Western cultural supremacism, imperialism in history "demonstrably incorrect": Canadian scholar

TORONTO, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Western cultural supremacism and imperialism have caused many catastrophes in the human history, Canadian scholar Taylor C. Noakes said in an article recently published on National Post, while lashing out at domestic retrograde understanding of Indigenous history.

"Far too many Canadians have held on to the belief that some cultures and societies are better than others and therefore have a right to impose their will on anyone they deem subpar," Noakes, an independent journalist and public historian, said in his article "A reply to Conrad Black: On Indigenous history we cannot ignore inconvenient truths" on March 26.

These beliefs led to globe-spanning empires, the transatlantic slave trade, the wholesale devastation of Indigenous civilizations in the Americas, Africa and much of Asia, to say nothing of most of the bloodiest conflicts in the human history, he said.

In Canada, these "pseudoscientific" ideas are at the root of the Residential Schools and genocidal campaigns against Indigenous people since the colonial era, he added.

"Something like a slow-motion genocide occurred here," he pointed out.

Among the reasons behind the genocide the historian listed are the full support of governments from long ago, both foreign and domestic, and fundamentally flawed and inherently racist beliefs that unfortunately continue to this day.

Only by abandoning obsolete, demonstrably incorrect interpretations of the past, could a nation achieve a meaningful reconciliation, Noakes said.