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    Re: Racism And The Fight Over Venezuela Archived Message

    Posted by brooks on February 11, 2019, 2:06 pm, in reply to "Re: Racism And The Fight Over Venezuela"

    I would generally agree with this margo, but with the caveat that racism has always accompanied colonialism/imperialism down to the present day, for simple psychological reasons. It's hard not to despise the person whose neck you have your boot on and consider them a lesser human being than yourself; otherwise you would have to despise yourself for your inhumanity to an equal. And since the imperial countries evolved through genocide of indigenous populations and occupation of the global south and have never removed the boot from their neck, racism is a natural outcome of that process. Also, the dregs of humanity and psychopaths tend to rise to the top of systems based on violence and exploitation - since basic morality is subversive to them - and in that category you find all the worst human traits, racism included.

    So while it's true the boot is on the neck of caucasians as well - especially at home where neoliberalism's vicious class warfare becomes more and more colourblind - and the ultimate imperatives of corporate rule are not racially motivated, racism is still an important ingredient both in imperial oppression and in divide-and-conquer domestic strategies. (And of course the western ideological system concocts other atavistic ways to despise Russians and and Serbs.)

    At least that's my current take. In the past i have argued the same point as the btl commenter, so I'm very sympathetic with that pov, but came to the conclusion that it was perhaps less black-and-white (so to speak )

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