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[personal profile] m_d_h
Europe should not be defined as a separate continent from Asia; the proper extent for this continent should be Eurasia.  All the other continents are either completely separated by water, or were so narrowly connected by land that 19th Century humans engineered canals separating them (Panama, Suez).

This wholly arbitrary "continental" separation between Europe and Asia supports modern forms of racism in the US -- people whose ancestors are from "Europe" are treated as White, whereas people whose ancestors are from "Asia" are treated as POC.

It seems this idea of Europe as fundamentally separate from the rest of Eurasia derives from the extent of the Roman Empire and its imposition of Christianity as a state religion during the 4th Century (even our reckoning of Time is based on the supposed birthdate of Christ).  Christianity has now spread throughout the world, due to the coercively imperial activities of European navies and trading companies during the 15th to 20th Centuries, but the idea of a Christian Europe and its inherent Whiteness appears stuck within an approximation of 4th Century Roman Christian territory, allowing for some later compromises with both topography (stretching Eastern Europe -- along with its Orthodox Christianity -- toward the Urals) and the rise of Islam (receding from what is now called the Middle East, turning Christianity into another diasporic religion).

At best, we should refer to Europe as a subcontinent, the way we refer to India as a subcontinent.  But that would equate Europe with India, a radically anti-White demotion ;-)

Europe is not, and never was, a continent.  If this makes Europeans feel a bit less superior to the rest of humanity then, heh, I'm not sorry.

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