Perspectives of the Oppressed:
How Apathetic Americans Accommodate Injustice
By Solomon Comissiong
Perspectives add invaluable context to almost any human related situation. Perspective allows one to comprehend the feelings, actions or responses attached to myriad real-life situations and circumstances. For instance, without full perspective (anchored by hard facts) it is difficult for many men to understand why numerous women are apprehensive to be alone with unfamiliar men—especially in unfamiliar settings. Those men have, unfortunately, been polluted with a narrowly framed perspective, rooted in a dangerous male supremacist mindset. However, full perspective would allow more men to understand that physical abuse against women is an out of control global epidemic that terrorizes women every minute of every day. This fact, coupled with the personal experiences of countless women, provides important insight as to why (understandably) many women are apprehensive around unfamiliar (and many times familiar) men. Societal circumstances have everything to do with this.
Many Americans (especially Euro-Americans) have been systematically programmed to overlook the perspectives of the historically oppressed. It is instructive to understand that the United States is a society riddled with white supremacy, xenophobia, and institutional racism. It is a nation that is also controlled by an imperialist government. When we carefully (and honestly) examine the contextual nature of the history of the United States it is hard to deny these facts. Nonetheless there is no shortage of Americans who do their best to abrogate these facts with baseless opinions, buttressed with ignorance.
Perspectives give us context as to why things are the way they are, as well as to why people feel the way they do. Take for instance the fact that many people of color, within the US, are untrusting of this government. There are unfortunately countless reasons for this distrust. Shortly after the arrival of European settlers/invaders upon the shores of Turtle Island (present day North America) they began a terrorist campaign that would make Adolf Hitler blush. Theft of indigenous land, brutal massacres of indigenous people, biological warfare and the serial raping of indigenous women, were all routine actions carried out by the white settlers/invaders. However, because the perspectives of the savage Europeans who carried out these crimes are the only ones found within many US “history” books; the indigenous are routinely labeled as “uncivilized”. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Mainstream United States society does not want the ugly truth, that it is a nation founded upon barbaric and white supremacist actions, to leak into the collective consciousness of Americans, nor that of the global populace. Unfortunately for those who wish to conceal this information much of the global population already knows what mentally indoctrinated Americans do not. The world knows that the United States reigns supreme as the globe’s most effective (and destructive) imperialist state. The world knows that the US bombs countries with forced impunity and without regard for human life. They know that this country is the supreme champion of hypocrisy, telling other countries to, “do as we say, not as we do”. The same crimes fork-tongued American politicians blame other countries of doing; their own country does as if it were an addiction—-an addition to killing innocent people and destabilizing sovereign nations. It should be noted that often when the US accuses another country of committing certain “crimes”, they are specious claims, at best. However, why should the US cease their proclivity for lying to the public when it works so well on the masses of Americans who are completely devoid of rudimentary critical thinking skills?
Many Americans have been systematically programmed to completely ignore the perspectives of those whose countries that are being destroyed by the US government’s vicious ‘pet’; it’s out of control and rabid military! This author would like to wishfully think that if more Americans had even the slightest insight regarding “their” government’s crimes against humanity…they just might protest and demand their government cease from its mass murdering sprees. However, given the track record of Americans in supporting “their” government’s military excursions, even after being lied to, I am not too optimistic. Americans haven been lied to and manipulated into supporting wars of imperialism for decades. From World War I to Vietnam to Iraq to Libya, Americans continue to easily fall for whatever pack of lies the White House, Pentagon and corporate media feed it, leading up to vicious military campaigns. And it seems to matter little, to many Americans, when they are notified of the vast number of innocent civilians killed in US military campaigns.
The unofficial fourth branch of government, the US corporate media, routinely suppress significant information regarding civilian loss of life during US military campaigns, however even when some information is leaked, in this regard, numerous Americans remain spellbound to a contrived since of nationalism. It is as if Americans are socially numb to the suffering of other people, so long as it is inflicted by “their” government. Americans will cry during fictitious movies and they will demand “justice” for whomever “their” government tells them to. As a matter of fact, anytime “their” government tells them some “tyrannical” government is killing its own people foolish Americans will buy this narrative, hook, line and sinker, without ever doing their own research. It matters little that many times these narratives are crafted by the State Department like Hollywood screenplays, simply to get the US populous to back their nefarious geopolitical motives. The perspectives, let alone facts, rarely creep into the minds of the “average” run of the mill, red, white and blue, American.
The perspective of civilians in countries where the United States is committing acts of war does not matter to a great many Americans. Americans have been systematically domesticated to callously ignore the plight of these human beings. They have become willing pawns on “their” government’s grand chessboard—-at the expense of humanity. And in regard to most Euro-Americans, they could care less about the plight of Americans of color, such as African-Americans. Every 28 hours in the US an African/black person is killed by so-called law enforcement and this crime against humanity gets virtually no mainstream media coverage. When there is an extra-judicial killing that actually gets mainstream attention, such as what happened to Mike Brown, white Americans scramble to cast doubt upon the victim and not upon the murderous police officer. Again, the perspectives African/black people who have historically been targeted by the United States’ police force, does not matter at all.
The fact that the US’s inception of policing began with slave patrols hunting down enslaved Africans, who absconded from plantations, is merely an inconvenient truth in the footnotes of US history. These kinds of historic facts and perspectives are nuisances to many white Americans. They are voluntarily blinded from the context of why so many African/black people protest police brutality. White America has never had to deal with an epidemic of racial profiling, police brutality or their communities stuck in a perpetual police state, thus they don’t give a damn about it happening to African/black communities. White America’s interests are much more entrenched in maintaining it’s vice grip on economic and political power. Creating a social climate that addresses institutional racism, an offspring of white supremacy, would represent a threat to their white power structure. Even the fork tongued white liberals want no part of this kind of egalitarian and social justice oriented, society. White liberals continue to be the “wolves in sheep’s clothing”, Malcolm X warned us about.
True revolutionaries, as well as social justice champions, can never expect those who benefit from an unequal society to give a damn about the perspectives of the historically oppressed. After all, if they ever considered the perspectives of the oppressed, the United States just might be a vastly less oppressed society. If most Americans gave a damn about the perspectives of those who routinely fall victim to the US military’s indiscriminate bombs, missiles a drones, then they would be demanding their government cease its killing spree—thus paving way for a much more humane society. What should be a simple task—thinking about those who suffer at the hands of oppression and imperialism—is the proverbial Kryptonite to many Americans. Again, their nationalistic indoctrination and programming prevents them from seeing the humanity in peace, justice and equity. This is where the revolutionaries and social justice protagonists must enter the fray.
It is our job to never ever cease from speaking out in the face of current and historical injustices. Each time you speak out you create an opportunity for the zombie-like to awaken from their mental slumber, and ultimately join with you in the struggle to end oppression. We cannot realistically hope to more broadly mobilize and organize if large segments of society are dumbed down and socially apathetic. Speak out against injustice regardless of who is doing the oppressing. And, by all means, find creative ways to help the hoi polloi understand the perspectives of those catching hell by way of imperialism, white supremacy, institutional racism and sexism. It takes courage to be a real social justice hero; conversely it takes apathy to accommodate oppression. It’s time to collectively speak out, if not for our generation, do it for the next. Silence teaches children a dangerous lesson—that evil and injustice is acceptable. They deserve better than what evil, greed and apathy have wrought in today’s warped world.
Solomon Comissiong (www.solomoncomissiong.com) is an educator, community activist, author, and Founder of the Your World News Media Collective (www.yourworldnews.org). Mr. Comissiong is also a founding member of the Pan-African collective for Advocacy & Action. Solomon is the author of A Hip Hop Activist Speaks Out on Social Issues. Solomon is also the writer and producer of the documentary, Hip Hop, White Supremacy & Capitalism: Why Corporations Infiltrated RAP Music. He can be reached at: solo@yourworldnews.org
