“Aimee,
I have never seen you have your own opinion. It seems you want to be one of the boys.”

I do happen to agree with the other comments on this post. I didn’t realize that was a crime.

If you read the comments on religious parents denying medical care and issues on abortion you would see that I do have my own opinion and they don’t always jive with the author of the post.

I just don’t go out of my way to find fault or racist comments in everything I read on here or anywhere else.

I am not smart enough to read your mind. Apparently, I can’t even read your words as you intended:

I wish non Africans would stop interpreting African proverbs to suit their purposes.

What does that mean, exactly? It seems to imply that only Africans can interpret African proverbs/stories. Or that the story should only serve an African purpose.

I asked what you meant. I assumed it wasn’t what it appeared on the surface: “a jingoist or racist comment asserting that only people of a certain country, continent, or skin color could possibly understand the story.”

Given any lack of coherent alternative response, I am forced to assume that there isn’t one. I’d rather be wrong.

I apologize again for evoking such an emotional response, but emotions are not arguments. There is a passive aggressive fallacy in debate. It now seems as if you are falling to this. Correct me if I’m wrong, but please do it with reasons. I’ve tiptoed enough.

Professor Heriot made an apt comparison between something that actually happened in the past and something that seems to be happening now. The fact that the original event took place in Africa is irrelevant to the point being made.

Al Gore would do well to read Luke 6:42. (and no, I don’t speak Greek, I read a translation) There are many people who genuinely seem to care about their own impact on the environment and it shows. I wouldn’t put him in that category.

I believe tarran’s statement to be correct, “If we kill our cattle, we too will starve.” Attempting to maintain the climate of the planet within some range that we choose is arrogant if not asinine. If the planet were sentient and so inclined it could literally shake us off like so many gnats. We have nothing to compare with the sheer power of the natural events that occur on a daily basis all around us.

Aimee,
I have never seen you have your own opinion. It seems you want to be one of the boys.

—————————————–
Everyone here always jumps to conclusions so to add something to the conversation one has to go line by line to correct wrong assumptions. I guess they think they are so smart they can read your mind.

Before I could respond to tarran, I get a response like this.
“I’m assuming it’s not just a jingoist or racist comment asserting that only people of a certain country, continent, or skin color could possibly understand the story.”

You need to take a deep breath and get over your high and mighty self.

You are so far out on left field on this one that you aren’t even playing in the same ballgame.

I am pissed off that there is this search to find some black person to justify white speech. That smacks too much of slavery.

And yes, there can be no discussion, because I, and I think others, still can’t figure out what exactly you are alleging. You have coyly claimed you are opposed to bad scholarship, but have not backed it up by pointing out what Professor Heriot wrote that constituted bad scholarship. You have made nonsensical comments to the effect that non-Africans talking about African history smacked of slavery. I’m being charitable and assuming that you were being honest when you claimed that your use of the word proverb was a mistake rather than a knee-jerk reaction to my pithy title based on an assumption that I was quoting some african proverb.

Again, it is you who have been grousing about some people outside a group using the historical experiences of people inside the group to make a point. And, I should point out, you are implicitly arguing against the notion that the Xhosa are psychologically similar to we who live in the United states nearly a century later. In other words, I am claiming that the Xhosa are part of the same human family that we Americans are, and you’re getting huffy and offended about it.

And I like the pithy proverb as coined by tarran. It makes a clear point.

To me, the original story could have been in Martian. It makes no difference to the point being illuminated. Even if we could find a scholar who could demonstrate that the original story was taken completely out of its original context, or that there was no such Xhosa story that ever existed, the story as presented would still be an accurate allegory of using current Climate Change dogma to justify destructive political policies.

And, of course, no such scholar has yet stepped forward, rendering the entire issue so much “sound and fury”.

Could you please translate that into coherent English? Because I don’t see how that
a) answers the simple yes/no questions I was asking
b) has any relevance to the discussion.

I certainly am not asking you to tell me what black people you disagree with. They are irrelevant to the matter.

I do however point out that you are the one who introduced race into the discussion, and have, despite my repeated questions failed to substantiate any of your racially charged and inflammatory comments.

DO YOU THINK THIS IS A LIE?
“I don’t think I have to list
every person I take issue with including black people to make the statement I did. I only said non-Africans not white people.”

I can’t have an opinion unless it is base on race so why bother to provide any scholar ship.

YOU PLAY THE RACE CARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or are you merely saying she must have gotten something wrong because she is non-African?

The Xhosa cattle killing took place. Most of the cattle were killed by their owners who were led to believe it would bring about a better life. The source of this belief was a teenage girl. In the space of a year, two out of every three members of the tribe died. These are all well documented facts.

I am having trouble understanding how anybody could read that passage and its terse narrative and immediately think “bad scholarship”. Moreover, before complaining about bad scholarship, you might want to investigate whether the passage you are critiquing actually contains any bad scholarship, and to use that evidence to educate the rest of us. All you have provided us, to this point, are insinuations based on nothing more than racial or ethnic prejudice.

It’s obvious.

1) There is no African proverb in the story. The statement that if you kill your cattle, you will starve is of my own invention. It’s a statement of fact…

2) I am not searching for some black person to justify white speech. I honestly don’t care about the color or a person’s skin unlike some of our readers.

3) Human beings are not very different today than they were at the beginning of recorded history; ergo, you see the same patterns of behavior showing up time and time again when you look across human history. Thus, it is instructive to examine historical events that are analogous to the present to try to identify the proper way to handle them. Or, as some dead white male put it “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it”.

4) People (or races) don’t own history. Nor is examining the history that of some other ethnic group somehow exploiting them. Oddly enough, VRB, you are not the first person I have encountered who seemed to think that only members of a particular race could use the history of that race; your comment reminded me of an essay I read on David Duke’s website (yeah the KKK guy) that made a similar argument, albeit from a ‘White Nationalist’ perspective when I was doing research for this post.