Current affairsUS foreign policy and the code of color
Near the end of the First World War, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote: "Most men in this world are colored. A belief in humanity means a belief in colored men. The future world will in all reasonable probability be what colored men make it." The U.S./U.K. pre-emptive aggression against Iraq, and, the much-heralded War against Terrorism, have a single objective. That objective is to stop the future world being made by colored men and women. This in face of the fact that more than four-fifths of the peoples of the world are peoples of color. We now know that a blueprint for the creation of a global Pax Americana was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice-president), Donald Rumsfeld (defense secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's deputy), Jeb Bush (George Bush's younger brother) and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff). The document, entitled Rebuilding America's Defenses, was written in September 2000 by the neoconservative think tank, Project for the new American Century. Current leadership in the US and the UK are determined that European, global, white supremacy shall not be challenged by Arab, African, Asian or Central or South American. They are determined that they, and their kith and kin around the globe shall rule forever. The preemptive strike against Iraq was the formal announcement to the world of the intent of the US and UK leadership to consolidate and expand European/ North American domination and hegemony over all the peoples of the world. And, over the peoples of color , to create a new and, they claim, humane, benign, imperial colonialism. However, the vast majority of the peoples of Europe do not want to be identified again as colonialists. And, the vast majority of Americans have little understanding of and little stomach for the imperial role. Nevertheless, it is in the pursuit of these objectives, long in preparation, that African-American interest in or involvement with US foreign policy has been deliberately prevented, discouraged and belittled - by the political establishment, by the military and by the mainstream media. The several journeys of Malcolm X to Africa and his appearance before the Organization of African Unity Summit in Cairo in 1964, precipitated an attempt on his life in Egypt and his final assassination only weeks after his return from Egypt and an extensive African tour. The several successful foreign policy interventions of the Rev. Jesse Jackson were widely ridiculed and criticized by the press and editorial pundits. Ralph Bunch as the first African-American to represent the US at the United Nations organization, was more a handsome, Black and proud figurehead than a policy making official. Andrew Young's courageous attempts at making headway in the Israeli-Arab conflict resulted in his being fired from the United Nations US delegation. The two current ranking, black, foreign policy Administration officials, Condelezza Rice and Colin Powell, are there to be used to cover up the blunders and the mistakes inevitable by Bush and company in dealing with peoples of color, worldwide. And, as "proof" to the peoples of color of the world that Bush & Co. are not racists. "Peoples
of color openly US foreign policy from its inception, and independent of its historic ties to Europe, has been characterized by this young nation's relationship with peoples of color. Formulating and executing a policy to deal with the nations of the Native American Indian, was this nation's first attempt at developing a foreign policy - a strategy in forcing them off their lands. Mexico, a nation of peoples of color on our southern border, coming into being at about the same time as the U.S.A., was our next independent experience in formulating and executing a foreign policy as a nation. The initial thrust outward of the new United States of America beyond the confines of the North American continent was to Haiti and then Cuba, both nations of peoples of color. Becoming bolder and flush with its victory over Spain the US reached out into the Pacific Ocean and took the Philippines, another nation of peoples of color. It early probed into Central and South America among nations of peoples of color, for influence and exploitation, playing politics and war with a variety of corrupt politicians and dictators in pursuit of US interests. And, then, it's first, big, independent, foreign policy adventure outside the hemisphere was with an Asian people of color in Korea. And, we all know the embarrassing outcome of the country's second foreign policy encounter with an Asian people of color in Vietnam. It is important to remember the earliest creators of this country's foreign policy had been European schooled and European influenced. The only first-hand foreign policy experience they had was with peoples of color; the Native American Indian that they encountered on the American continent, and the African brought to these shores in chains. To justify the theft of the land of the Indian and African slavery, both the Native American and the African were considered less than human, uncivilized barbarians, inferior in all ways to the European, and they were treated so. It was assumed and widely propagated, that all peoples of color were likewise and in all ways inferior to white European ladies and gentlemen, white European peasants and artisans, white European adventurers, white European prisoners and scoundrels. Is it any wonder then why this country's foreign policy in dealing with nations of peoples of color in Africa, in the Middle East and in Asia, has largely reflected its contempt for peoples of color rather than its acceptance of us as equals? Today, in the United States, the belief in an inherent European superiority, rooted in the belief of an inherent black African inferiority, is being deliberately, skillfully and effectively cultivated and propagated worldwide by those with a thirst for a new age imperialism. Many Americans have accepted the racist images of Arabs and Africans that our media and the war rhetoric propagate. And, they are not all European-Americans!! The media is drawing on that same image-making that is applied to Blacks, Browns, Reds and Yellows, in the US As a result, many Americans accept the assertion that the Pentagon and the White House know what is best for those people. Continental Europeans generally are less susceptible to these racist assertions. Their war experience with Nazi racism is too near at hand, and its memory is being daily revived by growing popular demands for a Fortress Europe to rid itself of and keep out workers and travelers from Africa, the Middle East and Asia Throughout the Middle East, in Africa and Asia, as well as throughout Central and South America, Heads of State and Government, reflecting the will of their people, overwhelmingly peoples of color, openly opposed the attack against Iraq. The newly created African Union, representing fifty-three (53) independent African nations, officially declared its opposition to a war against Iraq. The Nonaligned Movement representing 114 developing nations, overwhelmingly peoples of color, meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, officially opposed the aggression against Iraq. The U.S. mainstream media in large measure ignored these antiwar declarations. Globalisation of the color line Today, as globalization becomes the catchword for universal economic progress, there is a growing realization worldwide of the attempt at globalization of a color line to facilitate that "progress". Not only in North America, but also throughout Europe, and where ever Europe's kith and kin rule, neo-fascist, racist formations and sentiments proliferate. Violence and arson against peoples of color and wholesale anti-immigration policies, directed primarily at peoples of color, dominate the political landscape in Europe and North America. The world needs to be reminded, over and over, that the United States of America was born and raised on a white supremacist ideology; spoon-fed it from the earliest days of the Republic. To justify the forced acquisition of the lands of North and South America, the European invaders, calling themselves "discoverers", branded the indigenous peoples "savage red beasts", without civilization, without religion, without culture, and consequently inferior to themselves. To justify the exceedingly profitable trade in human souls and the institution of African slavery, these same Europeans, becoming Americans, branded their African captives "savage black beasts", without civilization, without religion, without culture, and consequently inferior to themselves. No domestic strife can compare in intensity or persistence to that of black/white strife and violence in the brief history of this country. No American has escaped unscathed. We all bear the scars of this color conflict history. But, Americans do not know this history. We are told only the country's myths, its loftiest ideals and its positive achievements. Consequently, we do not know when and where we erred, nor how; nor why. Yet, we do not question the myths. We pretend to live by the once globally hailed lofty ideals of the rights of the common man. We are blind to the massive violations of those ideals as the nation pursued the glory days to superpower hegemony. We thrust forward to the world our physical and material achievements in science, technology, industry and management, banking and commerce, and expect these to provide our moral right to leadership. They do not! Why
do they hate us so? I have had the unique opportunity, for an African-American, of living, working and playing in two African countries for most of the last 36 years - Egypt in North Africa, where I maintain a home, and Ghana in West Africa, where my parents are buried. It was a unique opportunity because it placed me on the African continent in the decade of the 1960s, during which an avalanche of African nations won their political independence and the Organization of African Unity was created. It was an unique opportunity because I located myself in the two African capitols, Cairo and Accra, whose leaders, Gamal Abdul Nasser and Kwame Nkrumah, spearheaded that decades' thrust for African independence, self determination and the aggressive assertion of the Arab and the African personalities. It was a unique opportunity also because those 36 years followed an undergraduate and graduate student political activism of total commitment. Those 36 years included three tumultuous, exciting, wonderful years as Editor-in-Chief of the weekly, national circulation newspaper of the militant Black Panther Party under the leadership of its founders Dr. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. By living, working and playing for most of those 36 years almost exclusively among peoples of color of all classes and manner of men and women, outside the sphere of the expressions and manifestations of white superiority that people of color experience daily in America, I have been transformed; in a sense, perhaps, reborn! That iron-strong shield that I, like all black Americans, built up around my sensitive soul as protection against the constancy of the insult and injury of color racism gradually fell away from lack of use. And, a whole new being continues to emerge in the dusk of my life. When, after the horror of 9/11, many students and friends, knowing I had spent much time in the Middle East, asked me: "Why do they hate us so?" My reply is always: "They do not hate you and me. They do not hate the American people. They hate the Middle East policies of successive U.S. Administrations!" The terrorism the world faces today arose from the desperation of a people whose homeland was taken by force and terror; a people humiliated and abandoned. It has been the unsuccessful struggle for justice of that people, the Palestinian people, for half a Century that has produced the desperation. As the undisputed Super Power in the world, the U.S.A. has the responsibility and the means to lead the effort for justice for the Palestinian people. It chooses rather, particularly since the events of 9/11, to abandon this cry for justice in favor of a policy of Middle East/North African domination and unhampered exploitation, under the cover of the War against Terrorism. Toward these ends
an American Foreign Policy has been formulated that draws on and depends
upon the popular belief in this country that peoples of color, and particularly
Africans and Arabs, are inherently inferior to peoples of European origin
and that they are dangerous and fanatically anti-American and anti-European.
It is a foreign policy that attempts to justify preemptive, military
aggression against Arabs and Africans. It is a foreign policy that depends
on the assertion that African and Arab countries harbor terrorists cells
and plan terrorist acts against U.S. personnel and U.S. interests worldwide. Note: Prof W E B Du Bois said in Souls of Black Folk: "The problem of the 20th Century is the problem of the color line - the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the Sea." | ||
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