By: Todd Smekens
Muncie, Indiana BLOG – The events yesterday in Charlottesville exposed America’s dark shadowy collective self which surfaced during former President Barack Obama’s presidency – racism or White Nationalist Supremacy. Those who write about themselves in this Nazi movement like to refer to themselves as the ‘Alt-Right.’ Whatever you want to call it, it’s hate based on skin color. It’s also an American tradition or value which we try to ignore. Carl Jung defined the shadow self as:
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
In case you haven’t figured out by now, I do not watch TV for my news. We have social media sites allowing the individual to get their news live on the ground by people attending events. The sterilized version comes later on national and syndicated television – the version the news executives and their advertisers will allow. Therefore, watching the live footage of the racists in Charlottesville was jaw dropping.
A look at the chaos and violence in #Charlottesville: https://t.co/mu4SIC1cjf pic.twitter.com/AFuRtcwXZV
— POLITICO (@politico) August 13, 2017
Watching the car crashing into marchers denouncing the hate and then backing up over the victims was grotesque. No video needed since I’m sure you’ve seen it a hundred times.
What was less evident to many watching on TV was the comments of lawmakers on Twitter trickling in throughout the day, including the president. They didn’t condone the violence, but they refused to call out the hate. They declined to call out racism, White Nationalism, or White Supremacy. Here’s one of our Indiana’s representatives who just couldn’t name it:
Those engaging in violence should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Our prayers are with those affected by this tragedy. 2/2
— Rep. Todd Rokita (@ToddRokita) August 12, 2017
They all stand up and talk about “American values” and how these acts go against what we stand for as a country. It’s 100% bullshit, and they know it, and sadly, we are aware of it.
Though we deny it and shove it back into our repressed memories (shadow). The hidden aspect of racism is embedded in our minds, and this is how the media manipulates, and the politicians pander. We hear “those people” and know exactly who they’re talking about – the people of color.
As a country, we committed genocide against the Native American people who occupied this land before us. We stole their land and slaughtered their people. The capitalists who came to America brought slaves to work in Southern fields for free. Our families killed each other to free those slaves, but they weren’t considered a whole people until the 1960’s when civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. demanded equal rights.
We’ve white-washed it all. Even in our Muncie community, the Ball Family who we all praise daily for their financial contributions laid the foundations of institutionalized racism by preventing blacks from living in certain communities. Have they ever owned it?
No.
So, don’t say White Nationalism doesn’t represent “American values” because it most certainly does. Muncie embraces it. Indiana embraces it. America embraces it.
Neither President Donald Trump nor Representative Todd Rokita will denounce racism or White Nationalist hate (Nazism or Alt-Right) because they pander to it. The entire Republican Party has used it since Richard Nixon adopted the Southern Agenda in the 60’s. Before that, the Democratic Party owned it.
Anybody who claims racism and classism aren’t American values lives in denial of the truth. And as Carl Jung would say, “If you deny your shadow, you’ll be controlled by your shadow.”
As long as our national political parties (and their donors) and the corporate owned media uses racism to manipulate targeted populations and uses propaganda to distill hate toward people of color, white nationalism will be an American Value. The question is, “Does the American people want to change this ugly truth?” If so, we’ll all have to accept and call it by its name – hate based on skin color.
