thomas leverett weblog

Fear of brown people as a politically motivating force

One of the cardinal rules of Fear of brown people as a politically motivating force, is that no one will admit that that's what's going on. No one will actually say, "I have changed my political views because basically, subconsciously, I'm very uncomfortable with any non-white running the place, and I want to make sure that never happens again." It would be impolite to say such a thing, and an admission of overt racism. But that doesn't keep it from happening. It happens, and then all of a sudden there's a strong movement to make sure that no political party can simply change leaders without calling a general election.

Now I'm not British, but I look on with interest at what's happening there since, having been through it, I know that a lot of people will be expressing those fears through other political movements. Here, we no longer have a conservative party, since the Republicans were basically taken over by the fear-of-brown-people movement and their leader was not fiscally conservative at all. So it definitely has the potential to reshape the political landscape for decades to come.

One thing I might mention is that the leader in question, Sunak, is probably pretty middle-of-the-road conservative, in the same way Obama was middle-of-the-road liberal, and therefore will not destroy the country or even change much in the sense that certain things are much larger than anything a leader can affect. These two, Obama and Sunak, had to be very close to the norm in terms of pleasing their political peers to get in the position they were/are in, and being true to themselves, will not totally upend either country for any reason, and in fact will be a stabilizing force.

Another aspect of Fear of brown people as a force is that it is never as clear as simply accusing people of racism instead of genuine political interest. In our case the issue that got Trump elected was immigration - he signaled dislike of brown people by accusing Mexican immigrants of being rapists. He obviously struck a chord with people who just felt that too many were crossing the border and ultimately would take over life as we know it and make the U.S. into a third world country. There are people who scan the news for cases of some illegal immigrant committing some crime (it does happen) and then they make sure that this case is known throughout the churches of the land, in places where fear-mongering works and brings out the Republican vote. We can accuse them of racism, but it is an issue and has been an issue for many years, and in fact with the demographics turning against white people (that's the real issue), the fears will just get stronger and more pronounced. And they will come out as increasingly strong opposition to any immigration at all, or even opposition to abortion. An aspect of it is subconscious - abortion may not affect the demographic situation at all, but may appear to, but in any case the increasing fear has changed the political landscape if only by making certain issues much more prominent in an election cycle.

What I'm saying is that if this is what we're seeing in Britain at this moment, we should look for one of several possibilities: 1) Labour will win the next few elections; 2) some smart Labour "populist" will figure out how to harness this force, and Labour will become a combination of the traditional left that we all know and love/hate, and populist/traditionalist white working-class anger; 3) old Labour loyalists will no longer recognize the leftist Labour that used to always lose so badly but their unrivalled success will all be couched in claims that the system should not allow a party to just change leaders so easily, or some similar innovation related to Brexit. Brexit is woven into here in a very complex way, in the sense that many people of both present parties actually supported it and in many cases for genuine reasons. Are we to say that fear of brown people is not one of them? Or fear of "other" (Poles, Hungarians, etc.)? We can always accuse people of racism, but in my opinion that just clouds the issue, and makes it that much more difficult to determine what is actually best for the country.

Demographics have already determined that this fear will be more and more prominent as time goes on. What this means is that first, the rise of fascism is that much more likely, and second, these changes might happen more quickly than any of us were prepared for. As an internationalist, one who really believes in the equality of people and the right of people of all colors to live on our land, I have always known we were in the minority. If white people want to make sure the US and Britain stay white or at least as white as they are today, what they need to do is make sure white people are having as many babies as everyone else. But the way to do that is to make having babies desirable, not outlaw abortion. Unwanted children only alter the political landscape by becoming criminals, and that ultimately doesn't help anyone.

posted by tom @ 8:38 AM