#cenosillicaphobiac

[newfavething]

cenosillicaphobiac replied to your post:you know it’s finals season when it’s 8am and the...

[angry growl]

Haha I'm so sorry. Think how wonderful the last week or so of term will be once you're all done and can prat about in the sunshine drinking champagne!! Also the weather is due to give out after Tues which will at least prevent the garden from being so damnably tempting. xxx

[medievalpoc]

On Eurasia

cenosillicaphobiac replied to your post: cenosillicaphobiac asked:Hi medie...

Sorry! As some of the other notes have said, I meant this sort of thing: “Of course. Asia and Europe aren’t even a separate landmass, after all.” (on your Europe tag) -> arbitrary line down the Eurasian continent of ‘other’?

Oh! I just meant political boundaries=/=physical impediment to travel. A lot of people seem to have very strange ideas about that.

Especially when that particular political boundary didn't exist yet by a good margin. Also, the separation still doesn't actually exist in many places.

As for "arbitrary", it doesn't mean "completely random". Everything named by humans serves a purpose for humans, in this case presumably Europeans, since they were the ones who decided they were separate.

I can only speak to American ideas about this, after all. In the U.S. the idea that Europe was completely culturally and geographically isolated (and racially isolated) for pretty much the entirety of human history is very popular and widely accepted. It's also not true.

How this belief can co-exist with The Silk Road also being (fairly) common knowledge, I don't really understand. And the Crusades. And the Roman Empire. And the Mongolian, Ottoman, and Byzantine Empires. Vikings. Al-Andalus.

So, I explore that.

I mean, this is exactly how it goes: A film or show comes out cast entirely with white people, even though it's meant for a pretty diverse American audience.

Viewers and fans of color are like, "wow, why isn't anyone who looks like me on this show, or on TV/in movies, like, ever?"

White fans are like, "how dare you? It's a European [inspiration/source/book/fairy tale]. Everyone to the last person, every single last human, in Europe was white back then (pretty much no matter when. or where.)"

I'm like, "That doesn't make any sense if you think about it for two seconds, for about a million reasons (supernatural elements in the source, documented historical precedence, source being 100% fiction, historical facts, et cet)."

White viewers/fans: "I want to shoot you in the head."

Me: :(

So, anyways, that is the purpose that the boundary between Asia and Europe serves for a lot of white Americans. Who think that ideas like an Asian Robin Hood would be laughable and inaccurate, who throw hissy fits over a biracial man playing Porthos in the Three Musketeers TV show despite the fact that the book was written by a mixed race author, who can't stand Angel Coulby playing Guinevere or Sinqua Walls playing Lancelot (despite the existence of Sir Morien and several other knights of color in Arthurian canon), who are willing to become actually violent over protecting the ubiquitous whiteness of Disney films like Brave and Frozen, or video games, or really any other piece of fiction.

The supposed isolation of Europe during previous eras is used to perpetrate and excuse violence and racism in America, right now.

It shouldn't be controversial to point out that Europe and Asia are literally the same landmass:

But in this context, it becomes very relevant, and sadly, controversial. I'm pretty bad with geography, but I'm not that bad.

All I'm actually saying is, "you may notice you can get to Europe by walking there from almost anywhere in Asia."

And it's like...it's understood that there have been Europeans of color who've lived there for centuries....

but at the same time, no people of color, ever?

And this isn't even getting into the whole "people had boats since 5ever" factor. Australia has been populated for 40,000-ish years, after all.

So we come back to the question: What separates Asia and Europe? The answer is, essentially, nothing. Another answer is: human social constructs. Yet another answer is: distance. Another: a political boundary.

But maybe we get a little more mileage out of NEW questions: What purpose does this boundary serve, and whom does it serve? What ideas are attached to it? Why do we care?

As you can see, this doesn't have a ton to do with people who are Europeans, doing their thing in Europe right now...other than Europeans of color who apparently have had their histories in their nations left out or called "unimportant".

Like I've said, I'm American and I can't speak for Europeans. I've never claimed to, but I find their (your) input quite valuable.

As for "the standard argument" you refer to in your original ask, I honestly am not sure what that's referring to. This is what I mean when I talk about these things, and some practical examples of why I use these terms the way I do. I hope it helped.

[medievalpoc]

Hi medievalpoc, I've been following your blog for a while and I love it! My question is on Europe. A lot of the scholarship on the European Union (I'm an English law student) tries to describe there being a common Judeo-Christian heritage (heavily tinged with hints of common 'whiteness') and I have seen you reference a few times that Europe is a made-up, arbitrary Reformation-era invention. Could you enlighten me about this? Something really bothers me about the standard argument.

Thanks, and I’m glad you like it it. As for:

"I have seen you reference a few times that Europe is a made-up, arbitrary Reformation-era invention."

I have no clue what you’re talking about. As in, I literally don’t understand what idea you’re trying to express. If you can link me to something I said, we can discuss it.