The row centres around the exhibition ‘This is Colonialism’ and the museum’s decision to restrict white people from entering a small section of the display

Police officers are gathered in front of the Zeche Zollern museum in Dortmund, the focus of what social networks are describing as a racism scandal.

The row centres around the exhibition ‘This is Colonialism’ and the museum’s decision to restrict white people from entering a small section of the display. For several months now, Saturdays at the museum have been reserved for black people and people of colour to explore a colonialism exhibition

The museum claims the objective is not to be discriminatory, but to reserve a safe space for reflection for non-whites.

  • darq@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    But reality is built on principles. Seeking to align reality with our principles is why life is less shitty now than it was in the 60s, or the 1910s, or the 1800s.

    And dogmatically sticking to principles in ignorance of reality is why we are still contending with so much crap in our lives to this day.

    Sometimes we are going to need to deviate from principle. Because reality demands it, and shying away from it leads to worse outcomes.

    Accepting the ‘mess’ as it is is nothing but stagnation and conservatism (in the realest sense, not in the ‘reactionary chud’ sense).

    I said literally nothing about accepting the mess. You are completely off the mark with this comment.

    I don’t necessarily disagree with the (hoho) principle of this, but that doesn’t mean that those things should be seen as ‘not bad’. They are bad. But they’re a necessary evil, at best, and one should expect backlash to them, and such backlash is not inherently unreasonable, even if it is the least bad solution available at the time.

    If that backlash consistently prevents action to improve people’s lives, then it becomes its own evil.

    Deviation from principle should be recognised as what it is, unfortunate but sometimes temporarily necessary because we do not live in a perfect world. It shouldn’t be permanent. But yes we do sometimes have to take less-tha-perfect actions.

    Even if it’s not the same in practice, that the principle is wrong should result in us seeking alternate paths around such solutions. Allowing bad principle to take root only ensures that it will remain, and torment future generations. I don’t want to live in a society that’s no longer racist against black people, but has then decided that those of Nepalese descent are just fundamentally disruptive to certain parts of ‘our’ society.

    You are making a whole bunch of assumptions about my position here. That any deviation from a pure principle is going to become permanent, or that I’d support it becoming permanent. And that is just not what I’m arguing for.

    • PugJesus@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      You are making a whole bunch of assumptions about my position here. That any deviation from a pure principle is going to become permanent, or that I’d support it becoming permanent. And that is just not what I’m arguing for.

      As I said elsewhere, it’s not that it’s intended to be permanent. It’s that temporary solutions often entrench themselves as stubbornly as permanent ones. But I’m done with this argument as a whole. I think we started poorly but ended better, but the whole subject exhausts me. Please just keep in mind that these exclusionary behaviors, in addition to the principles mentioned, create no end of trouble simply by their very existence with regards to the identity and belonging of mixed-race individuals.

      • darq@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Please just keep in mind that these exclusionary behaviors, in addition to the principles mentioned, create no end of trouble simply by their very existence with regards to the identity and belonging of mixed-race individuals.

        That is fair, and I’m sorry you have to put up with that. It is often the same in my country for mixed race people, our implementation of affirmative action is far from ideal to say the least.

        I think we may have started from different sets of assumptions and argued past each other a bit. I’m sorry for that.

        • PugJesus@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          I apologize too. I let my frustration and aggression boil over against someone operating in good-faith. Too used to dealing with people operating in bad faith, lmao.