David Porter

@dcporter.bsky.social

816 Followers 412 Following

Qing historian, résidant à Montréal

Screenshot from NY Times article reading: "President Trump claims that destroying what he calls “D.E.I.” will return the United States to a meritocracy, and, in his words, bring a new American “golden age.” But the metaphor reveals more than it perhaps intends. America’s last golden age was called the Gilded Age, an era around the turn of the last century known for its rapid economic growth and ostentatious wealth. But there’s a reason that era evokes an image where Black people exist outside the frame. What Trump calls the golden age, Black Americans call the Nadir, the lowest point, a term coined by the historian Rayford W. Logan to describe the period when, with the blessing of the federal government, the rights that Black Americans achieved following slavery’s demise were violently and systematically taken away."
Text reading: If we understand an empire as a conquest system comprising a sovereign power and the territories it has conquered, then China has never truly been an empire. While the Qin Dynasty unified China into a centralized state, and its ruler Qin Shihuang declared himself an "emperor," the resultant centralized nation is not synonymous with the concept of an empire.
Text reading: 1. Size Beyond Nations: Empires are Expansive, extending far beyond the scope of a typical nation 2. Flexible Borders: Unlike nations, empires typically lack fixed or permanent borders. 3. Complex Territorial Structure: Empires comprise diverse groups and territorial units with asymmetrical relationships to the center of power. 4. Multi-tiered Jurisdiction: They often have overlapping an multi-tiered structures of governance.