Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Islamophobia FTL

One of the strange dynamics during the election was the support of Trump by Indian nationalists in India as well as in the US.  Between the pathetic reaction to the shootings of Indian-Americans in Kansas and the possible restrictions against Indian students who get their degrees in the US (kiss H1B visas goodbye) as well as Indians who are in the US illegally, there is a growing realization that Trump might be bad for this community.  You think?

Well, the one thing this election has accomplished is to make us understand better intersectionality: that people have multiple identities and may find themselves choosing among candidates/parties/whatever with conflicting imperatives.  So, some Indian Americans may have favored Trump because they shared a common foe--Islam and Muslims--despite the fact that Trump was clearly a racist, and that the brown skin of Indians might just be a problem down the road.  Likewise, and one of the key reasons I got the election wrong, more than a few white women ignored Trump's misogyny because they liked his racism.  Some Hispanic men may have voted for Trump because of his misogyny despite his racism.  Some Jews voted for Trump despite his anti-semitic pals (Bannon, etc), hoping that Kushner would somehow moderate Trump as they were desperate for a pro-Israel position. 

I didn't quite anticipate this, but I was worried about it and posted about the problems of allying with an awful, awful person/party which had played upon hate, with this graphic:
As I learned in Romania from the Greater Romania Party, extreme nationalists have lists of "others" and work up and down their lists, depending on what works and what is convenient. Hoping that Trump and Bannon would not develop policies against one's group because of a shared animus towards another group was, alas, stupid and self-destructive, unless one is a white male Christian. 

So, yeah, Indian Americans are screwed, so they can join the club.  Not sure the early members, Muslim Americans and Mexican Americans will be all that thrilled, but perhaps the realities of Trump's policies and the violence they inspire (note the Muslims and Jews helping each other deal with the various crimes committed against them) will mean a more united front in 2018 and 2020, perhaps enough to overcome #voterfraudfraud

All I know is that those who don't like Muslims and who bet on Islamophobia are now having to face the reality that hate is toxic.

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