I recently had someone say that the genocide in Gaza is a partisan issue, since one of the political parties in my country names it for what it is. I guess that's the polite kind of racism.
"We are in need of drastic, revolutionary change, more extensive than probably most of us can imagine at this point in time." Yes we need change on so many levels it is sometimes difficult to take it in. Capitalism needs to go, racism needs to go, sexist attitudes need to go, thinking children (or anyone) need to be smacked around for any reason at all. Thinking that bombing people is going to solve any problems is stupid. We are a living in a fucked up world that is getting increasingly more fucked up.
Yeah ever wonder why they called it the "cold war" even though plenty of actual wars were fought during that period? it is not like no one died; people died, just not white people so I guess it didn't count. Real racism is so vast, so huge, so big that it is basically invisible. When the fighting and dying happened to black, brown, and asian people, it was treated as a mere sideshow to the superpower rivalry and considered cold since the people whose lives really matter (i.e. western european whites) did not die en masse and saw their nations burn.
History is written by the victors and so it will forever be remembered as the "Cold War" because in the eyes of the victors the millions of people who died outside of Europe and North America just do not count.
"You’re allowed to vote on whether or not your government will become more abusive to immigrants and other marginalized members of your society, but you’re never allowed to vote on whether or not war, militarism and imperialist extraction will continue."
There's the rub. The war machine can never be shut down, which only fuels more "impolite racism" at home. As they say, "Fascism is imperialism come home." To end fascism, imperialism must end. The war machine must be shut down. Forever.
Totally agree, and just want to note that included in the quiet type of racism is all the coded anti-black language prevalent among many liberal whites, like calling a neighborhood "bad" because black people live there, among many other examples.
In my country whenever reference is made to a "good" school it means wealthy, highly govt funded "elite" "private' or so-called "independent". I came across a video last night on FB - a moving piece where kids are surprised/overcome by the return from "service" in some US conflict abroad by their father. Filmed for dramatic and tear-jerking effect - which of course it truly is. Responses were from those overcome themselves just by watching and lots of God bless and thanks for the service of the Dad. I merely wondered - on line - what their government was doing waging wars abroad and doing the inhuman thing as well of separating dads from wives and children?
Caitlin, so beautifully expressed and explained! Thank you. Many academics attempt to bring light to some of the same issues you have here - but often fail in adequately explaining it (and the connections to the US Empire and Capitalism) as you have.
There are even intellectuals of 'impolite racism' that are promoted by the elites/power structures/corporations as acceptable (eg. Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, to name two of them). Instead of focusing on the critical theory of racism and how racism is interwoven into and a crucial ingredient of Capitalism, Imperialism, Western Empire hegemony and colonialism - these authors/intellectuals present views that do not fundamentally challenge the 'status quo and power structures' that benefit from the effects and behaviors/actions of racism that impact the WHOLE GLOBE (and not just the U.S.).
Thank you and much love for this wonderful essay on racism. ❤️🙏
Hi Caitlin, I completely agree that it’s the acceptable type of racism that enables a genocide to be carried out, through biased framing and emphasis, omission, false equivalency and outright lies favouring a particular group.
But I’d like to point out an editing error in your essay: “Without the imperialist extraction of labor and resources from the global south at extortionate prices…”—the last three words should be: “through extortionate means”. “Extortionate prices” can only mean extremely high prices, whereas you are trying to say “extremely low wages/prices”.
“In his book Endless Holocausts: Mass Death in the History of the United States Empire, the political scientist David Michael Smith calculates that the US has been responsible or shared responsibility for the death of 54 million people between 1945 and 2020. Add in domestic social killing and move the time back to the founding of the American Empire in 1776 and the body count climbs to 300 million. In his 2013 book America’s Deadliest Export, William Blum reported that the United States after World War II: worked to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments; interfered in elections held by 30 sovereign nations; tried to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders; bombed more than 30 nations; and tried to suppress nationalist, leftist, and populist movements in at least 20 nations. (These numbers need to be updated for the last three years of the Obama administration and the Trump and Biden presidencies to include, among other things, US funding and protection of Israel’s 2023-20?? genocide in Gaza, Trump’s boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific, Trump’s kidnapping of Venezuela’s sovereign elected president, and Trump’s reckless and failing fiasco of a war on Iran.) The United States is the only country to have attacked human beings (unnecessarily) with nuclear weapons (twice) and has brought the world remarkably close to nuclear annihilation on multiple occasions. It is the clear leader in the global march to societal collapse if not human extinction via climate collapse, ecocide (broadly understood), nuclear proliferation, pandemicide, and artificial intelligence” - Glen Brown
Everyone in the US needs to read "One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This", by Omar El Akkad and then sit down and reflect on who we are collectively and individually and what to do about that.
Everything you just said, and then add to it the incomprehensible amount of suffering from billions of non-human beings who live their entire lives in darkness, filth and physical torment so we can eat meat.
The structural racism in imperialism is one of the hardest.- Once I discussed with a suppossedly far left woman in social media that was in every liberal fight for the USA, trans, anti racism you name it; when I brought up how Obama drone bombed kids and how does she reconciled that with her strong Democrat advocacy, she just said "That's just how things roll here, but we can focus on the domestic issues". HAH!
I recently had someone say that the genocide in Gaza is a partisan issue, since one of the political parties in my country names it for what it is. I guess that's the polite kind of racism.
There are two sides to the Israel story someone told me. Yes, I told him: There's the right side (Palestinians), and the genocide (Israelis).
"We are in need of drastic, revolutionary change, more extensive than probably most of us can imagine at this point in time." Yes we need change on so many levels it is sometimes difficult to take it in. Capitalism needs to go, racism needs to go, sexist attitudes need to go, thinking children (or anyone) need to be smacked around for any reason at all. Thinking that bombing people is going to solve any problems is stupid. We are a living in a fucked up world that is getting increasingly more fucked up.
Yeah ever wonder why they called it the "cold war" even though plenty of actual wars were fought during that period? it is not like no one died; people died, just not white people so I guess it didn't count. Real racism is so vast, so huge, so big that it is basically invisible. When the fighting and dying happened to black, brown, and asian people, it was treated as a mere sideshow to the superpower rivalry and considered cold since the people whose lives really matter (i.e. western european whites) did not die en masse and saw their nations burn.
History is written by the victors and so it will forever be remembered as the "Cold War" because in the eyes of the victors the millions of people who died outside of Europe and North America just do not count.
Who’re we kiddin here? The only totally condemned form of “racism” here in AmeriKKKa is >cough< the incorrectly-named “antisemitism “.
Anyone else is fair game.
"You’re allowed to vote on whether or not your government will become more abusive to immigrants and other marginalized members of your society, but you’re never allowed to vote on whether or not war, militarism and imperialist extraction will continue."
There's the rub. The war machine can never be shut down, which only fuels more "impolite racism" at home. As they say, "Fascism is imperialism come home." To end fascism, imperialism must end. The war machine must be shut down. Forever.
Totally agree, and just want to note that included in the quiet type of racism is all the coded anti-black language prevalent among many liberal whites, like calling a neighborhood "bad" because black people live there, among many other examples.
In my country whenever reference is made to a "good" school it means wealthy, highly govt funded "elite" "private' or so-called "independent". I came across a video last night on FB - a moving piece where kids are surprised/overcome by the return from "service" in some US conflict abroad by their father. Filmed for dramatic and tear-jerking effect - which of course it truly is. Responses were from those overcome themselves just by watching and lots of God bless and thanks for the service of the Dad. I merely wondered - on line - what their government was doing waging wars abroad and doing the inhuman thing as well of separating dads from wives and children?
“…you’re never allowed to vote on whether or not war, militarism and imperialist extraction will continue.”
You cannot separate foreign policy from domestic policy. To understand this, just follow the money.
Caitlin, so beautifully expressed and explained! Thank you. Many academics attempt to bring light to some of the same issues you have here - but often fail in adequately explaining it (and the connections to the US Empire and Capitalism) as you have.
There are even intellectuals of 'impolite racism' that are promoted by the elites/power structures/corporations as acceptable (eg. Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, to name two of them). Instead of focusing on the critical theory of racism and how racism is interwoven into and a crucial ingredient of Capitalism, Imperialism, Western Empire hegemony and colonialism - these authors/intellectuals present views that do not fundamentally challenge the 'status quo and power structures' that benefit from the effects and behaviors/actions of racism that impact the WHOLE GLOBE (and not just the U.S.).
Thank you and much love for this wonderful essay on racism. ❤️🙏
Hi Caitlin, I completely agree that it’s the acceptable type of racism that enables a genocide to be carried out, through biased framing and emphasis, omission, false equivalency and outright lies favouring a particular group.
But I’d like to point out an editing error in your essay: “Without the imperialist extraction of labor and resources from the global south at extortionate prices…”—the last three words should be: “through extortionate means”. “Extortionate prices” can only mean extremely high prices, whereas you are trying to say “extremely low wages/prices”.
“In his book Endless Holocausts: Mass Death in the History of the United States Empire, the political scientist David Michael Smith calculates that the US has been responsible or shared responsibility for the death of 54 million people between 1945 and 2020. Add in domestic social killing and move the time back to the founding of the American Empire in 1776 and the body count climbs to 300 million. In his 2013 book America’s Deadliest Export, William Blum reported that the United States after World War II: worked to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments; interfered in elections held by 30 sovereign nations; tried to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders; bombed more than 30 nations; and tried to suppress nationalist, leftist, and populist movements in at least 20 nations. (These numbers need to be updated for the last three years of the Obama administration and the Trump and Biden presidencies to include, among other things, US funding and protection of Israel’s 2023-20?? genocide in Gaza, Trump’s boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific, Trump’s kidnapping of Venezuela’s sovereign elected president, and Trump’s reckless and failing fiasco of a war on Iran.) The United States is the only country to have attacked human beings (unnecessarily) with nuclear weapons (twice) and has brought the world remarkably close to nuclear annihilation on multiple occasions. It is the clear leader in the global march to societal collapse if not human extinction via climate collapse, ecocide (broadly understood), nuclear proliferation, pandemicide, and artificial intelligence” - Glen Brown
Everyone in the US needs to read "One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This", by Omar El Akkad and then sit down and reflect on who we are collectively and individually and what to do about that.
Everything you just said, and then add to it the incomprehensible amount of suffering from billions of non-human beings who live their entire lives in darkness, filth and physical torment so we can eat meat.
Telling it like it is, as usual.
The structural racism in imperialism is one of the hardest.- Once I discussed with a suppossedly far left woman in social media that was in every liberal fight for the USA, trans, anti racism you name it; when I brought up how Obama drone bombed kids and how does she reconciled that with her strong Democrat advocacy, she just said "That's just how things roll here, but we can focus on the domestic issues". HAH!
Why can’t I up vote this?