Share this page!

Emma Hilton Profile picture
Twitter logo
6 Apr, 5 tweets, 1 min read
The number of people displaying an abject lack of knowledge about the history of colonialism in Africa is frankly mind blowing.

Do you not look at maps? Wonder about languages and town names? Read any books by African writers? About economics? About foreign aid?
Never curious about the various secessions or civil wars? The stripping of mineral resources?

I am no expert, not by a long shot, but how on earth do you avoid it?
I’m not arguing that the average person should have in-depth knowledge. I’m asking how anyone can express surprise at older colonial territory maps and not look phenomenally stupid.
What did these people imagine was happening when land was redistributed in Zimbabwe? Just some weird quirk that the rich farmers were majority white?
Apartheid.

I’m done.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Emma Hilton

Emma Hilton Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @FondOfBeetles

Emma Hilton Profile picture
30 Mar
‘there is no consensus criteria for assigning sex at birth.’

Peak idiocy. Right there, the most stupid thing I’ve ever read. cnn.com/2021/03/28/us/…
I. Just. Can’t.

The conformation of external genitalia has extremely reliably permitted sex identification from birth, and increasingly, in utero.

A kid could do it. And get it right almost all the time.
The demand that the world bows to ‘assigned’ is because some people don’t think physical anatomy reflects whatever bonkers idea of ‘sex’ they wish to promote.
Read 4 tweets
Emma Hilton Profile picture
29 Mar
@MediClit The key with socialisation is that one is not making a truly free choice. It can feel like a free choice, it can framed as one, but socialisation constrains the options, even if one does not realise it.
@MediClit Lots of women are afraid to speak intimately about their anatomy. That’s the result of years of being, say, teased at school, told that vulvas/vaginas smell, that being hairy is ‘gross’. It all impacts on how we process stuff and how we respond to stuff.
@MediClit You’ve revealed your medical history. You were socialised regarding how labia ‘should look’. Many women, including me for many aspects, are socialised about how hairy their legs ‘should be’, or that they look old/tired without makeup.

It’s not a weakness to recognise that.
Read 4 tweets
Emma Hilton Profile picture
23 Mar
The Phelps Gambit - life’s unfair.

The Phelps Gambit runs like this:

Michael Phelps had ‘unfair’ advantages in swimming, but nobody prevented him from competing, so why should we prevent others with ‘unfair’ advantages (males) competing against anyone (females)?
Here is a thread outlining Phelps’ ‘unfair’ competitive edge over his closest competitors. It runs at less than 0.5%. His advantage over matched females is around 10-12%.

Phelps’ advantages are the stuff of legend, growing from fairly straightforward observations like, ‘He’s quite tall, with even longer arms’ to, ‘He’s got superhuman metabolism and his bones are made of Adamantium’.

(I exaggerate).
Read 16 tweets
Emma Hilton Profile picture
19 Mar
Here is a basketball analogy.

Shaun the Shortie/5’5.
He’s not tall enough to reasonably be a competitive basketballer.

Mitch the Middler/6’5. He is tall enough to be a competitive basketballer.

Tall Tony/7’5.
He was nailed on for basketball since he was born.
No amount of skill can make Shaun competitive. There’s only so far it can take you.

Tony? He doesn’t need to rely on skill, because you get it to him and he’s got a free shot every time.
Mitch is where it’s happening. There are quite a few 6’5 basketballers. It’s ‘tall enough’.

In fact, average NBA basketballer height has plateaued at about 6’7 (forgive my analogy a couple of inches).
Read 9 tweets
Emma Hilton Profile picture
19 Mar
Appalling arguments from Vilain here.

@NPR

npr.org/2021/03/18/978…
"We know that men have, on average, an advantage in performance in athletics of about 10% to 12% over women"

This cited advantage is the low end (running). The difference gets much larger in other disciplines. In weightlifting, the gap is 30-40%.
"which the sports authorities have attributed to differences in levels of a male hormone called testosterone"

Yes.
Read 22 tweets
Emma Hilton Profile picture
12 Mar
Last night, I left work in darkness (because some of our jobs go that way, and I can’t afford security).

On the path, a man was walking towards me. I gave him a wide berth, and glanced over my shoulder as I passed him.

He’d stopped.

And then he turned to walk behind me.
He had probably remembered he needed to buy something at the shop, or he’d forgotten something at his own building.

But my own response was:

Head up. Where are the lights? Where are the doors? Which buildings are still open? How many cars are passing in the road?
I crossed the road, and slowed right down so he was ahead of me.

Nothing happened. The most likely outcome.
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @FondOfBeetles has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @FondOfBeetles!

Read all threads by @FondOfBeetles