American violence in the time of coronavirus (Armed and contagious) High Country News Know the West – High Country News

In both An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz digs into the roots of violence buried deep within the countrys history. From the election of Donald Trump to the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, American violence has been on unprecedented display. The pandemic has likewise exposed some of the nations starkest disparities, not only in justice and health-related issues, but also along racial and class divides. Now, as states consider relaxing stay-at-home orders in response to the economic crisis health restrictions have led to, the country is witnessing the armed occupation of state capitals, emotionally charged protests and the outright denunciation of science and research.

Dunbar-Ortiz helps put these contemporary events in a historical context. The United States was founded as a capitalist state and an empire on conquered land, with capital in the form of slaves, she writes in Loaded, as she traces violence from the nations founding to today. The capitalist firearms industry was among the first successful corporations. Gun proliferation and gun violence today are among its legacies. This legacy helps explain American gun culture and the conspicuous display of firearms at the COVID-19 reopen protests.

High Country News recently spoke with Dunbar-Ortiz about what these events have to say about the nations propensity for violence, tolerance of white supremacy and the push for profits over the health of the populace. The following conversation has been edited for length.

High Country News: Do you think the armed protest at the Michigan Statehouse was allowed to happen because the perpetrators were white and by extension not considered a threat to those in authority?

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz:Its complicated. No one can imagine an all-armed Black group coming to the Statehouse at all, for anything. They would be killed, massacred. Or lets say Asians, or Native Americans or Latinos. Of course, its white privilege. But what I think is that its not that (those in power) dont see it, its (that) they actually fear the power of these people. Politicians are not stupid, and they know in their hearts when the president of the United States gives practically an order, certainly permission, for these types of people to act, then thats power. Even here in California, theyve come to Sacramento twice. They had an armed protest at City Hall in San Francisco. And you really saw our governor here stepping back and saying, Well, yeah, maybe some of the smaller counties, it may not apply to them. Its really scary, because it works.

HCN: This notion that certain segments of the population should die for the economy is striking. How is the acceptance of mass casualties whether of Indigenous peoples, children in school shootings, or the elderly and immunocompromised during a pandemic part of the American psyche?

RDO: U.S. capitalism has always had to have surplus labor half of the people unemployed in order to keep wages down. But with technology and the end of industrialized mass labor, theyre no longer needed by the system. With mechanized agriculture, theyre not needed as agrarian workers. Back in the 80s, it was almost uncontroversial when Earth First!, the most radical of the environmental movements, the most militant, came up with this anti-immigration thing at the border because of overpopulation the idea that the border should be tightened, taking that reactionary stance for the environment rather than reviewing how capitalism works and attacking the kings of capital.

The practice of eliminating people is baked into the countrys founding, Constitution and military, so of course it worms its way into everyones mind that it is OK to just eliminate a whole group of people, so more white farmers can have land. At the core of the country, its always there as a possibility, not just for people who have bad immune systems or are old or who are homeless. This idea to just get rid of them. Herd immunity it shouldnt be used that way to cull out the older people and those who are at risk, and that will be a good thing. But you know, of course, for Native people and Latinos and most African Americans, most people really revere their elders as sources of knowledge and teaching. I realize, though, that that has changed a lot, because I think these arguments that a lot of the scientists were giving on the national level, and the governors, that you have to do these things to protect your grandparents. I dont think that really counts for anything when people are so broken down and (culturally) separated from their family.

HCN: When you look back over time, from the founding of the United States to today, do you see variations in that reliance on violence or death, or does it just take new forms?

But instead of organizing against that system of capitalism, they are easily redirected because of white supremacy to attack the immigrants coming in and taking their jobs. Of course, these are jobs they wont do anyway.

RDO: The advent of capitalism came with the looting of the Americas, that accumulation of wealth, and then the founding of capitalist states, and with the Industrial Revolution which, in the United States, was based on slavery. When slaves freed themselves, Reconstruction didnt work, and they continued to be necessary agrarian labor. Capitalist states kept importing immigrants to keep surplus labor.

They really worried, after World War II, when so many young men were killed from every country in Europe. In Western Europe, they were absolutely frantic, because the workers could demand such high wages. They could bargain. Thats why, in Germany and France and Britain, they have such good unions, free health-care systems. They won all of that because there was no surplus labor. And then those countries started importing Turkish labor, Kurdish labor, African labor, to create surplus labor. Thats how capitalism works: Its only real profits come from what the wages are for workers.

With the technological shift from industrial production although its still going on; its just exported to China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, where theyre still working factories in the United States surplus labor is no longer needed for profits. So much of it is finance or specialized or highly technical that the unemployed of every class, especially the white and unemployed, are the most worried. But instead of organizing against that system of capitalism, they are easily redirected because of white supremacy to attack the immigrants coming in and taking their jobs. Of course, these are jobs they wont do anyway. Theyre not going to work in meatpacking plants and the fields of California. But the system is so good at diverting their attention to people of color as the enemy to get rid of them, and everything will be all right.

HCN: That seems like it would inevitably lead to more conflict.

RDO: That is a problem, and its a permanent problem, even with the overthrow of capitalism. What do people do who are so work-oriented? I know we used to have dreams, when I was a young activist, of a world without so much work, where we could work two hours a day and still get wages. This would be the kind of socialism that works for peoples good and not for profits, so people find a lot of things to do when theyre not on the job, or spending most of their lives in jobs that they dont like. Theres a necessity to have things to do. They feel that purpose, but mainly its that you have to have that in order to eat, survive or feed your family, not because you love the work.

Graham Lee Brewer is an associate editor atHigh Country Newsand a member of the Cherokee Nation.Emailhimat [emailprotected]or submit aletter to the editor.

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American violence in the time of coronavirus (Armed and contagious) High Country News Know the West - High Country News