Part 1
1. ....Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s Loaded: The Disarming History of the Second Amendment dismantles all of these explanations and justifications into one chilling thesis: The Second Amendment is fundamental to the roots of white settler violence in their genocide project against Native populations, as well as to control and ultimately eliminate freed Black people in America. In a nutshell, the Second Amendment’s main origin and purpose is to protect and promote white supremacy in these United States.....
Dunbar-Ortiz analyses these words in the context of which they were originally written: As permission granted to the white settler-colonists to seize Native lands by whatever violence necessary, and including the murder, rape, and torture of non-combatants like women and children. She writes, “The Second Amendment’s language specifically gave individuals and families the right to form volunteer militias to attack Indians and take their land.” (p. 20)
“The violent appropriation of Native land by white settlers was seen as an individual right in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, second only to Freedom of Speech. … Settler-militias and armed households were institutionalized for the destruction and control of Native peoples, communities, and nations.” (p. 30-31)
Further, these so-called “savage wars” are the historical basis of current military strategies like “special operations” and “low-intensity conflicts” that do not discriminate between civilians and military targets:
“The chief characteristic of irregular warfare is that of the extreme violence against civilians, in this case the tendency to pursue the utter annihilation of the Indigenous population.” (p. 48).....
The white citizen militias protected by the Second Amendment did not stop with the terrorizing and murder of Native populations. Once these violent settler-colonists had cleared land of Natives, whether by herding them onto reservations or outright massacre, those lands were now ripe for slave labor. Let’s also keep in mind that without the millennia of work that the now dead or displaced Indigenous populations accomplished in terraforming America’s landscape, there would have been no cultivated lands or ecosystems for these white settlers to exploit with theirs or anyone else’s labor....
Guns and gun violence are more American than baseball, apple pie, or any of the banal signifiers we pretend are our emblems. Guns are so entrenched in America’s blood-drenched history of violence against Native and Black peoples, there is no easy way to untangle them today until we have dismantled systemic white supremacy in this country from its roots and up to the highest levels of government.
Source: https://afropunk.com/2017/10/anti-black-anti-indigenous-roots-second-amendment/
2. The Second Amendment reads:
“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of the free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
As usual, America resorts to high-sounding moralism to cover up its evil deeds. As the anti-black and anti-indigenous roots run deep in America’s blood-drenched history of violence, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to dismantle systemic white supremacy in the country from its roots.
Jimmy Carter, the only US president to complete his term without war, military attack or occupation has called the US “the most warlike nation in the history of the world”.
Unfortunately for the rest of mankind, America's blood-drenched history of systemic white supremacist violence will march on in tandem with its manifest destiny.
en.wikipedia.org
www.counterpunch.org
1. ....Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s Loaded: The Disarming History of the Second Amendment dismantles all of these explanations and justifications into one chilling thesis: The Second Amendment is fundamental to the roots of white settler violence in their genocide project against Native populations, as well as to control and ultimately eliminate freed Black people in America. In a nutshell, the Second Amendment’s main origin and purpose is to protect and promote white supremacy in these United States.....
Dunbar-Ortiz analyses these words in the context of which they were originally written: As permission granted to the white settler-colonists to seize Native lands by whatever violence necessary, and including the murder, rape, and torture of non-combatants like women and children. She writes, “The Second Amendment’s language specifically gave individuals and families the right to form volunteer militias to attack Indians and take their land.” (p. 20)
“The violent appropriation of Native land by white settlers was seen as an individual right in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, second only to Freedom of Speech. … Settler-militias and armed households were institutionalized for the destruction and control of Native peoples, communities, and nations.” (p. 30-31)
Further, these so-called “savage wars” are the historical basis of current military strategies like “special operations” and “low-intensity conflicts” that do not discriminate between civilians and military targets:
“The chief characteristic of irregular warfare is that of the extreme violence against civilians, in this case the tendency to pursue the utter annihilation of the Indigenous population.” (p. 48).....
The white citizen militias protected by the Second Amendment did not stop with the terrorizing and murder of Native populations. Once these violent settler-colonists had cleared land of Natives, whether by herding them onto reservations or outright massacre, those lands were now ripe for slave labor. Let’s also keep in mind that without the millennia of work that the now dead or displaced Indigenous populations accomplished in terraforming America’s landscape, there would have been no cultivated lands or ecosystems for these white settlers to exploit with theirs or anyone else’s labor....
Guns and gun violence are more American than baseball, apple pie, or any of the banal signifiers we pretend are our emblems. Guns are so entrenched in America’s blood-drenched history of violence against Native and Black peoples, there is no easy way to untangle them today until we have dismantled systemic white supremacy in this country from its roots and up to the highest levels of government.
Source: https://afropunk.com/2017/10/anti-black-anti-indigenous-roots-second-amendment/
2. The Second Amendment reads:
“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of the free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
As usual, America resorts to high-sounding moralism to cover up its evil deeds. As the anti-black and anti-indigenous roots run deep in America’s blood-drenched history of violence, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to dismantle systemic white supremacy in the country from its roots.
Jimmy Carter, the only US president to complete his term without war, military attack or occupation has called the US “the most warlike nation in the history of the world”.
Unfortunately for the rest of mankind, America's blood-drenched history of systemic white supremacist violence will march on in tandem with its manifest destiny.
Manifest destiny - Wikipedia
Jimmy Carter: US ‘Most Warlike Nation in History of the World’
The only US president to complete his term without war, military attack or occupation has called the United States “the most warlike nation in the history
www.counterpunch.org
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