There is a point of view that argues America’s crisis is inevitable, that authoritarian barbarity is baked into our system and it’s what we have regularly and violently inflicted upon targeted domestic and international populations. It’s not an easy argument to refute.
Our brutal exercise of power is historically accurate. America’s indigenous people know it. Black people know it. Immigrants know it. Undocumented residents know it. And if we broaden our horizon, people all over the globe know it, particularly those of the global south who have been exploited and victimized for centuries by America’s lust for power and wealth.
Although our constitution begins with “We the People,” at the time of its writing, “the people” meant white, male property owners whose ancestry was western European. While that definition has enlarged over time, the basic underlying ethic remains, namely that a coterie of monied power holders define who is treated how, and determine which group or another is deprived of freedom and opportunity.
Ours is a culture of deprivation and exploitation, often as a matter of birthright, skin color, or gender rather than one of inherent virtue or ethics. Accordingly, to advance their position in society, marginalized people who have been victimized by the powerful must undertake extraordinary means to gain equality under the law. Until marginalized people attain equity, America will systematically punish them economically, educationally, and socially.
The shock of today is that at the hands of ICE, white middle-class Americans now find themselves subject to the sort of violence and cruelty previously inflicted upon marginalized “others.” In pursuing their ambitions, the rich and powerful are great equalizers; to them, we are all expendable, despite our differences in belief, skin color or national origin. They are prepared to harass, terrorize, abuse, kill and, the argument goes, they always have been; it’s the historical basis of our cultural, economic, and political system.
Some ask what about our values? Aren’t we better than this? Ask the Vietnamese, bombed and poisoned by us, what they think about our values, or the families of the Chileans who were “disappeared” under the U.S. supported Pinochet regime. The list is long and goes on. The victims bloody well know about our American values firsthand, and the keyword here is “bloody.”
The counter argument is that America is a work in progress, that sometimes we take two steps back after taking three steps forward, and that gaining freedom requires patience. Tell that to those who have never had a real chance to step forward. It raises the question of whether or not our American values are just propaganda, and our economy designed to keep us satisfied with “just enough.”
Nearly seventy percent of American families live paycheck to paycheck, while a tiny group of billionaires accumulate wealth at a record pace. And how does our society keep itself from being torn apart under such conditions? Through explicit threat and, if necessary, infliction of violence, punishment, incarceration and murder of those who resist.
The murders by ICE officers of Renee Good, a young white mother driving a minivan and white ICU nurse Alex Pretti are shocking, but are just the sort of violence we’ve inflicted upon marginalized people for hundreds of years. This is our history and legacy, not a pleasant or easy thing for some of us to accept, but that’s the argument and like I said, it’s hard to refute.
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