It is our lie, our defining lie, the pretend humanism of the west. For those of us living in the imperial core and its appendages, this lie can permeate our minds so deep that it can infect even our purest thoughts of decolonialization.  Here in the west the issue is we are both paralyzed by our guilt and led by our hubris, and to me this combination has made calls for international liberation coming from the west ring hollow. This essay is as much a letter to myself as it is to anyone reading and I hope it serves as a reminder of what it means decolonial in our thoughts and actions. To be a reliable anti-imperialist I am learning that I must first decenter myself in my own guilt. This writing serves as an attempt at that. 

Here in the US we are in the throes of fascist regime that can trace its legacy to scattered landmines in Cambodia and chained Black bodies across the African continent. Despite this long standing tradition of imperial terror and violence it seems that at this moment we in the west are under equipped to deal with the multifront fire that we know as our current reality. Western powers like Britain and Germany are suppressing speech that is at all critical of Israel or it’s genocide of the Palestians. All the while the ongoing genocides in Sudan and The Congo are receiving little to no media attention. Even as I highlight both of those facts in this writing, I sit with the contradiction of typing these words on a device that’s existence has contributed to the deaths of countless  numbers of people all across the global south. It is in that contradiction that I remember that we are no saviors to the global south. Oppressed people free themselves and it is on us to support them in their efforts. Revolutions are not defined by the bystanders. This is the primary point I wish to discuss, how do we as  anti-imperalist living in the west become better allies and engage in actual solidarity and at what point are we doing more harm than good?

A guilty conscience does not make an anti imperialist. Our culpability in the crimes of the west does not begin and end at our own complaints. Understanding our complicity in the harm done to people in the global south is much different than throwing proverbially pity parties for ourselves about how engrained these systems of oppression are. True libratory spirit comes in the form of understanding our role in the liberation of the global south. Most important to understanding this role is the realization that we are not saviors. While this may seem obvious enough to those of us who have taken the time to understand decolonial mindsets it is important to reassert this fact every chance we get. One of the most deceptive ways that colonialism persists in the mind is by relying on colonial thinking baked into every aspect of culture in the west. 

A big part of this stems from Liberalism. As the guiding principal for the west,  Liberalism allows kindness to be commodifiable. It’s not enough to do the right thing, it is being seen doing the right thing that holds social value. This does not mean that every act for good done in the public eye is cynical or that we should view it that way, but it does mean that in the liberal system being seen doing good things is a form of social currency, one that can be spent when the time comes.  While we often decry the harmful impact of irony on our current society. It is notable that a lot of what we call cringe was simply the performance of niceties. For example, much of the content and discussion that came out of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US showed a false care for Black death. The Democratic party kneeled in kente cloth and then proceeded to give millions to police departments around the country. This “betrayal” ultimately propelled a negative wave of backlash because it was very clear that most of this was done for the sake of performance.Of course it is easy to look at a centre-right party like the Democrats and expect this behavior but this moment showed a fundamental flaw in the way we approach issues in the west.

The fact that so much of the language and messaging around the BLM Uprising was so easily co-opted and watered down by Liberals is the exact reason that this word of warning to decolonial protest movements to the west is so crucial. If we are Decolonial and abolitionist in our hearts we can not succumb to despair nor can we wrap ourselves in the false illusions of niceties that the liberal system provides us to wipe our conscience clean. Liberation is a discipline, Liberalism is an addiction.  

Liberals are able to keep us from achieving any true progress because fundamentally they understand something we may not. That is the difference between an organized people and a mobilized people. What Liberalism is exceptional at providing (to soothe the mind of would be revolutionary) is the futile state of mobilization without organization. They know how to keep us spinning our wheels on a road designed to take us nowhere.  In the words of Kwame Ture “no gains made by a mobilized people can be maintained” and it is in that sentiment that we find the greatest aspect of our failures towards the oppressed people of the global south.  We here in the west have been in a perpetual state of mobilization  and it has allowed the US empire to commit atrocity after atrocity to people around the globe.

The imperialist will use the very mobilization they allow (knowing it is of little consequence) to justify its dominance over “inferior” cultures. This sleight of hand has been deployed and worked in the wake of every unjustifiable crime the US Empire has committed including the most recent war of death in Iran. The best way to combat this is to understand the principles we are organizing around and specifically for us in the west that principle can not be savorism. That mindset undercuts the belief that the people we are advocating for have the ability to be self determinate and also ignores the on the ground realities that our peers see for themselves. This does not mean we fall into the trap of allowing monied interest to prop up talking heads who will spout pro-imperalist talking points, but just that we trust the revolutionaries of the world with their own struggle. The discipline found in an organized western left would be able to differentiate  between the two simply by identifying the actions these individuals take and who they actually serve. 

The mentality for many of us in the west seems to be if we aren’t in charge we aren’t involved. We play very fast in loose with our ideologies surrounding liberation and it is in that last arrogant western mindset that must be overcome to call ourselves friends to the oppressed. Decolonization starts in the mind and from there can order our steps towards a liberated world. We in the west are not leading the world to a decolonized future even if we deconstruct the lingering colonial mindsets we hold.  The oppressed will be the guides and the maps that show us a better world. An organized western left that understands our role not as savior but as comrade is the way to the international liberation we want and it’s a future that is possible.