Americans have an openly racist president, racist foreign policy, racist law enforcement and racist corporate media.
“A settler colonial state depended upon gun carrying white people to uphold the social order.”
During the 2016 presidential campaign this columnist wrote, “Who’s the Fascist?” The commentary was an attempt to decipher truth from posturing when discussing the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency. American domestic and foreign policies were moving closer and closer to a definition of fascism before Trump ran for office. The United States threatens the world with nuclear annihilation, kills thousands with sanctions, and covers the world with military bases. At home the mass incarceration state created the largest prison system in the world. The surveillance state steadily diminishes civil liberties and human rights. Fascism is nothing new in this nation.
The loaded word was part of conversations throughout the country when two mass shootings occurred in a 24-hour period. The first in El Paso, Texas resulted in twenty-two deaths. Nineteen of the victims had Spanish surnames. The second in Dayton, Ohio killed nine people, six of whom were black.
“Fascism is nothing new in this nation.”
A confused nation can’t come up with rational answers even though most Americans are sincere in their desire to end the carnage. A dangerous combination of racism, political cowardice and violence accepted by some of the well intended is a recipe for inaction.
Congressman Stephen Cohen demonstrated the difficulty in coming to terms with American violence. In a twitter post which he later deleted, Cohen opined, “You want to shoot an assault weapon? Go to Afghanistan or Iraq. Enlist!” Presidential candidate mayor Pete Buttigieg enlisted with Cohen’s appalling buffoonery. “I did not carry an assault weapon around a foreign country so I could come home and see them used to massacre my countryman.”
Cohen and Buttigieg prove that much of the hand wringing about violence is phony. The same people who may shake their fist at the National Rifle Association, or call Trump the dreaded F- word will shrug their shoulders or openly support killing if it is carried out by someone wearing a U.S. military uniform. Those who steadfastly oppose American imperialism and all of its violence are few and far between.
“Much of the hand wringing about violence is phony.”
Most people are like Cohen and Buttigieg. They are cheerleaders for death and destruction if it is carried out by their government. They don’t bother to question, much less oppose U.S. imperialism, the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. Civilians are killed without warning in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, just like the unsuspecting shoppers in El Paso. They die from lack of medicine in Iran and Venezuela due to U.S. sanctions.
At the same time, racism is at the heart of domestic violence. A settler colonial state depended upon gun carrying white people to uphold the social order. The militias referred to in the second amendment were slave patrols needed to enforce the peculiar institution. Those militias continue in the modern day police force and in the minds of millions of people.
Speaking of the police, all the talk of hate crime is a reminder that they commit more of it than anyone else does. Every day one black person and two others of different races will be killed by the police. Yet the term hate crime is rarely applied to the people who kill at will and with complete impunity.
“Cohen and Buttigieg are cheerleaders for death and destruction if it is carried out by their government.”
The police have little to fear because most white Americans trust them and support their effort to keep black people under physical control. Even people who responded with outrage or attended a vigil for the victims don’t question the dictates of U.S. imperialism and police brutality. Both phenomena are white supremacist to the core.
Perhaps we need a moratorium on the use of the term white supremacist until it is applied accurately to all who deserve the epithet. Trump is once again the lowest of low hanging fruit in this regard. Meanwhile, a supposedly respectable journalist like CNN’s Jake Tappergets away with showing every sign of bigotry expressed by Trump.
Tapper gave professional racist Richard Spencera platform on his program and treated him like an expert spokesperson. Tapper showed his true colors again when he made a bizarre effort to compare the Palestinian cause with that of American killers. He and others in corporate media are white supremacists too, no less so than Trump.
In any case, the mass hate crime didn’t begin in November 2016. Black church goers were murdered by a young white man in Charleston, South Carolina before Trump was elected. The names Columbine, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook also became infamous before Trump took office.
“Jake Tapper and others in corporate media are white supremacists too, no less so than Trump.”
The El Paso police took the killer into custody without firing a shot, or putting him in a chokehold. Nor did the killer turn his gun on them. There seems to have been a mutual understanding that the police and white people are on the same side, even when whites are mass killers. Fortunately the Dayton, Ohio police were less reverential and killed the gunman.
Americans have an openly racist president, racist foreign policy, racist law enforcement and racist corporate media. The heirs of the slave patrols promise not to give up their guns and politicians either agree with them or cower in fear of the well organized lobby.
White supremacy is foundational to the United States. Rooting it out requires more self-awareness than this country is currently able to muster. In the meantime, no one should be shocked when the next mass shooting makes the news. White supremacy is not the province of crazy killers or orange faced presidents. It is a normalized belief system for millions of people.
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com . Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.
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