Every Projection is a Confession

Projection is an interesting concept—pinning your actions and/or mindsets onto others in a way that allows you to avoid judgment or blame for them. Of course, this definition may vary depending on the person or the concept in question. Sometimes it’s not direct actions but rather fears and ideas that are projected. In many cases, it’s the latter. The most interesting thing is when a group of people projects actions onto others that have historically been committed by them. What’s fascinating about this is how they manage to fully convince a collective of this false narrative to the point where entire communities are defined by this lie.

An example of this is the way Western narratives portray Muslim women as “oppressed” based on the clothing they choose to wear. This comparison is obviously made to Western societies, which appear to offer more “freedom” to women in terms of clothing. In reality, however, through conquest and colonialism, Western societies imposed their own ideas of modesty on non-Western regions, completely reshaping the clothing customs of those communities to make women “cover up” in ways that conformed to Western definitions of modesty.

Another example was shared by a creator named Brat (aka @rchiepoo on TikTok) with the caption: “Mummies are so scarce because British royalty ate them. They were seen as a royal delicacy. Slave owners used to eat their slaves. Fill their chairs with their hair. Make furniture with their skin. One of the most prolific serial killers of all time was a white man who literally ate other people—more specifically, Black people. Why have we tacked this cannibal stereotype onto people of color, when historically, it’s always been us [referring to white people]?”

The barbarization of communities of color is clearly a tactic of oppression to maintain hierarchy and promote white supremacy. What’s interesting, though, is the way the majority remains uneducated on this. You could say that the erasure of these historical facts—along with the fact that they didn’t shower—within current studies of the past is yet another way to uphold the structures of systemic oppression in our society. Still, it’s such a shame. If we were actually taught this in school, maybe we’d be better at discerning and dismantling these systems. But alas, we’ll just have to deal with uninformed, entitled man-children running our countries for now.