white people being the oppressor in history: a thread

*disclaimer: this isn’t meant to be “anti-white” or anything, it’s meant to show why white people have never been oppressed because of their race

let’s start with Native Americans: the colonization of the Americas led to the virtual extinction of Native Americans. at first the British wanted to respect Native American territories, but once the colonists gained their independence, that was not the case.

Manifest Destiny was the idea that the colonists (now Americans) had to expand the United States past the initial 13 colonies. many laws were passed forcing Native Americans to relocate west, including the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which led to the infamous Trail of Tears.

in the late 1800s, after fighting a series of wars, Native Americans were forced to attend schools which stripped them of their culture and forced them to become more “westernized.” this directly contributed to the virtual extinction of Native Americans.

I’m sure we all know about slavery by now. however, many don’t realize that the United States government constantly defended slave owners. there were many compromises made by the US govt such as the 3/5ths Compromise and the Missouri Compromise.

although Abraham Lincoln was responsible for freeing slaves in America, he said he only did it in order to preserve the Union and beat the Confederacy during the Civil War.

the 13th Amendment (1865) bans slavery UNLESS it is a form of punishment. this led to many black people being put in jail for ridiculous reasons shortly after the end of the Civil War.

although legally black people were free, they had little to no rights. white people made it almost impossible for black people to vote, and extremist groups such as the KKK went around lynching and torturing innocent black people. segregation lasted until the 1960s.

white people weren’t just oppressors in the US. Social Darwinism became a popular ideology in the 1800s. it was the theory that people who become powerful were better than everyone else. this was used as a justification of imperialism by European powers.

in 1899, Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem titled “The White Man’s Burden,” which justified imperialism by stating white people were “helping” the people in the areas they imperialized because they were basically “too stupid to help themselves.”

Africa was affected greatly by European imperialism. The Berlin Conference (1884) divided the continent between European powers. Africans were beat, raped, and killed by white people who settled their land for resources. millions of Africans died as a result.

India was also affected by European imperialism. Britain was responsible for destroying the Indian economy as well as the deaths of millions of Indian people. in 1947, India was granted freedom, and its borders were redrawn to create Pakistan, relocating Muslim Indians there.

Bangladesh was also created for Muslim Indians to relocate to as well, however the creation of the new borders led to many conflicts, such as the ongoing Kashmir conflict.

this thread is meant to show that white people have a history of being the oppressor. these events were motivated by the idea that white people were the superior race and justified by Social Darwinism and “The White Man’s Burden.”

feel free to share this thread with anyone that tries arguing that whites people don’t have a history of being the oppressor <3

I also wanna make it clear that I am in no way blaming white people now for the actions of their ancestors. I just wanted to point out the history that many tend to ignore when arguing against movements such as the black lives matter movement.

here’s a thread of petitions to sign: https://twitter.com/problematicsyre/status/1285769649171369984?s=21 https://twitter.com/problematicsyre/status/1285769649171369984