Tuesday, December 10, 2013

For Republicans, a Homeless 11-Year-Old Black Girl Named Dasani is a "Useless Eater" Who Should Just Die


Al Sharpton did some great work on Monday's PoliticsNation where he further exposed the politics of cruelty that have possessed the Republican Party.

Republicans want to cut food stamps, believe that kicking people off of unemployment insurance who cannot find a job in an economy where there are 3 people for every available position, and that a particularly evil and twisted version of "Christian faith" justifies punishing and hurting poor people as righteous deeds and acts that mark conservatives as "the elect" who are destined for heaven.

I am not a "Christian". But my understanding of the "historical" Jesus was that he was a man who died fighting State tyranny and would do anything to help the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable. The Tea Party GOP's bastardization of Jesus Christ remakes him into a figure who puts his foot on the throats of the hungry, weak, the vulnerable, and the needy, in order to motivate them into self-sufficiency--or alternatively die from a lack of breath.

For the Tea Party GOP, either outcome is acceptable.

The panoply of Right-wing hypocrites that Al Sharpton calls out, what is a rogues gallery of the cruel and the heartless, are wealthy people who have not taken to heart basic principles such as how noblesse oblige may actually create the social stability necessary to protect the rich while advancing their long-term interests.

I wrote about how the Tea Party GOP wants to kill the "useless eaters" here on We Are Respectable Negroes. I was also fortunate to do an interview on Right of Fire Radio where I explained my argument in more detail.

During that conversation, I made a special effort to "connect the dots" between how the Republican Party's hostility to the poor and working classes is fueled by white racism and an explicit appeal to Eliminationism, i.e that some citizens are worthy of life and others are to be purged and eliminated from the body politic.

[During our annual fundraisers when I talk about how we are doing good work here on We Are Respectable Negroes, and are ahead of the curve on many pressing issues of public concern, Al Sharpton's (and others') echoing of our narratives is just one more example to cite. We are doing something special here on WARN which it matters on a larger scale.]

During his TV segment, Al Sharpton mentioned this heartwrenching piece about a homeless 11-year-old child in New York by the name of Dasani. Her tale of struggle and endurance is both tragic and inspiring. Dasani is a little soldier; Dasani should not have to play such a role in what is ostensibly the world's "richest" country.

America is rotting from within while the very rich smile and gloat. The 1 percent can buy their kids tree houses that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Dasani has to struggle to maintain her dignity while living in the shadow of squalor.

There are no children in Dasani's world. The super rich enjoy an extended childhood and adolescence, one that for many never ends because wealth is ultimately an insulation from the consequences of your choices: thus are the fruits of money and privilege.

The NY Times' story about Dasani and her family is socially responsible and important journalism. The fourth estate should and must do this type of work if it is rehabilitate itself as the watchdog of American democracy. Al Sharpton is to be commended for daring to get close to the truth of how the Republican Party views the working class and the poor as leeches, bums, social parasites, and whose children should be in workhouses or cleaning their schools as janitors.

Yet, The NY Times and Al Sharpton are teasing a harsh reality. Unfortunately, neither are able to state that plain fact for fear of reprisal by the Right-wing noise machine and the corporations which control the American news media. I have no such restrictions.

The Republican Party wants to see 11-year-old children like Dasani and her family die. As viewed by the White Right, they are "untermensch". The language which Republicans and their media use to describe poor, working class, and unemployed people--in particular those who are black and brown--leads to no other reasonable conclusion.

Leeches and parasites are to be destroyed; this is pest control; human leeches and parasites are to be eliminated with even greater expediency.

Little black girls like Dasani are subjected to a social phenomena known as "adultification".

Here, they are not allowed the innocence of childhood or to be vulnerable and in need of help and assistance by majority white society. The White Gaze, especially from the Right, has historically seen black folks as children for the purposes of civic inclusion and democracy (see the GOP's obsession with suggesting that African-Americans are civic children, veritable slaves, on a "Democratic plantation" without agency, as an example). In parallel, black children are seen as adults who can be imprisoned, executed, harassed by police, punished, profiled, expelled, and not allowed their innocence by a criminal justice system or educational system that deems them not allowed the white privilege of youthful error, insecurity, or nurturing.

Moreover, race, class, and gender are inexorably linked in the racial logic and rhetoric of Right-wing (and American) politics. Black women are "welfare queens". Black men, borrowing from Reagan's language, are "strapping young bucks" who use welfare to buy steaks. Because claims about poverty are also claims on morality in American society where the poor "deserve" their fate and have made "bad choices", the myth and cult of meritocracy combines with a centuries-long legacy of white supremacy to further mark and stigmatize children like brave Dasani.

If Sharpton, and The NY Times, were able and willing to offer up the basic and fundamental truth about how Republican rhetoric about poverty and people of color is not "innocent" political gamesmanship or mere bombast, but rather how the Tea Party GOP actually feels about the "useless eaters", they would simply say the following: the American Right-wing wants to see little innocent black girls like Dasani die...or at the very least conveniently disappear.

They are "surplus" people to be eliminated. Why? For conservatives, and those other who adhere to an Ayn Randian culture of cruelty that is intermixed with a a worldview and ideology in which conservatism and racism are one in the same, the sins of the mother and father are passed down to the child. As such, stalwart and strong little girls like Dasani are tainted with "bad culture"--and perhaps even bad genes.

As understood by contemporary Republicans, why should the United States' social safety net support and protect the poor and working classes when American elites can choose to instead enrich the 1 percent, while also continuing to support Wall Street and the Corporateocracy, those who are the "makers" and not the "takers?"

12 comments:

Learning is Eternal said...

How can people (elephants) exercise elimination of human beings while preaching eternal life for all via the bible?

The two "R's" republicans & religion have killed more people than the (alleged) war on drugs & terror.

For those of us who have a basic description of Jesus, and we all do, because it is required (brainwashing) indoctrination into amurr'kkkan society. He was not (just using context clues here) a guy in Tom Ford driving an Aston Martin into seclusion of gated confines.

Why do they continue to paint him as one of them?
Why do so many look @ 'that painting' & consider it art?

Anyone who would advocate taking the life of Desani or any child is the one not worthy of life.

Bryan Ortez said...

"The sins of the mother and father are passed down to the child. As such, stalwart and strong little girls like Dasani are tainted with "bad culture"--and perhaps even bad genes."

I've been trying to tell that to conservatives for so long. Dasani should have never existed to them. Their parents should never have had a child in the first place if they can't take care of them. It is immoral.

That's their opinion. I say, okay, but that doesn't make their child go away, their children don't just disappear.

"Culture of dependency, it's the liberals fault." Okay, that barely makes sense, still the poor do not just disappear.

KissedByTheSun said...

Am I incorrect in thinking that racism/white supremacy has always been an excuse to justify why one group of people can oppress another group of people for profit? From what I'm learning it seems to me that money and who deserves to have money is the real issue. Racism/white supremacy is more like a means to an end, the end being the collection of most if not all of the earths vital resources. I could be wrong, but those who profit the most from racism/white supremacy don't really believe in the inherent superiority/inferiority of the races. They only need others, both blacks and whites, to believe this so they can exploit the weak unopposed.

wawoo said...

There is now extensive documentation that deprivation of all kinds does reach across generations.Conservatives belief that one makes ones own fate is not true at all. I get dismayed whenever the conservatives say the various anti poverty programs have not worked because there is still poverty. The reality is abject poverty would be at least twice as prevalent as it is without the various government programs. And then the absurdity of not supporting a living wage for all workers as the baseline.

wawoo said...

And an addendum, albeit invking Godwin's Law. Ayn Rand and Nazi social and economic policy have very little difference with the main one the Nazi's were explicit about the disposition of parasites.

No Justice said...

'Indisciplined fecundity...' You so basic.

chauncey devega said...

I didn't know that. we have some friends of the site who are experts on that period. I am sure they will offer some clarity on the intellectual well-springs on the eliminationist mess the Right-wing is playing with in the U.S. as we speak.

chauncey devega said...

Islands on to themselves. Self-interest, if one wants to be part of society would encourage a strong social safety net. If one has no need for others and can isolate themselves then stealing wealth and resources from the public is the answer.

chauncey devega said...

I think that depends on the era. During the height of colonialism and imperialism european and american social elites absolutely believed in white supremacy, biological distinctions between the races, etc. Now? this is a global multiracial elite class practicing these austerity policies. In the U.S., white supremacy is a means to that end.

chauncey devega said...

Mighty pithy. Dasani should not have existed in the eyes of the neoliberal white right.

ChuckieJesus said...

People have problems with the is/ought thing. Especially people who believe in a Just World. And Meritocracy.

"People who work hard *should* reap the benefits," turns quickly into "People who work hard *do* reap the benefits." Those who don't? Well, they must have not been working that hard.

You'll find this is/ought shit happening a lot when it comes to the sticky wicket known as an impoverished childhood.

Hence also the barely concealed "unterfolk" shit.

atalex said...

What I found most astounding about the GOP death cult is that even as they try to make the lives of the poor as agonizing as possible, they also work to create even more poor people to suffer, by undermining every form of family planning and by sabotaging every effort to get the economy working again.