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American Democracy: A Legacy Of
Hypocrisy And Deceit
By Guest Commentator Larry Pinkney It has been accurately said that, "America Is Like A Melting
Pot - The People At The Bottom Get Burned And The Scum
Floats To The Top." Perhaps, nothing is more indicative of
this in the 21st century than the insipid manner in which
the institutions of white America continue to reinvent the
myth pertaining to America's birth and concomitant
democracy. The fact of the matter is that the expression
'American democracy' is in itself a contradiction in terms,
for had there been American democracy on this continent the
United States of America, would never have come into
existence. To deny this fact is to deny the obvious.
Despite white America's ongoing collective denial of the
obvious, the foundation of the United States of America is
genocide, brutal and massive slavery, and most notably
deceit; all of which are the antithesis to any serious or
real application of democracy. The Ku Klux Klan, White
Citizens Councils, John Birch Society, Neo-Nazis and Minute
Men are not some mere antidemocratic American aberrations;
they are in fact integral to the perpetuation of America
itself. Likewise, the American infliction of human suffering
at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo for example, is not American
aberration; it is part and parcel of the American norm - an
ongoing, perpetual cycle of deceit and torture - all in the
name of a nebulous, nonexistent democracy. This is but a
reflection of the physical and cultural pillage and
decimation by white America of the indigenous so-called
"Indian" peoples and the slavery, lynchings, and the current
21st century slave plantations in America known as
"prisons"; where more Black, Brown, and Red - men, women,
and children are incarcerated than anywhere else on earth.
An open secret that America has always known is that
democracy for the few, is no democracy at all. In the 21st
century, as the trappings of America's decaying, greedy
corporate capitalist system begin to negatively impact even
some white Americans, it remains to be seen as to how many
more John Brown's, Frank Little's, or Viola Liuzzio's might
yet come to fruition. Yet, one thing is crystal clear:
America's powerful sometimes blatant - sometimes subliminal
- message to whites continues to be, 'Even if you're poor,
getting poorer, have very little formal education, and no
health insurance - at least you're white!' While the age old
de facto message to Black folks remains, 'Lighten up and
think white by ridiculing, emasculating, and distancing
yourself from the Black liberation struggle, or die!' In
this context, the word 'democracy,' as used by American
politicians, pundits in the US news media, and its many
institutions, is nothing more than a cruel and demeaning
hoax. For Black people and other people of color, such
'democracy' is cultural - and ultimately physical -
genocide.
Often used catch phrases such as 'the national American
conscience' are absurd, as America has never had a
conscience, national or otherwise. To grasp how utterly
ridiculous and contradictory the very notion of 'American
Democracy' is, a brief historical look at what makes America
- America, is in order.
The name 'America' is a misnomer and was derived from the
European Amerigo Vespucci; as such is an affront to the
legacy of millions of indigenous peoples whose home and land
this was, long before the coming of the deceitful and land
grabbing Europeans. Moreover, the indigenous peoples of what
are now commonly known as the continents of North and South
'America,' already had their own names for this land that
they cherished and respected, well prior to the disastrous
arrival en mass of Europeans, whose God approvingly smiled
upon their subsequent systematic decimation of the Red
peoples and the brutal enslavement and dehumanization of
Black people - all in the name of the 'Manifest Destiny,'
and democracy. To reiterate: Democracy for the few is no
democracy at all. As Black slave rebellions were bloodily
and ruthlessly suppressed in 'the America's,' many white men
and women slave holders were enjoying their 'democracy', as
were, to a lesser degree, even those whites who weren't
direct human property owners, but nonetheless enjoying
precious color privilege, which continues unabated in the
21st century, to the enormous detriment of Black and other
people of color.
Only euphemistically can the United States of America be
accurately described as a democracy, and euphemism has
little to do with reality. America is not a democracy. It is
a nation of endless hypocrisies.
America's hypocrisy and deceit is today visible on every
level of existence, both nationally and internationally,
from assassinating Black American leaders and then
hypocritically placing their images on US postage stamps (as
if America honored and respected them) - to having
historically directly or indirectly invaded Mexico, Cuba,
Vietnam, Grenada, Somalia, Iraq, and an endless list of
other nations around the world, to the present where America
foments coups and unending blood shed, all in the name of a
'democracy' which America itself does not have or practice
within its own stolen borders.
Without the virulent arsenal of hypocrisy and deceit
there would be no United States of America. America's actual
nonexistent democracy, like Frankenstein's monster has been
transformed into somehow having supposedly become the
self-touted bastion of democracy. It is a nation that has
engaged in genocide and slavery but stubbornly refuses to
pay reparations to its Black victims or their descendants.
Even European nations paid reparations to each other for
their atrocities, albeit often with the loot of the ill
gotten gain from the colonialism and ongoing neocolonialism
- most notably of and from the African continent. The United
States of America however, which was built upon, and exists
due to, the slave labor, dehumanization, and mass murders of
Black people, remains in the 21st century in racist and
stalwart refusal to pay reparations to the Black victims of
its so-called 'democracy.' As Dr. Robert L. Brock, the
father of the contemporary Black reparations movement in the
United States stated, "Blacks touched the United States by
being brought here without a passport, immigration papers
and consent. But they were brought over the ocean, which is
admiralty law. Admiralty law is international law. Blacks'
rights lie in international law." [Reference ABA Journal /
The Lawyers Magazine, November, 2000, article entitled,
'Repairing The Past.'] The US contempt for human rights and
international law did not begin with Abu Ghraib or
Guantanamo. It can be traced to the African holocaust
consisting of at least 100 million deaths of Black slaves
and millions more who labored under the most despicable and
dehumanizing form of slavery ever devised - that which
resulted in the building of the United States of America.
Any real democracy would have long ago equitably addressed
the matter of reparations, instead of ignoring this carnage
and its affects, and proceeding to incarcerate at ever
increasing stunning proportions the descendants of those who
built this nation.
Black people know only too well that corporate greed,
racism and capitalism do not serve our interests or those of
humanity as a whole, nor are they in any fashion
representative of real democracy. Moreover, now is not the
time to become ensnared by the dangerous and meaningless
rhetoric of politicians who claim to be, among other things,
the "offspring" of the civil rights movement and/or the
Black liberation struggle - but who in fact are the
opportunistic beneficiaries of it. Now is however the time,
especially for Black America, to redefine its role and to
seriously and consciously shape an independent Black
political thought which translates into independent Black
political, economic, and social action for the 21st century.
At stake in this is our very survival and that of the
planet.
-----
Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black Panther Party,
the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New
Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to
have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights
case to the United Nations under the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights.
In 2007, while speaking about the U.S.
government's COINTELPRO operations to "frame, murder, and
discredit" Black political activists, Pinkney said, "Only
after reading the American FBI COINTELPRO files on me and
other political activists, could one even begin to
comprehend the dastardly and disgusting ongoing tactics used
by the federal and state authorities, in conjunction with
various individuals, to discredit, silence, and 'neutralize'
me and others like me; and with what ease ordinary persons
can be complicit in these activities."
We wish to thank Mr. Pinkney
for his support and encouragement, as well as for allowing
us to reprint this commentary which was originally published
in The Black
Commentator, a weekly Internet magazine featuring
commentary, analysis, and investigations on issues affecting
African Americans (www.BlackCommentator.com).
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