Feeling the Rage in America

Published in Ultimas Noticias
(Venezuela) on 14 March 2010
by Mariadela Linares (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Holly Fernandez. Edited by Catherine Harrington.
The Gringos Move to the Right

The BBC World this week published an interesting report entitled, “The United States lives rage on the right,” which references important data from a study describing how radical and intolerant groups have grown, constituted and organized themselves — including armed militias — already amounting to 127 different groups consisting of around 300,000 people.

The British agency’s report cites the study from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) whose director Mark Potok has just published, “Rage on the Right.” It highlights the wide range of radical groups that have multiplied in the country: hardline anti-immigrant groups, white supremacists militias, and fundamentalists. Pointed out as the most dangerous are the “anti-government patriots” that have grown 244 percent in the last year.

A black man in the White House wasn’t able to be swept under the rug in a country that experienced its own apartheid not very long ago when the Ku-Klux-Klan lit bonfires in front of African-American homes and lynched them while hiding under the cowardly costume that typified them and hid their identity. The heirs of this racial intolerance must be regrouping themselves in these militias, which are organizing to oppose all decisions that Obama’s dark establishment might address.

Neither does the SPLC study sweep to the side the immense discontent generated in the country’s middle class after the recent financial crisis which privileged banking interests and brought about bankruptcy for millions of affected Americans. Bush’s “rescue,” not believed to be worthwhile by Obama, has also contributed to the antipathy towards the government.

The economic situation has renewed old nationalists sentiments and awakened resentment against the immense mass of immigrants that populate all the states of the union. The native whites are resistant to the Latino, Arab, or Eastern European who occupies the job they once rejected but now need.

The BBC stated that, according to Mark Potok, it is significant that the first convention of nationalistic right-wing groups took place at the beginning of February at a meeting in Tennessee under the ironic name “Tea Party,” or in layman’s terms, the party of tea.

On his part, and in agreement with the study, those identified by Potol as the “new patriots” are self-defended armed groups consisting of white Anglo-Saxons or those of European origin, called — who knows by whom — to watch over the interests of their fair skin.

The report concludes with a little pearl: Sixty percent of the American population considers the country to be in decline. With things in such a state, rage growing and hate so similar to what we know in these parts, it is not surprising that right now the American Dream is beginning to seem more like a nightmare.


La BBC Mundo publicó esta semana un interesante reportaje que tituló "Estados Unidos vive rabia en la derecha" y que recoge importantes datos de la forma cómo han crecido los grupos radicales e intolerantes, constituidos incluso por milicias armadas y organizadas, que ya suman 127 distintos grupos, y que están integradas por cerca de 300 mil personas.

El trabajo de la agencia británica cita un estudio del Centro Legal para la Pobreza Sureña (SPLC por sus siglas en inglés) cuyo director Mark Potok acaba de hacer público un estudio -"La rabia en la derecha"- según el cual destaca el amplio rango de todo tipos de grupos de radicales que se han multiplicado en el país: antiinmigrantes de línea dura, las milicias supremacistas blancas y fundamentalmente, señalados en el trabajo como los más peligrosos, los "patriotas antigubernamentales" que han crecido en 244% en el último año.

Un hombre negro en la Casa Blanca no podía pasar por debajo de la mesa en un país que vivió hasta no hace mucho su propio apartheid, donde el ku klux klan prendía hogueras frente a las casas de afroamericanos y los linchaba, escondidos bajo el cobarde disfraz que los caracterizaba e impedía su identificación. Los herederos de esa intolerancia racial, deben estarse reagrupando en esas milicias que se organizan para oponerse a todo lo que el "stablishment" oscurito que dirige Obama dictamine.

Tampoco deja de lado el estudio del SPLC el descontento generado en la inmensa clase media de ese país, luego de la reciente crisis financiera en la que se privilegió el interés de los banqueros que propiciaron la bancarrota, antes que los de los millones de estadounidenses afectados. El "salvataje" de Bush, no compensado por Obama, también ha contribuido a sumarle antipatías al gobierno.

La situación económica ha hecho renacer viejos sentimientos nacionalistas y ha despertado resquemor contra esa inmensa masa de inmigrantes que puebla todos los estados de esa federación. Los blancos autóctonos se resienten ante el latino, el árabe o el europeo oriental que ocupa un puesto de trabajo, que antes rechazó, pero que ahora necesita.

Según refirió Mark Potok a la BBC es significativo que a principios de febrero tuviera lugar la primera convención de grupos nacionalistas y de derecha, reunida en Tennessee bajo el irónico nombre de "Tea Party", "la Fiesta del Te" dicho en cristiano.

Por su parte, de acuerdo al estudio, los identificados por Potok como los "nuevos patriotas" son grupos armados de autodefensa integrados por blancos anglosajones o de origen europeo, llamados quién sabe por quién para velar por los intereses de su alba tez. Cualquier parecido con las tenebrosas Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia no es ninguna coincidencia.

El reportaje concluye con una perlita: el 60 por ciento de la población norteamericana considera que el país está en declive. En ese estado de cosas, y con la rabia creciente, tan parecida a ese odio que conocemos por estos lares, no es de extrañar que el sueño americano comience en algún momento a parecerse más bien a una pesadilla.
This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

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1 COMMENT

  1. OMG…what a bunch of hooey. Firstly, get your facts straight. The protesters number in the millions, not hundreds of thousands (so if we scare you, you need to be really scared).

    Secondly, the Ku Klux Klan was the activist arm of of the Democrat party back in the late 1800’s and through the mid 1900’s, much like ACORN is today and both are criminal organizations. Those of us protesting are conservatives and lean Republican. The KKK didn’t murder people because they were black, it murdered them because they were Republican. Back in the day, all blacks were Republicans, so black Republicans were easier to identify than white Republicans (who looked just like white Democrats). Now the Democrats and their socialist, liberal friends are simply trying to character assassinate the protesters. We couldn’t care less about race.

    We couldn’t have more contempt for socialism.

    Best regards,
    Gail S