#generalisations

I know it doesnt really help, but i always take a historical view on current events. When did the concept of White become synonymous to established cultural, economic, political hegemony? I know White likes to trace its roots back to Rome and Greece, but really werent those people more like olive and tan? I ask this because im trying to gauge how long this period of White has lasted.

There are entire pieces of spacetime they dont teach in us schools on world history. I only have passing knowledge of the byzantine empire (it "came after rome" and "capital was constantinople"). Know a bit more about the ottoman empire because i was a research assistant for a history professor who was dedicated to that region (and so many languages! Once had to try to format a bibliography with sources written in arabic, greek, turkish, romanian, bulgarian, persian- i forget the rest. They had a class system based on religion- they were a multireligious empire though muslims held the majority).

Know nothing about mughal, persian, arabic empires, nothing whatsoever about anything pertaining to africa- and of course the south american empires were demolished by europeans. But i guess my point is some of these empires lasted hundreds of years. China claims something like five thousand years of continued existence and dominance in east asia.

So when the election happened i was horrified, and i mean i still am. But my point is that the us has been an uncontested superpower for...30 years? Thats like a pop song that lasted one day at the top of the charts and then immediately fell into obscurity, if your timespan ranges back to the extinction of the neanderthals.

I just wonder if this whole "white lives matter" business is because the nation seems to have risen and possibly began falling(?) within the span of one generation. A dizzying rise and the forecasts of a dark, precipitous fall. White people got a taste of global power after wwii. Then 2010 comes around and it all seems to melt like so much dust.

This argument is probably problematic, but i kind of think of a young (male, white, protestant, etc) person given a chance at the helm of an incredibly complex and dizzingly powerful machine, and now that they feel threatened, like they might be booted off, being told they fucked up a lot of stuff and did terrible shit to people even before they had a go at the machine, they cling all the more to what power they perceive they'd always had. Creon comes to mind. Well, now ive gone and generalised about an entire demographic, making assumptions and wild approximations based on my feelings about things.

Hurrah.