The Difference Between Microaggressions and Hate Speech

 A version of this article was previously published on the Learn Liberty blog.

One of the worst aspects of the culture war is its effect on socializing. Ask anyone how they feel about addressing topics of race or gender, and it’s highly likely they’ll feel guilty or even downright scared.

It’s made a minefield of simple human communication and assumptions of good faith, and it sometimes feels like every social interaction is a pile of eggshells waiting to be stepped on.

And who is the source of authority on what is normal awareness and respect of other people, and what is a moral crime based on the current modish way of thinking?

Is asking someone, “Where are you from?” an example of a microaggression? It’s simply arbitrary and unclear.

Microaggressions are a source of confusion

Some old fashioned common sense may shed light on the issue. In general, people apply the term microaggression to describe subtle or perceived insults towards socially marginalized groups. 

But it’s such a vague term that innocuous comments that come from a place of genuine curiosity or attempts to connect have been blown up into a politicized, us vs. them, all-encompassing statement that puts us on a course of socially regressive destruction.

Free speech must not be curtailed over issues of subjectivity

We need to find a way to make sure that people’s right to speak is not curtailed by vague, arbitrary, and subjective notions of what people personally find distasteful. Rather, we need clear rules where intent and aggression, and universally agreed upon patterns of speech are the reasons for stopping someone.

In the Learn Liberty video below, Northwestern University Professor Laura Kipnis argues that we should differentiate between harmless microaggressions and harmful hate speech, for which there should be consequences.

So how should we handle microaggressions? Dr. Kipnis explains that they should be treated as opportunities for conversation. People should be able to make it known when something offends them without relying on ambiguous speech codes to protect them.

Discussions about controversial issues enhance the educational experience; fear of saying something that might somehow be interpreted as offensive stifles it.

Hate Speech & Microaggressions - Feminist Scholar Laura Kipnis >>https://youtu.be/wJ3FUxvu66I>>

Building The Future: High-Impact Projects That Can Re-Shape Africa

 The Grand Inga Hydropower Project, Congo (DRC)

The Grand Inga Hydropower Project, Congo (DRC) could potentially power 40% of Africa. The dam will be built on the Congo River at Inga Falls. When completed, it will be the biggest of its kind producing annually 40,000MW of energy, a figure that is double that of China’s ‘Three Gorges Dam,’ currently the world’s largest. But with the whole project estimated to cost US$80-100bn, fundraising will be a real challenge; commencement of the project has however, had several false starts. Developers optimistically expected to finish the grandiose project by 2025.

Konza Tech City, Kenya

Konza Tech City, Kenya, a US$14.5bn software hub outside Nairobi – dubbed the “African Silicon Savannah.” Konza will be a sustainable, world-class technology hub and major economic driver for Kenya. It will be built over 5,000 acres of land, 64 km south of Nairobi, with a business district, a university, residential areas and city parks.

Tanzania’s Bagamoyo

Tanzania’s Bagamoyo Port will become sub-Saharan Africa’s largest port, capable of handling 20 million containers per year. With an estimated cost of US$11bn, the state-owned construction firm, China Merchants Group expects to complete the port by 2045. An integral part of the Bagamoyo project will be an Export Development Zone alongside the construction of an industrial city, as well as upgrades to Tanzania’s road/railway infrastructure.

The Mombasa-Kigali Rail-Link

The Mombasa-Kigali Rail-Link development, stretching almost 3,000km and connecting three East African neighbours (Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda), could be the continent’s answer to the Orient Express. The US$13bn project (upon completion) will help to alleviate traffic on roads ill equipped to cope with growing transportation demands. Starting in Kenya, Mombasa, with a stop-off at the Ugandan capital, Kampala, before heading for its final destination of Kigali, Rwanda. It will also generate intra-regional trade.

The Abidjan-Lagos Motorway

The Abidjan-Lagos Motorway (in planning phase) will connect five West African countries (from west to east Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria). The total cost of the motorway is US$8bn.

 What other high-impact Projects do you know of that will/can re-shape Africa? 

The Body Keeps The Score

 So often we refer to parts of the body when we discuss emotions. You may speak of a shiver running down your spine, butterflies in your stomach, or cold feet. Researchers wanted to understand whether we feel emotions in our bodies and, if so, where?

“The Body Keeps the Score” is the beautiful and suggestive title of a book published in 2014, by a Dutch professor of Psychiatry at Boston University called Bessel Van Der Kolk. The book has proved immensely significant because it emphasizes and idea; that has for too long escaped many. 

Van Der Kolk stresses that people who are suffering emotionally crucially their symptoms almost always show up in their bodies, in the way they sit or breathe, the way they hold their shoulders, in the sleep patterns, and in their attitude to exercise.

Taking the body more seriously opens up new avenues for both the diagnosis and treatment of emotional unwellness. To take one example, many people who have grown up having to deal with the overwhelming rage of a parent, will have learnt to suppress their own anger and their desire to hit back at those who hurt them. 

In their minds they will have become meek and precisely attuned to fulfilling the wishes of others, however, unreasonably these might be; but as importantly in their bodies they will have learnt to be very still almost frozen because a part of them associates the expression of anything exuberant or powerful with the risk of bringing about retaliation from others.

In trying to treat such people, Van Der Kolk goes beyond advising traditional talk therapy; he would also recommend that they try under the supervision and therapeutic teachers, energy releasing exercises – like kickboxing, competitive running or swimming. Sports these people might have long resisted because of a cowed relationship to their strength. They might also try out rhythmically chanting or drumming thereby unleashing additionally releasing pent-up longings to assert one’s right to be.

Traumatized people tend to have bodies that are either too alert, responding to every breathe and touch; flinching and bristling at contact or else too numb, shut down heavily and immobile. Van Der Kolk's book, helps to think anew of how to deal with people, and understand some of the underlying emotions/feelings in your own body.

Those who were once neglected by emotionally stunted parents have often almost literally withdrawn from their bodies; they own them but they do not properly live in them. They might be rendered deeply uncomfortable if anyone touches their shoulders or strokes their back. They might intuitively think that their body was disgusting because that is how it once seemed in the eyes of those who were meant to look after them.

It is no doubt and deeply unfortunate that a difficult past appears to give us physical and as well as mental symptoms. 

For Dr. Chitemwa K, <3

Rwanda Becomes First African Country to Launch Artificial Intelligence Centre

Necessity is the mother of invention, and Rwanda’s government seems to understand this more than most with the launch of the ‘Centre of the Fourth Industrial Revolution’ (C4IR). 

“With the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and rapid innovations witnessed during the Covid-19 pandemic, there is an increased urgency to develop digital and technological capacities to build more resilient systems for a healthier society and more sustainable economy,” said the Rwandan Minister of Information and Communication Technology and Innovation, Paula Ingabire. Ingabire made the comment in a media statement posted on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) website.

Some of the projects that the C4IR is already working on are the country’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy and laws on the protection of personal data and privacy. At the launch of the center last week, President Paul Kagame said the facility was the country’s pride. He added that it was evidence of how far it had advanced in the fields of science and technology.

Speaking at the launch, Borge Brende, president of the WEF, said that because the center was the first of its kind to be set up in Africa, it will be a pacesetter. “This is the first center to be formally launched in Africa. It says lot about leadership in the country when it comes to leapfrogging and being visionary, when it comes to new technologies.”

With that in mind, Ingabire said the youth bulge was a huge advantage for the continent to drive technologically motivated growth. She said: “The time has come for Africa to put itself at the very center of a new technological revolution. Our continent has a unique competitive advantage that stems from an undeniably entrepreneurial spirit that is built into our young generations – that is an ability to innovate out of necessity.”