Deep-seated racism and xenophobia persist within the white majority, mirroring the fundamentalism and hatred cultivated among marginalised communities
— The burgeoning neo-fascism is just a symptom, not the disease itself. This echoes all historical fascist waves, that emerged in the new era that started with the colonial genocides, the consequent ‘enlightenment’ and the industrial revolution. And to comprehend the factors propelling islamophobia and xenophobia today, we must examine the profound restructuring of the global state capitalism that has been ongoing for decades.
The big states and their corporate hands have been waging proxy wars, while simultaneously promoting a consumerist lifestyle for their privileged citizens. This has generated a relentless exodus of people fleeing poverty, oppression, war, and genocide, seeking refuge in the illusory havens of the developed nations. This is an unprecedented era of mass displacement.
Immigrants and refugees are often portrayed as either idealised underdogs or despised competitors, the ‘Others’. In reality, they are marginalised individuals with limited rights, thin integration prospects, often lacking recognition as fully human. They are the excluded, existing on the fringes of society, perpetually fearing expulsion from the promised land.
Western societies have undergone tremendous transformation as a result of the immigration waves. Despite their self-proclaimed multiculturalism, they have failed to integrate diverse ethnicities and cultures. Minorities have been relegated to controlled spaces, coexisting with the dominant white population in a precarious equilibrium.
As a result, resentment simmers beneath the surface on both sides, fuelling potential recruitment among disillusioned youth for extremist ultra-nationalist groups. Deep-seated racism and xenophobia persist within the white majority, mirroring the fundamentalism and hatred cultivated among marginalised communities. The promised liberal utopia for all, has remained elusive.
What can we do? The easiest thing to say here, is that we must build a robust anti-fascist movement. While spontaneous protests are essential, we must learn from history. Previous anti-fascist victories have often left the underlying structures of power intact. The emerging democratic states preserved the egg of the snake inside their guts: inside the palaces of parliamentary politics; inside the international corporations; in the superficial ‘progressiveness’ of entrepreneurs and influencers; in the broken social movements and the system-friendly left parties, that when not flirting with racism in vague theories of non-white or queer privilege, are chasing windmills, sleepwalking in the lethargy of reductionism, or pursuing single issue campaigns.
True and meaningful antifascist action, is people of all origins and identities to come together, to devise ways to liberate spaces in every community, to start rebuilding our anti-hierarchical, anti-authoritarian social movements. Doing so will not just prefigure thousands of other ways of existence, but will also guarantee that the snakes and their eggs will stay buried inside their holes, where they belong.
~ Blade Runner
