After seeing what has happened in Charlottesville, it is now clear, and it is now simple. If a one black man or muslim goes brandishing arms in a protest, they are very likely to be shot and seen as a criminal or a terrorist. Let a group of white people march with arms under confederate and neo-nazi flags and the response is different. Yes these far right groups have been belatedly condemned, but the only arrest seems to be over the crazed man who drove his car into the public killing Heather Heyer and injuring 19 other people.
What of the people who carried guns and threatened to use them to a peaceful march?
The reason the law of the USA, or at least the way it is applied by those in authority is different for the criminal and the terrorist versus the far right-wing extremists is because far right-wing extremists are expressing points of view that “secretly” those in power in the USA have. This viewpoint of America being white and being over-run by foreigners is ingrained in the constitutional fabric of that society, even Jefferson – seen as the founder of the nation – had black slaves. From that point on trying to push for true equality and freedom through law has always been like trying to push water uphill.
Monuments, street names, parks and other such cultural artefacts cry aloud of America’s violent and hypocritical past in terms of race relations. The huge irony is that it is Europeans who have invaded the countries of other people, displacing native American Indians, the Aborigines in Australia, and even the natives in Southern Africa – not to mention the disruption and exploitation practiced in many other African countries, South America, India and so forth.
In terms of a race feeling threatened by the influx of a foreign culture, truly, history tells us that only Europeans have really managed to work that particular behaviour on other nations, and the fear of the same being worked against them is patently ironic – surely there is a name for such arrogant blindness? Often people are only in the countries Europeans inhabit by historical legacy (descendents of slaves), indigenous inhabitants, and the spill over from other nations which is a legacy of the European system of capitalism where people go in search of better paid work, largely due to the resources and industry in their own country being heavily exploited by foreigners. Even where these workers are illegal, they play an important part in the economies of the countries they reside – note Trumps policy of cracking down on illegals is causing a shortage of workers to harvest crops, which will ead to scarcity and increased prices – that won’t help the forgotten poor that Trump claims to represent!
These views of racial xenophobia are crass, flawed. conceited and blindly hypocritical. The problem is all such racial bigotry comes from an irrational mindset that doesn’t realise the historical issues that feed into the current day situation, and doesn’t acknowledge the worth of all people in society (even illegal immigrants). We have created the society we see today both the oppressor and the oppressed, the stong and the weak, the advantaged and the disadvantaged. If there is a problem with society and we try to overlook away the past, that past will just come back to haunt us another way. Indeed the reason we are still dealing with far right views and huge inequality today, is because society has not yet adequately dealt with those issues justly and fairly – and the longer society tinkers with the edges of these problems, the more insidious these problems will get.
European culture, whether in Europe or America or Australia has a devouring appetite to consume the resources of other countries and then to marginalize the people of those countries and make them appear as parasites. Indeed, demonization of other cultures feeds the already ingrained notions of superiority that the far-right groups cling to, it affirms their world view. At the less overtly extreme end of the spectrum it justifies the perpetual nature of exploitation of other countries which itself feeds into the vicious circle of exploitation, greed and prejudice. Mr Trump is playing a key role in ensuring through the office of the American Presidency that the status quo remains unchanged, perhaps even that its grip is tightened.