He claimed that I made a racist comment. This is a terrible accusation, of which one has to be very careful to levy. Maybe not towards a Nazi, since he would probably be flattered by the label, but towards someone that think that he is a democratic socialist, that have debated against racism and made political actions against racism, and been subjected to a lot of courses in the socialist movement about colonialism and imperialism. Stuart’s accusation is offensive. It is out of bounds.
I made a statement in a Facebook text, that I unfortunately do not have left, since a friend of mine convinced me that while he understood what I meant, todays language and sentiments are so heated that it could be misunderstood. So, I erased it and decided to try to keep out of the vulgar debate.
I said that those protesters in UK, that claimed white people should submit because what the white people have done to them, well, against their ancestors, through colonialism, could go back to the countries of their ancestors and help to build the countries of their ancestors, now that these countries are liberated. What I meant, which I thought was clear, is that the protesters were standing on and living in the society that has part of its, and thus theirs, richness from colonialism and imperialism. That they themselves were part of the heritage of those years. That their food and their freedom of speech were part of the heritage. If they think this heritage is awful, then they could turn their back on the heritage and leave this awful country. I advise them to be proud and say: I will never continue the exploitation, which I am now part of, that has its origin in colonialism, that my ancestors had to endure.
But no. They did their demonstration and then went to the pub for wine and beer. Enjoying the life that has been created partly through what they demonstrate against. But trying to exploit and get some strange favours of submission because something that has not happened to them, but to their ancestors.
It is the same type of exploitive hypocrisy I experienced when I was studying at the university and lived among extreme left-wing communists. They hated capitalism. Yet, they have today a nice life, maybe as pensioners, financed by their saving in financial funds, based on…capitalistic profit. They disliked me, calling me class traitor, since I was a democratic socialist, that wanted to change society through calm reforms, through debate and democracy.
Maybe there is racism in UK today. Maybe it is a heritage from those old days. But then all have to fight that thing, today.
And who is racist?
To claim that today’s society is white people’s society, created in order to supress people of other skin colour, is racism. To claim that I have a burden of repression to carry because of my skin colour, that is racism. Pure racism. There is no difference between to claim that I belong to the übermensch group because I am white and Aryan, and the claim that I belong to the repressive group of white people. Both are pure racism.
So, Stuart Sean Farquhar, you should be ashamed to put a label on me that is utterly wrong and offensive. You owe me an apology.
Öllsjö 13 june 2020
PS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7HmhrgTuQ DS