this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2024
218 points (91.6% liked)

Black People Twitter

755 readers
1 users here now

founded 1 year ago
 

Right wing authoritarianism isn’t subtle.


edit:

added context:

Here is what Ben is replying to:

Pro-Palestinian protesters a part of a group called “𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧,” vandalized a historic painting of Arthur James Balfour at Trinity College Cambridge in England.

Arthur Balfour wrote the Balfour Declaration of 1917 when he was serving as the British Foreign Minister. The letter expressed Britain's support for a Jewish Homeland in what is now Israel.

Direct link(should work for a bit): https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1766117900644151296/vid/avc1/720x1280/pQDXaeuPY2vYbJdX.mp4?tag=14

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Tired of writing this: this painting is not some culturally important piece of art. It's a little over 100 years old, hanging in a university, of a man that was responsible for massacres in Ireland (Mitchelstown Massacre) which got him the name "Bloody Balfour". Regardless of where you stand on Palestine, Balfour was not a good human and this is akin to toppling a minor statue of a Confederate in America - one that is not even on display to the wider public.

EDIT to add a quote from Balfour when asked about whether the treatment of Black people in South Africa was immoral:

“We have to face the facts,” Lord Balfour said. “Men are not born equal, the white and black races are not born with equal capacities: they are born with different capacities which education cannot and will not change.”

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Christ what an asshole Balfour was. Bigotry is so fucking wrong I can't even make coherent words.