| Skybird |
06-02-20 06:24 AM |
An opinion piece from Der Tagesspiegel. I agree.
Quote:
It's true: Racism in the United States has not existed just since George Floyd was brutally killed by four white police officers in Minneapolis. It is open and hidden, systemic. If you want to see it, you see it. If you don't want to see it, you won't see it.
When George Floyd died, others died. Blacks in the US who develop Covid-19 are 2.4 times more likely to die of infection than whites and 2.2 times more likely than Asians and Latinos. Around 450 people have died of the coronavirus in Washington D.C., the country's capital. Eighty percent of them are black, but they make up just under 50 percent of the population.
Donald Trump also became President of the United States because his propaganda against Barack Obama's healthcare reform, the Affordable Care Act, caught on to white voters. Many of them opposed the taxpayers' money being used to improve the health care of blacks and Latinos.
Racial motives were mixed in from the start with the anger over the health reform. Taking the privileged white majority society into a community of solidarity with all Americans has been rejected as presumptuous.
Now Trump is reaping what he did not sow but fertilized well. The racism that once brought him into office should now ensure his re-election. Nothing else remains for him, no other card stands out. The recession and mass unemployment caused by the corona pandemic have drastically narrowed his range of topics. The result is bitter.
You can see a president walking the short walk from the White House to the opposite “St. John’s Episcopal Church ”released with tear gas. There he holds up a Bible and says: "We are the greatest country in the world." There is a president who threatens to "use the military and solve the problem quickly".
A president can be seen who does not say a word about racism, but swarms to his heart's content about "local terrorists", "criminals" and an "Antifa", which he wants to classify as a terrorist organization.
It is no coincidence that this president repeatedly mentions the second constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to possess weapons. Because that inspires some of his followers to use their methods to ensure law and order. It is no coincidence that this president uses every opportunity for polarization. He is waiting that there is looting so as not to have to talk about the causes of the nationwide rebellion.
Trumpet racism and his phobia of a "deep state" whose representatives want to overthrow him - the FBI, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, the media - are condensing like a burning glass these days. Apparently he projects his own guilty conscience onto his opponents' motives. Trump lives in a mad world from which he can no longer find out. He no longer turns his heart into a killer pit, but heart and pit have long since become one.
Almost three years ago, on July 4, 2017, just in time for the national holiday on which America celebrates its independence, the NPR broadcaster decided to try something new. The declaration of independence had been read on the radio for decades on this day. Now it should be spread in 112 tweets via Twitter.
What followed was an uprising by Trump loyalists who hadn't recognized the quotes. NPR had a mission, called for revolution, spread fake news and propaganda, it was said indignantly, some speculated that NPR's Twitter account had been hacked.
The United States Declaration of Independence is an outstanding document of political philosophy and a foundation of human rights teaching. The preamble states that all people are created equal and have inalienable rights. This included life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness.
A right of resistance is also formulated. If a form of government "becomes pernicious to these end purposes", be it "the right of the people to change or abolish them and to establish a new government". And further: If unlimited rule is to be established, it is the right of the people, "yes their duty", to overthrow such a government.
The sometimes angry reactions to the NPR tweets are revealing. They testify to a deep-seated fear - of overthrow, rebellion, resistance. That fear could be justified in the declaration of independence reinforces this fear.
Racism in the United States has not existed since Trump and not since George Floyd's death. But Trump's racism is compounding the problem. His calculation of being able to profile himself as a firefighter in a fire that he helped launch is sheer cynicism.
According to CNN, Trump is said to have barricaded himself in the White House bunker in recent days. If so, it would be the picture of his presidency in just one picture.
https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/.../25879720.html
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