As a relative newcomer to domestic politics in the United States, I still see myself as having an outsider’s view. The desensitisation of society through dog whistle politics and partisanship that prevails in this country has not yet engulfed me. Dog whistle politics refers to political messaging that uses coded language to appear to be saying one thing, but actually has further meaning to a targeted subgroup. It is visibly amplified by the media.
An example that always comes to mind is the constant emphasis during the 2008 elections by Republicans on President Obama’s middle name. For some reason, they threw in Barack Hussein Obama as if it was a slur whenever they could. But, no one knows Mitt Romney’s middle name Sydney. To the conservative voter base, this reinforcement of an Arabic or foreign name was intended to be a reminder of President Obama’s otherness.
After three years of living in this country, I can still see what the Republicans are playing at. It might not be long before I’m exhausted from calling out their tactics and they start to fool me too. American politics has entirely been occupied, framed and thus corrupted by a patriarchal white supremacist capitalist hegemony that only allows for political issues when they control the narrative.
American public discourse is trapped within loaded binaries like “pro-choice” and “pro-life” or “liberal” and “conservative”. They are creations of the Republican party that keep the political scales tipped in their favor by created . The issues that oppose their agenda but have passed into law remain under threat. The public is left in fear that relatively new freedoms for many can be contested and struck down at any time.
Take the most common examples of Republicans resisting and continuing to threaten equal marriage and abortion. Their grip over both these spheres reflecting different modes of power and control that they wish to possess. While Democrats have understood Roe v. Wade and Obergefell v. Hodges as victories for the collective and hope to hold onto them, the sad truth is that even these decisions wouldn’t have been possible unless they were victories for whiteness.
In America, a victory for whiteness, unlike a victory for blackness, is not one that is for all.
To elaborate, extending marriage beyond heterosexual couples and providing women with autonomy over their bodies were political issues that were framed by Republicans as “partisan”, one of the many buzz words that plague American political discourse. Let us examine both matters at face value.
If equal marriage or more aptly “gay marriage” did not preserve a system of capitalism, whiteness, patriarchy, and heteronormativity it would not have passed. But, it did, allowing two white males to pass on their legacy to their progeny within the confines of a system that now accommodated them. All they had to do was imitate straight couples in all the right ways. The winning factor for white gay and allied folks has been proving that gay people are “not so different”.
What isn’t addressed is that this law was not liberating for transgender women of colour who reside at the bottom of the social food chain, or even queer people of colour in general. Yet, it is still considered a win by American liberals. This brings to mind how white women getting voting rights in 1920 is often confused with women getting voting rights in America, as if their black sisters received equal entitlements.
On the other hand, the fight against abortion is representative of the Republican Party assuring their adherents of their continued control over women’s bodies. It has been especially to preserve the wombs of white women. This can be deduced by looking at the histories of forced sterilisation of black and Latina women in the United States.
The argument that conservatives oppose abortion because they are “pro-life” or somehow exceptionally value life itself seems too convenient. However, all that seems to matter is that the binary is framed in a manner to imply “pro-choice” means one does not value life.
To those who call themselves “pro-life” because they believe that protecting a fertilised egg in a white woman’s body is the same as preserving life itself, what about the lives of so many children who are brought up in a foster care system that psychologically and physically abuses and twists them, many of whom are directly as a result of women being unable to make her own choice? What about the lives of all the children turned away by the United States when asking for refuge and as a result left to die in wars started by Big Brother? What about the black and brown boys who are being shot down on the streets like they’re nothing? Are they less valuable than unborn white babies?
These questions are dismissed as unrelated and even befuddling to someone who calls themselves “pro-life”, making my dilemma apparent. We are all enablers of such one-sided conversations that make American politics impossible to navigate or change.
For too long, we have lived in a society where we have been forced to skirt issues to be sensitive to the feelings of those that are protected simply by the colour of their skin. This is not politics. Politics is how we solve society’s problems. “Politicising” is a term I’ve heard being thrown around and misused a lot lately. It should mean demanding attention for an important issue that needs to be urgently addressed, particularly from those in power. Instead, the Republicans have used “politicising” as a buzz word for “dividing” as a means to protect themselves from talking about issues they seem to know they should feel morally compelled by.
We cannot simply let people with power and privilege change the innate meaning of words and nature of facts. Instead, we must challenge them relentlessly, knowing that others have done the same before us with a lot more to lose.
A recent example of this conforming to the rules set by Republicans is the mission statement for the March For Our Lives which reads: “School safety is not a political issue. There cannot be two sides to doing everything in our power to ensure the lives and futures of children who are at risk of dying when they should be learning, playing, and growing.” School safety is a political issue.
Bluntly put, the government does have ability to curb mass shootings by regulating guns better. Saying it is not a political issue is a concession to Republicans since it allows them to continue redefining politics and shy away from responsibility. The gun policies that they are trying to protect are directly correlated to the increasing amount of gun violence in America.
To the many that claim that they need to arm themselves for protection, the number of times guns have been used by civilians to stop active shooters from taking lives is negligible, if not nil. Such arguments that have no basis in the truth that we passively choose to accept, coupled with false dichotomies, hold us back from progress.
While discussing the problems that plague this country, we must be able to have honest and open conversations with no stone left unturned. The root of America’s problems will always reveal itself to be in its unresolved history. When one claims to be a conservative in America, a country only dating to 1776, it baffles me what culture and way of life they are trying to conserve. This nation was founded on the principles of capitalism and slavery, with its esteemed founding fathers consisting of slave owning rapists.
Since outlawing slavery, America has always found a way to recreate and redesign systems that allow for the majority whites to profit from the oppression and ownership of people of colour. Be it mass incarceration, labor and sex trafficking, and the racialisation of domestic and agricultural work. Every decade before the current one is a time that was significantly worse for people of colour. There is no such thing as good old days in the history of America.
What can be understood as significant in American history is the unique production of black literature and art born out of oppression. From Fredrick Douglass, W.E.B Du Bois, to Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, American progression of thought should have resonated with theirs. However, there exists a vacuum in perspectives beyond capitalism within institutions.
This reinforces a general emphasis on economic growth over society and morality itself. It seems to boil down to the failure of our classrooms to promote engaged and inclusive conversations. To tackle this problem, it must be acknowledged.
In our public education system as we know it, students are being educated on how to succeed in a capitalist society that thrives on inequality. They should be taught to be good, aware, prepared and productive members of society. For this, the truth must be at the essence of reforming and dismantling the power structures that have been built on its antonym.
However, while black literature, along with significant works by other minorities in America, has been present for centuries, it has largely remained distant and separatist from the mainstream dialogue. This avoidance and way of thinking and living is cemented by the whitewashed history that is used to justify and glorify it.
So, what is it that makes these engagements so uncomfortable for many white people? Perhaps some of it can be attributed to a generalisable absolute lack of knowledge or understanding of cultures, people or ideas outside one’s own. That too, when one’s own culture and people have no historical or collective binding beyond slavery, football, reality television, and alcohol.
Perhaps some of it can be even attributed to the vicious cycle of bad parenting in an individualistic materialistic consumer capitalist society. However, there is no mistaking that it is closely connected to the vacuum that has existed in place of non-white perspectives since the onset of colonialism and slavery. The effect has been catastrophic.
These perspectives outside of whiteness have a history of violent suppression that continues but has taken more disguised forms in many cases. This is dangerously true in the American mileu that is world renowned and accredited for the wide scope of scholarship and opportunities it offers students. The students being offered these opportunities usually belong to a privileged subset of society.
The truth is, a great injustice is being done to all students in America. While some are forced to learn through the experience of being a minority, white students are being misguided during the most impressionable and politically critical stage of their lives. It is time for people of colour to stop using the master’s tools and trying to constantly teach their white siblings.
Instead, it is time for white people to take ownership and responsibility over their knowledge and power and be on the right side of history this time. In the process, if minorities are given equitable opportunities, there is a potential for shared growth and a renewed desire to restore truth and compassion to our society.
