State repression on streets
of Honduras.
Racism and militarism go hand in hand. Where you find one, in Guatemala or the USA, you find the other. I was reminded of that fact today when one of companions in the SOA Watch delegation to Guatemala wrote an article for ‘counterpunch’ published online today called A Taxonomy of Racism from Alvarado to Zimmerman. He talks about a poster we saw in Casa de la Memorial, or House of Memory, a new museum in Guatemala City. On the poster there are 16 classifications of persons based on the race of the child, with light skin being the best and dark skin being on the bottom. I noticed on TV and advertising signs that attractive light skin woman with blond hair are featured.
Armed militia, be they national police or private security is everywhere, each equipped with an automatic rifle ready to shoot. Since the USA staged coup of a democratic Guatemala in 1954 the military has ruled. Guatemalan soldiers are sent to the School of Americas at Fort Benning, GA to learn how to kill and torture more effectively and return home to practice their skills.
In the USA racism and militarism are more subtle but just as deadly. The USA spends more on military spending than the other top ten nations in the world. No one comes close. In a recent budget for discretionary spending 57% of US spending was for the military. If you look at the M.A.P.S., Maps of Segregation, Poverty, Criminalization it is clear that African Americans are regulated to the poorest area of Milwaukee, the most criminalized with high unemployment, lack of transportation and poor schools. People in the USA do not like to call it ‘racism’, or even worst institutional racism but it is. If you talk sincerely and honestly to African American staff, faculty and students at Marquette University you will hear stories of racism. If you talk to white students at Marquette you will hear how racially diverse the campus is. Marquette is also the only university or college in the six county area to host three departments of military training, Army, Navy/Marines and Air Force, teaching war, violence and killing.
The common premise of racism and militarism seems to be that the other person is less a human that we are. To easily kill the enemy or to discriminate against another we need to consider them less a human being than we are. At the bottom of the poster in the museum in Guatemala it says “Todos somos gente” – we are all people. In our Declaration of Independence it says “all men are created equal.” These statements are true but in practice leaders in Guatemala and the USA say we are all people, but some of us are exceptional and that some of us are more equal than others.
Racism and Militarization, hand and hand, are two big sins of our culture and that of Guatemala that breed inequality, death and destruction. “When will we ever learn?”
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