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Argument reference · Nigeria

Nigeria, and the racism that runs on a certificate.

A clean argument map: a country where your access to a job, a university place and sometimes a passport depends on a document certifying which people you descend from — and nobody involved is white.

My position: Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and Fulani function as races within Nigerian society, Nigeria sorts its citizens by descent using a state-issued document, and what has been done to Igbo and to Fulani is racism.

I hold that races are classifications developed inside societies rather than facts of biology, so a group a society has racialised is a race in that society. That is the position argued on my racism page and it is the one that makes this case work. Nigeria is the cleanest live demonstration of it I know: the machinery is legislated, it is operating today, and there is no white perpetrator anywhere in the picture.

Precision

Hausa and Fulani are distinct peoples. "Hausa-Fulani" is shorthand and it is not accurate.

Honesty

Armed Fulani herders have killed a great many people. I say that before I argue about collective blame, not after.

Consistency

Same standard as Rwanda. If a state fixes descent in a document and allocates rights by it, that is racism wherever it happens.