<nettime> White Silence = Consent

[Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldrift@gmail.com>]

Empire is breaking. And that opens up a struggle in the hearts of everyone.

The US is going through the most violent civil-rights protests since the
1960s. What we see on the streets and on the screens is the full racial
spectrum of society and above all of youth. Among those who support the
movement, what matters first of all is ending systemic racism. If you are
white, then one slogan is most powerful: White Silence = Consent.

This movement demands that whites stand up and denounce the system that
structurally privileges us over others. An incredibly large number of
people are doing that. I think for most of us - and definitely for me -
there is no other way forward on any level, to do with the economy, to do
with climate change, to do with international relations or anything else.
Our president is a white supremacist. He incarnates the worst of this
country and proves how widespread the injustice is. All the official
American disdain for other people's lives, the destruction of
neighborhoods, the abandonment of millions of people inside the country,
the endless imperialist wars and murder from the air, the wanton and
unrelenting destruction of the environment by corporations on the ground,
all that is sustained by white consent.

If you don't agree with the way the country is being governed, then you
have to break the silence. You have to actively and vocally support the
people in the streets.

This is a dangerous moment. Neoliberalism has left entire sectors of
society in ruins and its abuses have given rise to many extremely alienated
people. Among the crowds acting from their hearts there are experienced
street fighters and arsons whose aim is to destroy things, fight cops and
provoke wider confrontations. There will be a reactionary backlash
centering on their actions, but really aiming to deny all the demands of
the entire movement. On the center left, among the so-called "liberals,"
media figures and so-called leaders will say we have to "bring things back
to normal" by using "legitimate force." Well, there is no normal anymore,
and the whole point of this uprising is that the force being used
systematically, every day, is illegitimate. Look at how the immigrants
working in meat-packing plants are being treated. Look how the cattle
themselves are treated. Go around the Middle East and count the number of
people maimed by American bombs. This is racism. This is white supremacy.
This is the basis of capitalism, of colonialism, of empire.

What people want - what I want - is a society that cares about Black lives,
that recognizes its deep-rooted injustices and that makes the resolution of
those injustices into the number one priority. To care is to change social
life at the roots. In addition to face-to-face respect, it means investing
in abandoned neighborhoods, opening hospitals to everyone, providing
education and jobs to those who are lacking, or in short, recognizing
systemic differences in life-chances and doing everything possible to
address them, with actual successes and not just promises. If political
leaders want to overcome Trump, they have to prove, starting now, that they
will devote themselves to overcoming white supremacy and ending all the
aggression and abuse that flows from it. Anything else is self-interested
consent to systemic abuse.

The people in the street have it right. No justice, no peace. If we want to
make it through the pandemic, overcome the economic collapse and make all
the changes necessary to survive the onrushing wave of dramatic climate
change - in short, if we want peace - we can't get it through frightened
silence.

There is a variation on that key slogan. It says: White Silence = Violence.
The violence being indicated is not only, and not primarily, what happens
in the streets. If liberal whites remain silent, the reactionary right will
unleash even greater systemic violence, this time with armed gangs in your
face.

Undoubtedly some of the violence occurring right now is already sparked by
agent provocateurs, and such provocations are about to get worse. There is
no time for silence anymore. It is time to fight and win the social and
political struggle against the active and clearly identifiable forces that
make racism systemic.



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