Home > TRUMP’S ANTI IMMIGRANT RACISM NOT CONFINED TO US

TRUMP’S ANTI IMMIGRANT RACISM NOT CONFINED TO US

by Daniel Patrick Welch - Open-Publishing - Wednesday 16 March 2016

Daniel Patrick Welch interview - audio and transcript
click link for audio
http://presstv.ir/Detail/2016/02/17/450891/Trump-Welch-GOP-Democratic

...Expanding on the common link between anti-immigrant racism in the US and Europe, the analyst cited how demonizing migrants has become mainstream across Europe, pointing out that there is a continuum in such violence against people of color from police killings in the US to the dehumanizing of peoples of the global south worldwide.

He said that “the whole reason that I am interested in geopolitics and in the struggle in general, and many people like me in pushing back against imperialism, is that we see the overlap: it’s a seamless connection between our black and brown children being shot by police at home to the massive incarceration to the demonization of immigrants here as well as in Europe.”

“The exact same thing is happening. The fabrication and exaggeration and sensationalization of ’immigrant crime’ is deeply, deeply symptomatic of a fundamentally held racism that gives rise to all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories even though people won’t admit that it’s basically a racist thing," he stated.

What distinguishes reaction in the US versus Europe, Welch said, is that people espousing Trump’s views are seen as fitting into a longstanding racist pattern.

"We see it from the United States — the difference is that it is clearly and exclusively reserved for the right wing; it is an openly fascist way of thought to say that Mexicans are taking our jobs, or that black men are scary and they’re here to take our women and our stuff. It’s an obvious racist and fascist road to go down,” he noted.

"In the European sphere there is an attempt to cover that up by throwing in a lot of other variables when, in my estimation it amounts to exactly the same thing. I can’t see why it should be different in Europe than it is in the United States: when someone says my brother and my son are scary, and they’re here to rape white women, whatever cover they use, whatever theory they come up with, I think it is offensive and racist in the extreme. And just as over here, I wouldn’t engage anyone—wouldn’t talk to anyone who exhibits that kind of view, or are the ideological cousins of those people, I would reject it as a matter of course," he stated.

Full transcript:
"In the European sphere there is an attempt to cover that up by throwing in a lot of other variables when, in my estimation it amounts to exactly the same thing. I can’t see why it should be different in Europe than it is in the United States: when someone says my brother and my son are scary, and they’re here to rape white women, whatever cover they use, whatever theory they come up with, I think it is offensive and racist in the extreme. And just as over here, I wouldn’t engage anyone—wouldn’t talk to anyone who exhibits that kind of view, or are the ideological cousins of those people, I would reject it as a matter of course," he stated.

"Well as much as I hate to agree with Barack Obama, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. I wouldn’t use the word ’sensible’ for the American electorate. But I would say that Trump represents an extreme version of how Americans view themselves. And to be honest, let’s face it: Americans are some of the most dumbed down and racist people on the face of the earth. And they are my countrymen, my extended family, my life—so I don’t take that lightly, but if you look at the geopolitical scene and their awareness of it, it’s the absolute truth.

The problem is that, as the electorate changes, as the power structure changes—to the extent that people actually have a say in elections, which I don’t completely see and I’ve said many times before—but there are fewer and fewer extremist white, male racists who really buy into Trump’s message enough to carry an election, even though it will pull an awful lot of people. That’s his base, and I just don’t think it’s a big enough base to carry it. I wouldn’t say that Americans are *sensible* because of that. I would just say that it’s a numbers game.

"And then you get into this whole thing specifically about immigration, which is where Trump’s racism and his racist appeal gain ground. Then you have to step back a little bit. I’ve had friends say well sure, Americans may be racist, but Europeans are just as racist—look at their reaction to immigration etc etc. But I would say it’s white European—it all comes from the same stock. It’s white supremacy.

"And the whole reason that I am interested in geopolitics and in the struggle in general, and many people like me in pushing back against imperialism, is that we see the overlap: it’s a seamless connection between our black and brown children being shot by police at home to the massive incarceration to the demonization of immigrants here as well as in Europe. The exact same thing is happening. The fabrication and exaggeration and sensationalization of ’immigrant crime’ is deeply, deeply symptomatic of a fundamentally held racism that gives rise to all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories even though people won’t admit that it’s basically a racist thing.

"We see it from the United States—the difference is that it is clearly and exclusively reserved for the right wing; it is an openly fascist way of thought to say that Mexicans are taking our jobs, or that black men are scary and they’re here to take our women and our stuff. It’s an obvious racist and fascist road to go down.

"In the European sphere there is an attempt to cover that up by throwing in a lot of other variables when, in my estimation it amounts to exactly the same thing. I can’t see why it should be different in Europe than it is in the United States: when someone says my brother and my son are scary, and they’re here to rape white women, whatever cover they use, whatever theory they come up with, I think it is offensive and racist in the extreme. And just as over here, I wouldn’t engage anyone—wouldn’t talk to anyone who exhibits that kind of view, or are the ideological cousins of those people, I would reject it as a matter of course.

"And on this side of the atlantic it goes without saying, whereas in white European circles, it has become fashionable to flower it up with all sorts of ideological reasons that all amount to some warmed over version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion: "The Jews are trying to destroy the white race and destabilize Europe." Just really, really offensive stuff when you peel back the layers.

""So when people talk about how Trump can’t be elected, I think that is true that he is too extreme and too racist. But you have to back up and look at all the overlap with what is going on all around the world in terms of how white Europe has taken over the world. My wife, who is an African immigrant, says flat out: This is incredible. Europe colonized the entire world, and now they have the audacity to be surprised at people coming back to where all the money went when the loot was stolen and come up with all these alternative theories on how this could be happening.

Someone must be doing this to us! It can’t be the blowback from our own privelege that has resulted from the wars, and the economic dislocation and the economic exploitation of 500 years of theft! There must be someone we can blame for it.

"Again, in the US context that is considered outright fascist. The whole ’Mexicans are stealing our jobs’ thing is so old and so played. It resonates with a significant sector of society. But there is also a significant sector of society that sees it for what it is and rejects it outright, especially people on, say, the left, or people who consider themselves to be anti-imperialist. It’s unthinkable to come up with any version, or any dressed-up or covert or crypto version of those arguments. Because you can smell them a mile away—especially if you come from a family that has black and brown people in it. It’s automatic. But we’re seeing the rise of this in Europe.

"So when you say, in Trump’s case, he is unelectable because people are too sensible, to be fair we have to look at it in a global sense and see what is happening as a result of people’s lives being diminished by capitalism’s relentless pursuit of surplus value. Life circumstances are dwindling and we have to find someone to blame. This is absolutely as old as migration itself. There is nothing new, and there is nothing that would convince me that it is not more of the same racist crap."

(c) 2016 Daniel Patrick Welch. Reprint permission granted with credit and link to danielpwelch.com. Political analyst, writer, linguist and activist Daniel Patrick Welch lives and writes in Salem, Massachusetts, with his wife. Together they run The Greenhouse School. Welch has also appeared in numerous television and radio interviews, and can be available for comment and analysis as his day job permits. Please contact to schedule.

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