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For freedom lovers around the world
I started this book during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. Many of the
young protesters seemed to focus mainly on police killings of American blacks
without much knowledge of the underlying historical roots that lie behind much
of the anger today.
At the same time, deep-rooted oppression of other vulnerable minorities is
exploding in recent years around the world. Having worked with minorities in
many of these countries and seen the similarities in patterns of oppression, I
thus feel there is a need for education about how we as humans are bound
together in our common need to scapegoat others for our own failings. I have
lots of pictures
from many of these countries that show our common (in)humanity.
But traveling mostly in the African American community and following my black
and white friends there for up to 50 years, has given me special insight into
how people are shaped by oppression - universally. So, although in this book I
have chosen pictures only from the 22,000 of (North) Americans in my photo
archive, I hope that such a visual, allegorical, educational book - not least
with the fascination people all over the world has with the United States for
better or worse - can also be an inspiration to freedom-loving movements
elsewhere in the world - in the common longing for freedom that ALSO unites us
as human beings worldwide.
In the first part of the book, I show how I experienced the remnants of the
old-fashioned colonial oppression to which "we" subjected millions of Africans,
Asians and Americans - even though it officially ended in North America with the
passage of the Civil Rights Acts - only five years before my arrival.
In the important middle section, I describe the mistreatment of children that I
have seen again and again as the precondition for the creation of so many of the
worst oppressors among us - such as Putin right now.
And in the second part how we - the righteous and free-minded among us, despite
all our good intentions and high ideals - tend to oppress our fellow citizens in
virtually every country I have visited on Earth.
A good example is how I myself - with the best intentions of lecturing in 14
countries on such oppression ended up
flying 1.5 million km and driving more than 1 million km
- thus thoughtlessly, with my climate destruction, helped to destroy the future
livelihoods of millions of children, not least in the most vulnerable poor
countries.
To compensate for this oppression, I am now putting this book online
here -
and the slide show on which it is based
- for free reading in most of the colonial languages which we "oppressed"/"enlightened" large parts of our former Babylonian world
with.
Anyway, while in the book I may be annoyingly teasing about the darker sides of
ourselves we don't like to face, I promise it is also healing by clearly
demonstrating that we are ALL both oppressors and oppressed at the same time.
So, if you think the book might be useful in your oppressed/oppressive region of
the world, please help me edit it here
in your language and to find publishers for it - if you are lucky enough to
still live in a country with the freedom to publish it.
With love
Jacob Holdt
Gernersgade 63
1319 Copenhagen
Denmark
Phone +45-20-324412
jacob@holdt.us
Facebook.com/Jacob.Holdt
Instagram.com/jacobholdtofficial
www.american-pictures.com
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