This is a very emotional, angry and incorrect take from someone who claims to call themselves a communist. If you're going to speak on these topics, it's better to do actual research yourself and understand how imperialism, privilege and global north/south relations work beforehand. There is nothing contradictory about acknowledging that racialized minorities in the U.S. face oppression while recognizing and acknowledging that they possess imperial privileges by virtue of being U.S. citizens.
First off, it seems you do not understand the term yankee.
...and as WE all know, americans are all yankees...
Yes, this is correct. You frame this sarcastically, like its actually false, but you're wrong. Yankee refers to United States Americans, so yes, all americans by definition are yankees. Yankee as a term was originally used by the British to refer to colonists and has shifted outside the U.S. to refer to all americans, regardless of identity. Native americans are yankees, black americans are yankees, white americans are yankees, etc.
Secondly, you seem to misunderstand imperialism and how it relates to privilege.
...native americans actually benefit from imperialism because they are american...
...BLACK PEOPLE ARE AMERICAN BEFORE THEY ARE BLACK!...
Again, this is said sarcastically, but it is in fact true. Native and black americans are not somehow excluded from the material benefits produced by U.S. imperialism simply because they deal with racial oppression. They, like any other racial or ethnic group in the U.S., have access to wealth produced abroad. They have access to infrastructure, consumption, wages, institutions and other material benefits that come with living in the wealthiest imperialist state in the world. They consume goods produced through extremely cheap labor, they have higher average wages and better food quality than those outside the U.S., and they have access to a standard of living and purchasing power that is partly maintained by the unequal relationship between the imperial core and the Global South. That doesn't mean they benefit to the same degree as wealthy white Americans or that they aren't oppressed themselves. It means that their domestic position does not somehow remove them from the broader imperial system.
They can also both directly participate in imperialism via the military. While white americans remain the majority in the military, black and native americans have historically high and disproportionate rates of military participation.
Nearly 19% of native americans since 9/11 have served compared to an average of 14% of all other ethnic groups.
Native Americans Leave Profound Impact on the Military - Team Rubicon
American Indian Veterans Have Highest Record of Military Service
Black americans have historically served at a rate higher than their representation in the general population. In the 2020s, nearly 18% of all military personnel were black americans compared to the population of roughly 12.5%.
Black Americans and Military Service | History | Research Starters | EBSCO Research
These groups still serve in institutions that pillage, rape and kill global southerners for U.S. benefit. This is a prime example of the benefits you get as an american citizen, regardless of your race. The military is a tool that helps to project U.S. power internationally, and joining it gives you access to education, wealth, health and other material benefits that the global south does not benefit from. More broadly, the U.S. population benefits from the country's position as an imperial power through things like access to globally produced commodities, capital, infrastructure, and relatively high incomes compared with many countries in the global south.
And additionally, the conditions native americans face is not proof that they do not benefit from imperialism. Poverty, dispossession, inadequate infrastructure, and political marginalization are extremely common conditions throughout the global south. The conditions they face are not even remotely unique, and even the worst conditions of those living in the U.S. are miles better than those living outside it. A person in the US can experience extreme poverty, but they are still living within a state with functioning infrastructure, relatively extensive access to electricity, clean water, food distribution, hospitals, transportation, and other resources that are simply unavailable or severely restricted in places subjected to war, occupation, or extreme underdevelopment. Look at Gaza, for example, where people have faced the destruction of homes, hospitals, schools, water systems, electricity infrastructure, and access to basic necessities on a scale that simply isn't comparable to ordinary homelessness in the US. That is clear cut example of the benefit of living in the U.S.
The point here is that domestic oppression does not somehow remove someone from the material benefits of living within the imperial core. A person can be exploited and marginalized by the US state while simultaneously benefiting from the wealth, infrastructure, resources, and global position that the US derives from its relationship with the Global South. These things are not mutually exclusive and pretending that they are is exactly what ignores the broader relationship between domestic conditions and imperialism. I'd ask of you in the future to be more reflective before posting such inflammatory and incorrect statements so confidently when it's clear you do not truly understand these relations.
