Hindus had been subjugated and oppressed by Muslim overlords who viewed them as less than equal infidels. The separation between the two groups after World War II displaced tens of millions of persons and the deaths of an estimated one to two million lives. Forgotten today in the charge that only whites and Westerners can harbor ‘supremacist’ tendencies is the fact that only through the efforts of whites had these two groups been prevented from committing acts of genocide against one another for two hundred years. Today, when white Christians are no longer around, murderous acts between the two groups continue to threaten the lives of millions.
In 1972 the Burundi Genocide -- where the Tutsi dominated military and government slew an estimated 150,000 Hutu in order to subjugate them—took place in central Africa.
In 1967, the Igbos people of Biafra declared independence from the Hausa-Fulani dominated Nigeria resulting in the deaths of between one and two million innocents from genocide and starvation. The International Red Cross estimated 8,000 to 10,000 innocents starved to death each day during the blockade of basic food and medical supplies to the province by Nigeria. The leader of a Nigerian peace conference delegation said in 1968 that "starvation is a legitimate weapon of war and we have every intention of using it . . ." [1]
Legal scholar Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe and other academics argued that the Biafran War was a true genocide, for which no perpetrators have been held accountable. Biafra made a formal complaint of genocide to the International Committee on the Investigation of Crimes of Genocide, which concluded that the actions undertaken by the Nigerian government against the Igbo amounted to a genocide. With special reference to the Asaba Massacre, jurist Emma Okocha described the killings as "the first black-on-black genocide." [2]
From 1980 to 2003 Africa’s oldest republic saw devastation and numerous war crimes. It began in 1980 when Sergeant Samuel Doe ended 133 years of continuous rule by the descendants of American slaves repatriated back to Liberia, Africa. The descendants of American slaves had dominated the affairs of the nation since its inception and native Africans like Doe resented their supremacist policies. He tortured and murdered the previous president, William R. Tolbert, Jr. Ten days after Tolbert’s murder, Doe had 13 other Tolbert supporters stripped naked to their underwear and brutally murdered on a beach outside Monrovia. In 1990 he himself was captured by rebels, stripped to his underwear, interrogated on film, and had an ear sliced off before being murdered. His tormentor, Prince Johnson, calmly presided over the execution while drinking a can of beer and having the entire episode filmed. Wikipedia states that Samuel Doe’s Krahn tribe persecuted the Gio and Mano tribes because “they were seen as inferior by the President’s own tribe, the Krahn.” (Found "here"; italics added)
Charles Taylor, once a supporter of Doe, began an opposition group composed mostly of Gio and Mano tribesmen in nearby Cote d'Ivoire. When these forces invaded Liberia, Doe’s supporters retaliated in brutal fashion. “Thousands of civilians were massacred on both sides. Hundreds of thousands fled their homes.” A second rebel army under Prince Johnson broke off from Taylor’s force and both rebel groups sought control of the nation by attempting to seize its capital, Monrovia. In the worst massacre of the war, 30 Krahn soldiers murdered over 600 unarmed civilians who had sought sanctuary in St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Monrovia in July 1990. Fighting was so bad in 1994 that over 1.8 million civilians needed humanitarian assistance from the West. By 1996 most of Monrovia was destroyed. In 1997 under supervised elections, Charles Taylor took office as president and much of the fighting subsided. The war, which involved child soldiers on both sides, cost over 200,000 lives and forced over one million others into refugee camps. War broke out again in 1999 and only ended in 2003 with the capture and eventual arrest of Charles Taylor in neighboring Nigeria in 2006. Tried and convicted on charges of rape, acts of sexual violence, and the murderous use of child soldiers, he was sentenced to 50 years in prison. It should be noted that hundreds of child soldier murderers were brought to the United States as refugees to remove them from the murderous environment of Liberia.
Nor are these African supremacist and genocidal actions relegated to the past. Today’s expansionistic Boko Harem (“westernization is sacrilege”) insurgency of Muslim backed militia against Nigerian Christians that has resulted in the kidnapping, rape, and murders of tens of thousands. Islamic Jihad has seized other African nations with mass murder events in Burkina-Faso, Mozambique, Uganda, and other nations. In May 2021, Ghanian President Akufo-Addo stated Islamic Jihad was aimed at subjugating many West African countries. We’ve seen the same happen to Christians in Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran, China, and countless other nations.
Not surprisingly, CRT adherents remain silent about the fact that in the last three-quarters century, western governments have often rushed aid and used their influence to either end the brutality or ameliorate the suffering of brown and black innocent victims. Today’s advocates of CRT often neglect to mention that it was the governments of white European nations that first ended slavery around the Third World—often in opposition to the protests of people of color. To mention this fact would, of course, run counter to their false claim that only whites and the West are guilty of imperialist and supremacist thoughts and acts.
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Jack Bovee
Fort Myers, FL
The writer has been a social studies educator, founder of Rho Kappa--the National Social Studies Honor Society--past president of the Florida Council for the Social Studies, and a former Elementary School Principal of the Year in Lee County, Florida. He may be reached at: jsbovee@aol.com.
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