Some are born blind, some get afflicted with blindness, and some blindfold themselves. Liberals, intellectuals, and media Brahmins belong to the third category. Their perception of and perspective about the riots in the United States (which they conflate with ‘protests’) underline their blindfoldedness, making them descendants of the Mahabharata character, Gandhari.
This is not to say that nothing wrong has happened. There was justifiable outrage in the United States in the wake of the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in police custody in Minneapolis. The 46-year-old Floyd died when a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck. By any reckoning, Chauvin’s behavior was brutal, for which he has been duly charged with murder.
Floyd’s death has been universally mourned and his killing condemned. As we mentioned earlier (<a href="https://indianarrative.com/opinion/anti-trump-bigots-fuel-riots-in-us-raise-bugbear-of-racism-2709.html">https://indianarrative.com/opinion/anti-trump-bigots-fuel-riots-in-us-raise-bugbear-of-racism-2709.html</a>), not a single politician or public figure has defended Chauvin’s action in any fashion; nobody has shielded him or even tried to shield him, by citing attenuating circumstances. Yet, the so-called protesters are crying about systemic racism.
The radical Left has been peddling the mendacious and mischievous notions of racism for quite some time; it has made the entire liberal establishment softheaded, practically transmuting them into a bunch of naïve, gullible men and women who blindly follow radicals. Liberals have become putty—manipulable, malleable—in the hands of the organizers of the racist movement, Black Lives Matter, which has been resurrected.
Founded in 2013, according to their website, their mission is to “eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives.”
They also claim to be fighting systemic racism.
However, there is no such thing as white supremacy—not in the US Constitution and laws, at any rate. Racist feelings are there, but then there are also casteist feelings in India, religious and ethnic biases elsewhere. This doesn’t mean that there is systemic Brahmin or upper caste supremacy in India. There are individual cases of caste and religious prejudice, but that doesn’t qualify as systemic casteism.
Similarly, there is no systemic racism in America, the country that elected a black president twice in recent memory.
Even in law enforcement, data show that a black cop is more likely to kill a black suspect than a white cop. But all such facts are ignored by the mainstream media, liberals, and celebrities who are supporting BLM. They just don’t want to see evil, just like Gandhari.
In the <em>Mahabharata</em>, Gandhari was the queen of Dhritrashtra, who was born blind. As a token of loyalty to her husband, she decided to blindfold herself. Dhritrashtra was blind, not only literally but also figuratively: he could not see the evil deeds of his sons Duryodhan and Duhshashan. But Gandhari’s blindness was no less profound: she chose not to see the misdemeanors of her sons.
Liberals, intellectuals, and celebrities are the veritable descendants of Gandhari.
Picture courtesy: Wikimedia.org.
