The Lindsay/Osorio campaign stands in solidarity with the Sikh community in Oak Creek, Wisc., in the aftermath of the massacre at the local temple of six people by white supremacist Wade Michael Page.
Satwant Singh Kaleka, 65, president of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin,bravely fought back against the killer with a butter knife. He was killed but his actions allowed others to get to safety.
Racism and Islamophobia
Racism against Sikhs, who originate from India, has a long history in the United States. Sikhs immigrated to the United States in the late 19th century to get away from the oppression they experienced under British colonialism. Many ended up on the West Coast, working with other immigrants from Japan, Mexico and the Philippines in the fruit and lumber industries in California, Oregon and Washington.
Anti-immigrant racism took its toll as hate riots in Bellingham, Wash. (1907) and Live Oak, Calif. (1908) erupted against the Sikh community. The mob “stormed makeshift Indian residences, stoned Indian workers and successfully orchestrated the non-involvement of local police.” Sikhs were ethnically cleansed from Bellingham.
Islamophobia is a particular form of racism that provides the ideology behind the wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Obviously, Sikhs are not Muslims. But since Sept. 11, 2001, Sikhs have been the target of many racist attacks in which the victim was assumed to be Muslim.
In the hours immediately following the massacre, some mainstream media outlets ran stories on how to tell the difference between Muslims and Sikhs, as if it would have been acceptable for the gunman to kill six worshipers at a mosque! To underscore this point, just 24 hours after the Oak Creek massacre, a mosque in Joplin, Mo., was burned to the ground, the second such attack against the mosque in the past month.
Racist ideology for a racist war
Democratic and Republican politicians have rushed to condemn the shooting. President Barack Obama ordered flags flown at half-mast in mourning for the six lives lost. None of these politicians, however, will accept responsibility for their part in creating the climate of hate in which a racist like Page flourished.
According to Pete Simi, a researcher on white supremacists who interviewed Page on several occasions, Page was in the Army from 1992 to 1998. According to Simi:
“He once told me, ‘If you don’t go into the military as a racist, you definitely leave as one.’
“He also talked about meeting neo-Nazis in the military and being exposed to neo-Nazi literature while in the military.”
In media interviews, Page’s stepmother indicated that prior to joining the military, Page was “gentle” and had non-white friends. Laurie Page said she now questions his decision to join the military. “I don’t know if the military was good for him.”
While the politicians rush to condemn this atrocity, they fail to acknowledge that racism is part and parcel of the military’s effort to indoctrinate soldiers to fight imperialist wars. If soldiers believe that Muslims, Arabs and South Asians are less than human, it will be that much easier for them to kill those people who are fighting against the colonialist occupation of their lands. Neo-Nazis are officially frowned on by the brass, but in reality, the brass looks the other way as these hate groups attempt to organize among the rank-and-file soldiers.
Hate groups
According to a report released in March by the Southern Poverty Law Center, “At least 1,018 hate groups [operated] last year and … the number of groups whose ideology is organized against specific racial, religious, sexual or other characteristics has risen steadily since 2000, when 602 were identified.”
Racist and hate-filled groups grew after 2001 when white supremacist and xenophobic attitudes were bolstered by the hyper-patriotism produced as part of the ruling class’ s response to 9/11. Page was a member of at least one of these hate groups and was described by Mark Potok, who tracks hate groups for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama, as a “a neo-Nazi skinhead in the very thick of the white supremacist movement.”
This white supremacist movement was singled out in 2009 by the Department of Homeland Security as the U.S.’s single biggest domestic terrorist threat, but nothing has been done since then to eradicate this threat. In fact, shortly after that study was published, the Obama administration withdrew the DHS report, saying it was “unauthorized,” in an attempt to appease the racist ruling class forces who did not like the idea of labeling “Americans” as terrorists.
According to CNN, the FBI reported that “between January 1, 2007, and October 31, 2009, white supremacists were involved in 53 acts of violence, 40 of which were assaults directed primarily at African-Americans, seven of which were murders and the rest of which were threats, arson and intimidation.” (CNN, Aug. 7, 2012))
Police, security guards and racist self-appointed vigilantes like George Zimmerman have killed one Black person every 36 hours in the first six months of 2012 alone, according to a new report released by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation believes in organizing our class, the working class, into a movement that prioritizes the defense of our communities against racism and all forms of bigotry. Without a political movement focused on fighting tooth and nail against racism, we will continue to be under the gun barrel of the police and their racist vigilantes.
If a socialist government were in power, we would use all of the power of the state to dismantle every racist and bigoted organization across the U.S. Instead of government resources being used to wiretap, infiltrate and disrupt organizations of the poor and oppressed, a socialist government would use those resources to eradicate hate groups from society. In fact, with a socialist government promoting multi-national unity among people of different communities, taking actions to address the historic injustices visited upon oppressed nationalities here and abroad, and abolishing capitalist exploitation, the material basis for the perpetuation of racist ideology will be eradicated.
