[A-List] A Dane speaks out

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[A-List]
________________________________


*	To: "The A-List" <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >
*	Subject: Re: [A-List] A Dane speaks out
*	From: "Hugh Whinfrey" <hugh@xxxxxxxxxxxx
CB asks:

>
> CB: I apologizing for being so dense. I can't quite get what you say. Are
> you saying that the Danes have been nice by trying integrate them ? Or
that
> the Danes have not welcomed them and that's why they haven't integrated ?
> Sorry for not being able to catch the subtlety.

Yes. Bingo. You've got hold of about half of it there. What you're refusing
to see is that both could be the case. Like white folks who donate at church
to help those in the inner city ghettos but would rather move than have
Blacks for neighbours, the way people act is inherently fill of logical
contradictions.

^^^^^^
CB; Oh, you mean liberal racism, The White Man's Burden. You are saying the
Danes are having White Man's Burdens. Sure. We got white liberals in Detroit
too. White people as victims (
Burdened) of their own charity and goodness to dark people. Poor things.

Well, if as the poet said, the Americans don't pick up the Whiteman's burden
, the Danes gotta do it.

^^^^^^

The other half of it is that the case is similar for the Muslims in Denmark,
they're being nice too but they don't necessarily want any of the cultural
stuff that goes with assimilation. Many are in fact refugees, so they have
legitimate desires to retain their culture. Others simply believe Muslim
culture is superior and have
a right as Danish citizens to believe whatever they want.

There are many Palestinians being 'warehoused' here, desperately trying to
hang on to their culture. Assimilation is arguably an obligation of an
immigrant, whereas with a refugee it is not. Three generations later, this
refugee status is problematic both ways. This is only a part of the overall
problem, it has many
components. One could blame some of it on Israel for not allowing them to
return. Instead, they are demonised in the press around the world for not
assimilating. Things are never what they seem and the problem is somewhat
intractable, all across Europe, until Israel gives some ground on the
matter. Anyway, this was why I was encouraging you to think it through.

^^^^^
CB: Yes, having gone through the thought, the question " How are the 200,000
Muslims going to force the 5.2 million Danes to give up their culture ? "
doesn't seem unthoughtful,though. In all you say above, the _Dane's_ culture
doesn't seem threatened. It is the immigrants and refugees whose culture
seems threatened by force of assimilation

^^^^^^

>
> I think there were some indigenous groups that were friendly and helpful
to
> the first Europeans here.

The Muslims feel they have a superior culture. Over in North America, the
Europeans felt they had the superior culture. This is why a "Minister of
Integration" approach seems pompous to the other side. I thought maybe the
analogy would be helpful to you in visualising one of the things that is
going on.

^^^^^
CB; I'm not sure that the indigneous peoples didn't realize that their
cultures were superior to the Europeans' culture in many ways.
Unfortunately, one of the ways that indigenous culture was superior to
European culture was that they were to willing to integrate them into the
local place, make peace with them, which the Europeans betrayed.

Analogy is half: Muslims don't want to integrate in Denmark. Europeans
didn't want to integrate in Turtle Island. But Muslims aren't trying to take
over. Europeans were trying to take over.

^^^^^^^

>
> Is this Hugh from Thaxis ?

No. From Denmark.

Hugh

^^^
CB: Hugh was writing to Thaxis from Denmark. Maybe there are two Hughs in
Denmark.