The Racist Element of the Bergdahl Trade

quote:

---

I want to make it clear that I’m not criticizing the president for his decision to rescue Bergdahl, but there’s something that the white left is afraid to talk about here. When Obama traded five men of color for one white man – he made a very clear statement about race. He let the entire world know that one white life is worth at least five brown ones, and that is incredibly fricked up and gross and problematic.

Think for a second – if Bush had made that trade, is there any doubt that we would be calling him out for how outrageously racist it was? If a white man had traded five brown men for one white man, we would be quick to see it for what it was – an affirmation of white privilege and power. But, because Obama is a man of color himself, it seems as if no one noticed.

I can only imagine the struggle Obama, a man of people of color, must have felt as he authorized that trade. He was betraying himself – the black part of himself – while simultaneously affirming the privilege and power structures inherent in the white part of himself. The courage it took to make that decision is remarkable, and again, I feel like he made the right choice, but we should really look at this situation and use it as a way to reflect on our cultural attitudes to the devaluation and reductive characterization of colorful men that we objectify through cisrace projections of cultural self-worth.

---

quote:

---

When oppressed people of color process the Bergdahl trade, I imagine they initially feel the same as most white liberals – they’re glad that Obama made a decision that infuriates the right. But when they _ethnically_ process the trade with their minds of color, they can’t help but feel shame. They can’t help but feel betrayed and victimized by a president that is supposed to smash the white supremacist patriarchy that would make this kind of trade in the first place.

---

quote:

---

It’s important to remember that if Bergdahl was not white, he would still be in Taliban hands, and if those “terrorists” at Gitmo had not been men of color, there would not have been any deal. And before you even begin to think about criticizing this standpoint, remember that anything you say in opposition to this just shows your support of both racism and the GOP.

---