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By this I mean the racism expressed by some members of the British ethnic identity toward those they define as ‘not truly of their kind’. The Anglo identity has colonised dominions including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, parts of southern Africa, and smaller territories here and there. So, when asking, Is Anglo racism the worst kind? I am including these nations and places in the examination of the evidence. The argument against this questionable assertion is that every ethnic identity displays at times in part what we now call racism toward those people it so defines as ‘other’ or ‘not like themselves’.
British Ethnicity Identity Racism Lashing Out
Britain has been rocked by civil unrest, featuring violent protests and attacks by racist elements within its population, in recent days. Hundreds of these protesters have been arrested by police for their law breaking. These mainly young men damaged property and attacked mosques and refugee centres. Their violent assault upon the streets and those targeted was provoked by the heinous mass stabbing of young girls by a British born subject of African ethnicity. Social media falsely named the perpetrator as a refugee and Moslem. Thus, the anti-refugee and anti-immigration feelings of this section of the British population were agitated and activated. Far right groups and individuals were involved in spreading this misinformation on social media to enrage this cohort to violent action.
Anglo-Saxons, Normans & Vikings
Historically, we have called this British identity Anglo-Saxon. The Angles and Saxons were Germanic tribes who came to England in the first millennium CE and settled there. Therefore, in actual fact the British identity is really German on this racial basis. The later invasion by the Normans in 1066 was by a Norse/French admix, who again can be categorised as largely Germanic. The Vikings who ruled in the north of Britain and Ireland for substantial periods in the second millennium CE were another Norse Germanic people. Is the enduring racism of Anglo’s really a Germanic trait?
The White Race & Slavery
Is Anglo racism the worst kind? Racism is a nasty thing, which has been responsible for the full spectrum of bad behaviour from hurtful comments to genocide. Slavery in its more recent chattel form was predicated on the skin colour and African race of its victims. This appalling manifestation of racism commercially exploited a whole race of people for the benefit of the white race. This ‘white race’ was invented in the 17C, as a social construct.
“The concept of “race,” as we understand it today, evolved alongside the formation of the United States and was deeply connected with the evolution of two other terms, “white” and “slave.” The words “race,” “white,” and “slave” were all used by Europeans in the 1500s, and they brought these words with them to North America.
During the 17th century, European Enlightenment philosophers’ based their ideas on the importance of secular reasoning, rationality, and scientific study, as opposed to faith-based religious understandings of the world. Philosophers and naturalists were categorizing the world anew and extending such thinking to the people of the world. These new beliefs, which evolved starting in the late 17th century and flourished through the late 18th century, argued that there were natural laws that governed the world and human beings. Over centuries, the false notion that “white” people were inherently smarter, more capable, and more human than nonwhite people became accepted worldwide.”
Racism in the former British colonies, which became the United States of America, remains a real problem. This shadow upon a nation divided by slavery for centuries until its bloody Civil War in 1861 endures to this day. Segregated neighbourhoods and schools still exist widely across the US, continuing the gulf in understanding and equality between black and white America. African Americans have been enslaved, murdered, mob lynched, denied equal status, derided and economically neglected for much of their time in the land of the free. They are not alone in this, as Native Americans the Indigenous population of North America prior to the coming of the British and European settlement of this land, have also suffered in large degree similar fates. Still today, white folk are complaining loudest among the Trump cult and within his politics of grievance. These people who have stood on the backs of generations of coloured folk are complaining about their lot in record numbers. It seems no matter the advantages presented by history some folk are never happy and feel entitled to demand more. The United States has never been invaded militarily and has long stood atop the world rankings as an economic and military superpower.
The Greed Of The White Race
The great majority of bad shit that has ever happened in the US has been of their own making. Indeed, the extreme greed of some, the billionaires and corporations, feeds on the suffering of their fellow and sister Americans all too often. Pharmaceutical companies charge wildly overpriced rates for their life saving medications, whilst the same drugs are available cheaply in Canada and other places. Private health insurance companies make getting medical help in the US massively expensive. Private equity owned hospitals screw every last dollar out of desperate Americans. More people in the US declare bankruptcy because they cannot pay their outrageous medical bills than for any other single reason. Americans screwing other Americans is par for the course; however, I digress.
Racism Downunder
Racism, the racism of the white race against those it deems non-white is alive and well in Australia. Here in the land they call downunder, we have a small minority of young men marching as Nazis in the streets of Melbourne, hiding their faces beneath black masks but proudly proclaiming their messages of hate and white power. Blaming all the woes of the world on too much immigration from the wrong sort of people is a popular trope downunder. Anglos in Oz want to turn the clock back to a time before the multicultural success story of the late 20C. We used to have a government policy called the White Australia policy from 1901 to 1958.
“At the end of the 19th century, Australian colonies had concerns about who was migrating to Australia. With a rise in the number of migrants from China and the Pacific, many colonies passed tough immigration legislation. The Immigration Restriction Act was one of the first Commonwealth laws passed after Federation. It was based on the existing laws of the colonies.
The aim of the law was to limit non-white (particularly Asian) immigration to Australia, to help keep Australia ‘British’.”
Of course, new world places like Australia and the US have always depended upon immigration to people their countries and enrich their societies. Australia has had for much of its existence a desperate need for overseas investment, which is why we make it so easy for international folk to purchase property here. Indeed, our lawyers, accountants and real estate agents love to profit from despots and criminals buying up expensive property around the place. We have some of the laxest money laundering laws in the world. However, encouraging ordinary folk to blame their economic struggles on immigrants has been a familiar populist political ploy for eons. Hitler did it. Mussolini did it. Trump is doing it now. People who look different to Anglos, like the Chinese and Arab folk, are particularly popular targets for those on the far right. Dumb denizens of nations are often frightened by what they don’t understand. The fact that they are too lazy and insular to reach out the hand of friendship is their own failing.
Populists like to band these anxious people together under the banner of hate. Peter Dutton in Australia. Trump in America. Elon Musk. Rupert Murdoch. There are individuals who profit from spreading hate and fear among populations of white voters and consumers.
Racism & The Backlash Against Woke
The anti-woke backlash is a conservative campaign to fight against political correctness. News Corp proudly spreads this incessantly on its Fox News and Sky News Australia platforms. What is political correctness and what is woke? At their core these progressive impositions seek to modify language in its official capacity, which is racially offensive and exclusionary. And which may be projecting gender and sexual preference bias and excluding those members of minorities who also make up the populations of our communities. It seeks to give all of us the appearance of a seat at the big table where decisions are made. White supremacists loath woke and political correctness because they don’t want these minority groups to get equal respect. Let us not mess about the bush when calling a spade a spade. The anti-woke movement is at its roots a profoundly racist, sexist, and mob power force. White men want to go on making derogatory jokes about women, refugees, foreigners, gays, and anyone else they feel inclined to besmirch. These proudly ordinary folk want to maintain their white cultural assumptions atop all levels of power within their communities, states and nations. Basically, they don’t want to share.
They do not want to share power, because fundamentally this comes down to power and who has it.
Power & Race
Is Anglo racism the worst kind? Is it the worst kind, in large part because English is the language of global commerce and world power? The white race, the Anglified pure white race, sees itself as the superior stock on the planet. There remains a smug belief among those who consider themselves in the first rank of this Anglo-Saxon cohort that they are the bee’s knees. Many of them private school educated at the best institutions their cultures and countries can offer. This boy’s club dominates the top level of industries, professions, institutions, and corporations globally in the Western world. Political classes count them as leaders in many instances. These men have been trained and groomed to assume the mantles of power from a young age. Traditionally, they would go into the military and join the officer class to strive for glory and recognition as leaders. This dates back to the Roman aristocracy and has filtered down through British and European kingdoms and principalities. Still today, in the United States in particular, we see generals and the upper gentry seeking high political office within administrations. Racism in the military has been persistently prevalent over centuries, as the fact that it is all about power there is rarely hidden or disguised within the armed forces. Brute force and strategic training has morphed into technologically better armaments and push button warfare.
WASP Power & White Supremacy
In the 21C, Anglo racism is often denied by those in positions of power and influence. With the fading of blatant apartheid in countries like America and Australia these leaders frequently point to this as proof that racism no longer exists. Peter Dutton tells us so. However, if you speak with or listen to people of colour striving for the important jobs in the halls of power you get a different sense. They talk about their exclusion from advancement over many years of faithful service. These individuals share their feelings of being slighted and excluded again and again. Institutions of renown, where doctors and surgeons are trained retain white men almost exclusively at their seats of power. The WASP – White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant – men rule within these domains in an unbroken line over decades and centuries in some instances. The top levels of government bureaucracy, lawyers in chambers, and many other old world realms of power, including our parliaments at the highest office are rich in white supremacy. Our police forces have been invariably led by white men until very recently. This stuff does not change overnight via a few token female faces at the top, it will take decades and generations to lift the unspoken assumptions which define power in our nations.
Trump’s Appeal & Project 2025
Many around the world find it hard to comprehend the appeal of Donald J Trump to the American electorate. This blowhard, old white guy, who so obviously lies all the time has developed a cult following around him. Why is this so attractive to large sections of the American population? Yes, he was a reality TV star for some 12 seasons on The Apprentice. Do Americans really struggle to discern fact from fiction to this extent? Apparently so. Trump is blatantly racist and feeds their grievances with promises of retribution. On this basis they see him as more honest than regular politicians and their guy – their champion. I see the archetypal husband and dad in Trump. Husbands and dads lie all the time in their bid to have answers for everything their wives and kids ask them. Perhaps, some folks are forgiving and understanding of this Trump predilection on this basis. However, it is the more serious white supremacists and Christian Nationalists behind Trump that are the real danger. Project 2025 is 922 pages of fascist plans to take over most aspects of American life. The stuff announced within this document in detail is frightening for all those who do not fit into the tight appraisal of the right kind of Americans. If you are not a Christian, white, flag waving, traditional nuclear family with mum, dad, and kids you are going to be in for a bumpy ride if this is instigated following a Trump victory. Racism will be re-instituted as official policy in the United States. Government will be in your bedroom policing what goes on. If you are Latino, African American, Native American, or just plain different you better know your place.
It is hard to fathom how democracy and the best intentions of The Enlightenment can be so under threat from this power grab from folk who don’t want to share. I am reminded of the little kid not wanting to let other kids play with his toys. The sense of white entitlement is extraordinary in its gall.
Yes, other ethnic identities when in the position of being the dominant cohort also show expressions of racism to their minorities. Arabs within the Islamic imperial territories considered themselves superior and the true representatives of Islam over Asians, Africans, and other ethnic identities. The Chinese have similar hierarchical beliefs and attitudes over other Asian peoples like Filipinos. Slavs feel superior to non-Slavs. Tutsis over Hutus. Russians over Ukrainians, Chechens, and the Sakha. This racism goes on everywhere and it is always about power when you boil it down. Racism is at its core all about power over others. It is the belief and justification of the entitlement to a better life by one group over another. There is no real truth or objective justification for it – it is run up the flag pole to give credence to unfair, often greedy, and sometimes violent behaviour. It is at its very heart diametrically opposed to the aims of humanism and its mission to provide a good life for all.
There is no excuse for racism and the hurt and destruction it renders upon often vulnerable individuals and minority groups.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
©MidasWord
