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Oct
29
Can Someone Please Help This Deluded Nigerian?
Filed Under Uncategorized by Rachel
I got a lovely email today from one of my detractors, and he forwarded me this article.? I guess the “Rachel Critic” was trying to prove black people really are inferior, and he found a black person who said this, which tickled his heart.? The article is written by a Nigerian guy (who might as well be related to the now banned Vijay Coomar). Here is a quote:
A few days ago, the Nobel Laureate, Dr James Watson, made a remark that is now generating worldwide uproar, especially among the blacks.
He said what to me looks like a self-evident truth. He told The Sunday Times of London in an interview that in his humble opinion, black people are less intelligent than the White people.
Since then, some of us cannot hear anything else but the outrage of black people who feel demeaned by what Watson has said. So many people have called the man names. To be expected, some have said he is a racist. Some even wonder how a “foolish” man like Watson could have won the Nobel Prize. Even white people who, deep in their heart, agree with Watson want to be politically, correct so they condemn the man.
Why are we blacks becoming so reactive, so sensitive to any remarks, no matter how well-meaning, about our failure as a race? Why are we becoming like the Jews who see every accusation as a manifestation of anti-Semitism? I do not know what constitutes intelligence. I leave that to our so-called scholars. But I do know that in terms of organising society for the benefit of the people living in it, we blacks have not shown any intelligence in that direction at all. I am so ashamed of this and sometimes feel that I ought to have belonged to another race.
Nigeria my dear country is a prime example of the inferiority of the black race when compared to other races. Let somebody please tell me whether it is a manifestation of intelligence if a people cannot organise a free, fair and credible election to choose who will lead them. Is it intelligence that we cannot provide simple pipe-borne water for the people? Our public school system has virtually collapsed. Is that a sign of intelligence? Our roads are impassable. In spite of the numerous sources that nature has made available to us to tap for energy to run our industries and homes, we have no steady supply of electricity. Yet electricity is the bedrock of industrialisation. When you agree with the school of Watson, some say you are incorrect because all these failures are a result of poor leadership. Why must it be us blacks who must always suffer poor leadership? Is that not a manifestation of unintelligence?
Can somebody please tell me where they find these self-hating black people? It seems like newspapers and other media outlets go out of their way to give people of color with these reactionary views a platform.
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12 Responses to “Can Someone Please Help This Deluded Nigerian?”
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Nigeria my dear country is a prime example of the inferiority of the black race when compared to other races. Let somebody please tell me whether it is a manifestation of intelligence if a people cannot organise a free, fair and credible election to choose who will lead them. Is it intelligence that we cannot provide simple pipe-borne water for the people? Our public school system has virtually collapsed. Is that a sign of intelligence? Our roads are impassable. In spite of the numerous sources that nature has made available to us to tap for energy to run our industries and homes, we have no steady supply of electricity.
Rachel, Context is key.
This is a sarcastic attack (made in a tabloid) on the fiscally conservative PDP, who the author is blaming for the current infrastructural problems in Nigeria while chastising them for their alleged corruption/unfair election practices and favoritism in regards to Asian/Indian citizens.
It wasnt even edited for spelling. (organsie v. organize)
At the risk of sounding insensitive, the IQ and Real GDP Per Capita data sets are linked to below (Professor Richard Lynn, University of Ulster):
http://www.isteve.com/IQ_Table.htm
Nigeria: average IQ=67; GDP per capita=$795
Ken: “organise” is a British spelling varient of the US “organize.” Perfectly legit.
Bill: IQ is really only as good as your education and as unbiased as the test-makers. Is that what you’re trying to say?
Good to know, Lyonside.
um, to downplay the fact I’ve just made an ass out of myself by not knowing how to spell, I’ll ask this question:
Does that change the fact that this guy isn’t agreeing with Watson?
Ok Seriously,
I think the funny part here is that the detractor who sent Rachel this article actually thought it was a serious defense of Watson.
Ken, His article is filled with anti-black racist stereotypes. I have no idea what you are reading.
Well Rachel, this is interesting disagreement we have here.
I still think hes being a wiseass.
Now, I could be wrong and just unwilling to admit that a black african could write such a thing in seriousness, or reading too much into it or whatever.
But I did some searching and found at least one person who seems to share my impression.
I am a Nigerian and I know Idang Alibi, but those who see his write up in the Nigerian tabloid as a justification for the rascist lunacy of Watson are merely looking for excuse for their deep-seated rascism. Idang’s ignorant piece was informed more by anger at the loss of the presidential candidate his paper supported in the last Nigerian election and (possibly) by the infrastructural situation in Nigeria than his belief in his own inferiority to whites. Let us briefly look at the argument….
http://motls.blogspot.com/2007/10/james-watson-resigns-support-from.html
What do you think?
self-hating Black men are made not born…he’s taken the fools leap from corrupt, ineffective leadership (in Nigeria) to our intellectual fitness as an ethnic group…i pity the brother.
They pay for them, of course. I think there’s an outlet store in Jersey…
Hating on Black folks has been an industry since colonial days…one of the few that have never discriminated.
I just love the gratuitous slap at Jews — nice to know we still have a role to play in classic racism.
Dave, Yeah, I saw that. It’s like he was reading from the white supremacist manual.
Greetings, Rachel.
Mr. Alibi is not a lone voice in Nigeria. Another columnist at his newspaper, the Daily Trust, wrote a similar column last weekend, in support of Alibi and Dr. Watson. Her name is Zainab Kperogi, and here’s a taste:
“Most of us blacks simply do not have the capacity to think very deeply, and a people that can’t do this, in addition to planning, strategising and organising, can’t make progress.”
Idang Alibi himself wrote a follow-up column yesterday, saying he got more than 100 supportive phone calls after his last column. He was expecting to be labeled a “sell-out and a self-hater.”
There’s something going on here that busts the walls out of our U.S. paradigm of racial thought. (And Ken, it’s not satire!)
I blogged about it, by the way. No answers, just questions.
[...] the information in the article, I was reminded of a post over on the Undercover Black Man blog (h/t Rachel’s Tavern) surrounding some inflammatory remarks made by Nigerian writers after James Waston’s famous [...]