Posted by Dawud on July 08, 2101 at 03:07:16:

In Reply to: 'Abdu'l-Baha on Africans and Violence posted by Darrick Evenson on July 07, 2101 at 23:30:32:

Abdul-Baha aside, I used to live in southern Africa, and still follow the political situation there fairly closely. Sure, all the stereotypical black jungle-type behavior can be readily observed there--cannibalism, rape and violence on a massive scale, ignorance and superstition that defies all attempts to educate it. (Mbeki based his AIDS policy on his private conviction that the disease doesn't really exist, lots of *literal* witch-hunts going on where people actually get killed.) I won't deny the IQ differences either--that's a question for biologists, but I have to say that it rings true from personal experience.

BUT.... couldn't we come up with similarly scathing criticisms of other races and geographic regions? (including some from the Baha'i writings, I bet.) For example Europe brought colonialism to most of the world (okay, Japan too, and granting there've been lots of other empires and dictatorships outside the West). How does this compare on the scale of evil with Africans' seemingly greater propensity to commit violence?

Of course Europe is more than the sum of its failings...and so is Africa. Who knows, maybe its strengths will turn out to be precisely the ones needed by other races and civilizations.

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