Overview:
The author argues that generations of activists and scholars, from Marcus Garvey and W.E.B Dubois to Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X understood the civil rights struggle in the U.S. is part of a global fight against white supremacy, colonialism, and U.S. imperial power.
It’s widely assumed there is a segment of Black America that is either ignorant or chooses to ignore foreign affairs. The common argument is that Black people have enough problems of their own in the U.S. without being preoccupied with global issues that have nothing to do with them.
The ongoing crisis in Venezuela — in which President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military to sweep in, seize President Nicholas Maduro and send him to stand trial in New York — would seem to qualify.
The truth, however, is that the struggle for freedom for Black people within the U.S. is part of an international struggle, from Africa to South America to Asia. White supremacy is global.
Old Story, Same Enemy
The Black Freedom Struggle in America is often criticized as inward-focused. As El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, a.k.a. Malcolm X, once articulated, civil rights leaders “spend most of their time trying to prove they are Americans. Their thinking is usually domestic, confined to the boundaries of America, and they always look upon themselves as a minority.”
Yet Black people are part of a global majority of Black and brown peoples, still collectively battling the white European world, which continues its quest for domination over them, their land, and their resources. That seems to be the case in Venezuela: Trump has explicitly said he’s after oil, he ignored opposition leader María Corina Machado, and he left the old regime in place, warning of a fate “worse than Maduro” if they didn’t cooperate with Washington.
When Africa was colonized, its resources were plundered and shipped to Europe. Her people were enslaved, shipped to the “new” world, and forced to develop stolen land. Over centuries, colonialism and enslavement morphed into neo-colonialism and imperialism.
Rather than engage with that reality, we’ve instead been distracted by manufactured tribalism that divides African people throughout the diaspora, built on the lie that we are our own worst enemy. But there is only one enemy: the white power structure.
What we’re witnessing in Venezuela — the kidnapping of a leader of a sovereign nation to accomplish geopolitical and economic aims by the U.S. Government — matters. American Imperialism is, and has always been, dangerous if not outright deadly for Black people.
Exploitation, Disguised as Democracy
Typically propagandized as “democratizing” wayward peoples and nations, American imperialism operates under the guise that the world would be a better place if every place were civilized, like the U.S.
The truth, however, is that American Imperialism’s true goal is to control the politics and economies of other sovereign nations, exploiting their land, people, and resources, using strong-arm, get-down-or lay-down tactics: quid pro quo diplomacy that enriches corrupt leaders; punishing economic sanctions intended to force compliance; and constant flexing of military muscle that all but guarantees a high casualty rate. Then there’s President Donald Trump’s more insidious tactic: covert activities to remove leaders and install new ones who’ll do the Americans’ bidding. It’s a tactic as old as American pie. That’s what happened to Venezuela, in plain sight.
American Imperialism is, and has always been, dangerous, if not outright deadly, for Black people.
Imperialism, meanwhile, doesn’t come cheap. There are military excursions to fund, despots to pay off, and bounties. All of which are funded with American tax dollars.
It was likely expensive to invade a foreign nation to capture its leader, who was heavily guarded. For example, in 2020, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó reportedly spent $212 million in a failed attempt to have Maduro captured. It has been estimated that a protracted “running” of Venezuela will likely cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars. Another Afghanistan, maybe? It certainly feels like another Iraq, but I digress.
Our Tax Dollars, Misspent
Regardless of what it feels like, it’s certainly American tax dollars funding all of this, and Black people pay taxes, too.
Tax dollars that could be used to bolster the threadbare social safety net fund anti-poverty programs like universal health care and universal basic income, build affordable housing, or invest in education, the arts, and sports within local communities—all things that would benefit Black people. Instead, America exploits abroad while transferring the practice of policing and occupation upon Black communities within its borders.
The military assault on and economic occupation of Venezuela is paid for with (African) American tax dollars — money that not only helps pay for the country’s exploitation but also to enrich Trump and his cronies and stifle dissent at home and abroad.
If you’re concerned about poverty, you must be aware of American Imperialism. If you’re concerned about police brutality, cop cities, economic inequality, racial capitalism, your First Amendment rights, voting rights, the rising price of goods, or anything related to justice for Black people and humanity, you must be aware of American Imperialism.
Knowledge is Power
Because to be aware is to be empowered to resist it, as the many freedom fighters we claim to revere. Freedom fighters like W.E.B. DuBois, Ella Baker and Malcolm X.
DuBois co-authored We Charge Genocide for crimes against Black people by the United States. Baker linked the Black Freedom Struggle to global anti-colonial movements in Puerto Rico and Ethiopia. Malcolm X started the Organization for Afro-American Unity (OAAU), internationalizing the Black Freedom Struggle.
If we are to, as Martin Luther King, Jr.implored, rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society, then we must understand how imperialism harms the world and how American Imperialism harms Black people. We may not live in Venezuela, and we may not know folks from down there. But what affects one directly affects all indirectly.
Whether we realize it or not, we’ve signed onto the prerogatives of American Imperialism, having only received limited political and economic concessions as Black and brown people are exploited globally to enrich the power structure and maintain whiteness, whereas the “privilege” we have is to call ourselves American. If we choose to remain ignorant, then we’re as truly American as we’ve always sought to be.
Rann Miller is an educator, opinion columnist and author or Resistance Stories from Black History for Kids. You can follow him on twitter @UrbanEdDJ and on Instagram @urbanedmixtape.