If White Supremacists Secede, Will POC sFollow?

By ROBERTO Dr. CINTLI Cintli Rodriguez

PROGRESSIVE POPULIST NOV. 1 ISSUE

If the current White House occupant were to lose the presidential election and refuses to step down, would his cult followers respond with a violent uprising? At minimum, we know they are on “standby.”

Akin to the breakup of the Soviet Union, could this also spell the “end of America?”

Some observers have speculated that his white supremacist followers have, in effect, already seceded from the nation (What could upset this political apple cart even further is if he were to succumb to COVID 19).

What of the opposite? What if he is thrashed at the polls, but again “wins” via the Electoral College, but this time, his opposition refuses to accept such a verdict? Also, what if Indigenous-Black-Brown peoples decide to secede from the nation, peoples that have historically been treated as “enemy others?” One only need to examine all of the nation’s critical indices – especially during the pandemic and the continued state violence and hate crimes with impunity against them, plus the reprehensible school to prison pipeline – to understand this rationale. Also, the denial of the UN-guaranteed right to teach their own histories, languages and cultures, accentuates this sub-human status.

Certainly, the rise of the Orange Madman and his white supremacist misogynist cult have caused people to question why peoples pledge loyalty to a nation that is not loyal to, and often wars against, them.

And yet, this secession talk is actually coming from his own base. Providence, Manifest Destiny and American Exceptionalism guides them, and it is they who fear displacement from their “God-ordained” lands. Apparently God is not Red, Black or Brown.

In regards to Chicanos specifically, the right-wing has had them seceding for decades now via Aztlan, “the original Homeland of the Aztecs,” and the “Reconquista.” In terms of Chicanos themselves, the dream of Aztlan was very much a 1960s-1970s thing, though it amounted more to a poetic/cultural/spiritual expression than to a widespread political movement.

However, as a result of the way this country has treated peoples of Mexican/Central American origin recently, such talk is on the rise again. What propels it is their continued silencing and invisibilization in virtually all matters in this country. Add to that children in cages and ICE’s hunter battalions, that continually wreak havoc in these communities, and this adds fuel to this fire. Due to such abuses, the social contract between Peoples of Color and government arguably has been null and void for decades now. The MAGA slogan is that reminder. When “America was great” was during the worst of times for POCs.

Is an Aztlan nation possible? FOR THE REST OF THE COLUMN, GO TO: https://www.populist.com/26.19.rodriguez.html

FOR THE FULL NOV 1 ISSUE: Populist.com