Other than my blog, there are several people predicting the end of the United States empire, from the tech collapse based on circular financing to the real estate inflation taking place on an international scale. The FIFA World Cup experience for a variety of team members and officials has been a mirror for the world to see how horrible it is for people without money and privilege. Additionally, people see a political class that cares nothing about its constituents, which actually is representative of the constituents who care nothing for people facing injustice due to an obsession with comfort. My question is this: other than societal ramifications which make inequality a way of life, what is the purpose of empire, and what is it worth to preserve such an institution?
My feelings about Juneteenth are complicated because I knew someone from Galveston who had worked with communities who struggled to make that a reality for over a century. As a Black woman from Texas who has assisted with multiple Juneteenth celebrations, I was a part of the recognition of how important this history was. However, timing matters, and Joe Biden did whatever he could to squeeze credibility out of proximity to Blackness, including making Juneteenth a holiday. The designation came after international protests about Black injustice, and the Biden administration did very little–just like every other presidential administration–to protect Black people from the dominant narrative. Legitimizing a segregationist and using Black people to do it feels gross to me, just as my feelings about the significance of the day have not changed.
Such is the behavior of empire, which discriminates and excludes until it has a reason to behave differently, at which time it simply changes the labels. Did anything of substance happen because of the federal designation, other than a day off for certain kinds of jobs? I did a piece on Juneteenth in the Austin area, and people were horrible to Black people who took that day off, even when we worked vigorously to make sure that we had everything in place to return “back to normal” the next day. In short, the day created more work for everyone else while making sure the elites go to relax, even though the day was set up for marginalized people memorializing freedom. That is empire in a nutshell: the appearance of something that looks good that substantively changes very little.
Without getting defensive, consider what “good” has happened because of the existence of the United States. Now, take the United States out of that context, and think about whether those things could have happened without gross extraction of people’s humanity. Is it impossible to think that gatekeepers’ existence actually slow and reverses progress, rather than accelerating it? Is it blasphemy to think that individuals could gather and collaborate without others pulling strings and pushing narratives to extract wealth? How has the United States done anything other than manipulate others while protecting the elites and glamorizing discrimination? Maybe a place like that means nothing but pain as long as it continues to exist without consequence.
Chasing A Dying Empire 