“Where does the hate come from?”

“Where does the hate come from”

The quotation is from the movie “Mississippi burning” and it is also a question many of my generation in Germany asked their grand parents or parents. My generation which had to deal with the fact that many of the adults around us participated actively or passively in the nightmare called “German history”. Those adults who should be our teachers, role-models, teaching us their own history. “Never again” and nobody could or can answer the question: How?
How to stop the masses when they start following a “Führer”.
Also the Iraq war and the propaganda before it demonstrated, that it is not possible. The important question is how to resist or fight against a people running amok? My answer to this question: I don’t know. Propaganda is more convincing than truth. Mob mentality is more powerful than to say “No”.

“Imagine there is war and nobody joins” was our slogan when I was young. Yes imagine presidents without soldiers for their wars. Wishful thinking because people seem to have short memories.
Right-wing extremism is on the rise in entire Europe again, people believing again the lies of politicians and their propaganda with simple pseudo-solutions.

There are some or many white people saying that racism will become less with every generation and I wonder what they believe how much time they will have to “change their attitudes”. Whether they believe that racism is just a bad habit the victims can patiently sit out.

Germans already proved 70 years ago, that knowing people doesn’t prevent them from sending them to the gas chambers, when they themselves feel threatend. Jewish friends where betrayed. The American slavery system proved centuries ago, that knowing or living sometimes quite closely ‘together’ doesn’t prevent people from dehumanizing and killing other people.

So why are we still today praying that racism is built on ignorance or not knowing somebody else’s culture? Why do we believe the illusion that diversity training, multicultural events or anything like this will give us the most necessary tool necessary: To openly resist destructive forces.

And this is what concerns me most with all those self-proclaimed white “anti-racists” who censor their critics and start whining when the wind blows a little bit into their naive face – what will they do when the storm hits hard? Whose side are they on?

When will the masses of whites finally take anti-racism seriously? That there is no room for white paternalism and people who want to “help” PoC, that there is no room for confused egos who are looking for cookies and a thank you and don’t know the definition of ‘ally’ or justice and equality.
Anti-racism is for me also building a strong democracy with equal rights to all people with justice for all to create the necessary and powerful foundation against fascist propaganda and this would perhaps create presidents without soldiers for their wars, real ones or imagined ones towards the alleged “other”. Truly liberated people who are no longer afraid to think on their own and to openly say “No”.