Black Star News Editorial
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
On Tuesday, American voters will be deciding whether to elect Vice-President Kamala Harris president—or return a twice-impeached president, who tried to overthrow the American government on Jan. 6, 2021, to the White House.
It was bad enough Donald Trump ever became president in the first place. That Trump may once again slither into the White House speaks volumes about America’s sorry political state.
American presidential politics has always given us corporate-controlled choices who will do little to fundamentally change the lives of average Americans, particularly economically. How can it do anything more when the heavy hand of big money thoroughly corrupts the process?
So, the Black Star News will not tell you Vice-President Kamala Harris is going to usher in some utopian chapter in American history. Also, we will not bother talking about her policy promises. However, we will give you our sober reasons for why we are endorsing her against the man who has empowered the most racist, and violent, “Second Amendment” elements in America.
Now, time for some harsh truths.
Vice-President Kamala Harris is part of an administration that has allowed an obvious genocide, of Palestinians, to occur right in front of our faces, over the last year in Gaza. In fact, this presidential race may well have been over if the Biden-Harris White House had practiced the “rule of law” they preach and stopped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from slaughtering, so far, at least 42,000 Palestinian civilians.
Imagine how many lives would have been saved had the Biden Administration supported the lawsuit filed by South Africa at the ICJ?
President Biden, particularly since he isn’t running for re-election, could have helped Harris secure victory already by taking a firm stance against the bombing of Palestinian homes, hospitals, schools, colleges, and every facet of Palestinian life. Moreover, it isn’t a secret Netanyahu would prefer Trump to Harris—because he would be even more unrestrained in his barbaric brutality.
The most shameful thing here is this: both Democrats and Republicans refuse to stop Netanyahu’s mass murders because of the AIPAC blood money bribes they pocket. History will surely find American politicians guilty of blocking international efforts to stop the genocidal ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Somehow, while pretending to believe in the “sanctity of life,” American politicians continue to fund Netanyahu’s indiscriminate bombing.
We understand why many, particularly Palestinian-Americans, Lebanese-Americans, Muslims, and others, may find it difficult to vote for Harris. We sympathize with all of those who lost loved ones to the savage butchery that is ongoing in the Middle East. And we will continue to speak out against this life-taking injustice.
Still, we at the Black Star News, know, given the existing political infrastructure, only one of two persons will become president next Tuesday. This will remain so until the stranglehold of big money is removed by the American people.
As a Black newspaper, our first fundamental responsibility is to the interests of Black people, in America, Africa, the Caribbean, and beyond. Since Black people are the most oppressed globally, and are always under the gun, figuratively and literally, we don’t have the luxury of choices that others have. For us, politics is a dirty chess game where decision-making can’t just be based on idealism. Because of this, we ask ourselves which of the two corporate candidates will clearly bring more harm to Black people domestically and globally?
The answer to that, for us, is clearly Donald Trump.
Let’s examine a few things.
Donald Trump used naked racism to win the Republican nomination in 2016—because the Republican Party have fed their base a steady diet of fear and bigotry for decades, particularly since the genesis of the “Southern Strategy.” Republican politicians perfected the art of scapegoating those who aren’t white and conservative as the major reason for most of America’s problems. That remains the case.
The only thing Trump did different was to double down on the fearmongering of the “other”—especially, after the impossible happened, when a Black man named Barack Obama shocked the world by winning the American Presidency in the shark-filled cesspool that is Washington D.C. Trump capitalized on the racist venom toward President Obama, promoting Birtherism, and sprinkled more bigotry into the mix by attacking Muslims, Mexicans, and more broadly Latinos.
Trump continues to use the fear of a darkening America to scare Republican voters about the supposed dangers of immigration. This is why he pushed the racist claim that Haitians in Ohio were eating cats and dogs. Trump’s race-baiting, immigrant-bashing, in Ohio, led to over 30 bomb threats.
And should we forget when Trump referred to Haiti and Africa as “shithole countries?” What about when he asked America’s military leaders about shooting Americans who were protesting the police murder of George Floyd? And remember when Trump told police, “please don’t be too nice” when apprehended suspects? And Trump continues to denigrate the innocent Central Park Five, who recently announced a lawsuit against him.
While many are asking if Trump is a fascist, it is enough for us to know that he is a rabid racist—who is deeply in bed with “very fine” violent white supremacists, of the type that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. And need we comment on his recent xenophobic Madison Square Garden rally where one of his speakers called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”
In the final analysis, American presidential politics always leaves us with two corporately controlled compromised choices for president. In this case, one of the choices is a racist—who has the most extreme, violent, right-wing, white supremacists as his not-so-secret shadow army. Because of all the dangers he represents, particularly for Black people, and other minorities, we are endorsing Vice-President Kamala Harris for the American Presidency.
