This thread is meant to discuss Europeans' history of racism within and beyond european borders, their contact and ability to assimilate with the non-european natives, its consequences and impact on past, present and future.
Europeans and Racism
- Thread starter Villager
- Start date
When will Europe face the uncomfortable truths about racial inequality
By Amelie Glauber
Aug 11, 2020
Demonstrators during an anti-racism meeting on the Abdijplein, in Middelburg, the Netherlands, 8 June 2020. In multiple Dutch cities demonstrators come together to protest against the police brutality against black residents of the US and Europe. The immediate cause of the protests is the death of African-American George Floyd, who died during his arrest. A bystander's video posted online on 25 May appeared to show George Floyd, 46, pleading with arresting officers that he couldn't breathe as an officer knelt on his neck, in Minnesota, USA. The unarmed black man later died in police custody. [EPA-EFE/MARCO DE SWART]
Europeans are uncomfortable talking about structural racism. But it is the lived reality of millions of people of colour on the continent, and needs to be addressed honestly, writes Amelie Glauber.
Amelie Glauber is a pseudonym.
The man on the bench gazed at the sky. He puffed his cigarette unbothered by the goings-on around him. I sat a slight distance from him, my curiosity pushing me to ask what I was missing in the ominous clouds.
“They just released me from prison today,” he said. “I did not have the liberty to enjoy the sun like this, or converse with the skies unabated like this.” As the conversation went on, it became apparent to me that he was looking for answers in those clouds, for why he was arrested in the first place. “Mistaken identity”, they called it when they released him. For four weeks, he had not seen his three-year old son or his wife. In those four weeks, he had lost his job as a cook at a small restaurant, where he had worked since coming to Germany four years earlier.
Drug peddling was the crime he was alleged to have committed. The suspect’s description matched his, the police had told him: “stout, black male, in his thirties”. A depiction that could have fit most of the few black men in his street or elsewhere in Germany. Based on that, they arrested him. They searched him as well as his apartment and found nothing. Still, they kept him in prison for four weeks. He was suddenly released with neither an explanation nor an apology. He, not the police, will suffer and live with the consequences of being himself, a human being – a black man. As I watched him wallow on that bench, I reflected on the news of Germany’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Horst Seehofer’s dismised an investigation into racial profiling by the police. His argument being that there was no need for such an investigation because the police must be non-discriminatory in their checks. I cringed at the thought of many more black men who will sit lost on the bench or in prison because they have been racially profiled. See, when such evaluations are not done, we are left in oblivion as to how serious the racial profiling of black and coloured people in Germany really is, how severe police brutality is and, in general, the prevalence of racism and racial discrimination in Germany and other European Union states.
One example is a shocking recent announcement by the chief of police in Stuttgart, who wants to investigate and publish the family histories of suspects of the riots in the city that took place in June. How wrong can we get it? How is it not clear that this will only lead to further discrimination of minorities who are already under suspicion by being labelled, “those with migrant backgrounds?”
Call it by its name: Racism
Racism is not a black people’s problem. It is everybody’s problem. The EU must admit to racism being a form of discrimination before it can implement measures to tackle it. The constant images of starving black children in our streets, screens and mailboxes, affirm the image of people of African descent as needy people, in need of white redemption. Most of Europe is shaped by a single story of poverty and subordination of the black race. It is difficult for white Europeans to admit that they are unconsciously racist, yet daily they racialize. I know this for sure, as I experience it in my office every day, when most people look over my shoulder to the white, often inexperienced employees in my supervision for something, and only when it hits a snag, do they come back with their tails between their legs to ask me. This, fellow humans, is what is called structural and systemic racism. It happens to be the daily reality of many people of colour in Europe.
It is common for people of African descent born and/or educated in Europe, despite excelling in their studies, to remain jobless, or when employed, either struggle to prove themselves or have bosses who perform poorly but are their bosses, simply because of the colour of their skin. At that point, it becomes clear to them that they will end up doing the work, as their bosses take the credit. This is what is called ‘white privilege’. How can we rectify it? There must be a public admission of the problem, and the willingness to honestly converse and change, unlearn the mistruths related to racism and racial inequality and relearn equality and non-discrimination. The EU and its Member States cannot ignore the loudly spoken words of its citizens marching in the streets of major cities like Paris, Berlin and Brussels, chanting, ‘Black Lives Matter’. Legislators like Seehofer should not be allowed to stop an evaluation into a matter that could help preserve human dignity and prevent the suffering of racialized black and coloured people. This is not in line with EU values. The European Commission’s Vice President, Margaritis Schinas, cannot downplay the issue by saying that Europe has a better record than the US on race issues. The people are speaking; they have taken to the streets. Listen, learn and rectify.
I am reminded of the continuous discrimination of the Roma people, who even in 2020 still struggle for their human rights and equality within the EU. Let us act now, so that no one or group of people is left out, so that future generations may boast of an EU that is free from racism and racial discrimination. A Europe with values that are truly shared.
www.euractiv.com
By Amelie Glauber
Aug 11, 2020
Demonstrators during an anti-racism meeting on the Abdijplein, in Middelburg, the Netherlands, 8 June 2020. In multiple Dutch cities demonstrators come together to protest against the police brutality against black residents of the US and Europe. The immediate cause of the protests is the death of African-American George Floyd, who died during his arrest. A bystander's video posted online on 25 May appeared to show George Floyd, 46, pleading with arresting officers that he couldn't breathe as an officer knelt on his neck, in Minnesota, USA. The unarmed black man later died in police custody. [EPA-EFE/MARCO DE SWART]
Europeans are uncomfortable talking about structural racism. But it is the lived reality of millions of people of colour on the continent, and needs to be addressed honestly, writes Amelie Glauber.
Amelie Glauber is a pseudonym.
The man on the bench gazed at the sky. He puffed his cigarette unbothered by the goings-on around him. I sat a slight distance from him, my curiosity pushing me to ask what I was missing in the ominous clouds.
“They just released me from prison today,” he said. “I did not have the liberty to enjoy the sun like this, or converse with the skies unabated like this.” As the conversation went on, it became apparent to me that he was looking for answers in those clouds, for why he was arrested in the first place. “Mistaken identity”, they called it when they released him. For four weeks, he had not seen his three-year old son or his wife. In those four weeks, he had lost his job as a cook at a small restaurant, where he had worked since coming to Germany four years earlier.
Drug peddling was the crime he was alleged to have committed. The suspect’s description matched his, the police had told him: “stout, black male, in his thirties”. A depiction that could have fit most of the few black men in his street or elsewhere in Germany. Based on that, they arrested him. They searched him as well as his apartment and found nothing. Still, they kept him in prison for four weeks. He was suddenly released with neither an explanation nor an apology. He, not the police, will suffer and live with the consequences of being himself, a human being – a black man. As I watched him wallow on that bench, I reflected on the news of Germany’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Horst Seehofer’s dismised an investigation into racial profiling by the police. His argument being that there was no need for such an investigation because the police must be non-discriminatory in their checks. I cringed at the thought of many more black men who will sit lost on the bench or in prison because they have been racially profiled. See, when such evaluations are not done, we are left in oblivion as to how serious the racial profiling of black and coloured people in Germany really is, how severe police brutality is and, in general, the prevalence of racism and racial discrimination in Germany and other European Union states.
One example is a shocking recent announcement by the chief of police in Stuttgart, who wants to investigate and publish the family histories of suspects of the riots in the city that took place in June. How wrong can we get it? How is it not clear that this will only lead to further discrimination of minorities who are already under suspicion by being labelled, “those with migrant backgrounds?”
Call it by its name: Racism
Racism is not a black people’s problem. It is everybody’s problem. The EU must admit to racism being a form of discrimination before it can implement measures to tackle it. The constant images of starving black children in our streets, screens and mailboxes, affirm the image of people of African descent as needy people, in need of white redemption. Most of Europe is shaped by a single story of poverty and subordination of the black race. It is difficult for white Europeans to admit that they are unconsciously racist, yet daily they racialize. I know this for sure, as I experience it in my office every day, when most people look over my shoulder to the white, often inexperienced employees in my supervision for something, and only when it hits a snag, do they come back with their tails between their legs to ask me. This, fellow humans, is what is called structural and systemic racism. It happens to be the daily reality of many people of colour in Europe.
It is common for people of African descent born and/or educated in Europe, despite excelling in their studies, to remain jobless, or when employed, either struggle to prove themselves or have bosses who perform poorly but are their bosses, simply because of the colour of their skin. At that point, it becomes clear to them that they will end up doing the work, as their bosses take the credit. This is what is called ‘white privilege’. How can we rectify it? There must be a public admission of the problem, and the willingness to honestly converse and change, unlearn the mistruths related to racism and racial inequality and relearn equality and non-discrimination. The EU and its Member States cannot ignore the loudly spoken words of its citizens marching in the streets of major cities like Paris, Berlin and Brussels, chanting, ‘Black Lives Matter’. Legislators like Seehofer should not be allowed to stop an evaluation into a matter that could help preserve human dignity and prevent the suffering of racialized black and coloured people. This is not in line with EU values. The European Commission’s Vice President, Margaritis Schinas, cannot downplay the issue by saying that Europe has a better record than the US on race issues. The people are speaking; they have taken to the streets. Listen, learn and rectify.
I am reminded of the continuous discrimination of the Roma people, who even in 2020 still struggle for their human rights and equality within the EU. Let us act now, so that no one or group of people is left out, so that future generations may boast of an EU that is free from racism and racial discrimination. A Europe with values that are truly shared.
Time for Europe to face uncomfortable truths about racial inequality
Europeans are uncomfortable talking about structural racism. But it is the lived reality of millions of people of colour on the continent, and needs to be addressed honestly, writes Amelie Glauber.
Rottnest Island: Black prison to white playground
Today Rottnest Island, off Fremantle, is a popular holiday spot, but few realise the island's dark past as a prison for Indigenous men.
By Kirsti Melville for Earshot
Photo: Prisoners in neck chains, Wyndham, WA (1898-1906). The population of Rottnest Island soared as more of WA was colonised. (Supplied: State Library of Victoria)
Glen Stasiuk, a lecturer and Indigenous researcher at Murdoch University, was just a teenager when he first went camping with his mates on Rottnest Island — Wadjemup — in the 1980s.
He went skin diving, became inexplicably sick and had to be airlifted back to the mainland. He went back a year later and again became very sick. His mum told him it was probably about time he went and spoke to his Noongar nana.
"It's worra," she said. "It's worra, it's menditj. It's a sick place."
Stasiuk had camped at Tentland. For years and years, Tentland was the camping area on Rottnest; the place where families and teenagers pitched their tents, had a few drinks, and threw some sausages on the barbeque.
What campers didn't know was that they were sleeping on the unmarked graves of at least 373 Aboriginal men. It's the largest deaths in custody site in Australia and the largest known burial ground of Aboriginal people.
"See that spot over there with the Aboriginal flag?" Dr Stasiuk points as we're walking around the burial site.
"That's where they uncovered the first skeletal remains in 1971 and I reckon that's just about where I pitched my tent.
Photo: Aboriginal prisoners in the courtyard of the Rottnest Island Prison, circa 1883.
The inmates buried here were among almost 4,000 men and boys from all across Western Australia imprisoned in the Aboriginal-only Rottnest Island Prison between 1838 and 1931.
When the first white settlers came sailing up the Derbarl Yerrigan, or Swan River, in June 1829, the local Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation thought they were ancestors coming back from the spirit world to protect them.
"They thought they'd been under the sea and bleached 'til their skin was white," says Dr Noel Nannup, elder-in-residence at Edith Cowan University.
But the visitors didn't leave. A call was sent upriver from Fremantle to the Upper Swan: "Worra! Get your family and get out of harm's way."
The impact on the local people was immediate.
"All of a sudden fences were going up, people were being pushed off their land and we were marginalised," says Karen Jacobs, a Noongar woman and former member of the Rottnest Island Board.
"Then they started bringing in a law that passed judgment over us, when we'd had our own governance structure for thousands and thousands and thousands of years.
"They cleared the land and blocked all the freshwater springs that ran through the city. This meant all the medicinal plants, all of the traditional vegetation and animals were all gone. Our whole hunting ground was gone within three years of settlement."
With a rapidly dwindling food supply, Noongar men started shooting any animal they saw — a sheep, a chicken, a cow — not understanding the white law that animals can belong to people. To them, animals belonged to the land.
The consequences of this misunderstanding were harsh. Aboriginal people started being arrested for theft, for trespassing, and it didn't take long for the prisons to fill up.
Authorities could see that Aboriginal prisoners were distressed and depressed by incarceration. There is no cultural history of imprisonment in Indigenous culture. As the problem got more serious, it was decided that an Aboriginal prison would be built on Rottnest Island.
Photo: Aboriginal prisoners in chains, WA.
The original idea was somewhat compassionate: that prisoners could freely move around and spend some of their time hunting for food. And that did happen, in limited and varying degrees, over the years.
The first boat arrived at Wadjemup in July 1838, with six prisoners on board. There was no prison yet; the prisoners would have to quarry the stone and build it; they slept in a large coastal cave.
For the first few months, prisoners gardened and cleared the bush and were allowed to hunt for food in the afternoons. But conditions deteriorated when Henry Vincent began his long reign as superintendent.
The mining of limestone and building of the prison began. Vincent was loose with his use of the cat o' nine tails. Prisoners were worked ruthlessly in the heat, inadequately clothed and chained together at night.
"Henry Vincent was barbaric. He would beat prisoners, kick them," says Dr Stasiuk, the author and director of Wadjemup: Rottnest Island as a Black Prison and White Playground.
"There's evidence he got clips and ripped a prisoner's beard clean out. Another time he beat a prisoner to death with a set of keys.
"He would hang prisoners sentenced to death in front of lore men who were about to return to the mainland, as a warning to the community that if they break the law, this is what could happen to you.
"He had no problem with shooting prisoners if they didn't do as they were told. He chained them up at night with a long pole system. It was hell on earth."
Vincent still has a cottage and a street named after him, and plaques in his honour. "Prisoners died under his watch and he's commemorated but these Aboriginal prisoners aren't," Dr Stasiuk says.
While conditions became more grim at the Rottnest Island Prison, the same was true for Aboriginal people back on the mainland. As the colonial frontier spread further north and east from Perth through WA, more and more Aboriginal men and boys were being sent to Wadjemup.
"As colonisation spread through to the Kimberley, it became increasingly lawless," Dr Stasiuk says.
"As you headed out into more remote areas, people could get away with a lot more and so there were beatings, killings, shootings, people being arrested under false pretences.
"There was no doubt what it was aiming to do; reinforcing what had been done down south in Noongar boodjar [country] with the Pinjarra Massacre. What happened with Midgegooroo and with Yagan is one way to disconnect and remove Aboriginal lore men from their countries and absolutely break the last bastion of resistance."
These men and boys were arrested, often on trumped-up charges, chained together around the neck, hands and feet and marched to the nearest police station. One of the worst cases involved 40 men and women being chained together at Bidyadanga and forced to walk 700 kilometres south to Roebourne.
They faced a legal system they didn't understand, often without legal representation, and were sent on boats down to Fremantle. Men from inland language groups were terrified by the ocean, a completely foreign body of water.
By the 1880s, more men were arriving at Rottnest Island than ever before and conditions were at their worst. Overcrowding peaked and disease was rife. Tiny cells were jammed with up to 10 men. There were no toilets, no beds and the damp floors were made of dirt.
The cells were filthy and freezing cold in the winter. Disease spread rapidly — mostly measles and influenza — and at least 60 men died one winter.
"Prisoners were coming on to the island from Fremantle and they were coming into contact with Europeans who had colds and flu and dysentery and other diseases Aborigines hadn't been exposed to," says Professor Len Collard from UWA's School of Indigenous Studies.
"You can imagine a prisoner coming into a cell, coughing and sneezing, and all of a sudden he projectile vomits over everybody, he can't control his bowels because he's got dysentery. They're in this six by 10 foot square: where you gonna go to?"
Photo: Cottages that once housed prison guards are now used as tourist accommodation.
More than a hundred years later, a friend of mine is staying at the island's most upmarket accommodation — The Rottnest Lodge. She wakes up terrified in the middle of the night from a nightmare in which she's watches blood run down the walls. It turns out the room she's sleeping in is a former cell in the infamous Rottnest Island Prison Quod.
"There are a lot of innocent people who don't realise what they're renting," Professor Len Collard says.
"Have the authorities, the state government, the Rottnest Island Authority, have they got moral and ethical responsibilities to inform the public about what they're renting? Or not?"
Nearby is the old hospital turned morgue, where hundreds of men died. It's now used as a kitchen for the staff who live on the island. It's doubtful the staff know the horrors that unfolded inside.
This is the great incongruity of this island — its startling beauty, the way cares just fall away when, on approach, you see its waters and white sands sparkling, and the dark, devastating and embarrassingly invisible history.
Take Tentland. How could it be that our largest deaths in custody site, the largest known Aboriginal burial ground in Australia, could be allowed to become a camping site? How could it be that it took more than 20 years and multiple discoveries of skeletal remains before it was shut down in 1993?
Australia hasn't done a very good job of remembering and acknowledging past trauma, but Rottnest Island is a masterclass in forgetting.
Change is on its way, though. The burial ground has recently undergone a transformation, with a landscaped path marking an "indicative" perimeter and interpretive signs installed.
Photo: Today, Rottnest Island is a popular holiday destination.
All eyes are now on the Quod, which is due to be handed back to the state government in May 2018 when the current lease expires. Hopes are high that it will become a centre of remembrance, a place of healing. When that will happen and who will fund it are still up in the air.
"It's all around the world — Hiroshima, Auschwitz, 9/11's ground zero, Port Arthur — to recognise what happened in the past was horrific. But don't deny it. Reflect and learn from mistakes to move forward," says Dr Stasiuk.
"It's happening, but it's taken a bloody long time to get there. Way too long. I'm 44 now and this was being discussed when I was a teenager.
"I don't want to see my kids taking their kids to Wadjemup and having this same story not have a conclusion or a healing outcome. I don't want to go through another generation of this."
The trauma of the state's early years still resonates amongst WA's Aboriginal population, and the marginalisation continues.
"We have to heal. There's so many families impacted by it," Dr Nannup says.
"I've found five of my mother's people buried over there and two of my dad's. What do I tell my grandchildren? It's a place that's like a battlefield and the rest of the community don't know. We try to tell our children and keep it alive but no-one even recognises it.
"To this day we're viewed as the dregs of society. We're still having people being put in prison because they haven't paid a traffic fine.
"They may even lose their life in there — for not paying a traffic fine! Please. It's just dreadful. It's a battle. Constantly, it's a battle."
www.abc.net.au
Today Rottnest Island, off Fremantle, is a popular holiday spot, but few realise the island's dark past as a prison for Indigenous men.
By Kirsti Melville for Earshot
Photo: Prisoners in neck chains, Wyndham, WA (1898-1906). The population of Rottnest Island soared as more of WA was colonised. (Supplied: State Library of Victoria)
Glen Stasiuk, a lecturer and Indigenous researcher at Murdoch University, was just a teenager when he first went camping with his mates on Rottnest Island — Wadjemup — in the 1980s.
He went skin diving, became inexplicably sick and had to be airlifted back to the mainland. He went back a year later and again became very sick. His mum told him it was probably about time he went and spoke to his Noongar nana.
"It's worra," she said. "It's worra, it's menditj. It's a sick place."
Stasiuk had camped at Tentland. For years and years, Tentland was the camping area on Rottnest; the place where families and teenagers pitched their tents, had a few drinks, and threw some sausages on the barbeque.
What campers didn't know was that they were sleeping on the unmarked graves of at least 373 Aboriginal men. It's the largest deaths in custody site in Australia and the largest known burial ground of Aboriginal people.
"See that spot over there with the Aboriginal flag?" Dr Stasiuk points as we're walking around the burial site.
"That's where they uncovered the first skeletal remains in 1971 and I reckon that's just about where I pitched my tent.
Photo: Aboriginal prisoners in the courtyard of the Rottnest Island Prison, circa 1883.
The inmates buried here were among almost 4,000 men and boys from all across Western Australia imprisoned in the Aboriginal-only Rottnest Island Prison between 1838 and 1931.
When the first white settlers came sailing up the Derbarl Yerrigan, or Swan River, in June 1829, the local Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation thought they were ancestors coming back from the spirit world to protect them.
"They thought they'd been under the sea and bleached 'til their skin was white," says Dr Noel Nannup, elder-in-residence at Edith Cowan University.
But the visitors didn't leave. A call was sent upriver from Fremantle to the Upper Swan: "Worra! Get your family and get out of harm's way."
The impact on the local people was immediate.
"All of a sudden fences were going up, people were being pushed off their land and we were marginalised," says Karen Jacobs, a Noongar woman and former member of the Rottnest Island Board.
"Then they started bringing in a law that passed judgment over us, when we'd had our own governance structure for thousands and thousands and thousands of years.
"They cleared the land and blocked all the freshwater springs that ran through the city. This meant all the medicinal plants, all of the traditional vegetation and animals were all gone. Our whole hunting ground was gone within three years of settlement."
With a rapidly dwindling food supply, Noongar men started shooting any animal they saw — a sheep, a chicken, a cow — not understanding the white law that animals can belong to people. To them, animals belonged to the land.
The consequences of this misunderstanding were harsh. Aboriginal people started being arrested for theft, for trespassing, and it didn't take long for the prisons to fill up.
Authorities could see that Aboriginal prisoners were distressed and depressed by incarceration. There is no cultural history of imprisonment in Indigenous culture. As the problem got more serious, it was decided that an Aboriginal prison would be built on Rottnest Island.
Photo: Aboriginal prisoners in chains, WA.
The original idea was somewhat compassionate: that prisoners could freely move around and spend some of their time hunting for food. And that did happen, in limited and varying degrees, over the years.
The first boat arrived at Wadjemup in July 1838, with six prisoners on board. There was no prison yet; the prisoners would have to quarry the stone and build it; they slept in a large coastal cave.
For the first few months, prisoners gardened and cleared the bush and were allowed to hunt for food in the afternoons. But conditions deteriorated when Henry Vincent began his long reign as superintendent.
The mining of limestone and building of the prison began. Vincent was loose with his use of the cat o' nine tails. Prisoners were worked ruthlessly in the heat, inadequately clothed and chained together at night.
"Henry Vincent was barbaric. He would beat prisoners, kick them," says Dr Stasiuk, the author and director of Wadjemup: Rottnest Island as a Black Prison and White Playground.
"There's evidence he got clips and ripped a prisoner's beard clean out. Another time he beat a prisoner to death with a set of keys.
"He would hang prisoners sentenced to death in front of lore men who were about to return to the mainland, as a warning to the community that if they break the law, this is what could happen to you.
"He had no problem with shooting prisoners if they didn't do as they were told. He chained them up at night with a long pole system. It was hell on earth."
Vincent still has a cottage and a street named after him, and plaques in his honour. "Prisoners died under his watch and he's commemorated but these Aboriginal prisoners aren't," Dr Stasiuk says.
While conditions became more grim at the Rottnest Island Prison, the same was true for Aboriginal people back on the mainland. As the colonial frontier spread further north and east from Perth through WA, more and more Aboriginal men and boys were being sent to Wadjemup.
"As colonisation spread through to the Kimberley, it became increasingly lawless," Dr Stasiuk says.
"As you headed out into more remote areas, people could get away with a lot more and so there were beatings, killings, shootings, people being arrested under false pretences.
"There was no doubt what it was aiming to do; reinforcing what had been done down south in Noongar boodjar [country] with the Pinjarra Massacre. What happened with Midgegooroo and with Yagan is one way to disconnect and remove Aboriginal lore men from their countries and absolutely break the last bastion of resistance."
These men and boys were arrested, often on trumped-up charges, chained together around the neck, hands and feet and marched to the nearest police station. One of the worst cases involved 40 men and women being chained together at Bidyadanga and forced to walk 700 kilometres south to Roebourne.
They faced a legal system they didn't understand, often without legal representation, and were sent on boats down to Fremantle. Men from inland language groups were terrified by the ocean, a completely foreign body of water.
By the 1880s, more men were arriving at Rottnest Island than ever before and conditions were at their worst. Overcrowding peaked and disease was rife. Tiny cells were jammed with up to 10 men. There were no toilets, no beds and the damp floors were made of dirt.
The cells were filthy and freezing cold in the winter. Disease spread rapidly — mostly measles and influenza — and at least 60 men died one winter.
"Prisoners were coming on to the island from Fremantle and they were coming into contact with Europeans who had colds and flu and dysentery and other diseases Aborigines hadn't been exposed to," says Professor Len Collard from UWA's School of Indigenous Studies.
"You can imagine a prisoner coming into a cell, coughing and sneezing, and all of a sudden he projectile vomits over everybody, he can't control his bowels because he's got dysentery. They're in this six by 10 foot square: where you gonna go to?"
Photo: Cottages that once housed prison guards are now used as tourist accommodation.
More than a hundred years later, a friend of mine is staying at the island's most upmarket accommodation — The Rottnest Lodge. She wakes up terrified in the middle of the night from a nightmare in which she's watches blood run down the walls. It turns out the room she's sleeping in is a former cell in the infamous Rottnest Island Prison Quod.
"There are a lot of innocent people who don't realise what they're renting," Professor Len Collard says.
"Have the authorities, the state government, the Rottnest Island Authority, have they got moral and ethical responsibilities to inform the public about what they're renting? Or not?"
Nearby is the old hospital turned morgue, where hundreds of men died. It's now used as a kitchen for the staff who live on the island. It's doubtful the staff know the horrors that unfolded inside.
This is the great incongruity of this island — its startling beauty, the way cares just fall away when, on approach, you see its waters and white sands sparkling, and the dark, devastating and embarrassingly invisible history.
Take Tentland. How could it be that our largest deaths in custody site, the largest known Aboriginal burial ground in Australia, could be allowed to become a camping site? How could it be that it took more than 20 years and multiple discoveries of skeletal remains before it was shut down in 1993?
Australia hasn't done a very good job of remembering and acknowledging past trauma, but Rottnest Island is a masterclass in forgetting.
Change is on its way, though. The burial ground has recently undergone a transformation, with a landscaped path marking an "indicative" perimeter and interpretive signs installed.
Photo: Today, Rottnest Island is a popular holiday destination.
All eyes are now on the Quod, which is due to be handed back to the state government in May 2018 when the current lease expires. Hopes are high that it will become a centre of remembrance, a place of healing. When that will happen and who will fund it are still up in the air.
"It's all around the world — Hiroshima, Auschwitz, 9/11's ground zero, Port Arthur — to recognise what happened in the past was horrific. But don't deny it. Reflect and learn from mistakes to move forward," says Dr Stasiuk.
"It's happening, but it's taken a bloody long time to get there. Way too long. I'm 44 now and this was being discussed when I was a teenager.
"I don't want to see my kids taking their kids to Wadjemup and having this same story not have a conclusion or a healing outcome. I don't want to go through another generation of this."
The trauma of the state's early years still resonates amongst WA's Aboriginal population, and the marginalisation continues.
"We have to heal. There's so many families impacted by it," Dr Nannup says.
"I've found five of my mother's people buried over there and two of my dad's. What do I tell my grandchildren? It's a place that's like a battlefield and the rest of the community don't know. We try to tell our children and keep it alive but no-one even recognises it.
"To this day we're viewed as the dregs of society. We're still having people being put in prison because they haven't paid a traffic fine.
"They may even lose their life in there — for not paying a traffic fine! Please. It's just dreadful. It's a battle. Constantly, it's a battle."
Rottnest Island: Black prison to white playground
Today Rottnest Island, off Fremantle, is a popular holiday spot, but few realise the island's dark past as a prison for Indigenous men.
www.abc.net.au
Isn't it what these pricks did every land they stepped on?
That's what these savages with no culture and civilisation have done everywhere they go and continue to do so even now. Sadly we talk about freedom for people (Baloch, Hongkong, Tibet, Mongolia etc) everywhere except the people who lost everything to these european brutes and what's more ironic is that we seek support of the very animals who are responsible for biggest mass murder/genocide and virtual annihilation of entire civilisations.
The great game is still on. They keep us engaged in conflict with our own people so they won't have any challenger, any power to hold them responsible for their crimes and conspiracies, to answer for their crimes and demonic acts and intent. Would we rise or lose it again?
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I have never been to Europe, but the way I understand it, the average native European is a white person of 40 years age or above, having a comfortable life, working in a good European company.
However, the average non-native European is a second generation immigrant from Turkey or Algeria, Muslim, and doing jobs like delivery or waiting at restaurants. At night they return to their ghettos. Their homes are not like European homes, their culture are not the European culture, rarely is it a hybrid culture.
Europe deserves each drop of misery that is coming its way. It is a pay back it deserves for centuries of colonialism. They went to other countries, ravaged their lands, and now these savages have come back to Europe and will definitely ravage each country they find their borders open in.
However, the average non-native European is a second generation immigrant from Turkey or Algeria, Muslim, and doing jobs like delivery or waiting at restaurants. At night they return to their ghettos. Their homes are not like European homes, their culture are not the European culture, rarely is it a hybrid culture.
Europe deserves each drop of misery that is coming its way. It is a pay back it deserves for centuries of colonialism. They went to other countries, ravaged their lands, and now these savages have come back to Europe and will definitely ravage each country they find their borders open in.
another_armchair
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You still find Europeans at airport lounges in EU telling brown skinned coolies to sit away, preferably a row away from them. Continuous hostile glares and speaking in their native language while gesticulating at you can be common.
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While Non-Aligned Movement was a big failure and Bharat ended up embracing ussr on most policies, this time Bharat should not fall into the same trap. The brown coolies want us to be a vassal of western sewers, which should be avoided at all costs. The way forward is to give issue based support and milk the system rather than fall for irrational love for any country. This would only be possible when Bharat stops wholesale import of destructive western ideologies sold under the garb of modernity. Bharat and Bhartiyas need their own set of policies based on what’s good and suitable for them, not what is prescribed for them by the decaying, dying , single mother ridden putrid bastard stock of west. Bharat should be the head of its own Indosphere like how it was 1000 years back, not a client of the amreekan hipsters thugs like the brown coolies are advocating now.
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shade
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It is really sad how gora racism vs Indians/Hindus is making a comeback now instead cloaked in Left-Liberalism, You will notice how typical "white man's burden" type arguments of ye olde Raj times today make a comeback in patronizing Liberal discourse by gora Leftist ideologues about India.
And of course elite bourgeois Brown Coolies here treat the utterings of the decaying Gora sahib as gospel.
meanwhile groups like Nibbers, both African and diaspora, Mestizo Latinos and various types of Muslims now dance on their chests, while groups like the Chinese mooch them dry for their technology and money.
And of course elite bourgeois Brown Coolies here treat the utterings of the decaying Gora sahib as gospel.
meanwhile groups like Nibbers, both African and diaspora, Mestizo Latinos and various types of Muslims now dance on their chests, while groups like the Chinese mooch them dry for their technology and money.
shade
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The wealthy, geriatric, apathetic liberal bourgeois kaffir native gora.
And the youthful, poor, devout Muslim Black/Maghrebi/Turki/Paki plebean worker class.
I really wonder how this "configuration" will turn out in another 100 years or so.
Perhaps the Jews will have to run to China, along with whatever other whoteys there are in those countries.
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The most pathetic claim about the notion of Western Civilisation is that western countries are civilisation to begin with. So what do they actually mean by the term western civilisation? The term Western civilisation refers to the descendants of the “Western half of the Roman empire and its descendants” while the Eastern Roman empire or the Byzantium Empire is traditionally called the Eastern Roman empire. This is where the term comes from. But how legitimate is the claim that western civilisation is the descendants of the Western Roman empire?
The majority of the claimants of western civilisation are not actual descendants of the Western Roman empire to begin with. For example, the flag bearers of supposed western civilisation today, uk germany usa and , the anglofags are not actually descendants of Roman civilisation or culture and are just tribal barbaric trash (as referenced during Roman period) which robbed and looted and eventually settled in present day england which is now rape capital of britain and germany which is overrun by allahs minions. They are not Romans, but rather the uncultured trash which scavenged the corpse of the dying and decaying Roman empire and carved their own respected societies in modern day europe. Then of course, the uk got invaded and conquered by the scandinavians, who themselves were barbaric Vikings (and one can even now see association of Americans to Vikings to relate their history and ancestry today) in the 6-7th century well after the fall of the Roman empire to warring barbaric hordes. Similarly, the French today are the descendants of Frankish tribes which carved out their own kingdom in France or Gaul, as known in Roman empire. These are the same people which then went onto settle in usa , Canada and Australia
Their economic prosperity was of course brought by loot of others and now that that has dried up, even the economic edge the western barbarians had over proper civilisations like BHARAT and China is dying out today . All in all, it is stupid to think that western civilization is actually superior (actually it is not a civilization if we go by proper definition and death of Roman culture) and it is suicidal to mimic their decadent culture of 50% single mothers 50% bastards, divorces and 2000 % rapes per capita highest in the world. To hide their own colossal fuck ups they created aryan invasion theory in quest of western identity. Its just sad to see some dhimmi cucks in Bharat still continue to peddle this disproved larp. Anyways its a dying delusion reduced from invasion to naked steppyniggr tourism theory
shade
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Germanic Tour d'Europe.The most pathetic claim about the notion of Western Civilisation is that western countries are civilisation to begin with. So what do they actually mean by the term western civilisation? The term Western civilisation refers to the descendants of the “Western half of the Roman empire and its descendants” while the Eastern Roman empire or the Byzantium Empire is traditionally called the Eastern Roman empire. This is where the term comes from. But how legitimate is the claim that western civilisation is the descendants of the Western Roman empire?
The majority of the claimants of western civilisation are not actual descendants of the Western Roman empire to begin with. For example, the flag bearers of supposed western civilisation today, uk germany usa and , the anglofags are not actually descendants of Roman civilisation or culture and are just tribal barbaric trash (as referenced during Roman period) which robbed and looted and eventually settled in present day england which is now rape capital of britain and germany which is overrun by allahs minions. They are not Romans, but rather the uncultured trash which scavenged the corpse of the dying and decaying Roman empire and carved their own respected societies in modern day europe. Then of course, the uk got invaded and conquered by the scandinavians, who themselves were barbaric Vikings (and one can even now see association of Americans to Vikings to relate their history and ancestry today) in the 6-7th century well after the fall of the Roman empire to warring barbaric hordes. Similarly, the French today are the descendants of Frankish tribes which carved out their own kingdom in France or Gaul, as known in Roman empire. These are the same people which then went onto settle in usa , Canada and Australia
Their economic prosperity was of course brought by loot of others and now that that has dried up, even the economic edge the western barbarians had over proper civilisations like BHARAT and China is dying out today . All in all, it is stupid to think that western civilization is actually superior (actually it is not a civilization if we go by proper definition and death of Roman culture) and it is suicidal to mimic their decadent culture of 50% single mothers 50% bastards, divorces and 2000 % rapes per capita highest in the world. To hide their own colossal fuck ups they created aryan invasion theory in quest of western identity. Its just sad to see some dhimmi cucks in Bharat still continue to peddle this disproved larp. Anyways its a dying delusion reduced from invasion to naked steppyniggr tourism theory
Well except Huns that is.
btw Franks were the ruling caste of France over Gaulish natives, just like how the "Anglo-Saxon" were the ruling class of England over mostly Celtic natives.
Most AIT jhumls seems to be projections of European history over non-white tribes now.
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--Brodcast for the following century—
Huge amounts of turkish roaches projected all over Europe. Prepare your anus. And dont forget the bug spray when you go outside.
_________________________________________________________
These are the greatest literal cucks which cant replace their own population .
Kek at furious, angry nihilists, who are witnessing their dreams for deluisonal trash white superiority going up in smoke .
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-...ecome-minority-white-in-2045-census-projects/
>youthful minority engine for future growth good fucking joke
Fertility rate for white babby factories plummets BELOW the limit needed to maintain the population in every single amreeki state
The proportion of whitestrash in the population started to decline in 1950. It fell to gradually over the years, eventually reaching just over 60% in 2018 – the lowest percentage ever recorded top kek.
See - https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/race-rising-anxiety-white-america/
The aging white population, alongside a more youthful minority population, especially in the case of Latinos, will result in the amreeka becoming a majority-minority country in around 2044. Similary ,eurofags are hardly reproducing. In some countries, like Spain, Germany and Italy, the native white population is predicted to halve in the coming decades. On Europe’s doorstep, however, lies Africa, with the highest birth rate in the world. By the end of the century, there will be more people in Nigeria than in Germany, France, Italy and Spain combined. Boats filled with young African men are landing almost every day on the coast of Italy and Spain. And there seems to be no one willing to stop them. Clearly, the future of Europe is African and peacful momins.But any future changes cannot override demography .... its inveitable . Amreeka will never be a white country again. Inshort white trash are also mutts and face existential crisis now.
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Well they got their color because of genes like SLC24a5 and A111T that originated in Bharat .
Modern germans :
The truth about Christopher Columbus (Man responsible for deaths of atleast 3 million indigenous people)
History
For centuries, Christopher Columbus (the Father of Slave Trade and Mass Killer) has been celebrated as the brave explorer by Europe who 'found' the New World.
But he had only found a part of the world new to Europeans. Many people with rich cultures and established languages already lived there.
But the brutalities of his treatment of indigenous communities has been left out of most history books.
Christopher Columbus was a mariner who navigated the Santa Maria and two other smaller ships across the Atlantic Ocean in search of Asia. However, he and his crew inadvertently arrived in the New World on October 12, 1492. Their long and arduous journey was driven by one clear objective – to find and establish a long-term source of wealth, preferably gold, for the King and Queen of Spain.
In return, Columbus would be allotted 10 percent of the profits, governorship over new-found land, and awarded the prestigious title of Admiral of the Ocean Sea. Upon arriving in the islands, which we now refer to as the Bahamas, Columbus and his crew first encountered the Arawaks. It was at that fateful juncture in human history that he made two keen observations regarding these indigenous people.
Firstly, they (natives) were docile and trusting in nature; and, secondly, they wore gold jewelry. Columbus’s own words from his personal journal capture the ominous fate that awaited the Arawaks:
"They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane. They would make fine servants. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."
Christopher Columbus was an immensely talented mariner but he was also a murderous tyrant.
The concept of private property and the pursuit of material riches had reached a frenzied pitch in 15th-century Europe. As an independent contractor, Christopher Columbus recognized the seemingly limitless economic potential of the land he had “discovered.”
Bravery to sheer brutality
It was at this point in time that his bravery had begun to shift to sheer brutality. His transition is captured in many of the notes that he had sent to the King and Queen of Spain to bolster expectations. In one particular note, he promised: “as much gold as they need and as many slaves as they ask.”
Soon thereafter he and his men kidnapped a number of the Arawaks and forced them to identify other sources of gold throughout the region.
With an extensive arsenal of advanced weaponry/horses, Columbus and his men arrived on the islands that were later named Cuba and Hispaniola (present-day Dominican Republic / Haiti). Upon arrival, the sheer magnitude of gold, which was readily available, set into motion a relentless wave of murder, rape, pillaging, and slavery that would forever alter the course of human history.
The death of 3 million people
A young, Catholic priest named Bartolomé de las Casas transcribed Columbus’ journals and later wrote about the violence he had witnessed. The fact that such crimes could potentially go unnoticed by future generations was deeply troubling to him. He expanded upon the extent of Columbus’s reign of terror within his multi-volume book entitled the "History of the Indies":
"There were 60,000 people living on this island, including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over 3,000,000 people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this? I myself writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it."
Landing of Columbus in the Americas postal stamp.
Such words offer the reader a firsthand account of the state-sponsored genocide that the Spanish Empire had financed through Columbus. Clearly, the intent of the Spanish Empire was to eradicate the islands of indigenous people through slavery and violence. In doing so they had further established their already dominant political/economic standing within Europe. In a matter of years, Columbus and his men decimated the indigenous people of the Caribbean islands.
The intellectual dishonesty of celebrating Columbus
The fact that Columbus Day is celebrated each October is a testament to the intellectual dishonesty that has stemmed from the likes of academics, teachers, and politicians. It has become an annual ritual to sanitize history and present half-truths as absolutes. In 1937, Columbus Day was officially established as a federal holiday in the United States; however, to this day it is not observed in Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and South Dakota.
The other 46 states that observe the holiday acknowledge Christopher Columbus as a superior mariner who had unknowingly found himself in the Caribbean Sea after departing from Europe. Incidentally, in conjunction with these facts, it would also be quite fair to label Columbus as one of the “founding fathers” of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Unfortunately, such an unpleasant truth has been relegated to the background of history.
For decades now we have been hearing self-proclaimed “experts” espouse Columbus’s many accomplishments – particularly his “discovery” of the New World, yet, in doing so they have opted to minimize the extent of his violence or have utterly disregarded it.
The shame in all of this is that people living in countries throughout the Western Hemisphere, including the United States, have been indoctrinated into believing such fallacies and have been intentionally miseducated.
In sum, history cannot be rewritten. However, with information now at our fingertips, we can no longer fault our teachers, politicians, etc. for being left in the dark regarding our collective histories. Thoroughly researched academic materials are readily available for those who seek the truth.
www.irishcentral.com
History
For centuries, Christopher Columbus (the Father of Slave Trade and Mass Killer) has been celebrated as the brave explorer by Europe who 'found' the New World.
But he had only found a part of the world new to Europeans. Many people with rich cultures and established languages already lived there.
But the brutalities of his treatment of indigenous communities has been left out of most history books.
Christopher Columbus was a mariner who navigated the Santa Maria and two other smaller ships across the Atlantic Ocean in search of Asia. However, he and his crew inadvertently arrived in the New World on October 12, 1492. Their long and arduous journey was driven by one clear objective – to find and establish a long-term source of wealth, preferably gold, for the King and Queen of Spain.
In return, Columbus would be allotted 10 percent of the profits, governorship over new-found land, and awarded the prestigious title of Admiral of the Ocean Sea. Upon arriving in the islands, which we now refer to as the Bahamas, Columbus and his crew first encountered the Arawaks. It was at that fateful juncture in human history that he made two keen observations regarding these indigenous people.
Firstly, they (natives) were docile and trusting in nature; and, secondly, they wore gold jewelry. Columbus’s own words from his personal journal capture the ominous fate that awaited the Arawaks:
"They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane. They would make fine servants. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."
Christopher Columbus was an immensely talented mariner but he was also a murderous tyrant.
The concept of private property and the pursuit of material riches had reached a frenzied pitch in 15th-century Europe. As an independent contractor, Christopher Columbus recognized the seemingly limitless economic potential of the land he had “discovered.”
Bravery to sheer brutality
It was at this point in time that his bravery had begun to shift to sheer brutality. His transition is captured in many of the notes that he had sent to the King and Queen of Spain to bolster expectations. In one particular note, he promised: “as much gold as they need and as many slaves as they ask.”
Soon thereafter he and his men kidnapped a number of the Arawaks and forced them to identify other sources of gold throughout the region.
With an extensive arsenal of advanced weaponry/horses, Columbus and his men arrived on the islands that were later named Cuba and Hispaniola (present-day Dominican Republic / Haiti). Upon arrival, the sheer magnitude of gold, which was readily available, set into motion a relentless wave of murder, rape, pillaging, and slavery that would forever alter the course of human history.
The death of 3 million people
A young, Catholic priest named Bartolomé de las Casas transcribed Columbus’ journals and later wrote about the violence he had witnessed. The fact that such crimes could potentially go unnoticed by future generations was deeply troubling to him. He expanded upon the extent of Columbus’s reign of terror within his multi-volume book entitled the "History of the Indies":
"There were 60,000 people living on this island, including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over 3,000,000 people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this? I myself writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it."
Landing of Columbus in the Americas postal stamp.
Such words offer the reader a firsthand account of the state-sponsored genocide that the Spanish Empire had financed through Columbus. Clearly, the intent of the Spanish Empire was to eradicate the islands of indigenous people through slavery and violence. In doing so they had further established their already dominant political/economic standing within Europe. In a matter of years, Columbus and his men decimated the indigenous people of the Caribbean islands.
The intellectual dishonesty of celebrating Columbus
The fact that Columbus Day is celebrated each October is a testament to the intellectual dishonesty that has stemmed from the likes of academics, teachers, and politicians. It has become an annual ritual to sanitize history and present half-truths as absolutes. In 1937, Columbus Day was officially established as a federal holiday in the United States; however, to this day it is not observed in Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and South Dakota.
The other 46 states that observe the holiday acknowledge Christopher Columbus as a superior mariner who had unknowingly found himself in the Caribbean Sea after departing from Europe. Incidentally, in conjunction with these facts, it would also be quite fair to label Columbus as one of the “founding fathers” of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Unfortunately, such an unpleasant truth has been relegated to the background of history.
For decades now we have been hearing self-proclaimed “experts” espouse Columbus’s many accomplishments – particularly his “discovery” of the New World, yet, in doing so they have opted to minimize the extent of his violence or have utterly disregarded it.
The shame in all of this is that people living in countries throughout the Western Hemisphere, including the United States, have been indoctrinated into believing such fallacies and have been intentionally miseducated.
In sum, history cannot be rewritten. However, with information now at our fingertips, we can no longer fault our teachers, politicians, etc. for being left in the dark regarding our collective histories. Thoroughly researched academic materials are readily available for those who seek the truth.
Columbus was a mass killer and the father of the slave trade
It's time to recognize that Christopher Columbus Day was a mass killer, responsible for 3 million deaths and not a founding father, rather the founder of the slave trade.
We must include European history and culture in our history books, make shows, documentary and movies on it because European's themselves won't do it and also because this would help ordinary Indians fascinated by Europeans modernity and open culture would have better knowledge of them.
When we are addressing their cultural faultlines and brutalities, only then they would stop interfering in ours.
When we are addressing their cultural faultlines and brutalities, only then they would stop interfering in ours.
New Britain Christopher Columbus statue will not be removed; city council fails to overturn Mayor Stewart's veto
www.fox61.com
New Britain Christopher Columbus statue will not be removed; city council fails to overturn Mayor Stewart's veto
City council members previously voted 10-4 to remove the statue back on December 9th.
www.fox61.com
France would not apologise for its colonial abuses in Algeria
BBC
The office of the French President Emmanuel Macron has said he will not repent or apologise for France's colonial past in Algeria.
The comments come before the publication later today of a report he commissioned into how France is facing up to the legacy of that period.
Mr Macron's office says he will seek to promote reconciliation through a number of symbolic acts.
He's said in the past that France had committed crimes against humanity in Algeria, and spoken of the need for truth and reconciliation.
France's colonial rule of Algeria began in 1830 and lasted to 1962, when it gained independence after an eight- year armed struggle.
Thousands of French and hundreds of thousands of Algerians died.
BBC
The office of the French President Emmanuel Macron has said he will not repent or apologise for France's colonial past in Algeria.
The comments come before the publication later today of a report he commissioned into how France is facing up to the legacy of that period.
Mr Macron's office says he will seek to promote reconciliation through a number of symbolic acts.
He's said in the past that France had committed crimes against humanity in Algeria, and spoken of the need for truth and reconciliation.
France's colonial rule of Algeria began in 1830 and lasted to 1962, when it gained independence after an eight- year armed struggle.
Thousands of French and hundreds of thousands of Algerians died.
The pride these colonials have. The belief that their status is so much above others, they need not recognise their crimes, need not apologise, need no forgiveness. After causing so much destruction and theft, they will just handout a little freebies to a few and have their crimes forgotten proving how superior and big hearted they are. How come states that had colonies up until 60's has a permanent spot in UN council right since its formation? Djibouti last to gain independence from France on June 27, 1977. HongKong in 1997. UN is a farce organisation and will lead to instability in the world unless we create an alternative.
