Europe used to be barbaric in comparison to islamic and african empires. Ancient Egypt was an african regime as were the zulu Benin Timbuktu etc etc empires. There is alot of archaeological evidence pointing to higher civilisation existing in sub saharan africa pre european civilisation.
Eh, another contrarian copout. Yet again, you've reached for the mark and gone too far. As a third-generation paternal child of Italian immigrants, I hope that I don't court too much hostility with the following (Eurocentric) sentence: As a rule, the most intellectually/technologically 'advanced' societies ever to have existed historically were peopled predominately by Caucasians and Arabs, no matter how hard you try to convince yourself (or others) otherwise. That said, I'm not certain what this fact
actually says about Negroid, Caucasian, Arab, or green people, if anything - race could very easily be a red herring in this instance, hence the prevailing contemporary suspicion of racist attitudes. But, as a rule, white people had indeed been coming out technologically 'on top' vis a vis Africa for millenia prior to colonialism. During the formative years of globalization, modernism, and colonialism, perception of these differences in 'development' were only strengthened by a brutal combination of rationalization and real-world comparison. European conquerors didn't arrive on the shores of their 'Indies' to discover anything more 'advanced' than a lavish palace or two and perhaps some relatively sophisticated astronomy; they knew their place well enough, and abused it to horrible ends. By no means am I claiming that Europe was a more desirable or interesting place to live in that particular historical period, but it bears repeating that the Caucasian peoples enjoy their dubious reputation for a
real reason, for better or worse. Unless you refuse to count Greece and Italy in your summary of European history, you'll have to make room in your final analysis for the disagreeable reality that, when compared to Europeans, the Negroid peoples have, historically, been generally sucking at almost every conceivable thing for a Very Long Time; in Africa, it would seem, this continues to the present day.
Also, I must remind you that Egypt does not enjoy a legacy of an enlightened, humanistically superlative civilization in its own time. For the bulk of its history, it was a veritable hotbed of slavery and decadence, much like anywhere else in the world in that era. Their agricultural and architectural achievements aside, Egypt wasn't a particularly desirable place to be before and during the age of antiquity. For instance: Ancient Egyptian mathematics (developed, presumably, over thousands of years) were nowhere near as advanced as those of the ancient Greeks (who apparently had about a third of the time or less). I must repeat that I'm not claiming any universal racial/cultural superiority here; but history and its respective methods don't suddenly and dramatically change because the facts that they suggest happen to make us feel uncomfortable.
In conclusion, I'll say that I certainly don't believe that Caucasians have ever achieved anything of tangible worth or merit by any virtue of their skin color as such (excepting cases wherein skin color practically mattered, racism, etc.). However, it is clear that, while historical rationalization
is rampant in Western civilization, most attempts at historical deflation must resort to glib apologetics and revisionism to de-whitewash history of its perceived biases; in short, most critiques go too far, assuming (wrongly) that anti-racist momentum will spare them from a more sober assessment. It is important not to forget the fact that White people have (historically, at least) 'won' at others' expense - and this is a big part of the reason why we are having this conversation in the first place. Race and all of its associated cultural butthurt stem predominately from miserable facts, not unfounded prejudices. People grow up in a society riddled with racial hostilities, encounter terrible race relations--->they become racists themselves. This cycle is well known, and is not liable be upended by mere appeal to words like 'political correctness,' 'racism,' or 'prejudice.' If you taste a food that you dislike, is it unreasonable to walk away dissatisfied with that specific type of food itself, as opposed to the particular cook? Maybe the first time, but the second? The third? The tenth? This is what I meant in my post above when I mentioned that these cognitive tricks 'work' in settings that don't principally involve social groups. Again, this is
not an attempted apology for racist attitudes by a long shot - but I am compelled to remind you that racism isn't such a simple issue, nor is it a politically closed book with the Good Guys on the left and the Bad Guys on the right.
