What undergirded the killings, the beatings, and the mass starvation in Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia was the melding of ethnic identity with political ideology. During Pot’s reign Cambodians were able to enjoy all of the economic misery of Communism along with Rwandan style genocide.
Native, brown-skinned, peasant Khmers were at the top of the ethnic hierarchy. The only way they could slide down was if they openly questioned Communism or the regime.
Lighter skinned Vietnamese were at the bottom because of centuries old antagonism over territory. The Vietnamese weren’t considered true Communists because they could never be Khmer. They had no way of moving up the ladder. Their only hope was to escape the country.
Fitting the “Look [like a] Khmer but think [like a] Vietnamese” description meant you were getting shot in the face.
Other ethnic groups were under suspicion for either their religion (the Chams were Muslim) or their income (the Chinese tended to be more entrepreneurial and assumed to be wealthy). Their only salvation was to fully embrace Communism and the regime.
How did the rigid melding of political identity with racial/ethic identity end?
Like this:
Cham - 90,000 killed out of a population of 250,000
Chinese [urban] - 215,000 killed out of a population of 430,000
Lao - 4,000 killed out of a population of 10,000
Thai - 8,000 killed out of a population of 20,000
Vietnamese [rural] - 10,000 killed out of a population of 10,000
Vietnamese [urban] - 10,000 killed out of a population of 10,000
Other minorities - 9,000 killed out of a population of 60,000
[From The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia Under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-1979 here are the approximate death tolls by ethnic group under Pol Pot.]
When the mentally disheveled people who run our politics label people such as Clarence Thomas, Winsome Sears,, Candace Owens, Dave Chapelle, Nicki Minaj, Kyrie Irving, Mark Robinson, and Letitia Wright as supporters of white supremacy they are echoing the politics of the Khmer Rouge.
Vote for Joe or you ain’t black wasn’t merely an insulting gaffe. It was a threat: be black the way we define it or else. And the way the Left views American blacks is as aliens who are ignorant of and hostile to American institutions.
The crime of looking black but voting Right isn’t punishable by law (yet) but it is punishable by ostracism. Look at the hit piece the Washington Post did on Royce White just for having non-Leftist views.
Want to participate in black civic organizations? Actively support the Left.
Want to run for office? Democrat ticket only. If you run as a Republican you’re out and it’s open season for racists to batter you.
POL POT’S AMERICA
I’ve been thinking about Pol Pot and his reign in Cambodia quite a bit lately. Mainly for how that regime was built on policing the thoughts of ethnic Khmers and eliminating every other group. We think Communism is built on power and economics. The Khmer Rouge showed it could accommodate maniacal bigotry as well.
But another reason I’ve gone back to read about Cambodia is the mystery that surrounded fall from a constitutional monarchy to a Communist tyranny. In the early 1970s the average person in Cambodia didn’t know who was running the revolution overtaking their nation. The leaders of the insurgency went by noms de guerre such as Brother #1 or Brother #2. Even after the Communists took over in 1975 it wasn’t clear who was in charge of the new government. Not until a year into the new regime did the world know for sure that Pol Pot (born Saloth Sar) was the head Commie in charge.
Obviously, the fading Joe Biden is not charge of this regime. He is the head of state but not the head of the gang. His is the mouth that spews the venom others in the background hold. We need to take the charged racial epithets seriously.
We are beyond the old catcalls of Uncle Tom the Left used to hurl at independent thinking blacks. We’re in deeper waters now. I noticed the change during the Antifa/Black Lives riots of 2020. I was living in downtown Minneapolis when the riots hit (there were more than one although the media only reported one). It was very clear that the agitators were violent white Leftists and it was striking how the part of town they populated went on with life as usual while one of the two black sections of town was destroyed. Black owned businesses were burned down. Blacks who objected were silenced.
It went on like that across the country. I watched the videos of white kids spitting on black cops and calling them Nigger and saying they weren’t really black. If we didn’t burn down our neighborhoods over Trump – the White Left did. If we didn’t firebomb and graffiti our businesses in the name of a career criminal and drug addict - the White Left did. If we didn’t racially slur and shoot rockets at black cops - the White Left did. The message was clear - hate America the way blacks are supposed to or we’ll do it for you. There is no room for look black, think American.
OPERATION HUSH
The vicious riots and vilifying of all police has had a devastating effect on black communities. We are in the second year of a massive surge in murder and other crimes. With black political leadership defaulted to the priorities of the White Left there is no break on the downward trajectory of black neighborhoods. You notice the absence in the fact that there are no national black voices speaking out about the gang warfare, drug trade, and murders of innocent children taking place. The political reward for filling that lane is obvious yet no one has gone for the prize.
I find the silence of black pols regarding gangs, drugs, murder, and the Biden administration working on handing bags of cash to illegal aliens for “family separation” extremely curious. I’ve been black for 53 years, so I know black people, it is almost impossible to make us shut up. What is the threat or promise that is working the miracle of hushed black mouths in the face of calamity?
The Left has long worked on keeping blacks separated from their citizenship. It has moved on to separating blacks from their ethnicity. There will be only one way of being black. I hope I am wrong but I think we are on a path where dissent will become physically dangerous.
The recent attack on Dave Chappelle was deemed an attack on comedy. I’m not so sure. I think what we saw at the Hollywood Bowl was a preview of a new way of policing the black community. We’ll be able to shoot off anything except our mouths.