Eh, too much talk about how map projections are the tools of the evil colonialists/developed nations. The Mercator projection became widespread because "of its ability to represent lines of constant course as straight segments that conserve the angles with the meridians", not because it exaggerates areas towards the poles for political European supremacy reasons. North is consistently depicted as up (not only in European maps but around the world) probably because the stars including the north star Polaris are "up" from our point of view. Maps are centered in the GMT meridian because the Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean on earth and thus the most logical point for the break.

No need to make everything a struggle about "race". Make scientific arguments or credible social arguments, but don't just assume off the bat everything is "problematic" and make even patently scientific decisions attributable to malice and oppression. It doesn't help.