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| Misanthropic Boomer |
A friend recently sent me the following link https://www.facebook.com/OccupyDemocrats/videos/2385511251509897/, posing the question, “WHADDA YA THINK.”
It is a recent interview on MSNBC with the actor and Social Activist Jeff Daniels. In it he states that he believe racism is being weaponized by the political Right in order to divide and control the United States. I believe Jeff Daniels is correct. However, he didn’t go far enough in his explanation. It is more than just the Republican far right exploitation of racial fears. I noticed this when Barack Obama was elected President. People who had for many years claimed to be unbiased, began to let their true leanings of fear of the “others” show. It rapidly expanded in scope to include anyone deemed “different,” by White America
This seeming “change in attitude” toward Obama began to spread to encompass white racist feelings about all “others.” Although much had been accomplished in the area of reducing prejudice (mostly because the Democrats held sway), there was a growing undercurrent of general bias towards those who did not fit the White control paradigm. The religious Right became more vocal regarding what they saw as the deterioration of White control using moral issues as a major justification for their attitudes and actions.
Looking back historically from the concept of Manifest Destiny forward it is evident that regardless of what The Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution in general proclaimed,; or what the Founding Fathers May have intended, our White European antecedents were bent on insuring there was no resistance to their control...ever. One excellent example of this can be seen in how the Indigenous Peoples were treated.
In order to accomplish the nation’s goal of moving ever Westward, the government consistently supported the atrocities perpetrated upon the “Red Man;” including that sobriquet as a method of dehumanization. The United States government intentionally provided blankets exposed to small pox, broke up the tribal nations, and established reservations intended not merely to control, but rather to demean the inhabitants and thus eliminate what White European settlers saw as an impediment to expansion. They did not want to share the land they were stealing, so as in nearly every action of this type engaging in the theft of wealth, genocide was the order of the day.
One of the most insidious tactics exercised by the government was the endorsement of the destruction of the Indigenous People’s main economic base...the Buffalo. General Phillip Sheridan (famed, decorated Union Civil War hero) was one of those charged with dealing with the “savages.” Sheridan took his lead from his mentor General William Tecumseh Sherman, who destroyed everything in his path during his famous “March to the Sea.” Sherman’s attitude was that if one destroys the enemy’s assets the enemy must fall. Therefore Sheridan encouraged, participated in, and facilitated the destruction of the Buffalo as a method of controlling and wherever possible destroying the enemy’s economy; resulting in the destruction of the enemy: the Indigenous People
This is all documented and can be found if one does the research. However, this is not what is taught in our schools (one more example of controlling “others” by rewriting history).
There are many more examples of the cruel manipulation of those deemed “inferior,” or threatening to the status quo. The 17th Amendment is another excellent example. When the push for equal rights began, following the Civil War, the Suffragettes and Black Americans became natural allies. However, smart politicians saw the alliance as a danger to White male dominance. In order to circumvent the threat they gave Blacks the right to vote, but not women, thus alienating the Suffragettes (women didn’t get voting rights for another fifty years...plenty of time for their perceived betrayal by Black Americans to fester). In this way the White politicians created a further prejudicial divide, which has been exploited to their advantage ever since.
There are many more examples of White male exploitation of the masses in order to maintain their supremacy...always backed by the Christian Right: the turning away of Jewish refugees during WWII, the Manzanar atrocity, etc.
I could write a great deal more on this topic, however, I’ll stop here as I believe I have answered the question of, “WHADDA YA THINK?”
