what’s really disheartening about the maya/tori situation on tiktok is seeing maya adopt white supremacist suppression tactics (the fake smiling, tears, and the muting of tori) in their dialogue. to me at least, this just shows that the way non-poc leftists have been centering themselves in the movement of palestinian liberation here in the united states has been not only successful, but welcomed, going off of the reactions to the livestream.
historically, black american activists have been some of palestine’s biggest and longest supporters. activists and diplomats like ralph bunche was critical of the development of israel before they (israel) even declared themselves a state. malcom x was deeply tied to the palestinian cause, eventually visiting gaza before his assassination. james baldwin, angela davis, the black panther party, and more recently, the ferguson protesters have all had close ties and even direct communication with palestinian liberationists. there legitimately has not been a bigger or more vocal group in america for palestinian liberation than black americans as a whole.
the lack of intersectional interest in the face of kamala harris’s campaign has been insane. the assumption that black americans are ignorant to harris’s sins as attorney general is so far from reality that i am genuinely in awe. black americans were more affected by her stances in california than any other minority group, and the assumption that we forgot is so baffling that i am almost speechless. kamala is not a perfect candidate, however, many lgbtq+, black, and disabled folks can recognize that she is the lesser of two evils. neither candidate is ideal, but it is common knowledge that third party candidates have no chance of even denting the polls this close to the election. (for even the smallest chance of a third party candidate winning, we would have to start voting in every election year round, big or small, but that’s a conversation for another day!) so that leaves us with the 2 big party candidates. the american government is so deeply entrenched in the foundations of israel that realistically, this is not a one election catch-all. the best we can do with this election is harm-reduction, not elimination. it is NOT ideal in any way, shape, or form, but it is a base we can develop on. trump is genuinely terrifying for the idea of democracy, and the fact that people equate that whole mess to the harris campaign, is so lacking in common sense that i genuinely had to take a breather. freedom of speech, civil liberty, and the right to protest are in the direct line of fire in this election cycle with the current rise of trumpian laws being put in front of both congress and the supreme court.
intersectionality is based on the idea that we can limit the harm to oppressed people in facing multiple oppressors, NOT having tunnel vision onto one form of oppression, because all oppressive ideologies are inherently linked. a large group of non-poc, pro-palestinian liberation supporters are not grasping the true basis of this mindset, and are actively bringing more harm to the palestinian cause by rejecting a more multi-faceted understanding of how to actually achieve liberation. there is a lack of understanding that we as americans can only support the liberation of palestine. trying to center the idea of palestine’s liberation as something that american activists can only achieve is based in the same ideology of the “white-savior” phenomenon. palestinian people have given us direct ways that they want support, and largely, american supporters have either de-stabilized or suppressed the original outreach and replaced it with more performative activism. the rampant racism, suppression, de-centralization of both black voices and palestinian voices goes directly against the beauty of palestine’s multi-ethnic, religiously diverse, and multi-faceted history as one of the most diverse areas of art, culture and thought in history.
