There are so many parallels b/w Outlander & the protests happening rn, w/ key differences re: who got to become white. A thread.

The British justify torturing & disfiguring Jamie because Scots were ‘savages’, same as they did to enslaved Africans.

Many indigenous Africans, like Highlanders, were seen as savages, barbarians bc they valued kinship, honor, & had ‘pagan’ connections to the land.

‘Savages’ didn’t have refined nerves like the Brits, so, conveniently, it was thought they couldn’t feel pain.

It was why this 1863 photo, The Scourged Back, went viral. It shocked Americans & rallied support for abolishing slavery.

It functioned in a similar way to Jamie’s scars: how could this not cause pain? Ppl gave $ to support the cause, just like in Ep 105.

BUT!

Jamie’s violence against oppression & colonialism is seen as justified. Highlander violence is romanticized as a righteous rebellion.

Native American and Black men have no such privilege. They’re “thugs” or “animals”—21st c for “brute” or “savage.”

Also, the Highlands also didn’t stay under military/economic occupation. Black & brown neighborhoods have.

A whole federal program—redlining—made sure of that. If your block was red, no bank loan for you! But lots of toxic industry, liquor stores, brothels.

How do blocks get colored red? Black people.

White flight made people $$$, & it justified cities cutting essential services, like trash, fire fighters.

These cities BURNED—there were ~40 fires a night in the S. Bronx in the 70s.

This still shapes our cities! Redlined neighborhoods are where the landfills & incinerators are. It’s still harder to get a business loan there.

And police surveillance/harassment is CONSTANT. One misstep, even the perception of one, & your life is over.

And there’s no escape, no new America to colonize. You can’t shed your skin, and that’s eventually what makes it ok to be Scottish or Irish in America. Only people of color live in *those* places—which are a mess BECAUSE OF policies made by white men.

If we learned anything from Season 5, it’s that people just want a place to call home. Where they can be safe, where they won’t be attacked.

Is that so much to ask?

#BlackLivesMatter #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #BreonnaTaylorWasMurdered