Nonprofits & Activism
Why is colonialism (still) romanticized? | Farish Ahmad-Noor
Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. Colonialism remains an inescapable blight on the present, lingering in the toxic, internalized mythologies and stereotypes that have outlived the regimes that created them, says historian Farish Ahmad-Noor. Examining why these prejudices and narratives persist (and sometimes thrive), he…
Nonprofits & Activism
An Activist Investor on Challenging the Status Quo | Bill Ackman | TED
Bill Ackman has made billions of dollars — and a name for himself — as an activist investor, buying up stock to push for change at companies. In this wide-ranging conversation with author and business ethics professor Alison Taylor, Ackman discusses how he’s bringing his activism into the social and political spheres — and shares…
Nonprofits & Activism
The Workers Rebuilding Communities After Natural Disasters | Saket Soni | TED
As climate change leads to more and more natural disasters, a group of workers is showing up at one site after another to rebuild and repair. If you love watching TED Talks like this one, become a TED Member to support our mission of spreading ideas: Follow TED! X: Instagram: Facebook: LinkedIn: TikTok: The TED…
Nonprofits & Activism
A New National Park to Reclaim Indigenous Land | Tracie Revis | TED
In a part of the United States with more than 17,000 years of human history, cultural preservation advocate Tracie Revis is working to turn the Ocmulgee Mounds into Georgia’s first national park and preserve. This park would be co-managed by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, bringing the tribal voice back to an area they were forcibly…
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Noah Bailey
July 13, 2020 at 9:36 pm
Who ever thought the colonial era was nice and benevolent? We literally were raping and pillaging land away from others?
jes kg
July 13, 2020 at 10:28 pm
Like Saudi Arabia now doing. Or China. Better to focus on the present, whats happening here and now. Islam is damaging countries like indonesia and malaysia tremendously, Noah.
NPC501
July 13, 2020 at 9:42 pm
This reeks of communism under the typical guise of liberation.
*Don’t be a useful idiot*
Lovemore Nk
July 13, 2020 at 9:50 pm
Colonialism was good, racisms not good, slavery not good. Colonialism played good roll for the history of the world .
Impossible Mission
July 13, 2020 at 9:54 pm
British，worst example for this topic. Still melding HongKong with romanticize colony.
BIGGUSSDICKUSS
July 13, 2020 at 9:59 pm
Hong Kong shouldn’t be a part of China.
Not Safe For Miranda
July 13, 2020 at 10:01 pm
So many comments from people who didn’t even watch the whole video. I hate it here. My dad is a historian and professor of colonialism and he has many students who came from good schools yet knew very little about the horrors and truth of colonialism. They were only taught the “nice” parts or parts where our country didn’t look like the bad guy.
To those who don’t believe that colonialism is romanticized, consider the fact that people in the US still celebrate Columbas day and view him as a great man who “discovered” America, when in actuality neither of those things are true
Disney’s Pocohantas is also an example of colonialism being romanticized
jes kg
July 13, 2020 at 10:27 pm
Hope your father dare to teach the world about Islam colonizing and destroying southeaast asia. Or perhaps the history of Arabic slave trade? Is it PC?
UnChannelDuVulpineX
July 13, 2020 at 11:16 pm
You should ask your fictitious father how to spell important names.
Not Safe For Miranda
July 13, 2020 at 11:24 pm
@UnChannelDuVulpineX 1) my laptop is glitching so I cant see what I type until after I’m done which means I cant fix typos that aren’t visible to me 2) saying my dad is made up is a weird hill to die on lmao. Pretty sure I know my dad better than you do mate
Not Safe For Miranda
July 13, 2020 at 11:37 pm
@jes kg Ironically enough, since he’s working from home (due to covid) he recently showed me some of the work that was about the history of the Arab Slave Trade. Not sure when the last time he thought this class was or if it’s one they offer year-round. As for the first one I’m not sure as his classes change every semester (with a few basic exceptions obv) and he’s been teaching for decades. I’m also just generally not involved since I’m more of a science/animal person. I love history but I’m not going to grade papers for him lol
No part of history is “PC”. Talking about it and acknowledging it doesn’t make you non-pc or “edgy”. Something that would be politically incorrect would be using cherry-picked bits of history as an excuse to say “all Muslims are terrorists” which is both factually incorrect and bigoted
Shamut on EV’s
July 13, 2020 at 10:03 pm
What happened to TED Quality Control. The man draws super serious global conclusions on the basis of his opinions on his historical and cultural perceptions.
Kongolox
July 13, 2020 at 10:06 pm
yea.. i disagree, this issue is as old as humanity itself. The powerful exploit/marginalize the weak..
adanma nwankwo
July 13, 2020 at 10:28 pm
That is true we do “fall back on certain ideas that aren’t challenged.”
Myishen Haines
July 13, 2020 at 10:30 pm
Garunetee that commenters that disagree of narrators point are not people who have felt the burn of colonialism. Isn’t that how it always is?
BloodStripe LeatherNeck
July 13, 2020 at 10:45 pm
You can’t guarantee that. Your statement is a lie.
adanma nwankwo
July 13, 2020 at 10:34 pm
❤❤❤
Barry Allen
July 13, 2020 at 10:34 pm
Colonialists: those folks who keep showing up with all those antibiotics, motors, and electricity.
The Angry Hippie
July 13, 2020 at 10:36 pm
And death.
Barry Allen
July 13, 2020 at 10:44 pm
@The Angry Hippie not going to argue that never happened – just pointing out the double edge sword to cultural exchanges
Tom Warlitner
July 14, 2020 at 1:07 am
@The Angry Hippie Everyone dies. So does stone age culture, eventually. Humans weren’t meant to sit around a campfire forever, eating bush meat and barely surviving.
Chris Fokjohn
July 13, 2020 at 10:51 pm
Winning feels good if you are on the winning side. You know, the side not eating bats, stoning women to death, considering a child rapist a god. A shame colonialism was never cherished in my lifetime. A lesson for the next generations, *GO ALL THE WAY*
Sauft Umar
July 13, 2020 at 11:10 pm
Indeed, let us go back to exploiting foreign resources, cookie cutting their people, daylight robberies, take their people as slaves and if they disagree, send in our troops. And massacre their people. In the name of spreading Christianity and white supremacy. A pity we weren’t there to partake in it.
ClockworkAvatar
July 13, 2020 at 10:54 pm
there is and was nothing wrong with colonialism.
big papa
July 13, 2020 at 11:02 pm
🤣
Sauft Umar
July 13, 2020 at 11:02 pm
Were you the colonised, you would not say the same.
Chris Fokjohn
July 13, 2020 at 11:44 pm
@Sauft Umar Hong Kong loved every second. They are waving British and American flags to this day
Chris Fokjohn
July 13, 2020 at 11:45 pm
@Sauft Umar It’s almost like people that are capable of building a civilization like progression. Even if it is forceful
Sauft Umar
July 13, 2020 at 11:49 pm
@Chris Fokjohn yes let’s take the outlier of countless other examples. The reason they do that is because colonisation for the British is over and America is a symbol of “freedom” and they are being colonised by China. Its almost as if people can’t progress without colonisation. That’s what you’re trying to say aint it?
Alianger
July 13, 2020 at 11:01 pm
Why is chinese colonialism not talked about?
When will you talk about Jessica Doty Whittaker?
Vik Z
July 13, 2020 at 11:01 pm
Nostalgia. Like that hoary old soundbite of political leaders trying to sound tough, “The buck stops here!”. Problem is, you can’t buy much with a sole buck these days.
Joseph Raymond
July 13, 2020 at 11:18 pm
Because of the inherent behavior from the beginning of our self awareness that hitting the other guy with a stick is easier to convince who’s boss.
What’s even more fascinating is the level of excuses to do so.
Especially religious excuses contrary to the rules of said belief that you don’t hit or do hit.
berryNtoast32
July 14, 2020 at 12:04 am
This was very insightful and I’m very hopeful that some will start moving in this direction.
berryNtoast32
July 14, 2020 at 12:07 am
A lot of people on here brainwashed by white supremacist historians…
Tom Warlitner
July 14, 2020 at 12:30 am
Western countries are safer and more prosperous than any other in history. It’s ok to acknowledge the greatness of their founders. Unless you’re racist?
Frank C. Miller
July 14, 2020 at 12:20 am
How about you address Islamic imperialism for a change? Because virtually nobody has romanticized Western colonialism for at least 70 years. Oh that’s not convenient is it?
camelionpen
July 14, 2020 at 12:27 am
Look at the comments here, enough people calling the empire civilisers. And generally many people are just not at all aware of the horrors of colonialism.
Tom Warlitner
July 14, 2020 at 12:26 am
How did colonialism advance the entire human race to the point that once stone age people are now safer and more prosperous than ever in history? I don’t know… it just did.
Ar D
July 14, 2020 at 1:08 am
Birth of humanity…
Stone Age…
Colonialism….
Profit!!
Torin McCabe
July 14, 2020 at 12:55 am
Don’t romanticise colonial culture; instead romanticise pre-colonial culture
Cheng Wei
July 14, 2020 at 1:10 am
You cannot wake up one person who is pretending to be asleep.
Startup Funding Event Global
July 14, 2020 at 1:12 am
Colonization is a thing of the past and I think moving forward we just need to have love and empathy for everyone. Human to human 🙂
clearmenser
July 14, 2020 at 1:20 am
Who’s romanticizing colonialism? I want some examples.
Erik Gee
July 14, 2020 at 1:23 am
My viewpoint is that dude pretty much discredited himself at 1:39 when he said “even tho historians KNOW the realities” implying historians possess the ability to exist as not-themselves in a alternate reality.
This to me is perhaps the root of all said and acted upon ignorances: substituting a notion for an experience
Alex Ryan
July 14, 2020 at 6:09 am
The ONLY people who even talk about colonialism are liberal professors.
The rest of us have real jobs actually contributing to society.
Liberal professors, in the ivy league madrassas, on the other hand, have brainwashed a generation of pampered children into becoming brownshirt #BurnLootMurder insurrectionists who know only how to destroy.
I cannot wait for the purge of academia that is coming.
You are the puppeteers behind the brainwashing.
You will pay for the lives of those who are being murdered every day by the monsters you have unleashed on us.
Ask the history professor what happens to the intellectual leaders of insurrections when the insurrection is defeated?
Personally, I’m for having all of you summarily executed.
After a fair trial in a court of law of course.
You might want to flee to join your CCP allies in China.
But don’t count on having their protection much longer either.
the critc
July 14, 2020 at 8:07 am
Those who also talk about colonialism are those who have been colonized. The issues from before heavily impact the thinking of those today. Academia is important because of how these issues are being studied. You need to empathize with the countries affected by it. You might have no idea how much people experience outside of your own bubble
larhule
July 14, 2020 at 8:22 am
Five minutes in and I’m still waiting for some substance…
Kimberyote3
July 14, 2020 at 8:36 am
TED and the drive by media: ‘White people suck. Always have, always will’. Even though white people built the west, the most civilized place on the planet. And Blks are relentless victims of relentless white racism, all of the time, everywhere, and that explains everything!
Miro Mayne
July 14, 2020 at 8:38 am
This reminds me of what that one Palestinian-American scholar wrote in his book about Orientalism, i.e. that current Eastern cultures are actually a caricature of how Orientalists have painted our cultures. So our current cultures aren’t even our real cultures… 🤔
Ethan Chan
July 14, 2020 at 11:49 pm
I read about him in my university class. His name was Edward Said. He said that you learn more about the psychology and history of the West over the actual Orient.
Deyan
July 14, 2020 at 10:01 am
The world is starting to wake up.
You are starting to push your agenda a little too much.
You need to tone it down a bit.
Cracked_Memory_Swiss
July 14, 2020 at 10:05 am
He should try dialectical- and historical materialism along with class struggle. Those methods could explain a lot of his current questions.
One has to understand, capitalism has arrived in Southeast Asia with all of its consequences that come along with it. In capitalism everything gets commodified, *everything!* Be it goods, services, nature, life itself, knowledge, ideas, values, ideologies and even the past. It all has to serve profit first.
If you want to fight this peverse treatment of material reality, you must fight capitalism!
Stallnig
July 14, 2020 at 10:09 am
why is diversity and immigration romantizised?
Thomas Serrano
July 14, 2020 at 1:39 pm
How dare you suggest that welcoming people of different cultures, languages and moral values that are incompatible and impermeable to each other, might not be a good idea ?
Aima Waseem
July 14, 2020 at 3:45 pm
Because they are a byproduct of colonialism and you have to live with the unintended consequences of your atrocities?
Dirty Poul
July 14, 2020 at 4:06 pm
Why do you feel that your comment is relevant to this talk about how colonialism is viewed in South East Asia? Are you saying that diversity and immigration are romanticized in South East Asia?
puss puss
July 15, 2020 at 5:14 am
@Thomas Serrano colonization had nothing of welcoming
puss puss
July 15, 2020 at 5:16 am
Diversity and immigration was not caused by colonization. Colonization destroyed cultures. You can’t have diversity by decreasing the number of different cultures you have. Immigration is when a person voluntarily moves out. If a person is kidnapped and forced to work, it’s human traffic and slavery.
Stallnig
July 14, 2020 at 10:09 am
why are diversity and immigration romantizised?
msanto
July 14, 2020 at 10:59 am
Another question; why is Communism still romanticized? Any authoritarian ideology is dangerous. Mixed markets and democracy have shown to be our best worst way forward.
Smiley N
July 14, 2020 at 12:19 pm
The idea of Communism is not bad at heart, but it can not be realized due to the nature of absolute power. Not then, not now, not ever.
Peso Colombiano
July 14, 2020 at 3:36 pm
its not romanticized, everyone hates it
Gabriel King
July 14, 2020 at 12:10 pm
“If I went back 100 years I wouldn’t be a professor” well there weren’t any universities made by the natives of SEA (maybe excluding Vietnam) and the doctorate system is European in origin so yeah your right, not because racism and yt bad
Adeleke Bello
July 14, 2020 at 1:54 pm
I think his focus was on how he wouldn’t have a choice. Just because his example had a few holes doesn’t mean what he was trying to say was wrong.
Gabriel King
July 14, 2020 at 12:16 pm
Oh no it’s so bad that we make all this money from tourism and an exotic/ different image uhhh
Nano LT
July 14, 2020 at 1:15 pm
re you blaming the will to expand and use your local resources on colonialism? That ideas has been around way before that and I think has very few connections.
Nano LT
July 14, 2020 at 1:15 pm
Are you blaming the will to expand on and the will to exploit your local resources on colonialism? Those ideas have been around way before imperialism.
Thomas Serrano
July 14, 2020 at 1:28 pm
Does it seem like we are romanticizing colonialism right now ? Really ?
It’s been since the early 70’s that the Western intellectual elite pushed an ideology of guilt, shame and self-contempt, based on colonialism, onto Western youth.
The sole purpose of this ideology, along with free market, open borders and the PC thought police is the subversion of Western Civilisation.
Someone Somewhere
July 14, 2020 at 3:53 pm
“the subversion of Western Civilisation.”
Yeah, sure buddy. Vaccines cause autism and the earth is flat too, isn’t it?
puss puss
July 15, 2020 at 7:11 am
Interesting how there’s no romanization, but people marry in slave plantations to live the south dream, ignoring the richness they see is thanks to slavery. They choose to ignore they are celebrating on top of buried bodies
Thomas Serrano
July 15, 2020 at 5:16 pm
@Someone Somewhere This isn’t an argument.
Eli Nope
July 14, 2020 at 3:25 pm
The old Colonial laws are still pushed in trade laws. Western Humanitarianism is the new version of it, while they pretend not to be the same old thing. These are racist cultural attacks.
Peso Colombiano
July 14, 2020 at 3:34 pm
because the winners write history
Thaina Yu
July 14, 2020 at 4:18 pm
Because violent and oppression is exist in local Monarchy anyway
It was relativistic violent and oppression. If colonial are less violence and less oppressive then it will be viewed as more benevolent and civilized than existing regime. It just still being violent and oppression in western standard
In short, it just better than the past, and that’s enough at that time
Have you guys ever compare the dark side of local asian government yet?
ife Agboola
July 14, 2020 at 4:47 pm
Totally agree. We need to revisit the origins of the beliefs that we have about ourselves and the world.
Abi Farraz
July 14, 2020 at 5:12 pm
me as south asian people, the main problem is more because economic/capitalist and political reason. West country as producer high technology countries need market for their product…which is south asia… and to maintain that, they need political power. So their create pinokio leader to those countries to maintain asian human resources always 3 step behind…or in geopolitic term “middle country trap”. So those under developt image of south asian countries will be maintain as long they could 😀
knifedog
July 14, 2020 at 5:35 pm
Good talk. I think he hit on it at the end. The legitimacy of the nation state depends on the romanticization of colonialism
Ankul Yadav
July 14, 2020 at 5:54 pm
In simple words this video is trying to motivate people of south east asia mainly Vietnam , so people can work for 38 companies came to their countries. The Great motivation for fourth revolution
Günther Panzer
July 14, 2020 at 6:11 pm
Colonialism was the greatest benefit ever for the non-white world.
Smit Patel
July 14, 2020 at 11:14 pm
In your dreams 😴
puss puss
July 15, 2020 at 3:53 am
Says the colonizer.
You can repeat it all you want, but you will convince yourself.
Casey Flentye
July 14, 2020 at 6:24 pm
It’s not romanticized by the majority of people…
Lev Marchuk
July 14, 2020 at 6:26 pm
Idiots: just get over it! Slavery is all in the past Also idiots: but muh heritage you have yo respect it (ignoring the plentiful southern symbols and insignias pre-confederacy)
Guilherme Magalhães
July 14, 2020 at 8:11 pm
Is he an historian or an activist? LOL
Aosana
July 14, 2020 at 10:32 pm
You are aware that you can be both, yes?
Dirty Poul
July 14, 2020 at 8:51 pm
When I watched this a few hours after it was uploaded, it already had over 200 dislikes and barely over 300 likes. Now it has 1200 likes and still hasn’t broken 300 dislikes.
The early comments were mostly strawman arguments criticizing this video for attacking the West and white men, despite that having nothing to do with the video. Combined with the very quick early down votes, it makes me think that there were some kind of program running which quickly sends bots to spam the comments and downvote the video. That would explain the complete change in like to dislike ratio as well as the confusing unrelated comments on the video.
Noble Phantazm
July 14, 2020 at 9:08 pm
Oh right. Because Ted Talks are “objective”. Because the last 100 Ted Talks haven’t aligned themselves with Social Justice/communism
I’ll tell you what. You hate yourself for being white all you want. You want to bend the knee to other people who you haven’t wronged? Go ahead. But keep your leftist bubble bullshit to yourself.
We’re getting tired of it. Little brainwashed communist.
puss puss
July 15, 2020 at 3:20 am
I also wonder that. When I first watched the video, it was full of people completely ignoring the actual theme, and simply supporting colonization. I came to check it again, bc I have noticed hateful comments are always the first to show, and just only after that. I also wonder if they just spend 24/7 online combing trough videos, looking for videos to put down. And this happens in a lot of social medias. I would genuinely like to see a study done abt this. Why are hateful/racist/misogynist/homophobic/etc always the first and predominant in the beginning, but with the risen of popularity of the post, they end up by being buried.
Like the comment above. From here did they pull out the whole self hate, communist, leftist bullshit? The video has nothing to do with Caucasian people, much less politics, but still, they brought it up.
Dirty Poul
July 15, 2020 at 3:03 pm
@puss puss Exactly. The first reply to my comment is just as confusing as those hateful comments in the beginning. Going through the points in the reply, it’s just completely irrelevant.
The commenter made two arguments, seemingly replying to me (?) despite having no relevance to what I said.
1. TED Talks being objective. I didn’t even mention subjective vs objective or anything that has anything to do with that.
2. White guilt. This is equally confusing because again, neither the video nor my comment has anything to do with that.
And then an insult to end it with.
What’s the reasoning behind posting a comment like that? It just doesn’t seem to make any sense whatsoever. It sounds crazy, but it really seems like a bot using GPT-2 to make unrelated comments harping on about SJWs ruining the world, while still creating sentences that make sense and can fool you into thinking they’re made by real people.
It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if this is the case.
Joel Ashworth
July 16, 2020 at 5:43 pm
@Dirty Poul Don’t argue with idiots like Phantazm. They will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.
Noble Phantazm
July 14, 2020 at 9:05 pm
Because without it, you wouldn’t have the priveledge you do today. Without it, this wouldn’t be the best country in the world. But by all means, undermine the Untied States, it’s sentiments, it’s history.
We all know you’re a part of the 1619 project to call everything in the US racist and an expression of white supremacy.
All this bullshit. Just to call white people racists.
ditsaa
July 15, 2020 at 2:17 am
Why is the speaker not speaking in a local south Asian accent, why still glorify and follow what you’re preaching against? There is pride in Indian accent.
ditsaa
July 15, 2020 at 2:17 am
You have to embody what you’re teaching. Otherwise, a good talk.
The Spanish Inquisition
July 15, 2020 at 2:50 am
I mean, its not like he can change his accent on command. Not really his fault he has a different accent.
Buildings1772
July 15, 2020 at 12:22 pm
one of the best talks ive seen on ted in a long time
Abhinav Bansal
July 15, 2020 at 6:09 pm
We love criticizing the present
Romanticizing the past
And Feeling the future can’t be better than what we had
May be because the history we know is written in a way that it shapes our thinking like that.
Thanks for bringing this topic
B Welkinator
July 16, 2020 at 5:09 pm
This guy is WAY too engrossed in navel gazing. Raise your head; look to the horizon and above it; now, move forward.
Bob Man
July 16, 2020 at 8:10 pm
Because that’s our culture.