More than a month after his second term, President Donald Trump has already made many terrible campaign promises. He ordered the mass expulsion of migrants and asylum seekers; Programs of federal diversity, equity, inclusion (dei) canceled; Reduce the financing of disadvantaged black and Latin American communities; And undertook to expel foreigners in legal residence who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
It is clear that if we want to survive the next four years, minorities and oppressed people of all bands must build solidarity networks to stand together and resist. To do this effectively, we must solve all the outstanding problems that could undermine inter-community solidarity. It cannot be said that they care about women’s rights, public health, racial equality, education or a number of things that the liberals claim to worry, then allow a genocide to continue.
The 2024 elections took place in the shadow of the genocidal campaign of Israel against the people of Palestine. Despite the efforts of the Democratic Party to obscure and manipulate the problem, they could not just wish the horrible images coming out of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
They faced a mass mobilization of people in the streets, in primaries and on university campuses calling for urgent action to stop Israel. In a desperate attempt to distract legitimate criticisms they received to facilitate the genocide, the Democratic Party targeted the transversal coalition which was formed to support Gaza.
In particular, the Democrats sought to break black-Palestinian solidarity. One way they hoped to do was to frame Pro-Palestinian demonstrators as unique emission electors. They said that the Palestinian and Arab communities and their allies were only invested in the Palestinian Liberty struggle and did not care about the struggles of minority groups here in the United States.
The Democrats stressed that what was going on in Gaza was an external question that only concerned this specific group of voters. The idea was to convince blacks – as well as women, LGBTQ and other disadvantaged groups – that their solidarity with Palestine was useless and that their interests were with the Democratic Party, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
When faced with the “unique problem” discussion particularly Calleux, I would generally ask: what “single problem” is genocide? It cannot be said that they care about women’s rights, public health, racial equality, education or a number of things that the liberals claim to worry, then allow a genocide to continue.
If anyone agrees with the extermination of a group, why would he not be willing to approve the extermination of others when the time comes?
We had an overview of how the commitment of the Democratic Party and its liberal supporters towards the rights of disadvantaged groups can be when they rushed to blame Trans for the defeat of Harris and some eminent members suggested dropping the “trans problem”.
The point of discussion of “voters on the unique program” was not the only armed to undermine black-Palestinian solidarity. Historical mobilization on university and university campuses across the country has also been attacked. Liberal media sought to portray pro-Palestinian activism not only as “anti-Semitic” but also as a Bourgeoisie company project, something that only rich children not affected in the universities of the Ivy League had time to worry.
What the media have decided to leave aside this story is that the mobilizations also took place in public universities and public schools, which black and brown students joined massively. The fact that colored students were faced with police violence and criminal proceedings were also conveniently omitted from public conversation.
In parallel, the Democratic Party also made that some of its colored members become the face of its unacceptable position on Gaza. Biden’s UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield was responsible for voting against the resolution of the ceasefire after the resolution of the ceasefire and repeating the mantra on the “right to self-defense” of Israel. The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, had to avoid all questions about the Palestinians during the pressors. Vice-President Harris herself was responsible for “recognizing” humanity and suffering of the Palestinian people, while the Biden administration continued to approve the sales of arms to Israel.
The Democratic Party used darkness as a shield against any criticism and they did it under the guise of diversity. Unsurprisingly, the form was abandoned whenever black or brown members of the party have spoken. In such cases, the Democrats have done everything possible to demonize them and put them out. When the Cori Bush congress member faced an unprecedented mass expenditure campaign by AIPAC to abandon it in the primaries, none of the Democratic leaders came to his defense.
However, the discussion points have worked and managed to penetrate progressive spaces even otherwise. A good example was an online conversation between the creator of Tori Grier and Tiktker Maya Abdallah which took place in August.
Tori as a black woman pleaded to vote for Harris, describing her very real fears of a second presidency of Trump, while Maya rightly stressed that the Democratic candidate refused to stop facilitating a genocide. The repercussions of the heated debate between the two spread online, some social media users renouncing their solidarity. This is exactly where the political elite wanted us to be.
While the Democratic Party has courted the black community, it made no effort to speak to Arab Americans and other pro-Palestinian groups. And even by “courting” blacks, the Democrats still managed to be as condescending as possible, removing the tired and racist trophy of “black men becoming more conservative”.
It is this strategy and the fasting framing of the Genocide Rights Party and the minorities which, I believe, led us to the dream of fascist fever which is the Trump presidency.
Many Arabs -American – as well as members of other minority groups – voted for Trump. As a black man, I would not have tried to convince these people to vote for the “less badly” while their families were exterminated in Gaza.
Other members of the black community have felt differently. A small but vocal contingent of blacks on the internet insisted that we should challenge Israel’s boycott, “buy Starbucks” and stop supporting the Palestinian cause. Although it is mainly a phenomenon of social media, the effects of real life are there. When I speak to members of my community who can be less informed of what is happening abroad, the same discussion points arise: “Isn’t this conflict thousands of years?” and “Israel defends itself.”
The truth is that this is not the first time that the black community has been divided on Palestine-Israel. Remember the confrontation between the emblematic black writer Audre Lorde and his black feminist compatriot June Jordan. In the early 1980s, Jordan openly criticized Israel for invading Lebanon and for its “genocidal objectives with regard to the Palestinian people”. Lorde rejected this position. She understood the ways in which the United States has trapped and used blacks here and abroad, but it could not connect it to the Palestinian struggle like the Jordan. This fracture caused a deterioration of their relationships.
Although the differences in opinion persist today in the black community, in the end, I believe that the contradictions present in the defense of the Democratic Party are becoming more and more untenable to manage. The ways in which democrats use their platform to manipulate the stories – similar to the way the Republicans make with their base – leads to confusion, not to greater political participation of blacks.
For those who still embrace the discussion points of the pro-Palestinian movement, it can be a good idea to ask what the Democratic Party has done to win its loyalty.
This is the party which, in response to the murder of the police of George Floyd, in the summer of 2020, decided to send his management to do a photo session in Agouette in Kente Fabric, but then spent $ 17.4 billion to finance the police throughout the country two years later. It is also the party whose affiliated members and speaking heads have made a lot of effort to demonize the Black Lives Matter movement and have stolen all popular momentum.
More recently, the Democratic Party has done everything possible to advance the very unpopular project “COP City” in Atlanta. The city, famous by wealthy black Democrats, has taken draconian measures to ensure that any resistance – including members of the black community – to this project for the campus police.
Let us also remember that, although Trump is all that the monster democrats say he is, they seem well with him. This is because for years, the democratic elite has relied on a multitude of rotating villains to prevent them from making one of their more progressive promises at their base. With this strategy in mind, in 2015-2016, they supported Trump in republican primaries, believing that he would be the simplest candidate to beat.
In this context, the innuendo according to which the Democratic Party – or the Republican Party, moreover – has the best interest of the black population of this country in mind is not only insulting, but dangerous. For these two parts, black and Palestinian life is not very worrying; They only count when or if it is politically and financially appropriate.
Many black Americans like me see the parallel between the historical manners of which our people have been injured and what is happening in Palestine. Brutal apartheid and genocide of the Palestinian people relate directly to mass massacres and the subjugation of blacks here in the United States. There is a reason why so many things we say in our community resonate with the inhabitants of Palestine and vice versa. Our simple existence is a threat to the status quo.
I see this achievement spread among my peers, and we have all seen it at the Super Bowl, when Zul-Qarnain Nantambu, a black artist, raised a Sudanese and Palestinian flag on stage during the part-time show.
The last 16 months of genocide in Gaza have highlighted the close ties between the American military-industrial complex and that of Israeli, between the American army and the Israeli occupation forces, between the American police and the Israeli security establishment.
With Trump and his cohort of white nationalist extremists who are already unleashing police and other security agencies in vulnerable communities, we – Black and Brown, LGBTQ and Pro -Palestinian activists – are faced with the same threat, the same source of aggression.
Our power lies in the united resistance. To overthrow the established order, we have to hold together.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
