Kaiser Wilhelm got a lot of blame, but he wasn't just a symbol--he helped push the Great War.
That doesn't excuse the over-the-top nastiness the infamous CMU prof poured out, of course.
Sunday, September 11, 2022
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One of the problems with being the icon of a nation is that you get blamed for what the nation does. It isn't surprising to see things like ""Most of our grandparents were oppressed,” Mugo tweeted hours after the queen’s death Thursday. “I cannot mourn.”" She even gets blamed for not apologizing for slavery--which the UK particpated in but was instrumental in uniquely helping end almost a century before Elizabeth was born.
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2 comments:
It doesn't seem to be about apologies or acknowledgement, but money.
I would also like to see the evidence of how much your grandparent's oppression affects you in some measurable way.
Sometimes it's pretty easy: Grandpa farmed this patch of ancestral land that got taken away. (Or had a share in the village's land)
Of course, counterfactuals are messy. If the Brits hadn't shown up, your village might have been captured and enslaved by a neighboring tribe and you wouldn't be here at all. Or your village might have been part of the raiding team and you'd have been relatively well-to-do from inherited booty.
I've a bias against claims where all the original injured parties and culprits are dead. You could argue that that's self interest talking, but mooting old crimes seems better than feuding. The perpetrators of the Nanking incident are all dead; how do you punish them?
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