Ideas stolen by Racists
Attempts have been made to reduce the origin of philosophy to Europe. This is part of a calculation to reduce the world to European thinking and has been described as a conscious attempt to enshrine white supremacy and European cultural dominance. A bias exists in the study of history and politics by placing a dominate impression around the Greek tradition as if no other tradition has validity. After the Berlin Conference of 1885, a meeting that divided the world amongst the racist and colonial nations of Europe, the struggle against racism became clearer as the world was heading toward WWI. Europe had begun the process of carving up of the world for themselves using false ideas more than before.
The Berlin Conference was the beginning of spliting ethnic populations using maps and borderlines that they invented. Kwame Nkrumah, the leader and revolutionary from Ghana, and eventual leader of Pan-Africanism, may have been the first to use the term “ethnophilosophy.” However, all the dimensions of African philosophy should be viewed across time frames and countries. From ancient times up to the present, all philosophies have addressed the concerns of justice and the well-being of the people. Frantz Fanon, Charles Mills (Black thinkers), and many others have addressed and explored the meaning of life and the reality of those meanings, not just the Greeks.
One could argue that much of the Greek tradition is not simply their invention applicable to the entire planet. The criticism of traditional European thought centering aroundwhiteness is absurd and not historical. The European tendency to regard philosophy as only that which is written, while oral traditions are ignored is no doubt racist. This tendency is associated with Plato, and other European thinkers, taking the position that ideas were only to be understood by the philosophers that came from Europe. Prior to the European colonial conquests, African political culture and philosophy was based on an “elders tradition, the warriors tradition, the wisdom tradition, and a monarchial trend.” These traditions are presently viewed in opposition to Western philosophy.
Many philosophical scholars have embraced the idea that all of philosophy is ethnic in origin and based on the culture it came from. The study of ethnic philosophical systems is known as ethnophilosophy. Greek philosophy is not the only philosophy for all peoples and cultures around the world. Many have argued that all of philosophy is ethnic based, an idea that is disturbing to Eurocentric racist thinkers. The idea that philosophy has its origins in Greece, is challenged in that the origins of Greek philosophy can be traced back to ancient Egypt.This is the concept of “Stolen Legacy” whereby African political and philosophical thought spread to Greece and other areas but is denied by racist historians. For example, the Greek Goddess Isis is an Egyptian God that Greece borrowed or stole .It can be argued that much of European philosophy is seen in Chinese, and East Indian philosophy as well but not acknowledged.
Stealing ideas is common in Europe and America. Racists like to make it look like it was their invention. Originally, the idea of being “Woke” in the Black community simply meant that one was aware of racism and other issues, but now Trumpershave twisted it. The quote, “Speak softly and carry a big stick” was stolen by Teddy Roosevelt from a West African proverb. Even now, the Republican Party and Trump followers are trying to steal the legacy of Martin Luther King by having a counter event on the day of the MLK March in San Antonio.
