What’s the connection between a brewing civil war in Ethiopia and the resurgence of white supremacy in America?
In Ethiopia, a tribe with only 6% of the population ruled Ethiopia for decades at the expense of everyone else. A recent uprising changed that structure, and they lost power. Now the Tigray are in an armed face-off with Ethiopia’s central government.
White supremacists had a great run in America. Slavery. Jim Crow…. Until very recently, America’s laws explicitly enforced the racism they delight in and that racist legacy continues strongly in less obvious ways
So you have two dominant/powerful groups who are unwilling to surrender power. Asking privileged groups to voluntarily relinquish power out of the goodness of their hearts is not a persuasive argument. Racism and ethnic dominance is built in decades or centuries with underlying structures. Reformers must understand and deliberately undermine those structures to bring fairness.
Don’t ask the vicious powerful to be better. Ask why they are so powerful!
Voter suppression? Electoral college? Or as in Ethiopia, half the army’s forces and personnel are concentrated in the Tigray region?
P.S – Pray for peace in Ethiopia
Reflections 