T Here have been defining times in history-moments, epochs, and periods that are typically marked by notable events or particular characteristics that have changed the world forever.
Nicolaus Copernicus’ publication of On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres in 1543, postulating the model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at its center was such a moment.
The Industrial Revolution (1760 – 1840), was a defining period in the methods and processes of global capitalist production that transitioned most of the world away from hand production, towards more efficient and stable mechanical manufacturing.
In 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I, the Earth’s first artificial satellite, launching the “space race” that led to America landing the first humans on the moon in 1969.
These are just a few examples of moments in time that have changed people’s perceptions of the world as it was known. Humankind once again finds itself in the midst of one of those epochs.
Humankind is witnessing the fall of the Western empire. The shift is away from the unipolar world, financed by the US dollar and controlled by American military power projection and hegemony, to a new multipolar geo-political landscape.
This “new world order” will not be controlled by American interests. It will be managed by the cooperation of numerous countries, with a goal of establishing, “… a more just, balanced, and stable multipolar world order, firmly opposing all types of international confrontation.”
People naturally tend to think that a “fall” or collapse of this nature would be more immediate, dramatic, and easily recognized. On the contrary, empires tend to collapse over time. It’s analogous to going bankrupt.
In Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Mike Campbell, a bankrupt Scottish war veteran, was asked how he went bankrupt. Mike replied, “Two ways. Gradually and then suddenly.” When asked what brought his bankruptcy on, Mike replied, “Friends. I had a lot of friends. False friends. Then I had creditors, too.”
Just as Mike had “friends,” the US has allies. As Mike had “creditors,” the US is trying to finance multiple wars on multiple fronts.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s pronouncements that “… the U.S. can afford to support both Ukraine and Israel in their respective war efforts without hindering the nation’s economy,” reeks of overreach. Financial overreach and military overreach are among the contributing factors that have historically led to the fall of empires.
As empires begin their decline, messaging becomes very important. The narrative that’s created to control people’s perceptions of reality are key.
MSNBC told us, the “US is using intel to fight an info war with Russia, even when the intel isn’t rock solid.” Simply put, the government is lying to you in order to maintain some semblance of order.
It’s Plato’s “noble lie.” This is very important. These are the lies that need to be told so Americans will believe that more US taxpayer dollars need to be sent to Ukraine and Israel while American infrastructure disintegrates.
We’re told that the US needs to invade Haiti again, that sovereign African countries should be sanctioned for doing business with Russia, and a humanitarian pause in hostilities in Occupied Palestine is a bad idea and only benefits Hamas.
These distortions and lies are part of the narratives that directly impact the development of our perceptions. These manufactured realities then determine the policies put into place and actions taken. This becomes a vicious cycle as in the Easton model of systems analysis.
In telling the narrative, who tells it can be as important as what is being told. This is where the minstrel and “minstrel diplomacy” rears its ugly head.
In the 19th century in the United States, minstrels were bands of entertainers (or an individual), typically white who would blacken their faces with burnt cork referred to as “corking up.” They performed songs, dances, and formulaic comic routines based on stereotyped and demeaning depictions of African Americans. Sometimes, African American performers wore blackface when taking the stage in order to make their presentations more acceptable to White audiences.
What was once found to be an effective entertainment device, the minstrel show has now become a device to disseminate the dominant imperialist and racist, Western narrative of American foreign policy.
Since the phenotype of many of the victims of these policies are people of the darker hue; the disseminators of the narrative have decided to “cork up” the people being used to sell the story.
In a nutshell, using Black faces to explain and rationalize racism and white supremacy in order to make the audience more comfortable with and receptive to the message. These people are easy to find.
They are part of what the late Glen Ford called “The Black Misleadership Class” who have “been busy selling out Black people for half a century.” The late Amiri Baraka called them “functionaries of the US government.” They know their proper place, stay in it, and do their jobs well.
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We must be vigilant and aware of the Black faces that are being used by the failing empire to sell us on failed racist, white-supremacist, imperial, and neo-colonial militarism.
If we continue to allow these narratives to go unchallenged, Americans will continue to blindly support money laundering schemes disguised as military and humanitarian support bills for countries such as Ukraine, Israel, and Haiti. As Woodson stated, “When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions…”
The real goal is to pay stock dividends to investors in the military-industrial complex and bonuses to the CEOs of companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin with Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars. (Defense Secretary Austin sat on the board of Raytheon before heading the Pentagon.)
These are just some of the dangers of minstrel diplomacy. As the late Fred Hampton told us,
“it’s a class struggle… We know that in order to be able to talk about power, that what you’ve got to be able to talk about is the ability to control and define phenomena and make it act in a desired manner.”
Listening to the minstrels we continue to get confused. We continue to come up with, as Hampton said,
“answers that don’t answer, explanations that don’t explain and conclusions that don’t conclude.”