This is just a
short observation: I won’t take up much of your time.
Over the past day
or two, I’ve spent an illuminating few sessions browsing comment fora online
here and there, and it's amazing the amount of hate boiling out against not
just "terrorists", or Muslims, but against all Arabs, and further,
against all people with brown skin.
Of course, the
average totally non-racist Islamophobes exercising their freedom of speech
couldn't tell apart a Muslim from a Sikh or a Hindu, or for that matter an Arab
from an Afghan or an Iranian from an Indian, but that doesn't, unsurprisingly,
reduce in the slightest the amount of vitriol thrown at all us brown-skinned
people. It's also more than perfectly obvious that the Paris attacks were just
an excuse to let all this hate out; one particular commenter claimed that he'd
spent a year in Morocco and knew that all Arabs are "liars, thieves and
cheats" who would "rat out their mothers".
As I recall, most of
these same people were condemning France when the then ancien, by today's standards, regime
refused, most uncharacteristically, to help invade Iraq in 2003. But when it
comes to fellow white Western “Christians” (not that France has much in the way
of Christianity) being hit, then all the hate comes pouring out. I say Western
because Russians or Serbs, for example, seem to be fair game.
I just realised yet
again that being brown skinned is itself a crime these days, and that being racist
against brown skinned people is perfectly socially acceptable, as was being
racist against blacks and Jews a century ago. And, of course, knowledge is not something that is
welcome. Knowledge is itself a shield against bigotry and racism, and one can’t
have that. A two minute CNN or Fox news item is all that is necessary to tell
these excellent ladies and gentlemen all they need to know about the world.
I should probably
be thankful that my own online circles include people who are highly
intelligent, egalitarian and knowledgeable, so that I can remind myself that
not everybody is like that.
I do wonder,
though, how say a young French Arab in the slums of Paris, already having been
a lifelong sufferer from discrimination, say, might react when he reads
something like that. And when he’s then told that he can strike back by joining
a radical Islamic movement, I wouldn’t blame him if he did.
What’s even worse
is the Hindunazis who, desperate for acceptance, will take the side of these
racists, making the so-called “point” that it’s the evil Muslims who are
responsible, and that they, themselves, are simon-pure innocents who are said
racists’ natural allies. These Vichy Quislings merely solidify the racism of
those excellent people, who now can see for themselves that at least some of
the brown-skinned savages are eager to sell out their own kind.
I probably should
stay away from the net for a day or two. This kind of thing makes me sad and leaves me with next to no hope for the future of the world.
Meanwhile, I’d
like to say that I am disgusted by the tokenism and historical illiteracy of the sudden
rash of French flags proliferating online.
Stay well, all of
you.
I've been keeping up with your facebook posts, and although i suspect there's a point beyond which we might not agree, the discussions I've been watching are great.
ReplyDeleteI believe there are people in the States who are genuinely scared, whether or not they also believe that these events are anyting that the West has set the stage for.
Granted, most of these same people don't notice that in crime, immigration, world events, gov't budgets, it's always non-whites they're warning everyone about.
I asked my grandfather, "Have you ever rooted for an underdog? ANY underdog? Other than in sports?"
He said, "Yeah, sure. I voted for Bob Dole in 1996."
Bill, we're not broadly plugged in much and not at all to social media and I suppose considering your description of some of the goings-on, we should be glad for it. As far as the French flag is concerned, one doesn't have to go back too far in history - Vietnam, Algeria, as leading member of the 'coalition of the killing' - to leave one with an itch to burn it.
ReplyDeleteThose who tell the truth, especially when it flies in the face of dearly held delusions, are bound to be shunned and persecuted. They are also heroes.
ReplyDeleteHi Bill
ReplyDeleteThis ignorant and narcissistic hate is endemic to the uneducated White lower class in the States. Probably there is a deep and abiding fear underlies most, a social-cultural phenomenon rooted in a history of class exploiting race, whether the racism of 'manifest destiny' in relation to considering Native Americans sub-human to justify theft and murder or the 'White trash' whose racism had been historically fed and exploited by the 'southern aristocracy' for political and pecuniary purpose. Social phenomena being what it is, it follows there is the inter-generational aspect where the ignorance is sustained within family and community. This ignorance is, in turn, exploited by the politics of fear mongering in the present. Whether it is the fairly straightforward lies of the Rupert Murdochs (FOX News) in our world or the more insidious Hasbara of Israel posing as White, racist, anti-Semites in the article comments at Unz Review to smear authors like Phillip Giraldi with a guilt by association. Now, Arabs (and Brown anybodies) are the new Native American to be feared as 'savages' in the 21st century edition of empire (manifest destiny) and, of course, there is underhanded play aplenty to radicalize just enough of the new 'savages' to insure a few will behave shockingly enough for media sensation. Meanwhile 'empire media' will present 'White Europe' as the model of civilization under attack by barbarians (never mind we prop up the likes of Saudi Barbaria)
On 9/11/'01 (US-style date), 19 Arab Muslims hijacked four planes and crashed two into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and crashed one when the passengers tried to revolt.
ReplyDeleteThis gives the US the right and the duty to kill any Arab, whether Muslim or not, and any Muslim, whether Arab or not, and any Sikh for wearing a turban.
That's just the way it is.
MichaelWme