BY ED FELIEN
There are two raging civil wars going on in the U.S. right now!
One is a race war: the white race against everybody else. And the second is Muslims fighting against the occupation of their home countries by U.S. business interests.
At this point, white racist lone-wolf terrorists are killing non-whites at a rate twice that of lone-wolf Muslim terrorists killing U.S. soldiers. Most recently: in Charleston, S.C., Dylann Roof killed nine people of color at Mother Emanuel Church on June 17; Mohammod Abdulazeez killed five Marines in Chattanooga, Tenn., on July 16; John R. Houser killed two women and injured nine others at a movie theater in Lafayette, La., on July 23. That’s 11 fatalities from white racist terrorists versus five fatalities from Islamic terrorists.
When U.S. soldiers are killed by Islamic terrorists the nation goes into deep mourning. Flags are lowered to half-mast. Politicians express public sorrow and the determination to punish the offenders. When innocent victims are murdered by racist terrorists in a church or a movie theater it is said to be the act of a deranged individual. But both acts must be seen as the acts of soldiers fighting for a cause. Both kinds of terrorists see themselves as patriots and martyrs for their cause. The hope of both white racist and Islamic terrorists is that their actions will spark a prairie fire that will consume their enemies.
We need to understand what these terrorists are thinking. What is the basis for their frustration? What is their cause?
As our society becomes increasingly technological and complex, more and more poor whites are being kicked to the gutter and they’re taking it out on the people they think are climbing over them—women, blacks, immigrants. This is not new. The Know Nothings believed the same things almost 200 years ago. They feared losing their jobs. To protect their sense of self-worth, they convinced themselves that white males were better than other people, so they were anti-women, racist and anti-immigrant. This philosophy becomes most explicit with the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and the Invisible Empire. In the 1920s, 50,000 poor whites in Akron, Ohio, joined the Klan to protect their jobs from blacks moving up from the South. All the elected officials in Akron were members of the Klan, and they were explicitly sexist, racist and nativist.
That ideology has not gone away. But it has gone underground. Until Donald Trump called Mexican immigrants criminals, drug dealers and rapists, most Republican candidates had talked about strong immigration policies—which was their way of saying Mexicans were inferior and trying to steal American jobs.
When the Mall of America prosecutes members of Black Lives Matter for holding a rally in their public rotunda, that sends a dog whistle signal to racists that they will be safe at the Mall from being forced to interact with any uppity blacks who are trying to take their jobs or their place in line.
Most of the attacks on black people come from the local police. The FBI warned in 2006 that white supremacists had seriously infiltrated police departments nationwide and constituted a national threat. There was a racist backlash when six police officers were indicted for the murder of Freddie Gray who died of spinal injuries while in police custody. The police reacted by catching the Blue Flu—they stopped working, stopped making arrests. Racist blogs and websites continued to beat the drum for racial hatred and fear of black people. One joke that made the rounds of reactionary racists went something like this:
“The coach had put together the perfect team for the Baltimore Ravens. The only thing missing was a good quarterback. He had scouted all the colleges and even the Canadian and European Leagues, but he couldn’t find a ringer who could ensure a Super Bowl win. Then one night while watching CNN he saw a war-zone scene in the West Bank. In one corner of the background, he spotted a young Israeli soldier with a truly incredible arm. He threw a hand-grenade straight into a 15th story window 100 yards away. KABOOM! He threw another hand-grenade 75 yards away, right into a chimney. KA-BLOOEY! Then he threw another at a passing car going 90 mph. BULLS-EYE!”I’ve got to get this guy!” Coach said to himself. “He has the perfect Arm!” So, he brings him to the States and teaches him the great game of football. And the Ravens go on to win the Super Bowl. The young man is hailed as the great hero of football, and when the coach asks him what he wants, all the young man wants is to call his mother. ‘Mom,’ he says into the phone, ‘I just won the Super Bowl!’’I don’t want to talk to you,’ the old woman says. ‘You are not my son!’
“‘I don’t think you understand, Mother,’ the young man pleads. ‘I’ve won the greatest sporting event in the world. I’m here among thousands of my adoring fans.’
“’No! Let me tell you!’ his mother retorts. ‘At this very moment, there are gunshots all around us. The neighborhood is a pile of rubble. Your two brothers were beaten within an inch of their lives last week, and I have to keep your sister in the house so she doesn’t get raped!’ The old lady pauses, and then tearfully says, ‘I will never forgive you for making us move to Baltimore!!!!’”
The joke is a two-fer for racists. Not only does it say that maintaining law and order means keeping black people in line, but it also treats Palestinians as less than human, and it says that blowing them up with hand grenades can be an admirable sport.
Mohammod Abdulazeez shares a similar profile to most other young American mass murderers. Like Dylann Roof, Jared Lee Loughner, James Eagan Holmes and Adam Lanza, he lost his job, had mounting debts and needed the martyrdom of one desperate act to redeem a life that was going nowhere. The difference was that he was acting on behalf of an Islamic Jihad against the domination of U.S. imperialism. In this case, as a Palestinian-American, Abdulazeez was probably trying to avenge the 2,200 lives lost in Palestine last year in Israel’s war on Gaza.
But it is not enough to describe the problem. We should also try to suggest solutions.
The U.S. government needs to recognize the tragic costs of failure in our aggressive and predatory economy. When a young man fails in America, he will often strike out at others, blaming them for his failures. The U.S. will spend $3 trillion next year on fighting Islamic terrorism. We need to spend some of that money on counseling young men about vocational options. No human being should consider themself a failure. All of us have worth. We need counselors to reaffirm the worth of young men who are lost in a sea of confusion and violence. We need to step forward to help these young men.
And we need to step back from the wars in the Middle East. Arabs and Persians and Jews are entitled to work things out for themselves. Our involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, etc., has only made matters worse. And there is no reason to get caught in a 3,000-year-old struggle between Iran and Israel, between Nebuchadnezzar and the self-proclaimed King of Judah. They’re going to have to work that out for themselves.
Incredibly insightful and informative!
Thank you!