Ghana’s President John Mahama has received the African Union’s backing in pushing the United Nations to recognize transatlantic slavery as the ‘gravest crime against humanity.’
There is broad historical consensus that the transatlantic slave trade between the 15th and 19th centuries, which involved the kidnapping, enslavement and transport of millions of Africans to the Americas and the Caribbean, was one of the biggest tragedies in human history.
Huge fucking dog whistle right here.
How’s that a fucking dogwhistle? The article is about a superlative claim. Superlatives by nature invite what people are referring to as “whataboutism.”
It’s like if you say your chili is the best chili ever, and someone else says “well I don’t know, my neighbor makes pretty good chili.” You wouldn’t be like “shut the fuck up you fucking asshole, nobody asked for your opinion.” Um, no, you invited everyone else’s opinion when you claimed yours is the best.
That’s how superlatives work and why they’re unnecessary and inappropriate in this context. There have been lots of atrocities in the world, but picking one to declare the absolute worst ever is not fair to the victims of all the other atrocities.
If someone said “the holocaust was the biggest crime against humanity ever” and someone else said “what about the african slave trade?” You wouldn’t call that an antisemitic dogwhistle, would you?
It should be possible to talk about multiple atrocities without getting into slap fights about which one is the singular worst. There’s no prize for “first place.”
On the absolutely miniscule chance that you’re actually asking and are not just being a sea lion I will explain this to you. Whenever someone brings up the transatlantic slave trade, a racist will respond with saying well what about the Arab slave trade. This happens with stunning regularity. That’s why everyone who’s been around long enough will recognize it for the dog whistle it is. That’s why the upvotes and downvotes are the way they are here. We’ve all seen it a hundred times. It is an extremely well-known dog whistle.
Hope that helps.
I’ve never seen it before, but in this context the post is about someone making a superlative claim. So it’s entirely possible and reasonable to leave a genuine reminder that there have been other atrocities that shouldn’t be swept to the wayside just to crown one as the singular worst.
I wouldn’t have picked the Arab slave trade as an example. Seems strange to mention one from a millennium ago when there are plenty to choose from in the past few centuries. Maybe the holocaust, the holodomor, or the genocide of Native Americans. But I saw other commenters calling those dogwhistles too.
I just don’t think those and the African slave trade need to compete for the title of “biggest crime against humanity.” They were all really bad, and there’s no need to pit the victims of each against each other. That’s the only thing being accomplished by making a superlative claim in this context.
Called it.
So you don’t know how it compares?