"The capitalist roots of anti-Asian hate"

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This article, published at the OnlySky website, is over a year old. Anti-Asian sentiment is not currently the "hot topic" in the venue of public discourse. As of the date of this post, we're trying to figure out a way to discuss the humanity of Palestinians within the framework of acknowledging the collective trauma of centuries of anti-Semitism.

But for those who lean liberal, all hate is interconnected, and all oppression and cruelty must be acknowledged. As the author of this article, Susan Kang, states:

[T]he current system, one that pits groups of people against each other, cannot continue if we value human dignity and equality.

So, while the subject of anti-Asian violence isn't the one making headlines at this moment, there are a couple of examples in this piece that illuminate the ongoing issues of the role of the rule of law, and the power of those in authority to deliver justice and declare to the world whose lives seem to merit protection. In one paragraph, Kang shares with us the story of a man named Vincent Chin.

[T]he death of Vincent Chin, who was beaten to death by two Detroit area autoworkers, a Chrysler supervisor and his laid-off autoworker son-in-law, who wrongly believed he was Japanese, on the night of his bachelor party. Ironically, Chin also worked in the domestic automobile industry as an engineer for an auto parts supplier. Chin was beaten to death in front of a crowd that included two off-duty police officers. The subsequent trial led to a fine and probation for the two perpetrators, but no jail time. Clearly the criminal justice system could not create justice for Vincent Chin. Despite the evolution of civil rights laws, the criminal system continues to fail vulnerable Asian Americans and people’s economic concerns continue to rise.

Vincent Chin isn't a name known to many Americans, neither is the name Konerak Sinthasomphone. But just about everyone in this country between the ages of 8 and 80 has heard of Jeffrey Dahmer. Drawing from the Netflix documentary, Kang uses an example in his history of crimes to illustrate how race and ethnic affiliation impact the response of those in authority to protect human life.

[A]ctor Nicey Nash depicts Glenda Cleveland, a Black neighbor of Jeffrey Dahmer who tried with her daughter and niece to get the police to intervene and stop his killings. The series re-enacts a tragic incident in 1991 when Cleveland’s daughter and niece, Sandra Smith and Nicole Childress, found 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone—an immigrant from Laos—drugged, naked and bleeding, fleeing Dahmer’s apartment. The women tried to get the police to investigate Dahmer. Instead, Dahmer convinced the police to return Konerak to him, as Dahmer told them that it was just a lover’s spat. The women tried to stop the police from returning the boy to Dahmer, but they were threatened with arrest. Had the police checked Dahmer’s ID, they would have seen that he was on probation for child molestation.

After speaking with the police, Dahmer murdered his14 year old victim in less time than it probably would have taken the cops to get back to their station. The officers involved were temporarily dismissed from the force but later came back to work to "protect and serve" the public.

The author frames this failure to protect human life as a reminder of what can and cannot create safety in our human interactions. "Police do not keep us safe", she writes,

Only interracial, human solidarity and care for each other, both in our everyday actions and embedded within broader political, social and economic systems, will keep us safe.

This year-old article sums up the essential goal that needs to be the motivation in seeking solutions to the current situation in Gaza or virtually any other world conflict. We're human beings. We all deserve to exist without fear of some opposing faction wanting to kill us or wipe out our kind or restrict us from enjoying economic opportunities and-- more significantly-- basic political and social freedoms.

[llashram]

1. racial hate

is especially grievous as in the case of witnesses(African-American)to Dahmer's evil. I had forgotten about witnesses.
Capital roots of hateful origins in this country were also an impetus as the first African slave walked off the ship Jamestown in 1619.
I remember reading about Asian labour in building the building of railroad passage West in my history classes 60-66.
I applaud your post for its truth in the hateful origins of racism in America.

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2. Thank you for your kind acknowledgment.

The author's point that the current power structures which exist in our world use the method of pitting different groups against each other is the specific takeaway that I wanted to spotlight. This is because it applies to virtually every challenge that liberal-minded people are trying to meet.

Now, I am no conspiracy theorist. I don't believe that X number of people meeting in some well-appointed boardroom are actually running the world. I absolutely and adamantly do NOT believe that "The Jews" are in control of the world. The various legal and financial systems that keep human society running along are impacted by 8 billion complicated souls and a physical universe that is beyond human control. Nobody is really "in charge".

That being said, there are various individuals and socially-constructed entities who have outsized power to affect the various human-crafted systems that maintain what amounts to the status quo here on Earth. Those people are motivated by profit and a sub-set motivation is the desire for control.

One way to maintain that control and keep raking in the profits is to hold the line against the social changes that seek to re-distribute those profits and allow people more control over their lives. Those powers-that-be limit our effectiveness in creating change by presenting false either/or narratives.

Take the lead up to the Civil War in America. Many of the abolitionists were also suffragettes. (And some of those women were racists, I will not deny that.) At that time in American history there was an unspoken choice to be made between ending slavery or securing voting rights for women. It's not as though some people didn't want to see both happen, but it's almost as though some limit of the human imagination could not accept both changes simultaneously within the shared zeitgeist.

Ending slavery became the prevailing cause and it was the correct choice. However, there is no legitmate reason why the people supporting both causes could not achieve those ends at the same time.

The people holding power will cede as little power as possible to the people fighting for it. Fallible humans that we are, most of us only have the energy to focus on one front at a time. Thus, the power-brokers play us off against each other.

It is possible to want the people in Israel to be safe and the people in Palestine to be safe as well. It is possible to against Antisemitism and Islamophobia at the same time. It is possible to support women's causes and also support men in their quest for mental health in opposition to a patriarchal system that treats women as sub-human and expects men to be superhuman in the face of normal feelings as they struggle with a complex world that makes it hard to just be a person. It is possible to see Black people's lives uplifted with access to all sorts of resources without taking away those resources from poor White people are any other group.

It is only the people who are hoarding the money while trying to control our lives to keep us poor and frightened and overwhelmed who are telling us that there isn't enough money or freedom or dignity to go around. We have to stop "othering" each other. Chances are that anyone reading this wants a few basic things for themselves and the people whom they consider their "in-group". Well, I want those same things for myself and the people whom I love. I don't begrudge anyone the right to be safe. I do begrudge those who are protecting the safety of their extra billions of dollars at the cost of a world on fire.