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Recent
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April
7, 2003
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April
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April 7,
2003
Wars and the Color Line
Blacks Resist
Bush Propaganda
By SETH SANDRONSKY
A month before U.S.-led forces attacked Iraq,
an opinion poll by the Pew Research Center found that black Americans
opposed the war by roughly a 2-1 margin versus whites. Race-ing
the Iraqi war, indeed.
Consider this. Since September 2002,
the American public had been subjected to what author Noam Chomsky
has termed U.S. "government-media propaganda" concerning
the twofold Iraqi threat.
First, Saddam Hussein, Iraq's political
leader, was hiding weapons of mass destruction that threatened
the U.S.. Second, Iraqis were involved in the horrific terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001.
Yet one group of the American people
stood their ground against this war hysteria, even after the
U.S. invaded Iraq. A New York Times/CBS News opinion poll in
the paper noted that black Americans were more than twice as
likely as their white counterparts to oppose the war (March 27).
Then on March 30, an ABC World News Tonight
ran a segment featuring an ABC News/Washington Post opinion poll
that found black Americans' support for the war against Iraq
was 35 percent on January 20 and March 23. For all Americans,
support for the Iraq war was 57 percent on January 20 and 72
percent on March 23.
This trend of anti-war sentiment in the
black community is striking. How to explain it?
Can we credit the peace movement for
blacks' opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq? This is no doubt
a factor, probably a small one, given that the peace movement
doesn't yet reflect America's racial diversity, though that is
changing.
The INTERNATIONAL ANSWER coalition (Act
Now To Stop War And End Racism) is proof of that. In my hometown,
African/Black United Front for Peace and Social Justice is a
new group working with Sacramento/Yolo Peace Action to mobilize
and organize against black peace protesters.
What are the factors that have made black
people, in general, so resistant to war propaganda? In my view,
it is their experience in America as they have gone and now go
about daily life.
Historically, black people in America
have been shaped by white violence. That violence and resistance
to it have become a part of their culture and of American culture
generally.
The effects of black people striving
to be free from oppression here are widespread. Consider the
peaceful protests of some Americans whose ancestors weren't enslaved
yet who sing anti-slavery songs during anti-war rallies.
It's metaphorical, and more. In 2003,
the black culture of resistance from the past provides a bedrock
of morality to others who are standing up and speaking out against
the war hawks in Washington.
Of course many black Americans no doubt
see the absurdity of the White House's claim that it can liberate
Iraqis. After all, there are millions of black people in the
U.S. who would like to be liberated from daily oppression.
Opinion polls have reflected this reality.
Racist oppression is more American than apple pie, a trend that
is alive and well at home and abroad.
Take the 2003 version of the "white
man's burden" in Iraq. Its roots in U.S. history run deep.
WMB was the official excuse for the American
government to begin to violently police the world by invading
the Philippines. Supposedly, the brown-skinned people there needed
to be civilized, according to President McKinley.
But many black people in the U.S. were
militantly opposed to that imperial war. They knew a thing or
two about police violence in America.
How much have things changed in over
a century of U.S. history? Today, violent police remain a credible
threat to many black Americans.
Iraqi leader Hussein and the people of
Iraq weren't/aren't. Nor are they threatening to the U.S. public
in all its diversity.
In a bitter twist of fate, the American
military is also now waging the "war on terror" in
the Philippines against a group supposedly linked to the terrorists
involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Some black people responding to opinion
polls on the Iraqi war undoubtedly "get" what this
military action will mean for them on a daily basis. As the first
fired and last hired, they will likely take some of the hardest
domestic hits from the president's request for about $80 billion
of U.S. taxpayers' dollars to pay for the invasion/occupation
of Iraq through September 30 only.
Congress won't likely oppose this war
spending. And it will cause many Americans to feel real pain
in 2003.
The war spending and tax cuts for the
wealthy requested by Bush and likely to be approved by Congress
will be used an excuse to cut non-military spending. Low-income
people, disproportionately black and brown, will get beaten up
by these budget and tax cuts.
Federal education, health and welfare
spending will be slashed. Millionaires will get fat tax cuts.
There can, of course, be no U.S.-led
building of a free society in Iraq when freedom remains a "dream
deferred" for millions of black (and Asian, Latino, Native
American and white) people here. The advanced political consciousness
of black people polled before and after the U.S. attack on Iraq
speaks to this truth.
Seth Sandronsky
is co-editor of Because People Matter. He can be reached at:
ssandron@hotmail.com
Yesterday's
Features
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell's Shame
John
Chuckman
Was Einstein Right About Israel?
David
Krieger
The Meaning of Victory
Tom
Gorman
The Mantra of the Troops: Support
or Treason?
Adam
Federman
The Absence of War
Vijay
Prashad
There Are No More Arguments
Tom
Stephens
The End of the Innocence
Mickey
Z.
Makes Me Sic (Sic): Copy Editing
Bush Speak
Pierre
Tristam
War Coverage: a Dishonest Reality
Show
Hammond
Guthrie
The Deadly Mihrab
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/04
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