The United States Loots The World
In 1968 James Baldwin asked "Who is looting Whom?" That question is still relevant.
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In July 1968 Esquire ran an interview with James Baldwin. Follow the link to read the interview as published in Esquire here. The magazine recorded the interview with Baldwin after MLK’s assassination and covers many topics, including the state of race relations in the United States. Baldwin, one of the clearest writers and thinkers in the history of the United States, takes the interviewer to task multiple times. The interview provides much insight into life in July 1968. I encourage everyone to read it in its entirety. This newsletter only covers a few passages from the interview.
The interview taking place in 1968 carries a lot of contextual weight. Sky-high tensions rose heavy and swollen in 1968. I by no means want to compare current events to the protests that started after King’s murder, or to what happened in Chicago during the Democratic Convention of that same year. Parallels exist between the but saying that “x” matches “y” when talking about historical events never captures the full subtleties and meanings of those events. It does a disservice to the importance and effects of both events. While ‘68 may resemble our current situation, it does not line up with it exactly. That said, Baldwin’s interview still holds much wisdom. I’ve put a quote below that I’ve see parts of on social media recently. I’ve added the full quote and the question that prompted it.
Q: How would you define somebody who smashes in the window of a television store and takes what he wants?
A: Before I get to that, how would you define somebody who puts a cat where he is and takes all the money out of the ghetto where he makes it? Who is looting whom? Grabbing off the TV set? He doesn't really want the TV set. He's saying screw you. It's just judgment, by the way, on the value of the TV set. He doesn't want it. He wants to let you know he's there. The question I'm trying to raise is a very serious question. The mass media-television and all the major news agencies-endlessly use that word "looter." On television you always see black hands reaching in, you know. And so the American public concludes that these savages are trying to steal everything from us, And no one has seriously tried to get where the trouble is. After all, you're accusing a captive population who has been robbed of everything of looting. I think it's obscene.
This quote gets the most attention nowadays, and gets brought out a lot whenever people “loot” during riots. I don’t know how people received it at the time, but several other sections from this article that don’t get quoted hold just as much insight. I’ve placed a quote from farther along in the interview below. The interviewer asked Baldwin about black leaders in the United States, and mentions Stokely Carmichael. Baldwin responds at length. In the second half of his answer, Baldwin lays out what he sees as Carmichael’s point of view.
A: Furthermore, he is saying very clearly, and it's true, that this country, which began as a revolutionary nation has now spent god knows how many billions of dollars and how many thousands of lives fighting revolution everywhere else. And what he's saying is that black people in this country should not any longer turn to President Lyndon Johnson, who I after all at the very best (and this is an understatement; I'm speaking for myself now) a very untrustworthy big daddy. But to other black people, all the other people who are suffering under the same system that we are suffering from, that system is led by the last of the Western nations. It is perfectly conceivable, or would be if there were not so many black people here, that the Americans decide to "liberate" South Africa. Isn't it? That is to say to keep the horrors of communism away, all the freedom fighters in South Africa would turn South Africa into another Vietnam. No one is fooled about what you are doing in Vietnam. At least no black cat is fooled by it. You are not fighting for what the Western world calls material self-interest. And that means my back. My stolen tin, my stolen diamonds, my stolen sugar. That's what it means; it means I should work for you forever.
These selections express a few relevant ideas, that sometimes get lost in the narrative. They both speak to the formalized, structural racism, and economic inequality that made, and continues to make the United States. Baldwin also ties what happens in the United States to the rest of the world. In that second quote, he mentions South Africa and Vietnam. We cannot forget the international aspect of both Baldwin’s historical moment and ours. The U.S.’s foreign policy since World War II has positioned the country as the world’s police force. This approach to international relations has resulted in the deaths of thousands, if not millions, of people in countries all across the world. Americans number in the ones killed as well. The U.S Armed Forces has sent thousands of black and brown Americans to die in those fights as well, promising them benefits and opportunities than do not arrive.
As Baldwin says, “But to other black people, all the other people who are suffering under the same system that we are suffering from, that system is led by the last of the Western nations.” This remains true. The U.S wages a similar war at home as it does abroad. Look at our role in Afghanistan, in Palestine, in Iraq. In the posturing for war with Iran, Russia, China, and/or North Korea that leaders promote whenever they can. At home as well it occurs. Police across the United States have become increasingly militarized, pipelines to training and equipment from the military have only grown over time. As people living across the U.S. and across the world time and again, this increased lethality has only encouraged police to fire on and kill civilians in increasing rates. The violence of the military and the police focuses on the poor, on non-white people, on trans people, on anyone who opposes a world where being a cop means that you can kill someone without consequence. To once again quote Baldwin, “Who is looting whom?”
The millions of lives that have been stolen and ruined by ever-expanding police budgets, by military spending sprees, by those same groups murdering the very people who get taxed to fund their bullet-proof vests, that is the loot that America runs on. Not a Lego set from a Target, or a TV from a some big-box store that underpays its workers and overpays its executives. The United States was built and continues to be built on looting. This is not just a problem in the United States, but a problem that the U.S. brings to the world. The two fights are linked and will always be.