White Racism

Across the world, one formulation dominates the opinion of peoples: race. This social construction echoes in the newspapers we read, films we watch and in other forms of medium. When was the last time you saw a native Australian on the channel 7 evening news? The native Australian becomes the “Aborigine” or the Other. White man lands on a land. It becomes the "New World". Columbus lands on a land and he thinks it is India. The indigenous peoples become “Indians”. The original inhabitants become the Other, the lower class or the second class. Mexicans have more right to California than the European settlers. The fact that Mexicans are treated like second-class citizens fits into my theory. Hernan Cortez, a vile rapist and mass murder, succeeds Columbus in the tradition of naming lands and rivers and even the trusting, simple-minded peoples who live peacefully in those lands. Francisco Pizarro walks across the shore. On some shore in Cuba now stands Guantanamo Bay, a glaring modern day symbol of racism. Connected to the concept of race is Bernard Lewis’s phrase “Judeo-Christian heritage” but with race predominating as it is illustrated from the current Pope’s saying that Eastern and other Christians must curtsey to Plato’s (or was it Aristotle?) concept of ‘logos’.

“Iraqis hate each other”, “Iraqis are killing each other”, “they only know the tribe”, “they like to blow each other up”, “Arabs haven’t built anything material” etc etc. are regular phrases we hear. This is known as ‘residual racism’. This discourse is borrowed from a feeling of superiority that ‘we are in the free world’ while they are miserable lives. We went there to liberate these peoples, coloured peoples, with our principles and all. We weren’t received with flowers but you bet these hajjis love to see us pacing their streets and shooting anyone we feel like. Prove to me that our well-mannered home-grown soldiers are raping Iraqi women and girls? Yes, they are allowed to rape our home-grown female soldiers. We are free people after all, and our female soldiers have the right to be raped. Why do you hide your women under those bed sheets? Why do you like to blow yourselves up? We’ll leave when you stop blowing yourselves up? Why do you hate the Jews? Any good person will be against the racist Israeli apartheid system and so speaks Jewish humanity against the policies of Israel. Even Jewish humanity is not given consideration.

To learn about Muslim opinion, blogs are good place to start. There are millions of blogs where Muslims record their experiences. Yes, they are free. Yes, they have the ability to think. No, they aren’t blowing themselves up. Yes, they have the right to disagree with you. Yes, they defend humanity, all humanity, not just theirs.