Racism has been a trending topic of discussion nationwide. The unlawful shooting and killing of black citizens has become a common occurrence. It has sparked outrage from Ferguson to Baltimore, and most recently in Tulsa. It has caused controversy in the NFL with players refusing to stand during the National Anthem. It has been a recurring theme this election cycle. We’ve heard so much about racism this past year it seems that it is the greatest evil of the day.
Racism is a hot topic. It gets you viewers. It gets you page clicks. It stirs people up and makes for great entertainment. But the conversations and coverage about race seem to go in circles, never really offering new insight. While race is definitely a modern-day plight, I’d like to propose an evil more sinister that uses racism as a mere tactic to achieve its ultimate goal.
The desire to accumulate wealth is far more dangerous than deep-seeded, irrational hate. The world revolves around money. Globalized markets, transnational trade agreements, international banking, and political ideologies do far more damage than racist ideologies. Those of us fortunate enough to live in countries like the United States may not truly understand the horrendous damage neoliberalism is capable of. Those who are at the frontlines fighting against this Western idea of global Manifest Destiny are extremely aware of the deadly risk they face by standing up against them.
Patrice Lumumba was the first ever democratically-elected Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo after it gained independence from Belgium in 1960. About 10 million Congolese died under the ruthless hand of King Leopold II of Belgium. With Lumumba’s election, the newly formed nation was now in a position to achieve true sovereignty. But the Congo was a resource-rich land and Western nations, especially the U.S., wanted them. When Lumumba asked for help from Western countries to help rebuild his new nation, they all declined. He then sought help from the former Soviet Union only to infuriate and scare the capitalist West. Soon after his election, thanks to CIA involvement, Patrice Lumumba was arrested by rogue militants and ultimately assassinated.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is the face of the Civil Rights Movement. His adherence to nonviolence inspired and swayed the hearts of people around the world. He was met with much resistance, hate, and was even incarcerated. But Dr. King’s theological education allowed him to change the hearts of an entire nation. The real reason Dr. King was assassinated had to do more about his denouncing of the Vietnam War and about the economic injustices of the time. He was more of a threat when he pointed out how our economic system benefitted only a few than when he preached racial equality.
For Francisco “Chico” Mendes Filho, his battle was against the special interests that were destroying the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. He coordinated campaigns and resistance movement. He brought global attention to the rapid and merciless annihilation of the largest forest in the world. His work helped support claims by the scientific community that deforestation was creating a greenhouse effect which was causing global temperatures to steadily rise. Chico Mendes was assassinated in 1988. What did he do that would warrant receiving a shotgun blast to the chest? He literally stood in front of the neoliberal agenda fighting against economic greed.
Most recently in Honduras, Berta Cáceres also met an early death. In March of this year, the Indigenous Right’s activist was murdered with strong suspicions that the Honduran government was involved. Her life work was protecting the rights of the dwindling indigenous population in Honduras. She fought against the unlawful and controversial land grabs that were displacing thousands of people who had lived on that land for hundreds of years. Her stance against the building of a hydroelectric dam wasn’t a stance against progress, but a stance against the desire for profit at the cost of killing and displacing entire groups of people.
What do these four people have in common? Each stood up to the neoliberal practices of the Western world. Each was an activist fighting against social injustices: Lumumba fought for Congo’s sovereignty; King fought for racial equality; Mendes fought for the rights of rubber farmers who were being displaced; Cáceres fought for social justice for indigenous peoples and their claims to their ancestral lands. But when they stood in the way of profit, they became a problem. Their social gains should not be undermined, but their histories should wake us up. What is the real problem: social injustice, or financial greed?
