Biden administration only has appearance of diversity

By Robert Inlakesh

The recent Western obsession with identity politics has effectively blinded the public from corporate racism in clear sight. Biden is no Trump, however he is also no savior for minority communities.

Although on a symbolic level it is great to see diversity in the government, this in many ways misses the point, if those placed in power do not represent the popular opinions of the communities they come from.

The idea of positive-discrimination, when it comes to electing government officials, was supposed to be about ushering in change and a wider representation of minority communities. Elected officials are supposed to, in theory, represent their constituents. Before we celebrate the election of someone from a minority community, to a position of power in government, we should first investigate the potential for change that they will bring. 

This is not being cynical, this is just being practical and is also about not stereotyping someone based upon the color of their skin, faith or sex and instead learning about what their track record, views and policy positions are.

To make this easier to understand, nobody will use Condelezza Rice or Colin Powell as an example of the success of diversification or progression, and with good reason, they were part of an awful war machine that led the US to war and to oppress minorities domestically. Just as if notorious right-wing commentator Candace Owens was elected to a position of power, the left in the United States would barely see cause for celebration.

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These orientalist games that are played by our ruling class, must be overcome. It is ultimately an insult that a man who had supported the Iraq war, helped write the infamous crime bill and was vice President to a man who massacred black and brown people in seven different countries, is praised as some sort of triumph of progressivism. 

As a Muslim, I can tell you that the feeling of being disenfranchised will not go away due to a more diverse US government having ordered the drone strikes against Muslim majority countries. From Palestine to Pakistan, from Somalia to Afghanistan, we see little cause for hope from the US Biden administration at this time, with the possible exception of a change from the Trump administrations staunch support for Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen.

The reversal of the ‘Muslim Ban’ by Biden’s administration may seem like a sign of goodwill, but when the US is helping to destroy many of the countries on that list, its not exactly fooling us as to think the US is somehow on our side. The halting of the border wall is also a nice symbolic move, but wouldn’t it be great if the United States was to also halt its policies which help create many of the refugees attempting to find a better life in the United States?

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The appointing of Kamala Harris, as the first woman of color to hold the position of Vice President, does nothing unless she is willing to create real change for women of color. So far, the Biden administration does not seem to be looking at many of the progressive policies presented to it by the African American community, despite promises to act on mass incarceration and policing. The Democratic Party largely attempted to tag onto the Black Lives Matter movement, following the murder of George Floyd. They find it easy to take a knee and to place establishment figures, from minority communities, in office as a means to attract votes, but seem to move forward on nothing else but symbolism.

Llyod Austin is another one of Joe Biden’s historic picks, now the first African American to lead the Pentagon. However, what has been largely ignored, is the potentially offensive posture the Biden administration may be taking by employing a former 4-star military General to a position traditionally held by a civilian. In fact, this move replicates the Trump administration's pick of James Mattis, in 2017, in that Mattis also needed a waiver from congress for not having been out of the military for at least 7 years.

On top of this, Lloyd Austin is well known as having been the brains behind the April 2003 invasion of Baghdad, as part of the illegal US war on Iraq and having employed a failed strategy inside of Syria, further exacerbating the large loss of life during the war.

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For some, the mere color of Lloyd Austin’s skin is all they can see, however for those critical of policy, Austin’s role in illegal and offensive wars in the Middle East is cause for concern. The first black President of the United States, Barack Obama, also was able to blind many with his charm and the impression that the color of his skin would somehow mean a less lethal policy. Instead, Barack Obama contributed to more regime change wars than his pre-descessor and upped the US’s infamous predator drone program in 7 different African-Middle Eastern countries.

Ultimately, when we look at White Supremacy and the racism of empire, we have to understand that it is often employed in a much more intelligent way than your average drunken EDL member. 

Racism was used in order to justify slavery, from a psuedo-intellectual position, in order to protect that institution, with the establishment producing official propaganda to make the public believe that it was some sort of objective fact that black people were inferior.

Racism was used in order to justify colonization and settler colonialism, by making Europeans believe that they were part of a “superior culture” and “superior race”, to the “barbarians”, “savages” and the “irrational” other. 

This racism has not gone away, we may like to fool ourselves into believing it, but we are still falling for the same tricks. When Muslims are portrayed as terrorists in movies, broadcast news, the print press and by politicians, this is no mistake. When we see Muslim women having to escape their “oppressive” culture and find the white savior, this is also no mistake. When people are made to believe that their culture is somewhat superior, or that their race or religion is perhaps superior, it is easy then to kill and destroy the inferior ones.

Just as the propaganda during WW2 saw the rounding up of Japanese Americans into concentration camps and the propaganda about Vietnam justified the war, racist propaganda is a well oiled machine. 

We would be fools to assume that this racism will vanish and that things will immediately get better, due to someone like Joe Biden and his establishment figures.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)

(Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer and political analyst, who has lived in and reported from the occupied Palestinian West Bank. He has written for publications such as Mint Press, Mondoweiss, MEMO, and various other outlets. He specializes in analysis of the Middle East, in particular Palestine-Israel. He also works for Press TV as a European correspondent.)

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