We Don’t Hate White People, We Hate The Oppressor
“Papa Doc in Haiti hated everything white… but he moved all the white people out and HE took over to be the oppressor… And if people had been educated, they would’ve said: ‘We don’t hate the white people; we hate the OPPRESSOR, whether he be white, black, brown, or yellow.’”
-Fred Hampton
In my experience, the main criticism I receive back on my politic is “you hate white people.” I often laugh this off as an ignorant statement, but in light of several conversations I have had with Black and Brown Indigenous folx who are not as versed in Black Radical theory, I felt this piece might serve a purpose. While I can admit that in my youth, in the midst of reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X I fell in love with the militance of Black Radicalism, it was the most logical position for me to take. I grew up with a father who had been drafted into the Vietnam War in 1968 and served at Khe Sanh during the Tet Offensive and came home to become involved in The Black Panther Party (BPP). I had no choice but to grow up with a soldier’s mentality and I do believe it is necessary to preface this argument before proceeding. My father knew intimately the violence amerikkka is capable of inflicting on human beings and it influenced his approach to violence. “Never start no fight but you better finish it” was the sentiment of our household, so naturally reading “We are never aggressors. We will not attack anyone. We strive for peaceful relationships with everyone. BUT — [we teach our people that] if anyone attacks you, lay down your life! ‘ Every Muslim is taught never to (initiate a] fight. Respect another man’s life rights whether he is white, black, brown, yellow or what-. — not! Respect him as a — man. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!” Never be the aggressor, never look for trouble. But if any man molests you, may Allah bless you!” resonated with me.
amerikkka and it’s white supremacist ideology has attacked me from birth. Severing family ties, teaching a curriculum full of lies to spread amerikkkanism, suspending me from school, the military occupation of my community, the violence of erasure, the stereotypes, the poverty, the court system that told me my child didn’t need me, the jobs I lost because of my Blackness, the violence of surveillance and police terror. amerikkka and white supremacy has been on the offensive in order to subjugate me into submission. amerikkka and amerikkkanism was built upon the graves of the slaughtered Indigenous and African people. I cannot simply stand by and accept these human rights violations and bend to the whim of amerikkka.
I truly believe we are in the midst of the war of good and evil; For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12). While understanding that I understand I am standing on the side of liberation and peace. By declaring my position as someone in this battle I am enlisting myself as a soldier; the man my father raised me to be. “I am raising you to be a soldier” followed by “but there’s no place for the Black man in the white man’s army” reinforced the idea that I would need to return to my true identity as an African. As a Christian and African I know I am in an army fighting the world that is corrupted by white supremacy and capitalism and so it is my duty to fight the oppressors. Now I want folx to realize that the goal of my politic is for every single human being on this earth to receive their human rights in order for them to be the people that God created them to be. To live their best life. So once you understand what my end goal is hopefully you can understand why I feel so strongly about why it is so necessary to abolish these oppressive regimes. I just want people to live in their full humanity and not suffer at the hands of those who choose to exploit them for their own gain.
As we look at those who exploit and oppress throughout history, it isn’t until recently under colonialism has there been this type of collective suffering of the human race. Most of the issues today find their roots in colonial oppression, “around the world today, intractable conflict is found in many areas that were once colonized or controlled by Western European or Soviet powers (i.e., Africa, the Balkans, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, South America). The source of many of these protracted conflicts, in large part, lies in past colonial or Soviet policies, and especially those regarding territorial boundaries, the treatment of indigenous populations, the privileging of some groups over others, the uneven distribution of wealth, local governmental infrastructures, and the formation of non-democratic or non-participatory governmental systems.” Colonialism and now Neo-colonialism is the ideological framework for the west and it has produced the current condition the people must suffer through. Never forget “Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism” which tells me that the oppressors I must fight are the colonizers and those who re-enforce their belief system: white supremacy.
I understand that there are Europeans born in amerikkka that believe that this is their country; evident by the display of discontent on January 6th 2021 where these folx chanted “this is our country.” How can this be ‘your country’ on stolen land? I want to acknowledge that these colonizers do know a thing or two about fighting for sovereignty and self-determination, however. Colonizers have organized around personal sovereignty from 1176, Shay’s Rebellion, the amerikkkan civil war, and even on a small scale January 6th. Colonizers want power for their people, and well quite frankly, I want the same power for my people. The ability to be a free people; free the land, free the people.
“Black people need some peace. White people need some peace. And we are going to have to fight. We’re going to have to struggle. We’re going to have to struggle relentlessly to bring about some peace, because the people that we’re asking for peace, they are a bunch of megalomaniac warmongers, and they don’t even understand what peace means. And we’ve got to fight them. We’ve got to struggle with them to make them understand what peace means.”
Chairman Fred Hampton
The oppressors have demonstrated they are as Fred put it “megalomaniac warmongers’’ and have built their empire on the backs of Africa and at the expense of African and Indigenous lives. Through understanding that this evil regime is at war with Africans and other Brown Indigneous Peoples globally, allows us to understand who the oppressors are. This understanding should allow us to distinguish between (1) hating the oppressors and (2) associating the disdain for amerikkka and what the empire is, with simply hating white people. But how can I not be weary of an enemy that has shown the indiscretion to bring violence to me and my people at the rumor of a whistle? Tell me how I can trust an empire that has demonstrated a lack of concern for enslaving teenagers for decades, left to suffer under inhumane conditions? Can you see the freedom and sovereignty that amerikkka proclaims is all a facade when we live in open-air prisons and where we are colonized under the name of amerikkkanism? How can I “reach across the aisle” knowing that those I am seeking to reason with are responsible for the murder of my people for hundreds of years? I would be a fool to allow my enemy to convince me to subscribe to their ideology, to consider myself amerikkkan, to believe in what amerikkka is supposed to represent. amerikkka has shown the world who it is from the very moment europeans decided they could discover a land that was already inhabited. No, I know exactly who I am and I know that amerikkka is at war with my very existence.
“All you have to do is ask yourselves, who controls the government? And who are the victims of that control?”.
Assata Shakur
I don’t hate white people, I hate the oppressor. I hate the way the oppressor disregards human life. I hate the way the oppressor steals away our land and language. I hate the way the oppressor centers freedom on themselves and not the whole of humanity. I hate that the oppressor calls us violent after waging a war of aggression on us for hundreds of years. I hate the way the oppressor tries to erase our humanity. I hate the way the oppressor tells us we need to wait for freedom. I hate how violent the oppressor is daily. I hate the way the oppressor has brainwashed the people to believe in their sick lies. I hate that the oppressors hate us because I love us, the people, so much. I love the people, with a radical undying love, and all I want is for us to be free; for every single one of us, to be free. I don’t hate white people, I hate the oppressor no matter who they are; from Jefferson to Kamala, Obama to Reagan; I love the people and it is my love for the people that drives my hatred of the oppressors. Free The Land, Free The People.
“Everything would be alright if everything was put back in the hands of the people.”
Chairman Fred Hampton
