Western Apoligism, Racism and the Playing Down of Right Wing Political Terrorism- Wake up Europe!

St James the Apostle trampling over Moors. (Popular household image across Spain)

Anders Behring Breivik, the author of the massacre and bomb attacks in Norway, is a political terrorist. Not just a "crazy person", not just an "Al-Qaeda like terroristic extremist", but a home-grown European political terrorist.

The heinous act committed was politically motivated and driven, not by madness, or affinity with  the strategies of Al Qaeda, but by Europe-born extreme right wing beliefs. Beliefs grounded on a neo-fascist political philosophy which is national chauvinist and racist, and not unique to this one terrorist, but part of a significant and growing movement across a socially, economically and culturally collapsing continent. A continent again playing a very dangerous game of see no evil, hear no evil, and which seems to systemically and historically prefer to ignore the true entrenchment in their societies of right wing fascist extremism, until it’s too late.

A monstrous politically driven crime has been committed by a racist, neo-fascist, ultranationalist, Christian fundamentalist, but we will never read that in a news headline. No matter how many doctors are killed, or women clinics burned down, refugee centers bombed, or idealist youth gunned down at a summer camp, there will never be a right wing extremist violent attack carried out by a member of the dominant culture framed as equally systemic, intentional and reflective of the sentiments of a movement as are other acts of terrorism from non-dominant origins. We will have to be satisfied with Insane Person, or worse, A Random Killer’s Act of Islamic-like Terrorism! Yes, a random Islamic like killer, which, as we come to find out on paragraph two, is also a member of a Christian fundamentalist, ultra-nationalist, neo-fascist continental movement. 

Not that any of that makes any difference, mind you. He is just a crazy, white, blond, blue eyed fluke, that’s all we really need to know. So shed your tears and move on, there is nothing further to make of this except, maybe figure out how to limit the flow of brown people immigration so our white natives won’t get this restless again, or at least for a while…

This speaks volumes to the inherent racism with which the western media and dominant political establishment chooses to treat how terror is used by different actors, and as a political weapon for threatening a given society’s security and stability; People of Arab or middle eastern decent or with Islamic beliefs -and also those with far left convictions- are the ones that commit systemic and ideologically calculated driven acts of terrorism. White, Christian, ultra-capitalist, right wing actors, even when targeting the state and not just minority groups, are doing insane “terroristic”, “horrific” things, i.e., being crazy white people, not practicing systemic terrorism as a political tool and echo of the true sentiments of countless others just like them!

The recent attack in Norway is not just a heinous act of political terrorism. As anyone with their eyes open, and who has spent any decent amount of time in Europe over the last couple of decades knows, this is also not an “out of the blue” incident without a social reference to a wide movement supporting racist and xenophobic positions and ideologies. Racially motivated crimes driven by fascist political principles are not new to post WWII Europe. The scale of this particular barbarity is indeed unprecedented in northern Europe, but right wing violence, including deadly violence against immigrants (mainly those immigrant who are non white and of non-European origins), has increasingly become common place in all European social landscapes, including Norway’s. 

I had conversations about this with truly dear friends on my last visit to Norway. Even as I myself one night became a target of obvious racist violence, my white Norwegian friends, all of honest progressive labour and socialist party stock, refused to accept that what had just occurred to me was part of a growing social trend in the country towards racially motivated violence. Instead, I was told how sorry everyone was than an intoxicated, violent person had attacked me for no reason…I suppose that the fact that this guy has swastikas tattooed on his arms and chose to target me as the only dark-skinned, non Norwegian person in a group of about 100 other people, spoke little to my friends as to the possible racial motives for this attack. 

Interestingly enough, when I shared the same experience with other folks of color living in Norway, the story resonated as very familiar to them. I heard of similar attacks committed against them, ranging from insults from strangers driving by, racial profiling by authorities, to actual brutal acts of random assault and battery. I also heard about the perplexing denial by their white sisters and brothers about the race driven and socially consistent nature of such attacks.

There is no denying that average white native Norwegians, regardless of their personal political orientation or personal non-racist stances, have one set of lived and perceived realities as members of the dominant group in what, even today, is still a largely racially homogeneous society. Those of other races or religious beliefs, including those with Norwegian citizenship, have obviously a completely different set of everyday realities and experiences.

Stated this way, the experiential differences expressed above seem almost harmless. Yet, when the dominant culture refuses to take a real honest look at what these differences actually entail and translate into in terms of societal power dynamics, then they clearly become a very dangerous racist elephant in the room...The dominant group can afford to play this hide and seek game, rarely can the minority group being affected afford such luxuries of privilege…

The refugee/immigration policies of the Norwegian state are not the issue here. A real analysis of the racial aspect of how Norwegian immigration policy is administered would require a whole different piece. It is indeed true that there are plenty of good government funded programs aimed at facilitating the integration into greater society of newly arrived refugees from all countries.  Yet it is also true that according to most public opinion polls and as reflected in recent election results, most Norwegians today seem to feel that there is too much money and too many programs. Racist resentment among the dominant group has an unchecked origin here. While the policies are good, little work has gone on institutionally into truly deconstructing the racism that is fueling resentment against these initiatives and policies and the people benefiting from them. 

At the individual level, significant numbers of interracial social relationships could indicate a disposition by a large number of individuals from the white dominant culture towards antiracist positions. Yet, these choices are mostly personal and always within the context of their own cultural dominant environment, i.e, from a position of power of the member of the dominant group in the choice and in the relationship.

Individuals, as a whole, even when expressing their ardent discontent with particular immigrant friendly policies, do not see themselves as harboring any racist feelings. Some of their best friends are Pakistani…This does not mean that the various manifestations of racism have been fully understood and thus are being actively deconstructed by these individuals. 

Racism then, under these social paradigms, simply becomes a question of how one chooses to present itself to the rest of society on the race issue, and not so much how much one has managed to deconstruct the underlying critical issue of racial supremacy. Blinders on, deeply rooted racist constructs in society that involve complex racial power dynamics just become invisible to the dominant group. This disconnect can prove devastating to the psyche of the member of the minority, but is inconsequential to the member of the dominant group entrenched in their “generosity of supremacy” approach to racism and convinced nothing they could ever do could ever be racist. 

Individual declarations of lack of racism in a mostly homogeneous culture suffice to let the issue of racism be put to rest. The “I married one, didn’t I?” construct… Done. That is, until something like this happens, but even then, the fact that the killer targeted whites –as traitors to their race-, lends itself for many to play down the true racist and national chauvinistic motivation of this attack, and instead treat it as a tragedy perpetrated by one mentally ill Norwegian on all healthy Norwegians.  It remains to be seen if the Norwegian people will rise to the occasion and come to understand this horrible tragedy for what it is; i.e, an almost surreal extreme manifestation of a very real emerging neo-fascist ideological movement taking hold in their society and driven by an unwillingness in the culture to understand the deeper manifestations of racial supremacy.

The failure of all Europeans to look at this incident for what it really is, would only fuel the escalation of such violent racism. It is also not something which states alone can fix through just laws and legislation, even if it was trying to. Generous governmental policies alone cannot change how racism plays itself out in their streets, in popular culture, in how society is affected when the dominant group chooses to manifest their privilege and turn a blind eye to what lies in front of them and go on about their business as if  nothing at all was happening.

Real comprehensive antiracism and multicultural education and self-education at all levels of society is urgently needed. Norway and other European countries have in recent decades grown more and more diverse, yet generally speaking, most of what we see in terms of educational policies focus on the immigrants or refugees themselves. To be fair, in Norway, for instance, there are indeed some real good education programs for children about the cultures of the main immigrant communities present in their communities, but this is not comprehensive antiracism education. This does not deconstruct racism as a relationship of power and privilege of which everyone is part, including those in the dominant group who feel they are not racist.

This type of good-feeling, “we are all the same”, “why can’t we all get along?” altruistic approach, does not necessarily result in the individual of the dominant culture looking at how they, as a member of that dominant culture, practices and benefits from race privilege every day;  how this privilege shields them and protects them from countless social and economic affronts, humiliations and discriminations; how it impacts the social and power relationships of their communities as a whole, and in particular, the lives and social psychology of its minorities.

I recognize that I am not an academic authority in European racism or racial relations. Yet it is my experience, personal and political, that there has been very little momentum for the development of a social or institutional movement around in-deph deconstruction of racism in Europe in recent decades. Quite the opposite, it would seem like even now, and after this horrible experience, most people don’t feel this is a really necessary exercise for their societies to have to go through.

The popular notion is that immigrants are still being treated well and benefiting from the generosity and kindness of their governments and communities, and that as a rule, “real” racism,  remains an underground and random far right phenomenon, not a problem in their communities. Therefore, a problem needing to be dealt by law enforcement and not by in- depth collective cultural introspection as to the constant manifestation of racism in one’s own everyday life, at one’s dinner table…

Until the inherent danger in this type of entrenched denial becomes clear to all Europeans, and they begin to move beyond paternalism and towards real comprehensive society-wide racism education and deconstruction, Europe will continue to experience both, the rise of racist sentiment- already way beyond just a far right favorite-, and the multiplicity of barbarities that often become its physical manifestations. Particularly in periods of economic instability and social transformation such as the ones we are presently living, when the confusion and fears of the general population and the complacency of its supposedly progressive sectors, can both become easy targets and dangerous weapons at the hands of unrepentant fascist demagogues and racist political opportunists.