I am currently watching a Youtube video of a talk from the
UK which was discussing the fact that the US President, Mr. Donald Trump had
not come out to speak out strongly against the “White Supremacist” who was the
perpetrator of the New Zealand shooting last week.
The most interesting part of this show, is that the show’s
main hosts, Piers Morgan (who once participated in “Celebrity Apprentice” and
is a friend of Donald Trump) was trying to make the point that although Donald
Trump cannot be blamed for every instance of White Supremacy around the world,
he could be doing a lot more to combat.
What made this particularly interesting, was the fact that
the Trumpette on the other end of the show, was trying her best to make the
point the shooter was a “lone wolf,” and that you cannot blame Trump for
everything and that “right-wing” extremist groups have declined in America. She
somehow couldn’t help but feel defensive whenever the shows hosts kept on
pushing the fact that whenever there’s an attack by Muslim terrorists, the
Donald has been more than happy to use the Presidential Pulpit to condemn the
evils of Muslim terrorists. However, whenever a White Supremacist does something,
the President somehow goes very quiet – just think of the “fine people on both
sides” response to the events in Charlottesville. The clip of the show can be
seen at:
This interview did strike me that something in this world is
wrong. My formative years were spent in the West. I grew up in Spain, where the
name of Franco evoked emotional chills, then I moved to Germany where the entire
nation was constantly made aware of its atrocious Nazi past and then I moved to
England where the people were proud of standing up to the Nazis and regarded
the extremist of the British National Party (BNP) were regarded as a group of nut
jobs.
In the years that I spent in the West, Nazis and
other white supremacist were regarded as the sum of the earth. You made movies
out of beating the crap of these people and nobody in their right minds would
ever consider voting for them. Yes, I’ve known White Europeans to get frustrated
with the brown, usually Muslim immigrants coming over (I think of the “Paki” jokes
that were common in England and I think of the difficulties my stepdad has
dealing with Muslim migrant men glaring at him, a male gynecologist needing to
examine their pregnant wives.) Yet, I do not have a single White European (I
include the British and Americans here) who would consider the “Nazis” as a
viable political party. It was just not done.
I also remember growing up in a world where America was the “hero”
of the world. American politicians of all shapes and size would champion the
fact that America played the deciding role in defeating the Nazis and standing
up for the little guy. Once again, I have never met a “White American” who
considered the KKK an acceptable group of people.
So, I take the position that this is a strange world, where
the leader of the “free-world,” doesn’t lead the fight against the worst in
humanity. It worried me when the Donald, while running for President went off
on his rants about Mexicans being rapist and wanting to ban all Muslims from
entering the country. While I haven’t been perfect in avoiding racists thoughts,
I try my best as a human being not to indulge in them. So, if I, as an
insignificant spot on humanity can make the effort to avoid indulging in my
worst instincts, surely someone running for “leader of the free world” should
be able to do the same. It’s also disturbing that an otherwise decent people
would actually vote for the clown.
I don’t disagree with the fact that Islamic Extremism has to
be defeated. You cannot argue that Osama Bin Ladin and his followers and their
successors at ISIS were simply bad news.
However, you cannot fight “Islamic Extremism” if you insist
on defending the guys who have it in for people of colour and the guys who think
hurting Muslims is OK. Sure, Trump cannot be blamed for everything. He didn’t,
for example, fly down to New Zealand and arm the guy who perpetrated the
killings.
What he can be blamed for is NOT leading the fight against
extremist ideologies of the white variety. As Piers Morgan tried to explain, he
almost denies that White Supremacist are a problem as can be seen in the clip:
And even if terrorist attacks by White Supremacist are not as
grand as those conducted by their Islamic counterparts, you could expect the “leader
of the free world” to disassociate himself with fringe nut jobs who have a
history of trying to harm people of a different colour. I mean, would you want
to be endorsed by these guys?
The Donald may not be a racist. As a businessman, the only
colour that mattered was “green” (like the US Dollar.). Trump’s Muslim ban
conveniently exempted Saudi Arabia and the UAE, countries with Muslims who can
afford Trump’s real estate. Behind the rhetoric on China, he probably doesn’t
have issues with Chinese, especially since the Chinese started buying his
properties and his wines.
However, how confident can one be of a man who doesn’t see
the problem of being endorsed by Nazis? He’s been promoted as a “straight
shooter” who tells it like it is. Yet, and yet, he’s got a magical ability to
call “bad people” just that.
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In living memory we have witnessed the murder of christian black worshippers in their church in the USA, the murder of jewish white worshippers in their temple in the USA, the atrocities committed by the KKK and others in the US South, the bombing of the FBI building in Oklahoma City by a pair of admitted white supremacists and I am sure there are more, but these are the ones that come immediately to mind. There is a rising tide of white supremacism in the west and the Christchurch tragedy may well empower other racist bigots (almost always white) to start their own private war against "others". It is the irrational fear of "other" that drives their paranoia. Trump and other politicians who identify to the right are only too happy to fan these flames, they have no care for the consequences for the ordinary person, only to be in power.
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