News flash:
People of one ethnicity can be racist against other ethnicities: it is not a liberal doctrine to believe otherwise. By far most liberals, as do most people, realize this is an unfortunate aspect of human nature.
A very few individuals, often in academia or influenced by the same, have sought to define racism more narrowly in terms of a society-power relationship in which only the dominant ethnicity can defined as "racist." But frankly very few people actually buy into this. And most, including myself, see this academic exercise as a very artificial construct separate from the more general and more correct definition of racism as prejudice independent of political power.
There are no saints in real life. I admire Gandhi for bringing the tools of non-violence to the struggles for human rights. And for his willingness to practice what he preached:
"He conquered fear and defied the racist regime in South Africa and in imperialist Britain. He went to prison five times in South Africa and nine times in India during his struggle against racism and colonialism. He was incorruptible and forsook consumerism, which had become a menace to progress. He espoused dignity of labour and the need to protect the environment. He became a symbol of peace and non-violence and his appeal is universal."
-https://thewire.in/history/gandhi-and-africans
But Gandhi was a very complicated man in real life and there are many aspects of his life I do not admire, or that simply confuse me. Certainly the evidence is that as a young lawyer in South Africa he was prejudiced, and he wrote of being offended when the South Africans treated Indians the same or nearly the same as Blacks. But this was not his only unsaintly idea. For example in his older years he shared a bed with naked young women to test, he claimed, if he had advanced his soul enough to rid it of lust (I do not know how successful he was in this goal...). He advocated several economic concepts of dubious worth. Etc.
Nonetheless the world is a far better place for all people, of all ethnicities, because of Gandhi and I honor him for that without ignoring the negatives. And he inspired many others, including Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. toward their own achievements. Mandela was well aware of the racist statements made by the young Gandhi. Mandela wrote in an article in 1995, “Gandhi must be forgiven those prejudices and judged in the context of the time and circumstances. We are looking here at the young Gandhi, still to become Mahatma, when he was without any human prejudice save that in favour of truth and justice.”
Frankly I have no problem with the University of Ghana taking down his statue. Nor would I have a problem with them retaining his statue either. It depends on the parts of Gandhi's life and beliefs that are most meaningful to them.
BTW: I also have no problem contrasting the honor in which I hold even the flawed Gandhi with the disrespect I have for those whose sole "achievements" were to commit treason and to fight for the right to keep other people in slavery.
