The Black Lives Matter movement has pushed the question of which lives matter in the US to the forefront of political discourse. As Gerald Horne notes in his text The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America, the oppression of Black and Indigenous life expanded the profit shares of settler slave traders and slave masters. In fact, as the book argues, the formation of the US was largely a measure to defend the profits of the slave system from the abolitionist pretensions of the British Crown. On July 2nd, just days before Americans celebrated another so-called “independence day,” roughly three hundred Iraqis were killed in a terrorist attack in Baghdad. Predictably, few spoke out for or mourned the slain Iraqi men, women, and children who died in the attack.

Horne's thesis that the US was founded upon a system of slave-driven capitalism and white supremacy still has a profound impact on the American mind today. The idea that white people are superior to the darker peoples of the world remains a founding principle of what is now a thoroughly imperialist society. The rule of white power first justified the conquest of the land and labor of Africans and Native peoples. It was then employed to justify the conquest of lands outside of its borders, from the annexation of Mexico in 1848 to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Under the regime of white supremacy and capitalism, white workers have been exploited for their labor while peoples outside of the spectrum of whiteness have been robbed of their labor and their humanity

So it should not surprise anyone that the lives of Iraqis are disposable to the American psyche. The US has waged endless war in Iraq since 2003, with the occupation ending in 2011. However, the US imperialism has maintained a war by proxy in Iraq cloaked in a farcical crusade against ISIS. The US military and its private contractors have murdered over 1 million Iraqis over this time span. However, few in the US have mourned the lives of Iraqis forced into an early death by the US military state.

The lack of empathy for the victims of imperialism is a phenomenon in the US and the West that spans hundreds of years. White European and American lives have taken precedence over those in what was formally the Third World. The deep social and economic divisions of white supremacy have provided fertile terrain for the super exploitation of Africa, Asia, and Latin America by keeping white workers satisfied with a lesser form of exploitation. Whites have been conditioned to serve as a force of repression. White terror has been historically mobilized to protect the interests of the rich in moments of crisis. Because the US and West is ruled by white power, the lives of the vast majority of the planet have been deemed "collateral" damage in the pursuit of imperial expansion.

In the US, when a Black American is murdered by police, it is assumed by the corporate media that the person's background or behavior provoked the assault. When Syrians are displaced and murdered by terrorists, the blame is placed on the Syrian government or the supposedly inherent sectarianism of Islam in the Middle East. Such blatantly racist assumptions serve to cloud the true character of conditions under imperialism. Racist assumptions dehumanize the colonized victim and affirm the aims of the colonizer. As revolutionary theorist Frantz Fanon explained, the oppressed have been conditioned to view their self-worth from the lens of the oppressor due to the dual character of racial subjugation. War, repression, and exploitation have become daily realities that find grounds of legitimacy in the narrative of racial inferiority forced on the oppressed.

The fate of Black, Iraqi, Syrian, and Libyan lives matter little under such a social arrangement. As long as imperialism exists, it will wield its weapon of white supremacy to justify enslavement to capital. In 2011, Libyans were accused of using Viagra to rape civilians on behalf of then leader Muammar Gaddafi. Meanwhile, the US and the West pumped millions worth in material aid to terrorists that sought the extermination of the Black Libyan population. Tens of thousands were murdered in cold blood in the US-NATO invasion of Libya. Yet no vigils or memorials were held in the US and the West for the mass grave of Libyans produced by the war.

In summary, white makes right in the US and the West. The victims of terrorism in the non-Western world will continue to receive little attention as long as white supremacy remains the prevailing condition in the imperialist countries. No tears should be expected from the forces of imperialism that have trained, funded, and armed terrorists since 1979 to destabilize the Middle East. Terrorism is only a problem when it reaches the shores of white rule.  And the solutions to the problem of terrorism always involve more war and repression against the oppressed.

It is time to shed any and all illusions that the US and Western imperialist system possesses any interests in the well being of the oppressed. The capitalists that control the system only have one aim in mind: unfettered profit accumulation. Under this regime, the entire planet is viewed as a profitable market. White supremacy was instituted in the late 17th century and perfected in the 18th century to maximize profits from African slaves and white workers. It eventually took on global significance in capitalism's great race for colonial expansion.

The imperialist system has reached a dead-end. Trump and similar right wing forces have emerged in the US and Europe to protest the erosion of privileges historically promised to whites from the spoils of white supremacy and Empire. Terrorist attacks have become a near weekly occurrence yet the US and its allies continue to support terrorists to achieve its fundamental objectives in the Middle East. This is not the time to call for equal tears to be shed for Libyans as were shed for the white victims of the mass shootings in Sandy Hook. Now is the time to organize an international movement that fights the imperialist system at the root of terrorism, forcing the further erosion of white supremacy's political and economic legitimacy within the imperialist countries.
This article was written by Danny Haiphong  for American Herald Tribune on July 07, 2016. Danny Haiphong is a activist and radical journalist in the Boston Area.