Journalist: Existing US ‘system is rooted in racism and exploitation’

An African American journalist in Detroit says the independent organization of the African American people in alliance with other oppressed peoples in the United States must overturn “the existing system which is rooted in racism and exploitation.”

Abayomi Azikiwe, the editor at the Pan-African News Wire, made the remark during a phone interview with Press TV on Sunday while commenting on a recent statement by US Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) who argued that a majority of mass shootings that take place in the United States are done by white supremacists.

In an interview on MSNBC on Tuesday, Murphy called on  Republicans to condemn “hateful theories about replacement” after a suspect involved in a shooting in Buffalo, New York cited the so-called “great replacement theory” in a manifesto published online for killing about a dozen Black people. 

Payton Gendron, a white American gunman, shot dead 10 people and injured three others in a Black neighborhood in New York, in an act of "racially motivated violent extremism."

Senator Murphy statements must be taken within their critical context. Members of the Republican Party are closely allied with the Replacement Theorist and other white supremacist ideologues,” said Azikiwe.

“The voting patterns of many within the Senate are in congruence with institutional racism. Therefore, it is quite interesting that this Connecticut politician would attempt to distance himself while encouraging others to do so from the extreme right-wing positions which are characteristic of the Republican Party,” he stated.

“What these forces can do is to halt their obstructionist rhetoric and voting patterns to pass legislation which guarantees the rights of African Americans, Latin Americans, Asians, Indigenous people and other oppressed nations and nationalities being persecuted by the United States government and political system. To suggest that they themselves are not responsible for the social atmosphere now in existence in the US is dishonest and provocative. There is potentially the threat of civil war in the US. It is a civil war that oppressed and working class people are not prepared for no more than what developed in 1860-61, when the intolerance of the slaveocracy and the indifference of northern industrialists led to a four-year conflict that killed nearly one million people. This war created the conditions for the elimination of chattel slavery and the ostensible freedom of African people who were in captivity since the 16th and 17th centuries under Spain and Britain,” he said.

“However, it is not only the fault of the Republicans. The Democratic Party under President Joe Biden has been largely ineffective in passing legislation and issuing executive orders aimed at protecting the rights of African Americans, people of color communities and women. There are concerted efforts underway to turn back the social clock making African Americans, Latin Americans, women and all oppressed groups slaves of the racist and capitalist system. Both parties which are dominant in the US deserved condemnation for their perpetuation of the exploitative and discriminatory political culture which remains pervasive in the US,” he stated.

“Moreover, the only solution to this quagmire is the independent organization of the African American people in alliance with other oppressed peoples to overturn the existing system which is rooted in racism and exploitation. There needs to be a new political alliance which opposes both the Republicans and Democrats designed to eliminate racism, national oppression and economic exploitation forever,” the analyst said.

“President Joe Biden's speech on May 17, in Buffalo said that ‘white supremacy has no place in America’. Yet the US was founded on white supremacy. It was the forced removal and genocide against the Indigenous Native Americans and the centuries-long enslavement of Africans which made the US a dominant imperialist power. Until the US government acknowledges these historical facts, apologizes for slavery and institutional racism by paying reparations, there will be no basis for resolving the race problem,” he noted.

Sen. Murphy condemns ‘hateful theories about replacement’

US Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) has argued that a majority of mass shootings that take place in the United States are done by white supremacists.

Biden on Tuesday condemned white supremacists, the media, the internet and American politics for spreading racist theories following the Buffalo mass shooting.

"What happened here is simple and straightforward: Terrorism, terrorism, domestic terrorism," he said in Buffalo.

Authorities said the suspect, who was armed with an assault-style rifle, came to Buffalo from a New York county "hours away" to target the store in a predominantly Black community.

"White supremacy is a poison. It's a poison - it really is - running through our body politic," said Biden, who spoke moments after meeting with families of the victims as well as first responders. "We need to say as clearly and forcefully as we can that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in America. None."

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