*the following article has been written for a Greek audience*
The recent events unfolding in USA deserve a much warmer place in our hearts than what we ve been trained to think.
Greece is a newly formed nation only 200 years old. We seem so desperate to gain the approval of being a legitimate part of the western “civilised” world that we so easily forget who was the first country that recognised Greece as an independent state. It was neither England nor USA. It was Haiti, a tiny island so far away that was also fighting for its independence and freedom during the same time of Greek Independence of 1820s-1830s.
The murder of George Floyd and countless others are not isolated incidents. These people are not victims of some psychopath racist but victims of a systemic (still psychopathic) racism that was invented around 1600. This “invention” normalised chattel slavery and ultimately laid the fundaments for the capitalist system we all live and serve today.
Lets take things from the very beginning, our own beginning.
Black people have been living in what we call Greece today since the Minoan times (3000BC).
In Ancient Greek scriptures you can find multiple different nouns to describe black people: Αἰθίοψ, μελάμβροτος, μελανόστερφος.
In Homer's Odyssey Eurybates is one of Odysseus beloved friends. He is black. Countless depictions of black people on amphoras, sculptures, mosaics and shields. According to some Zeus is black. Back then people did not define others by the colour of the skin. Racism indeed existed. In contrast with today’s concept of racism, it was about your ethnicity, the island or city you were from and your traditions, never the color of your skin. This “biological” racism was invented much later in order to normalise and establish chattel slavery.
The same way the pigmented colors were washed away from our Greek marbles (yes indeed, this whiteness was never intended) our history got whitewashed along with it. The same way they stole those same marbles, they stole our history and claimed it as theirs and placed the fundamentals of this European world in Ancient Greece. It's important to remember that Euclidis, Diodoros Siculus, Herodotus, Thales, Socrates and Plato amongst others all partly lived and studied in the continent of Africa. It's also important to remember that in Ancient Greek scriptures there are plenty of mentions for that race of people that burns in the sun. Back then they were not called white, they were called barbarians. And humanity was about to see their barbaric tactics.
Let's flash forward to 1600. When some Europeans decide to abduct people from Africa and stack them in boats. Whomever was strong enough to survive this transatlantic journey was sold to the highest bidder.
In England loads of people benefit from slavery. Colston, whose sculpture recently made it to the bottom of the sea in the protests in Bristol, was one of the founders of “Royal African Company”. One of the most “successful” companies at the time that sold the highest numbers of slaves in USA.
By the end of 1700 England had sold the most slaves and exceeded their competitor countries- Portugal, Spain and Holland. By the 19th century an estimated 15 million people had arrived in the new world as slaves. This is a fraction of the people captured as the majority did not survive the journey. The New World created by Europeans is born out of the genocide of the indegenous American people, the stealing of their land and committing the biggest atrocity ever committed in the history of humanity.
Mothers separated from the kids, husbands from their wives. Human lives turned to commodities. What followed was fully in line with what Europeans knew how to do best - dehumanise, murder and rape. There is countless evidence for the sadistic violence of the crimes committed. Thomas Thistlewood diaries, a British man that lived in Jamaica, contain detailed descriptions of 3.852 rapes with 136 slaves. “Gave him a moderate whipping, pickled him well, made Hector shit in his mouth, immediately put a gag in it whilst his mouth was full and made him wear it 4 or 5 hours.”
The concept of slavery existed since ancient times. But never before had a nation's entire economy exclusively based on slave labour.
Merciless sadistic violence, mathematically calculated fear and torture are the tools that our whole economy has been built on. In short, psychopathy. The trade of humans along with sugar, tobacco and cotton establish the first capitalists.
And now its 1800 and Mother England not only abolishes slavery but also punishes and condems those still using it. These good Christian Anglo Saxons suddenly realise that selling people is against God's divine plan. Its interesting to mention that in 1610 a catholic priest in USA named father Sandoval sent a letter to the Catholic church asking if the slavery of African people was acceptable. The response by priest Louis Brandaon is clear: “we buy slaves with no moral questioning”.
Some English abolitionists argued that every human being possessed a soul thus no human could be made into another man’s possession. They distributed autobiographies of people who had experienced slavery in order to encourage them to look into the face of the enslaved and see a human being.
Once more history gets whitewashed. We still remember today all these white enlightened abolitionists. The countless acts of rebellion by the slaves are forgotten quickly. In 1831 Jamaica saw the rebellion of 60,000 slaves. They burn the land and capture their “owners”. They hurt no one. The english government responds with the murder of 540 slaves. The Parliament decides to abolish slavery.
But let's stop beautifying history. Empathy did not suddenly replace psychopathy. Slavery got replaced by free trade. New technologies helped the economy so it didn't have to solely depend on free labour. Today's capitalism is born
The English government abolishes slavery. At the same time it compensates the slave owners as they lose their possessions. The Rothschilds load the government £15m, 40% of the government's annual income and equivalent to today's £300bn. This debt is being paid by the British taxpayer till 2015.
And here we are today.
In today's England, 3% of the population is black but makes up 12% of prisoners.
In today's England, you are 10 times more likely to be stopped by the police if you are black.
In today's England, the chances to die from corona as a BAME person are much higher.
In today's England, that still has not compensated the windrush scandal victims. Who also payed the “slaver compensation” through their taxes.
In 2017 England, and the disgraceful way Grenfell fire was handled. The fire and the aftermath were the first time i felt terror in a country that has sent troops to several other contries to fight terrorism.
In today's England, that has spent millions of pounds to find a white girl that was lost in a holiday whilst her parents left her unattended to have dinner but has quickly forgot the case of Shukri, a 12 year old refugee girl murdered by her classmates last year.
In today's England, where my black friend has to make her accent as posh as possible when out of London.
In today's England, where I see people separating in groups of two to get into a club so they don't look as “scary”.
But also in Greece.
In Greece, my generation especially has plenty of black Greek born and raised people. More Greek than me as I have lived in London since I was 17. But they have to play basketball at the NBA in order for us to accept them, let alone give them our citizenship.
In Greece, that last year in Greek Next Top Model Suzanah, a black girl, was obliged to choose amongst the photos of white women for her hair makeover. “What is your problem, why can’t you pick a look? It does not need to be a woman of color”. But it does! Hair has been used as a tool of oppression for generations. There are people that have lost their jobs, kids that lost school days. All because of their hair. Because this Eurocentric idea of beauty needs to stop, especially in a country that this beauty standard barely applies to Greek women. Look at our noses! (definitely look at mine). Suzannah choose to go to a beauty competition with her natural hair. This is a statement to be embraced.
The first major waves of Greek Immigration in the United States in the first decades of 1900 made Americans wonder. Are Greeks white? In 1910 they sent anthropologist Henry Bratt Fairchild to study us. His conclusion is that we are not. We are definitely more inferior than white people, not as inferior as black people. His book is published by Yale university and its representative of how American educated intellectuals used to perceive the hierarchy of races. As an outcome KKK is burning Greek businesses and in several parts of the country Greek people join the Black Panthers. Newspaper titles like “Greek was seen with a white girl” are common. In Detroit Greek restaurants are the only places black people are welcomed.
I remember growing up in the 90s in Athens and I clearly remember this inferiority complex. Back then when someone said they are “from abroad” it meant the “good” abroad, the superior white “abroad”. Never the Balkans. Never Africa. Never the Middle East. Because we were so desperate to be “European” and not Balkanian. Because we only remembered our national hero Rigas Feraios for his poems against our slavery but never for his idea of United Balkans. We were taught self hatred. The phrase “ I aint racist, they are black” followed by the laughs of my classmates and teachers as a joke is still so vivid in my memories.
In Greece the paradox of racism is really and truly glorious. The new-Greek fascist is both fascist and a patriot - two majorly contradictory terms as the fascists killed Greeks. The Nazis committed genocides all over Greece but the Greek racist loves the swastika. They perform Nazi salutaions whilst wearing fake ancient Greek costumes. They love ancient Greece but also Jesus and Christianity. The fact that Jesus was a man from the Middle East teaching about love and acceptance is irrelevant .
In Greece, if you are an immigrant trying to pay your electricity bill or visiting the bank you are talked down to.
In Greece that in 2019 miss Karavtou a tv presenter of one of the most mainstream morning shows did not hesitate to wear a blackface. Blackface was used in USA in films like “Birth of a Nation” - partly responsible for the rebirth of the KKK - depicting black people as some wild creatures. Not only blackface was used to make black people look dangerous but also to ridicule them. Naturally blackface made its way to the Greek cinema of the 50s and 60s. A country obsessed with copying everything that was from the “good abroad” - USA, England, France and Italy but hated anything middle Eastern (including the Greeks living in the Middle East) or black. Movie titles such as “There is no point in washing the Araps” as well as their broadcast from the telly in 2020 really makes you wonder. Because in 2020 the justification of ignorance is invalid. The only valid reason is that we do not care to know.
Greece has consistently developed systemic racism for other Greeks, the true and pure definition of self hatred: The Greek refugees from Smyrna in the 1920s, the Greeks of Pontus, the Greeks in Istanbul as late as the 1980s with the last exchange of population among Turkey and Greece. All those people raised Greeks in a foreign land when they came to their mother country they were “turkish seeds”, inferior citizens in the country they always called home. They were ridiculed for their accent and their eastern culture because any other accent and any other culture is inferior to us great Greeks. Except for the superior European culture. Always desperate for the approval of the “civilised”world. Our only weapon against them is the culture and history of the people that lived in this very land 2000 years ago. Other than this ancient glory there is nothing for the modern Greek to be proud of. Always mourning our lost glory, morning our lost lands. We are never gonna acknowledge the real reasons. We will blame our own slavery for 400 years under the Ottoman Empire, blame the blood and land taxes we were subjected to, blame the size of our country (even though Belgium or Holland are much smaller). We will blame everyone except ourselves. Doomed to always wait for this miracle “from abroad”. From the same “abroad” we keep selling out our whole country for pennies. From our precious white “friends” in the West. We forget who caused the Civil War and who funded the Junta. We just rather hate what they taught us to be inferior and keep seeking approval from what they taught us is superior.
The dictatorship of stupidity and absurdity is coming to an end. This dies with our generation. Google is our friend and education should be everyone's goal. Racism is born out of a very simple brain function. Our brain in order to cope with all external stimuli places things into categories. Our challenge is not to stop this essential biological function by saying silly things like “I doNt SeE cOloUr”. Our challenge is to stop letting this function dictate our opinion for the person we are looking at and see the person for who they really are.
Racism with today's meaning is a construct that we were taught the past 5 generations. It's our job to unlearn it. Like all human constructs it comes from our Ego. And like most things that come from Ego it contains bigotry, greed, fear and the rest dark parts of Ego. Because Good and Evil are within all of us.
As far as our white privilege and being Greek we need to remember that we are indeed white. But the darkest of the whites.
There is loads of different privileges, there is male privilege, straight privilege, cis privillege, thin privillege… But beware of your so precious “whiteness” when you visit white-white countries, because for EDL members I'll never be white.
“Black Lives Matter” is a controversial statement.. No one said that they matter more than others. They just said matter. Literally there is nothing lower than “matters”. What verb can replace it so it stops being a controversial statement I wonder. We still live in a world where some people say that “we should all have equal rights” and some other people are just not with it, how absurd..Some people just disagree, it is a disagreement… Or even worse some people do not see color or do not care who you put in your bed - Nothing scarier than a fascist wearing the mask of a liberal.
So if you really wanna dismantle racism look deep into the mirror. And then look a bit deeper. Find the fascist that someone established so very deep into your soul. Maybe tomorrow the simple statement “Black Lives Matter” won’t have to be a global controversy no more.
“If you wonder if I am black or gypsy everyone is my brother so fuck off” Yung Light (translated lyric)
sources
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/29/slavery-abolition-compensation-when-will-britain-face-up-to-its-crimes-against-humanity
https://www.forbes.com/sites/drsarahbond/2017/04/27/whitewashing-ancient-statues-whiteness-racism-and-color-in-the-ancient-world/#4e7aced975ad
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/afrg/hd_afrg.htm
