Sunday 20 August 2017

Of Course You Can Be White, Too!



What keeps getting so many upset about Charlottesville?

Was it the cosplay creeps with their predictable mantra; was it the predictable death of one white person; was it American-democracy elected Donald Trump being his predictable self? 

Was it politicians predictably getting on the predictable media-train as an opportunity to self-promote - while not actually having to do something constructive?

Nothing new in any of it!




Racism is the foundation of Canada and the US: the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) ethos of superiority in all and everything has shaped them both from the beginning - with God on their side - to become part of their (supremely) white social fabric.




So - it's hard to believe that all sudden demonstrators in Vancouver - before hitting the streets - actually went through a catharsis overnight and came out cleansed of their habitual complicity-at-least-by-silence: regarding from-the-top-down punishing disregard for Canada's indigenous nations. And others of color. Ongoing since the Colonials' arrival.

If they didn't - they've hardly had time since Charlottesville - they are and remain white supremacists (with better haircuts): if only by background, environment, association, voting - and dithering.

Does not having had large-scale demonstrations all along specifically in support of aboriginals mean: they have not been victims of racism?




"Supremacism is the worldview that a particular age, race, species, ethnicity, religion, ideology, nation, or culture is superior to other variations of that trait, and it advocates that those who identify with it dominate, control and subjugate those who do not."
                                              Wikipedia

The Germans attempted to export their particular brand of white supremacy all over the world; the British actually did; and the Americans are still at it with what Obama openly bragged about as American exceptionalism - another word for white supremacism.

The man in Charlottesville - driving his car into a crowd and killing one - a small number by today's terrorism "standards" - was not using a specifically southern-white-supremacist game-plan: he copied that from run-of-the-mill terrorists, who originally objected enough-is-enough to white supremacism in the Middle East.

So - wouldn't it be more clear-headed to call those pathetic southern whack-jobs what the are - racist nationalists - instead of empowering them uniquely with a label way too large for them to carry.




In Vancouver - taking selfies in the crowd and sending them to Friends as proof of having been there - having done the righteous thing - may provide a momentary rush - but then what? When these things are over - they're usually over, and everybody heads for Starbuck's.

Wouldn't those professing concerns in front of city hall have been more on point by taking these concerns to the Eastside?

There doing something small and quiet and personal about neighborhood racism.


If you can't love the present locals - you can't love the arriving Syrians.



   


We're all guilty!


  

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