Using War As A Subtext: Is It Another Form of Racism?

 



Recent global affairs bring greater awareness to the instability of world peace. Daily the threat of another world war appears to grow.  For example, there are acts of chaos in virtually every major nation. There are demonstrations in authoritarian and democratic states, government crackdowns in numerous nations, economic crises associated with the pandemic and rising inflation, and the growing embers of war.

Some of these challenges are ongoing. The Chinese government is quelling freedom movements in Hong Kong and religious freedom in the west. Protests in Iran have met fierce regime resistance. In more democratic settings, protestors have used social media to test the limits of free speech and freedom of assembly. Protests appear to pop-up in response to imagined or perceived threats. 

The January 6th controversy has invigorated violence in the United States and it is seeking additional outlets. Cheered on by Fox News, North American truckers contesting COVID mask and vaccine mandates shut down commerce between the United States and Canada by blocking traffic between Windsor and Detroit.  Within days they took their movement to the Canadian capitol and now are seeking to do the same in the Beltway district that surrounds America’s capitol. 

Strangely, Republican senators are even giving the Truck Convoy more credibility by visiting them at their Maryland rest-stop for a listening tour complete with photographs. On the other side of the globe, both China and Russia seem interested in expanding ideologies of the Cold War era. They continually seek to expand their influences into western dominated regions. There is a pressing desire to restore the former Soviet empire, a Chinese plan to under-develop and neo-colonize Africa, forge new alliances with each other and North Korea, and attempt to subdue ethnic minorities in both nations. While not directly confronting the Chinese and Russian advances, the European Union and the United States have taken steps to use NATO and the United Nations as venues to highlight perceived acts of aggression. Within France, Germany and the United States, hacking and disinformation campaigns are attributed to China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. Communist politicians in Germany and France have received funding from Russian sources. 

Russian advances towards Eastern Europe are not new. This too is part of a larger process. Mr. Putin has not disguised his actions. He has been direct about his purposes. Yes, his recent speech on Ukraine was an alteration of history to legitimate his actions, but what should the world expect from a dictator? What is different, is that fact that the heavy militarized force is captured on mass media and is available for the world to view. War crimes: using banned weapons as well as attacking and killing citizens, bombing schools, universities, hospitals and residential settings are highlighted on newsfeeds, Google and YouTube. Forty-mile caravans of tanks and personnel carriers have been captured by novice and professional photographers and shared at the United Nations. The world has the ability to shame Russia and use sanctions to cripple its economy. However, will these actions decrease the tensions or escalate the possibilities of global conflict?

As America’s attention turns towards Ukraine, the nation is ignoring turmoil in other locations. There are still refugees fleeing places across the planet, global warming continues at a furious pace, drug addictions exponentially increase, and infrastructures crumble. Russia is engaged with supporting non democratic governments in Venezuela as a means to buy oil rights to force dependence on Russian oil production.

Racism is prevalent in Hungary, Poland and other nations that are accepting Ukrainian refugees.  African and Asian Ukrainian residents have been denied the ability to leave Ukraine and access to resettle in other European nations. White Europeans accept white Ukrainians as refugees and see darker peoples regardless of location as migrants. Migrants are not permitted to flee violent regimes.

As much as the world realizes that what Russia is doing to Ukraine is wrong, they minimize what they are doing to black and brown people who seek sanctuary at their borders. The Russians are being celebrated by America’s right as the saviors of white civilization as they kill thousands of innocent white civilians, especially women and children. Meanwhile the Chinese torture indigenous Muslims (Uyghurs) in ways worse than how the Russians tortured and killed their own (Chechens). Who is to say that racism isn’t alive across the globe? Who is to say that white people are more or less civilized than the rest of the world’s population?

The earth remains a ball of confusion on the path to its own self-destruction.



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