Are Black and Brown Lives worth Less?

 

During the height of the “Black Lives Matter” protest that started in May 2020, I remember a few people who came out against these protest by saying that they believed that “All Lives Matter.” It goes without saying that these guys were often pillared for being insensitive and the opposite of “woke.”

To be fair to the people who said that “All Lives Matter,” they were utterly right. However, what they forgot was the fact that while “All Lives Matter,” some happen to matter a bit more than others. If you look closely enough, you’ll notice that lives that are brown and especially black, happen to matter a lot less than lives that are say, white.

It happens in just about every place on the planet. In Singapore, its almost acceptable to shit on dark skinned people, especially if they happen to work on construction sites or do things like ensuring that fairer skinned people live in a clean environment. If you suggest, for example, that dark skinned people should ride on the road in the same conditions as the rest of us, you’ll find someone who will inevitably call you “Anti-Business” and lacking in any form of sympathy for the bosses of construction companies, who are inevitably of a fairer shade than the workers they’ve hired. As a British-Barbadian friend of mine says, “In Singapore you have ‘quality’ racism.”

However, if you look closely enough, Singapore isn’t the only place that practices “Quality Racism.” Just look at the way in which the international order works. This can be seen in the difference in which the ruling powers of the world approach the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Everyone gets very angsty about how the Ukrainians, a nation of fair skinned peoples are being bullied by the Russians, another group of fair skinned folk. However, when Israel, a nation where nearly half the population is descended from European immigrants, kills off Palestinians, a group of brown people, everyone seems to believe that the European immigrants are the ones being victimized and anyone speaking up for the brown semitic people inevitably gets tarred with the label of being “Anti-Semitic.”

Just look at the reaction to the news that the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) had issued an arrest warrant for the leaders of Hamas, the terrorist organization that perpetrated the attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed some 1,189 mostly civilians, including women and children. This news caused outrage and many of the Republican members of Congress started threatening to “sanction” the ICC. Why did they get so upset with Mr. Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the ICC, when he was quite clear that he was going after the “bad guys?”

Well, the problem was that Mr. Khan didn’t just label the “brown” people as bad guys. He also issued an arrest warrant for the fairer skinned people, specifically Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant. Mr. Khan had made the point and presented the evidence that while the “Bad Brownies” of Hamas had done horrible things on October 7, the Israeli government had also done bad things like using starvation. Mr. Khan’s statement can be found at:

https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-aa-khan-kc-applications-arrest-warrants-situation-state  

 

 While the White House did not back the bill to sanction the ICC, the world’s most powerful old white man, President Joe Bidden proceeded to argue that you couldn’t possibly compare the “bad” deeds of the fair skinned people to the “Bad Brownies,” even if the first group had killed far more than the later.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/21/no-equivalence-biden-defends-israel-after-icc-requests-arrest-warrants

 

 In many ways, the world accepted this logic because the fair skinned people of Israel had the backing of the world’s most powerful nations. The position was inevitably yes, we all feel sorry for the Palestinians but they should know their place at the bottom of the food chain. Nobody wanted to antagonize the rich and powerful fair-skinned nations, which were friends with the one nation in a region of predominantly brown semitic people that had a sizeable population of fair-skinned people actively undermined institutions that are supposed to keep the global order a peaceful one, nobody cared:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-said-to-have-waged-9-year-war-against-icc-tapping-its-communications/

 

However, things are changing. The proverbial “global” south is waking up to the fact that it has a voice. Brown and Black people want to be treated with a measure of equity in the institutions that are supposed to be deliver justice. Look at Mr. Khan’s statement. He’s made the obvious point that Hamas committed a criminal action from the October 7 attacks. However, he’s also made the point that Israel’s perpetration of the war is also criminal. Two wrongs don’t make a right and Mr. Khan is making the point very clearly by issuing a warrant for both sides.

Making this point is inevitably going to get one labeled a “terrorist” supporter. However, it’s still a point that needs to be made and its progress that plenty of fair skinned people agree with the fact that black and brown lives should matter as much as fair skinned ones. Now, its up to the most powerful old white guy to stop being a prisoner of impotent people and lead the nation onto the right side of history.