Bronz Zoo’s Apology For The Incarceration Of 0ta Benga Came 114 Years After The Offence

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Unknown author, public domain. 

Joel Kontinen 

 In 1904, the African pigmy Ota Benga (1883-1916) was put in a in Bronx Zoo, to show his affinity to monkeys . 

 Here’s what Darwin said racism in his book The Descent of Man; “At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace throughout the world the savage races. At the same time, the anthropomorphous apes. . . will no doubt be exterminated. The break will then be rendered wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as at present between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla.” (vol. 1, p. 201). 

 Here's what the BBC says about Ota Benga: Ota Benga was kidnapped from what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1904 and taken to the US to be exhibited. Journalist Pamela Newkirk, who has written extensively about the subject, looks at the attempts over the decades to cover up what happened to him. The zoo’s apology comes in the wake of global protests prompted by the videotaped police killing of George Floyd that again shone a bright light on racism in the United States. Why did not the angry protesters take of the statue of Darwin, who seems to be the case of all racism in the USA. 

 

In 1904, the African pigmy  Ota Benga (1883-1916) was put in a in Bronx Zoo, to show his affinity to monkeys,

Outrage from Christian ministers ended his incarceration, that was ended after 20 days.  The zoo’s apology comes in the wake of global protests prompted by the videotaped police killing of George Floyd that again shone a bright light on racism in the United States. 

 Why did not the angry protesters take of the statue of Darwin, who seems to be the case of all racism in the USA?. 

 Source: 

BBC News. Caged Congolese man: Why a zoo took 114 years to apologise BBC News 27 OCTOBER 

Wave of Covid Brings Worldwide Wave of Anti-semitism

Image courtesy of AndresHerutJaim, public domain.




Joel Kontinen


The tragic and shocking killing of Afro-American George Floyd by a white policeman in Minneapolis, a new stage has emerged where some anti-Israel activists inject anti-Semitic themes into valid civil rights protests. They claimt that the slave traders who brought Africans to America were Jews; police forces in the US are brutal and racist because they are trained by the Israel Police; and that African- Americans and Palestinians share the same cruel fate.

The controversy is not limited to the USA, In Europe, and the Near East, the covid-19 pandemic has created a unique way of anti-Semitism.

"It partly reiterates classic antisemitic themes, includes conspiracy theories alongside medieval blood libels, now renewed in a 21st century format. An Oxford University study revealed that 19.1% of the British public believe that the Jews caused the pandemic."
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Dr. Giovanni Quer, an Italian researcher at the Kantor center, which collected data for the study, said: “Universal disasters have been attributed to the Jews and Israel before, giving rise to anti-Semitic discourse such as conspiracy theories blaming Israel for 9/11 or false reports accusing Israeli soldiers of harvesting organs from the bodies of dead Palestinians. The current wave of antisemitism is unprecedented, however, because, spreading very swiftly through the social media, it focused at first on the COVID-19 crisis and then quickly moved on because of social and political changes,” he said.

Islamists describe Israel as the COVID-1948 virus – after the year in which the Jewish state was established.

In Israel, Israel and the Israel Defense Forces are constantly accused of spreading the coronavirus by force among Palestinians, especially inmates in Israeli prisons. This claim, however, completely ignores the facts: So far only one person has died of coronavirus in the Palestinian Authority and Gaza.

Source

Itzkovich, Judy Siege, 2020. Worldwide Wave of Covid Brings Worldwide Wave of Anti-semitism Israeli Study Reveals. Breaking Israel News 23 June.