IMPERIALISM: How Did We Get Here?

On August 7, 2020, from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm, I will discuss the ISMS, which is the intersectionality of the American construct. The purpose of my Zoom discussion is to enhance understanding of THE why there is a global "Black Lives Matters". My questions are 1. Have we considered global imperialism as a component of global Black Lives Matters solidarity? 2. Why wouldn't current US self-isolationist policies be challenged when such acts of oppression are global practices? 3. What conversations surrounded imperialism within the global symbolism of "Black Lives Matters" are taking place? Imperialism is being discussed within such discussions without having to call out the term imperialism. This is why #BLM has taken on a global conscious approach.

"I'm old, poor, and a black woman. What can you take away from me?"

The purpose of these essays, prior to my Zoom discussion, is to increase understanding of how we got here. My derogatory statement is just that. I am a woman of great pride that will uphold my ancestry dignity to the end of my last breath. However, this is how it feels to be an American of enslaved ancestry in the United States of America. "I'm old, I'm poor, and I am a black woman. What can you take away from me?" What does that mean?

Zora Neal Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), is the meaning of my statement. The character Nanny was educating Janie of her presence in the world as she states: "Honey, de white man is de ruler of everything as fur as Ah been able tuh find out. Maybe it's some place way off in de ocean where de black man is in power, but we don't know nothin' but what we see…De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see" [1].

Nanny's astute observation of the black female body identifies the intersectionality of imperialism, and colonialism within racism. The mule is considered a beast of burden as well as asexual, yet produces labor based on its gender. The mule is neither here nor there but is in a state of perpetual being. Think about it, have you ever had a conversation of the beauty of a mule? Do you consider your relationship with a mule? Exactly! There is no thought surrounding this beast of burden which is a symbol of imperialism.

The #Sayhername movement within Black Lives Matters is to appoint a location of that intersectionality. It is an imperialistic response to EMT Breanna Taylor and SPC Vanessa Guillen killings within the timeline of George Floyd's murder. Their deaths are the intersect of the ISMS' on how historic practices dispel the existence of the black body and demolish the existence of the black female.

Imperialism and The White Man's Burden Theory

The objective of imperialism is to control economic, exploratory, ethnocentric, political, and religious aspects of people of color. It is designed to project a divine obligation based on white privilege and white nationalism. Its organization practices originated during Europe's global colonization movement (1648-1919) and were defined with the publication of The White Man's Burden: The United States and the Philippine Islands, by Rudyard Kipling (1899).

Kipling's poem exhorted the Philippine–American War's US position in controlling the Phillipians. It also justified its homeland exploitation of black and brown bodies because of existing systemic racist ideologies. From its slavocratic systematic conversion to the American apartheid, it provided justification to extend racist practices to intersect within American policies. Imperialism endorsed racism to assure that one could never be Americanized based on the binary oppositioning of whiteness [2].

Kipling's imperialistic viewpoint enhanced prior justification of the Spanish-American War (April to December 1898) that allowed the US to become a major player in the advancement of imperialism. While America rallied around "Remember the Maine," less was known that corporate enterprises advanced, not only this war but also the Philippine-America War. The enhancement of American imperialistic ideologies of white rule placed the US in an international setting with Europe's imperialistic deconstruction of nations.

This adds another dimension to imperialism, which is:a policy or ideology of extending the rule or authority of a country over other countries and peoples, often by military force or by gaining political and economic control [3].

"Free your mind..." [4]

One of my favorite groups is Funkadelic. George Clinton was waaaaay before his time. The Funkadelic's lp, "Free Your Mind...and Your A- - Will Follow" suggests the impact of imperialism's role upon globalization and how one might suspend from such acts through sociocultural awareness. So what has that to do with imperialism? So we must consider that although we may not be able to "Dismantle the master's house using the master's tools, [5], there can be a sense of creativity to enhance the redesign of the house. But we cannot continue to live in a house that doesn't work collectively to redesign its structuralist formations (racism) or have a desire to rebuild (postcolonialism). Therefore, a divided house will not stand [6].

[1]     Lieberman, Charlotte. "Their Eyes Were Watching God Symbols: Mule." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 17 Sep 2013. Web. 4 Jul 2020.

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism, https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5478/, accessed 6 Jul 2020.

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism, accessed 6 Jul 2020.

[4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Your_Mind..._and_Your_Ass_Will_Follow, accessed 6 Jul 2020.

[5] Audre Lorde. https://www.activistgraduateschool.org/on-the-masters-tools, accessed 6 Jul 2020.

[6] Abraham Lincoln. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%27s_House_Divided_Speech, accessed 6 Jul 2020.