I want to read less from the US and more from the world.
Preface: This text was written more as a note than an article. It's closer to a rant than a thought out and planned text, and should be read as such.
I've never lived in the US, yet I somehow feel as if my life has been shaped by them. Both through export of technology, and globalisation and export of culture. I also come from a NATO country1 which to this day continues to repeat the mantra "the US are our main guarantee for our security", regardless of if we're under threat or not and regardless of to what degree the US respects international law2.
My peers used to with make jokes about Alabamas incest (they still do), or say that things are from Ohio when they are bad3. Discuss local state-level laws in the US, talk about US state-level politicians, or "dig deep" into the people campaigning to become US mayoral or presidential candidates. Talk as if they understand the difference between US citizens preference between Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, and Bernie Sanders. In a vacuum, none of this is bad. What irritates me is that it's always the US, and pretty much never outside 'the West'4.
Today I've been diging for more good sites to read. I want to read more of the American point of view - not just the US, the entire continent. I want to hear more from African scholars and journalists - in just 3 hours, Tshepo Madlingozi almost flipped my understanding of human rights on it's head and vastly expanded my world view on racism and decoloniality. Nkhata Murungi did the same. I want to read perspectives from people in Asia, in Eastern Europe, wherever they may be.
I want to discover more independent blogs from other places. Quickly running through the trending page (archived), it took me opening 8 pages to find someone who states that they live outside of the West (2 US, 3 EU-West, 2 w/o statement, 1 East Asia). A total of 3 blogs stated that they live outside the West5 Naturally, this is a very surface level excercise and shouldn't be read too much into. It oversimplifies someones experience down to where they live, and doesn't account for immigration and multiculturalism6. It's also anecdoctic and based on a single sample. Regardless, I think there is some value to pointing this pattern out.
I'm tired of only reading about Western of different wars and injustices far away from these areas - how are you supposed to actually know about a conflict that you physically cannot experience? How are you supposed to be 'intelligent' and 'reflected' on 'Middle-Eastern culture' (as if that's just one thing) if you've never visited the place, never spoken any of the languages, let alone visited an emmigrants house in your own country? 7
I enjoy reading from the EFF. I enjoy the Norwegian newspaper Morgenbladet. I used to love 404media and still enjoy poking my head in there every now and then8. I like noyb, I like the videos of Tantacrul and Hazel Thayes, I dig ava's blog, and an unfathomable amount of other authors, creators, and publications I'd love to name. But it's all western, every, single, time. It's not a criticism of any of these creators. It's an observation of a pattern that I hope will change.
There are so many great voices and creators out there who we rarely get to see. Creators not in need of the representation we always talk about, but of the presentation they deserve - they don't need us to repeat what they're saying, they should get to say it themselves; I'm not looking for yet another US-owned newspaper reporting on Iran.
Going forward, I hope to discover more creators from all over the world. This is my rant about currently not doing so.9 10
PS: Do let me know if you have any recommendations for what to read and where to find things.
Footnotes
I'm from Norway, but on exchange in Brazil↩
Zero.↩
Thankful that this stopped a few years ago↩
Which includes Australia for some reason, even though it's typically drawn furthest to the east? Anyways, US, Western Europe & Scandinavia, sometimes Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. For the record, the US is always dominant here, with specific cases of Norwegian Instagram-stories going "if you don't think [highly regressive law change wrt womens rights] in [state in US] is the most important thing in the world right now, you should unfollow this profile" (I don't remember the specifics). It's good to see international solidarity across borders, and I'm happy see attention being brought to this. I just wish even as little as 10% of the same attention was brought elsewhere as well.↩
The full tally from the 20 posts on the front page is 7 living in US, 4 in Western Europe, 5 unstated, and 3 outside of US&W-E for a total of 19 blogs. 2 of the posts were by Robert Birming in Sweden.↩
Even the descriptor "white" is an oversimplification. It does not account from where in the world, for socio-economic status, for level of education, nor for other aspects of your background (ie. the rapper Logic). White people are born in Brazil, South-Africa, Canada, Germany, Ukraine, New-Zealand and more.↩
A quick note on why background is important: Even just the concept of human rights are somewhat western, and it's a fallacy to think that this was something agreed upon by all countries in an equal manner - it's based on a western individualistic thought-pattern (I think therefore I am - we are defined as individuals. this also implies you don't think, therefore you are not, very much used to justify white mans burden etc). in opposition to ie. ubuntu (I am because you are. you are, therefore I am. This points to the understanding of the human as a whole and part of a society. "You" is also not limited to humans; it can also mean a cat, a grasshopper, a tree, a house, or the environment as a whole. We are defined by co-existence with eachother). Having a right to a good environment assumes a separation between the right-holder and the environment.↩
It gets tiring to read all the time...↩
A final note: This rant has only been made possible by being so lucky that I got to experience it through aforementioned doctors Tshepo Madlingozi and Nkhata Murungi. I'm thankful for this. As I improve my language skills here in Brazil more, I will also start reading more Brazilian newspapers.↩
A second final note: Make friends from other countries, from other continents, and from completely different parts of the world. Talk politics with them. If you live in NATO, get a perspective from outside and vice-versa. Seek to understand. Be critical of not only other governments and thought-patterns, but also your own.↩