The following three points to ponder entered my head over the course of the last twenty four hours:
The USA is the only country (of which I know) where adding a modifier/qualifier for someone who's not white (Afro-, Asian-, Latin-, etc.) implies that one is less of an American. (In America, White Pride gets you called "very fine people" by the former president and being Black or native gets you in trouble.) In SA, it's the opposite. (Being a Black/native or Indian South African is a source of pride. Being a white South African, not so much. Here, White Pride gets you into prison.)
If French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish all stem from Latin, why have I only ever heard of Portuguese and Spanish speakers/Hispanic individuals being referred to as Latin-Americans? Why are French and Italian individuals considered white, but not Spanish ones, considering they stem from the same region of Europe? (Perhaps this is because it was predominantly the Portuguese and Spanish who invaded, conquered and subjugated the Aztecs, Incas and Olmecs in what is now Mexico and Southern America, not the other way around. However, white Americans should not be given preferential treatment, considering the atrocities their forefathers committed against the Apache, Cheyenne, Chippewa, Comanche, Cree, Cherokee, Kickapoo, Lenape, Mohicans, Paiute, Shawnee, Soux and other tribes they found and massacred or evicted in the "New World".)
Stripe, the Amero-Irish online payment processor, is racist. By refusing to pay out to countries that are not in North America, Europe, Scandinavia or the United Kingdom, Stripe effectively prevents people from African and Indo-Asian countries (whose populations are majority non-white) from earning fiat (USD/EUR/GBP) on for-pay blogging/newsletter sites such as Medium, Substack and Vocal. To add insult to injury, one of the colours (of which there are only two) in Stripe's logo (below) is white. This is why we need sites that pay out in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin Cash and Request. Cryptocurrencies don't care about your race/ethnicity or nationality.
Stripe's Logo
On the topic of white stripes, these lines from Icky Thump:
"White Americans,
Why don't you kick yourselves out?
You're all immigrants, too!
Well, well, who's using who?
You can't be a pimp
And a prostitute too!"
F@@k you, white America ... and thank you for attending my TED talk.
Post lead image: Photo of El Castillo ("The Castle") in Mexico, by José Andrés Pacheco Cortes from/on Pexels
This writing was originally posted to Pub0x, but I thought it might be of relevance here too.
You left me thoughtful, to tell you the truth I had not seen Medium as a racist. Here in my country something similar happens with the payment processor Zelle. You can only open an account if you have a bank account in the USA, but many people in Venezuela don't have an account in the USA. And what's even more unusual is that it's a payment method that you can see in all the stores.
Until Zinli appeared, with it you can register using your ID or passport. And thus safeguard your money in dollars.
Here it is important to keep your money in hard currency. Because the Bolivar, which is the local currency, is devalued.