Colonialism

Biden Pick, Native American Deb Haaland to head Dept. that once Vowed to “Civilize or Exterminate” her People

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) will be president-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Department of the Interior. She is the first Native American to head the department, and her appointment is full of ironies. The Department, formed in 1849, includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs and has a long history […]

African-Americans

Trump doesn’t Understand History any more than he Understands Epidemics

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump has a long history of proclaiming that he understands things better than the people who are experts in those things. When Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the Centers for Disease Control, testified to Congress that mask-wearing is even more effective against Covid-19 than a vaccine is likely to […]

Colonialism

How the Failures of Great Powers at the Versailles Peace Conference Set the Stage for Today’s anti-racist Uprisings

Elizabeth F. Thompson

( The Conversation) – The racism that is now the target of protest across the globe is rooted in the tragic choices of leaders seeking to roll back change a century ago. Nearly all historians now agree that at the end of World War I, the choice to return to an imperialist world order by […]

Archaeology

Elon Musk may have been Joking, but the Flaky Theory that Aliens built the Pyramids is Faintly Racist

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Egyptian scientists and archeologists replied in a level-headed but firm way to billionaire Elon Musk’s tweet that aliens built the pyramids. It isn’t clear whether Musk was just joking around, though he sometimes talks about the possibility that advanced aliens are watching us, and thinks it statistically possible that alien […]

Colonialism

Columbus didn’t represent Italy, and he Killed and Enslaved Americans, and we Don’t need his Statues

Michael Slager

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot ordered the removal of two statues of Christopher Columbus after police and protesters clashed last week. The confrontation at the navigator’s monument in Grant Park resulted in injuries to both officers and demonstrators. According to NBC News, Chicago Police Department officials confirmed that the gathering […]

Authoritarianism

Colonizing Portland: How Trump’s tactics Recall Worst Excesses of British Empire in places like Hong Kong

Martin Powers

Ann Arbor (Special to Informed Comment) – When Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty in1997, the Western press loudly bemoaned the death of Democracy, but those of us who had lived there knew better. In times of stress colonial rule more closely resembled Trump’s Portland than a citadel of law, with the use of militarized […]

Colonialism

All the Lies Trump told the West Point Graduates about American Militarism

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It was bad enough that Trump endangered the health of the graduating class at West Point for the purposes of a photo op for his reelection campaign by insisting on bringing them back to campus. It was bad enough that he gave an alarming performance in which some observers saw […]

Colonialism

A Century of Shame: The Annexation of Palestine began with Arrogant Imperial Victors of WW I at San Remo

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor ) – One hundred years ago, representatives from a few powerful countries convened at San Remo, a sleepy town on the Italian Riviera. Together, they sealed the fate of the massive territories confiscated from the Ottoman Empire following its defeat in World War I. It was on April 25, 1920, that […]

Colonialism

1918 flu pandemic killed 12 million Indians, and British overlords’ indifference strengthened the anti-colonial movement

The Conversation

By Maura Chhun | – In India, during the 1918 influenza pandemic, a staggering 12 to 13 million people died, the vast majority between the months of September and December. According to an eyewitness, “There was none to remove the dead bodies and the jackals made a feast.” At the time of the pandemic, India […]