I am always shocked and astounded to talk to “liberals” and many black folks and hear them jump to defend Obama’s blatantly imperialist agenda across the world. This includes many “anti-racist” activists who just don’t seem to get it.
This is a PSA: You cannot be anti-racist and at the same time advocate for imperialism.
American wars of aggression, military expansion, drone strikes and the torture, dehumanization and massacre of brown and black bodies abroad are directly connected to the white supremacist, patriarchal and capitalistic exploitation of black and brown bodies right here at home. Please don’t be so myopic as this is patently obvious. We cannot pretend like the US military industrial complex slaughtering poor POC across the globe, whose suffering is made nameless and faceless, has no connection to the violence being enacted every day against poor black, brown and immigrant communities within the United States. This is why bell hooks names these interlocking systems of domination in a compound manner:
Imperialist capitalist white supremacist patriarchy
You cannot challenge white supremacy while upholding patriarchy. You cannot challenge imperialism while advocating for capitalism. All of these systems of domination are inter-connected, and pretending like you can enact domination in one sphere while dismantling another is obtuse to put it kindly. We will never overcome domination without fighting all of these systems in tandem.
But all of this doesn’t seem to matter because to Americans across the political spectrum- “liberals,” conservatives, you name it- the one thing that seems to unite them above all is their advocation for imperialism. And it just goes to show how most of them just don’t seem to get it.
