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Quote by Thomas King

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Thomas King
Thomas King

Thomas King, born on April 24, 1943, is a renowned Canadian novelist known for his unique Indigenous perspective and humorous style. His novels often delve into the history, culture, and social issues of Indigenous peoples in Canada, enjoying great popularity among readers. more

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“The coining of their new catch-phrase 'homophiliac' displayed in contrast to 'homophobic' was rather amusing, though to think that they believe it means anything different to 'homophobic' is just facetious. It's like someone trying to create a difference in definition between 'genocide' and 'ethnic cleansing' - or to make the one look better or less reprehensible than the other.”

“It is incredible that this must be said, but the obvious seems to escape politicized academics, so we must state the obvious: Genocide is deliberate; it is premeditated. There is no genocide without premeditation. The murders are not unfortunate coincidences. This is why it is called "mass MURDER" and not "mass MANSLAUGHTER.”

“We should, however, not forget that ethnic cleansing, especially of nonwhite Muslim peoples, has old historical roots in Russia. John Dunlop, for instance, reminds us that “in May 1856, Count Kiselev, minister of state domains, informed officials in the Crimea that Alexander [tsar Alexander II] was interested in ‘cleansing’ (Kiselev used the verb oshishchat’) Crimea of as many Tatars as possible.” That the tsarist empire was interested in annexing foreign lands, but not in annexing foreign peoples, was expressed by the famous remark of a tsarist minister that “Russia needs Armenia, but she has no need of Armenians.” [192]”

“Matansa. It means massacre in the Chamorro language, and is a nickname for the village of San Roque in the northern part of the island of Saipan that endured the most brutal slaughtering as a punishment for Chamorro resistance by Imperial Japan in WWII, which was part of an ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign that almost completely wiped out the Chamorro population from the face of the earth. San Roque is my family’s village.”

“Hope. It was something about the way he said it that made me feel like I was understanding what the word meant for the first time. I wanted to tell him that the only way to control your suffering was to orchestrate it. That the only true pleasure in life must be found in pain, because if you master pain you will not even need to hope for anything at all. Unable to tell him any of this, I just stare at him, wondering what he has that was worth hoping for with such a genuine drive, that even I would question the safety of my own suffering.”