IT’S NOT “THE DEMOCRATS”—
IT’S THE WHOLE SYSTEM!

An Answer to Candace Owens and Other Black NAZI Demagogues

by Bob Avakian

June 15, 2020 | revcom.us

 

Candace Owens, and other Black “conservatives” who support the white supremacist fascist Donald Trump, try to justify their contemptible actions by claiming that it is the Democratic Party that is responsible for keeping Black people in a subordinated position. As I have spoken to and concretely illustrated many times, the Democratic Party does play an important part in the subjugation and degradation of Black people, including the way in which masses of Black people, and in particular youth, are robbed of a decent future, cordoned and contained in ghettoes of deprivation and desperation, murdered by marauding police and driven and encouraged to kill each other. But the Democratic Party does this as an instrument—one of the key institutions—of the system of capitalism-imperialism that is the source of this oppression, a system resting on the cruel exploitation and murderous oppression of not only Black people but masses of other people as well, not just in this country but throughout the world. And the Republican Party is certainly no less an instrument of this monstrous system—especially as that party has, over recent decades, become even more overtly white supremacist, male supremacist, anti-immigrant xenophobic and bellicose American chauvinist.

Particularly after World War 2, with major changes going on in this country, and the world as a whole, out of one side of its mouth the Democratic Party portrayed itself as the “friend” and “savior” of Black people. But the Democratic Party had a deep and increasingly sharp contradiction within it: Its “northern wing” presented itself as “liberal” while its “southern wing” (known as “Dixiecrats”) was openly, vehemently and violently white supremacist. This came to a head in the 1960s, when the leaders of the Democratic Party found themselves in a position where they had to make concessions to the struggle for civil rights: the “Dixiecrats” deserted the Democratic Party and became a key force within the Republican Party. Since that time, the Republicans have become more and more openly the party of white supremacy.

Malcolm X spoke very plainly to this situation. He said: one of these parties (the Democrats) says they’re for you, while the other one (the Republicans) says they’re against you—one of them is a “fox,” and the other one is a “wolf,” but they are both part of the canine family—they are both racist dogs. It is tempting to see it as simply an act of incredible stupidity to join with the ones who are openly against you. But, on the part of Candace Owens, and some other Black “conservatives,” their support for Trump and the Republicans is not so much a matter of stupidity, as it is a striving to get in on the “loot”—the spoils that come from the plundering of the world by U.S. capitalist imperialism—and their belief that the best means for them to get the largest possible share of the spoils is playing the servile role of Black people justifying, and even advocating, white supremacy, but doing so while loudly and crudely declaring that any who oppose what they are doing are “racists” who want to keep Black people in their place! That they do this in the name of Black people’s advancement is all the more disgusting and despicable.

There is nothing new or original in this. We have seen it in the ridiculous posturing and the overall performance of Supreme Court “justice” Clarence Thomas. And, going back to the days of Jim Crow segregation and Ku Klux Klan terror, there was Booker T. Washington, a Black “leader” who preached to Black people that, instead of rising up against their segregated and terrorized situation, they should strive to do their best while remaining within those terrible conditions. No wonder Washington was one of the most favored speakers at rallies of white supremacist southern segregationists! And no wonder that the likes of Candace Owens are such “darlings” of the overt white supremacist fascists of today.

The answer to this is not to rally behind the Democratic Party, which has played such a crucial part in keeping Black people oppressed and terrorized, while pretending to be their best hope, and which has been such a key instrument of this whole system, with its unspeakable crimes against the masses of humanity. The answer is to oppose the whole monstrous system of capitalism-imperialism, which both the Democrats and the Republicans serve and work to maintain—to rise up against this system and build that struggle toward the goal of revolution to abolish this whole system, and bring a much better system into being.

The strategy for actually making this revolution has been brought forward through the ongoing work I have done over decades, since the 1960s, and a sweeping vision and concrete blueprint for a radically different and far better society and world is contained in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America—all of which can be found at revcom.us.

Let the Candace Owenses of the world shuffle, scuffle and scratch for a share of the blood-soaked spoils of this system. For all those who hunger for a world without all the atrocity and terror, all the unnecessary suffering that is caused by this system of capitalism-imperialism, let us rise together to put an end to all this, in the only way it can be done: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!—a revolution not for revenge, or to “get ours” through the exploitation and degradation of others—a revolution for the emancipation of all humanity.