Tuesday 8 September 2020

"We are in the midst of an ongoing uprising over centuries of racial neglect and oppression."

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"We are in the midst of an ongoing uprising over centuries of racial neglect and oppression."

These are the words of U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar who was born in Somalia on 1982, given asylum in the U.S. in 1995 and became a U.S. citizen in 2000. She is much criticised by conservatives in the US because she criticises Israel a lot. Unfairly, she is accused of being an anti-Jewish racist. What is much more interesting and remarkable is how she criticises her adoptive country.


She reminds me of Kamala Harris, the Democratic Vice-presidential candidate, who is the daughter of left-wing immigrants who had recently settled in the USA when she was born. She has spent much of her career denouncing racism too.

This seems ungrateful of the two women, but it is an article of faith in the USA that once you become an American citizen you are considered as American as if your forefathers (foreparents) came over on the Mayflower or slaughtered Indians under Andrew Jackson. To think otherwise would open up far too many painful questions.

Complaining about racial injustice is how Americans make a political career nowadays on the left. As the great Lord Salisbury said in 1882,

A party whose mission is to live entirely upon the discovery of grievances are apt to manufacture the element upon which they subsist.

Whatever the reasons, immigrants to rich countries and their children are often taught to feel victimised rather than patriotic. This is because of the prevailing ideology. 

But we must be grateful to Ilhan Omar, because she is right. An uprising is going on around the world against white oppression. Black Lives Matter is part of it and Islamist terrorism, ISIS and Al Qaeda are connected to it too. 

It's an anti-colonial uprising after colonies ceased to exist, an uprising to rewrite the past because it is the past people care about, not the future. But it will make the future, and at the moment the future looks very uninviting.

3 comments:

  1. Kamala is a lot more easygoing and comfortable with white authority structures than Ilhan is and has worked with a wider variety of people. She is also more capable politically and in her personal life.

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    Replies
    1. Of course. To English eyes neither seems very grateful for being an American. They should be singing the country's praises.

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  2. I agree. I know that America has done some terrible things, but I’d like to hear about the good ones too. And also about the country’s potential to do better.

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