The categories had little to do with biology and much to do with social and political control. Racial categories as we use them are arbitrary, not determined by any biological necessity. But maintaining the separation between the colonizers and the colonized - "we are not like them" - seems to be essential to maintaining an empire. Hierarchy, patriarchy, racism, and greed have been the cornerstones of empire, and military force or threat has been empire ' s cement. Criminalization has also been an effective way of separating people, reinforcing racial divisions. Thus, people of color are much more likely to be treated as criminals, and immigrants of color are branded as " illegals. "

 

The United States is a country of immigrants, and it has a love-hate relationship with immigrants. Juan Gonzalez (sometime co-host of Democracy Now) produced a film called Harvest of Empire, in which he showed how much of the immigration from Central America and the Caribbean to the United States over many years consists of people leaving these U.S. " colonies " to find survival or a better life in the U.S. When they arrive, " Illegal alien " is a term of criminalization that awaits them.

But asylum seekers are not illegal, neither in a moral nor in a legal sense. They do present us with uncomfortable questions about our national identity and its values, and whether those value are operational and extend to other humans.

 

Running an empire demands militarization of society, both of the colonizer and the colonized. One has a way of seeping into the other. In the U.S. we are arming local and state law enf orcement and our Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency with decommission ed military weapons, and with grants from Homeland Secu rity to buy more weapons and military equipment.  (Oregon counties and cities are recipients.) Our  domestic law enforcement is increasingly militarized but is perceived as less able to prom ote the security of all our people, and even as increasingly threatening. That a large percentage of our prisons are run by private for-profit corporations that are paid by our federal government according to the number of humans they can keep incarcerated tells us that our tax dollars are funding what amounts to slavery.  

 

Empires must control people, both their own citizens and others, especially their bodies . This is accomplished through overt and covert racial codes, patriarchy, criminalizing gender and sexual orientation and especially the creation of enemies and threats that must be contained and confined, including the threat of popular social protest. What empires do to others they will inevitably also do to their own citizens. We see it in our racial, gender, and police violence, poor and marginalized neighborhoods, Indian reservations, homeless camps, prisons, detention centers, despair-fueled addiction epidemics, and more. Criminalizing others is what empire demands, but not what we need if we are all to survive and thrive.

 

 

We cannot afford to pursue actions or policies that play into or further divisions in our society. Criticism of violated human rights and opposition to injustice are essential, but they are not meant as weapons of division. Quite the opposite, as MLK, Gandhi - who had a lot of experience dealing with an empire - and so many others have taught. I think criticism of violated rights and opposition to injustice are also not meant to be used as statements of moral superiority, or ways to assuage personal or social guilt. Enemies are what empires want us to create. But this avoidance of making enemies requires a lot of creativity and some risk, and so it is hard but necessary.

Kicking the imperial addiction is hard because it is so much a part of our society, our consumerism, and our ways of thinking. Imperial reach disguises itself as valid and good causes, especially the idea that American values and leadership are necessary for world peace and order.  

 

T he United States has approximately 800 formal military bases in 80 countries, a number that could exceed 1,000 if you count troops stationed at embassies and missions and so-called "lily-pond" bases, with some 138,000 soldiers stationed around the globe

 

This may be a noble sentiment, but leadership is proven by example, not by military might and economic coercion. If our own country, our region, and our local communities actually exemplified in fact what we preach abroad, we might be believable.

 

Some people have long been aware of how running an empire affects us and distorts our social institutions and our values.

Now, recent massive protests against racism, patriarchy, police violence, and more have begun to lay bare these effects to more of us, and have provided another opportune moment for changing our ways of thinking and acting. COVID19 is also part of this new situation. The new normal should not be like the old normal.