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Book burning, Berlin, Germany, May 10, 1933 |
On April 8, 1933, the Main
Office for Press
and Propaganda
of the German Student Union (DSt) proclaimed a
nationwide "Action against the Un-German Spirit", which was to climax
in a literary purge or "cleansing" ("Säuberung") by fire.
According to historian Karl Dietrich Bracher:
[T]he exclusion of
"Left", democratic, and Jewish literature took precedence over
everything else. The black-lists ... ranged from Bebel,
Bernstein, Preuss,
and Rathenau through Einstein,
Freud,
Brecht,
Brod, Döblin,
Kaiser,
the Mann
brothers, Zweig, Plievier,
Ossietzky, Remarque, Schnitzler,
and Tucholsky, to Barlach,
Bergengruen, Broch,
Hoffmannsthal, Kästner,
Kasack,
Kesten,
Kraus,
Lasker-Schüler, Unruh,
Werfel,
Zuckmayer,
and Hesse.
The catalogue went back far enough to include literature from Heine
and Marx
to Kafka.[3]
That was pre-World War 2 in what would later become Nazi
Germany under the control of Adolf Hitler.
You may have heard of him. He
was responsible for allowing and encouraging
the burning of books by the previously mentioned authors.
Now, fast forward to 2021, and we’re right back where things
started almost 90 years ago: Burning
books pertaining to LGBTQ people, Blacks/Black Lives Matter/Critical Race
Theory, and many other topics.
It seems as though White people across the United States
have become very delicate, arrogant, entitled and afraid that they somehow
in 2021, maybe 2022, will become a small, minority very soon. Well, um, NO, not in the immediate future.
The bigger issue is that, aside from the book burning and
banning is the notion that White children will “be shamed and embarrassed” by pointing out that ancestors of their
White parents (immigrants from Europe... primarily White people in the 1600s) went to Africa 400 years ago (400 + 2, by now) to bring
generations of African Natives here to America in order to build the country, our country, because they were too lazy
to do it themselves. Instead, once the
African Natives were here, those who survived the journey, they were bought,
sold, traded and enslaved for generations as a commodity in order to do the
back-breaking work that White men and women were too lazy to do themselves.
HA! And we're supposed to feel BAD for the parents now afraid to say the words "Critical Race Theory" for fear that they will feel shamed??? Seriously?
I’m sure there’s lots
more, but let’s just stick to the basics for now, because it seems like in
2020, we’ve come to a reckoning about that
original sin of 1619.
And White woman, Mom, crying those crocodile tears at a
school board meeting about how, “Just because I don’t want my (White blonde-haired daughter/son)
child learning about Critical Race Theory doesn’t
make me racist.”
1)
YES, IT
DOES, otherwise why the show? Why
the drama? I don’t take any pleasure in this, but as a White,
adult male, you SHOULD be ashamed about your behavior if only because you ARE
part of the problem, NOT the solution. You are so delicate that you can't even say the words "Critical", "Race", or "Theory" together without losing your mind and having a tantrum. A
problem doesn’t get solved or simply go away because we ignore it. YES, you ARE
racist. ALL White people in the U.S. are because they/we have ALL benefited
from that White Privilege, that position/station in our society. For us, White people, it’s all about inclusion, but for some reason(s) with
Blacks (and other minorities here) it’s all about exclusion, being left out or cast
aside.
2)
Book
Burnings? Seriously? YES, the United States has become pre-Nazi Germany with this behavior. Just because you choose to burn books
pertaining to and including characters that are transgendered, Black, LGBTQi, slaves/slavery/lynchings
doesn’t mean they don’t exist or did not
happen. It’s called “White-washing History”, glossing over
all of the bad, hurtful, painful, bigoted, racist, xenophobic things we, WHITE PEOPLE, have done to “others”,
people who are of different racial and ethnic backgrounds from our own.
STOP DOING THAT! NOW!
And no amount of crocodile tears or
screaming about little Johnny/Janie at a school board meeting is going to
change the fact that YOU ARE RACIST. I’m,
frankly, embarrassed as an adult White male living in the U.S. that I have to
point that out to you because I know in that tunnel-vision, limited experience,
small town mentality of yours (YES…. YOURS!) this is how you view the
world outside of your town or county: BAD
PEOPLE COMING TO TAKE OVER.
Trust me, you’re NOT that
interesting that anyone, anywhere wants to come there and “infiltrate” your
pea-brain little hamlet. NO ONE.
Oh, and be careful what you wish
for:
It likely will happen to you sooner than you
think.
... and just for fun, more responses!
