In the United States, and a challenge for people within the Imperial Core, is that you have been told your entire lives that your enemy is outside of Empire, that it is some other entity, country, and people against you.
If you grew up outside the Imperial Core as a country, territory, or people that have been colonized by those Empires, or when you are the people that Empire colonized and oppressed to create that very Empire (for the United States Empire that would be Indigenous and Black people, for instance), then it is unmistakable to you that Empire is the enemy.
Those are two different realities. Outside and Inside understanding.
Empire tells you that the countries and territories they are attacking and colonizing are the “enemies,” while those that have, or are being, colonized understand that Empire is the enemy. There is an enormous gap and difference because one is a carefully fabricated threat, and the other is an entirely visceral and present one. Empire is very much the real threat, not the countries, people, and territories that they are colonizing or trying to colonize.
When you grow up or live primarily outside the Imperial Core in a country or territory that has been colonized by Empire, you have a crystal clear understanding of what oppression is and who the oppressors are.
When you grow up inside Empire, the list of enemies that you are given is manufactured and concocted to be the list that Empire wants to colonize. Therefore, if you fall within the Imperial Core, it is all too easy to not know who you should be actually fighting against.
You are told you need to hate or disdain those colonies, territories, and people that the Imperial Core wants to control, instead of understanding that the fight should be against the Imperial Core itself. They make you lose touch.
It is easier for those outside of the Imperial Core to understand who they need to fight against and what they need to fight it. It is harder for those inside of the Imperial Core to have that understanding.
This is also why it is imperative to listen to the people who are the most impacted and oppressed. Because of those centuries of work by those outside of the Imperial Core, those inside are finally beginning to understand that the ones you are up against are not the ones that Empire told you are your enemies. But it is where you are in, yourself.
Innies and Outies, unite.
And once you understand this and focus on it, you are almost there.
Fracture, dismantle, topple, end.
Comments are closed.