Ok, really yesterday.
Since purchasing my new car I have had the pleasure of 3 months FREE XM satellite radio. So, I was driving to eat some delicious Indian food around 8:30 w/my friend Chad after being in class since 10 a.m.
So, for giggles I flipped on the XM channel "America Right," the right-wing talk radio station. Some douche, whom I am assuming is
this guy, given that he is the scheduled speaker at the time I was listening was talking about "remembering 9/11."
What did he have to say you might ask?
Well, first off when I flipped it on he was rambling on some rampage about "radical greens," although I am quite unsure as to why he was bitching about environmental activists, but anyway. Then he ranted about the "un-American radicals" (I am assuming this is anyone left of completely fucking crazy) for a minute or two (nothing really exciting or interesting just the normal "socialist blah, blah, blah freedom-hating b.s.). So then he says,
"and we should take a minute to thank our troops who are overseas fighting those
barbarians so we don't have to fight them here"
Yes, he referred to ALL persons from Iraq and Afghanistan (and presumably all Arabs in Muslims in general) as barbarians.
WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Now look, this Marxist-feminist will be the first person to condemn radical religion as detrimental to the forward progress of society, ok so don't even start with me. However, how exactly is this blatant racist anti-Muslim garbage acceptable? I teach a class on multiculturalism, and I hear students occasionally make comments about Arabs/Muslims/Mexicans/Women/LGBTQ/Blacks that are sick and disgusting, and I wonder where the fuck they are getting their misinformation from. Well, now I know.
Listen, I know you all want to hide behind the good ol' "everyone has a right to their opinion" malarkey, and use it as an excuse why we are not openly condemning racist, disgusting pieces of fucking garbage like this. Well, I for one will NOT! I will not permit someone to refer to an entire group of human beings (who are ethnically, religiously, and culturally diverse I might add) as barbarians.
Hmm, lets talk a minute about being a barbarian, shall we?
So, is it "barbaric" to imprison Blacks, Latinos at rates that are egregiously higher than whites?
Is it "barbaric" to murder human beings by electric chair and lethal injection?
Is it "barbaric" to drop bombs on Iraqis and Afghanis?
Is it barbaric to continue to support dictators and right-wing regimes that are systematically oppressing and massacring their people around the world?
Is it "barbaric" to impose economic sanctions that lead to children starving to death around the world while the U.S. throws out 3x more food than it needs?
If so, I guess we can go ahead and call Bush, Cheney, Obama, Biden and the whole lot of U.S. law-makers "barbarians," since all of this goes on under their watchful eye and with their permission (and sometimes encouragement).
Oh, no, of course
that isn't barbaric--the state holds a monopoly on the legitimate control of violence. When the state (and its politicians middle-right or crazy-right) murder, starve and torture it's completely acceptable.
No, this is not a rant where I condone the deaths of human beings, it's not. But I think that before we throw the term "barbarian" around and act as if 9/11 is some sort of anomaly in the world we should look at the fucking facts. There is a lot of rhetoric going around about "change," "socialism," "death panels," "pinkos and radicals," and blah, blah fucking blah. But no one seems to care/notice that there are millions of people living in sub humane conditions, being raped and tortured by the hands of their state or ours, being put in prison, being put to death with state permission and being treated like second-class citizens because of their ethnicity, language, religion, gender, sexuality, age, ability status and a myriad of other physical abilities or socially-constructed concepts.
So, before we go pointing the finger at an ENTIRE GROUP OF PEOPLE........let's think for a moment about how racist, discriminatory, backwards and
BARBARIC those kinds of statements are.
Today I will be taking a moment to remember--
I will remember all of the women who have been raped, starved themselves to death or near-death because the media and culture tells them they are too "fat," or beaten and told it is their own damn fault for being so mouthy. I will remember of the children who are born with the misfortune of having poor or working class parents who will never have the "American dream" because of their class, all of the Blacks who have been lynched, imprisoned, harassed and murdered, all of the Latinos who are denied healthcare and dignity because of some imaginary border that serves the U.S. ruling class interests, all of the Muslims and Arabs that have died from U.S. wars abroad, and all of the Arabs and Muslims who have been harassed and assaulted in the U.S. after 9/11 because of racism and ignorance. I will remember Matthew Shepard today, Angie Zapata, and all of the other LGBTQ persons who have been harassed, beaten, tortured, murdered and told they were "weird," "disgusting," or "immoral." I will remember all of the Iranians who are in prison for fighting for their rights. I will remember all of the revolutionaries who died in Palestine, Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Venezuela and Chile. I will remember Huey. I remember Fred Hampton and how he was brutally murdered by the Chicago police. I will remember Leonard Peltier and the Native Americans who have been massacred and denigrated to sub-human status while our government bitches about "closing our borders" and "getting the foreigners out." I will remember those who have been wrongly murdered for a misguided cause ("freedom," or "democracy"). I will remember those who have fought and died for REAL freedom and democracy: for the power of the people.
*peace*
