Politics

How Many Slaves Did Your Ancestors Own?

Obsession with the past is not helping the Kamala Harris campaign

The racist and misogynistic slurs against the Kamala Harris campaign have already begun and is anybody really surprised? We have all these Sherlock Holmes online who are proving their investigative talents in revealing sordid details about a political candidate’s ancestors. Have these people nothing better to do?

What about their own ancestors? I bet there are quite a few skeletons in the cupboard there and in my own too. But I am not going to discredit a candidate merely for the fact that her forbears were slave owners, robbers, or even murderers.

Let’s look at my own murky background in Ireland. Oliver Cromwell invaded Ireland in 1649 to quell Irish rebels. The harsh Penal Laws against Catholics were passed and large tracts of Irish land belonging to rebels and army leaders were confiscated. This land was then given to English settlers other royalist sympathizers. My ancestors were in this group of land-grabbers. Truly nothing to be proud of.

“The tragedy of the English conquest of Ireland in the 17th century is that the Irish can never forget it and the English can never remember it.”- G.K.Chesterton

I cannot imagine being interviewed for a job or seeking election as a politician and being rejected because my ancestors committed war crimes or other disgusting behavior. This is ridiculous.

In the case of the Kamala Harris campaign, it is being used by her political opponents to discredit her. It is also clear that bots are being used to populate and pollute the discussion treads and groups on social media.

At least, we can laugh at the example provided by Sarah Cooper where she remarks that Russian bot comedy is best!

What is this obsession with the past?

Of course, we need to learn lessons from history. We can try and build a more equitable and tolerant society without obsessing about people’s color, background, religion, and other issues. These have often been hijacked by politicians for their own sordid purposes.

The Black Lives Matter protesters wasted time and money by destroying and toppling statues of historical figures who often gained power by exploiting racism and slavery. They even went as far back as Christopher Columbus.

It is right and just that we should learn lessons from our deeply divisive past. We should be concentrating on how to educate children about racism and perhaps be more objective about the actions of certain heroes such as Winston Churchill. We cannot erase our history by merely toppling statues.

We have to accept that the past was exploiting racial inequality. We have to move on and resolve to change society by working to reform policing and promote an anti-racial society. There are many ways we can do that.

There are excellent suggestions on the Anguish and Action site on how we can take action to change society rather than toppling the embarrassing symbols of our past.

Another birther conspiracy theory

As if the birther conspiracy theory about Barack Obama was not enough, the Kamala Harris one is now being aired by none other than the President of the USA. There is no doubt at all that Kamala Harris is perfectly eligible to stand for election as Vice –President as she was a natural-born citizen and has lived in the USA for at least 14 years. End of argument, you might think. But, you will see how this will be manipulated and misused in order to persuade voters not to elect her.

Misogyny may prevail

There will be attacks on Kamala Harris’s gender. Already President Trump has described her as “extraordinarily nasty.” Nasty is usually reserved for women who are capable and who have managed to overcome sexism in their professions.

Sadly, we cannot look forward to a debate where Kamala Harris’s achievements can be objectively and fairly assessed in determining if she should be elected as Vice President or not.

Why we must be on our guard

Unfortunately, America and many parts of the world are abusing social media to spread bigotry, hatred, and misinformation.

It is even more tragic when The President of one of the world’s most “democratic nations” has no qualms about attacking his opponents in this way. As a salutary reminder, the USA is not one of the top 19 fully democratic nations in the world according to The Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual Democratic Index.

Long way to go!

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