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It seems like certain ethnic groups have been privileged and lucky throughout their history and others have been downtrodden, oppressed and even killed en masse multiple times.
I would say some of the most unlucky would be:
Ironically, the Irish, despite the stereotype of Irish people being lucky. The Irish throughout their history have been bullied by their neighbors, whether it's the English or the Norwegian Vikings. Suffered a massive potato famine which killed off a huge percentage of their people to the point that so many died or left afterwards that the island has never recovered to its previous population.
The Cambodians/Khmer. They should be included for enduring the Killing Fields alone, but to this today they're still among the poorest people in Asia.
The Jews of course. Though they have experienced fortune and fame in certain parts of spacetime, they've also endured the Holocaust and countless pogroms, and have been a minority in everywhere they have lived except ancient Israel and its modern re-creation.
Pretty much all the native people of the Americas, for the fact that the Columbian Exchange killed off most of them and the ones that survive have always been in an inferior position to the culture that conquered them. Their history and folklore is almost forgotten as well, adding insult to injury. However, their pre-Columbian history wasn't necessarily too unfortunate and lasted thousands of years.
The Poles, for being a corridor of so many different wars, and being a stateless people for so long. Only recently have things become good for them.
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Pretty much every nation has suffered conquest, invasion, famine, disaster at one time or another. Their successes have also been brief. The Poles do seem quite unlucky, and the Jews of course. Poor people pretty much anywhere get a raw deal.
I do not consider Africans as an ethnic. is an immense continent, with different races, cultures and religions. Not all had the same history, and not all have experienced slavery, indeed, southern europeans were enslaved by north african for centuries, and that was not so many centuries ago.
Sadly it's a narrative of human history that nearly all ethnicities have tragic histories... probably the only ones to not have had an overly tragic past would be (white) Australia, and perhaps Canada. I would even hestitate to include the US in this list.
For all other nations, bloodshed and misery seem to be the norm up until really very recently.
But yes, the Irish, Russians and most East Europeans, Jews, Palestinians, native Americans, Australian Aboriginies, Cambodians, most African peoples.... particularly sad histories.
Mongolians? I recall they controlled a vast empire once but I don't know of any account of them being pushed to extreme hardships compared to the other ethnicities.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ragnarkar
Mongolians? I recall they controlled a vast empire once but I don't know of any account of them being pushed to extreme hardships compared to the other ethnicities.
It seems like certain ethnic groups have been privileged and lucky throughout their history and others have been downtrodden, oppressed and even killed en masse multiple times.
I would say some of the most unlucky would be:
Ironically, the Irish, despite the stereotype of Irish people being lucky. The Irish throughout their history have been bullied by their neighbors, whether it's the English or the Norwegian Vikings. Suffered a massive potato famine which killed off a huge percentage of their people to the point that so many died or left afterwards that the island has never recovered to its previous population.
The Cambodians/Khmer. They should be included for enduring the Killing Fields alone, but to this today they're still among the poorest people in Asia.
The Jews of course. Though they have experienced fortune and fame in certain parts of spacetime, they've also endured the Holocaust and countless pogroms, and have been a minority in everywhere they have lived except ancient Israel and its modern re-creation.
Pretty much all the native people of the Americas, for the fact that the Columbian Exchange killed off most of them and the ones that survive have always been in an inferior position to the culture that conquered them. Their history and folklore is almost forgotten as well, adding insult to injury. However, their pre-Columbian history wasn't necessarily too unfortunate and lasted thousands of years.
The Poles, for being a corridor of so many different wars, and being a stateless people for so long. Only recently have things become good for them.
FYI...the term "luck of the Irish" is actually meant as an ironic/sarcastic sort of saying (which you actually sorta picked up on already). It means they have bad luck rather than good luck!
So many countries have had terrible histories--Gosh, I'm not sure there are that many countries that haven't been affected by slavery, war, starvation, disease, poverty, genocide, child sex slavery,apartheid, etc. Really too hard to pick what's been more horrible. The Jews I'd say is pretty high up there though..The horrors of places like Rwanda, Sudan (Darfur)...or how about North Korea- I'd definitely pass on living in this place.
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