John Pilger is accused as being a racist

The racist flipside of anti-imperialism
For John Pilger to call Obama an 'Uncle Tom' betrays an ugly contempt for those who refuse his revolutionary romanticism
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* Sunny Hundal
*
o Sunny Hundal
o guardian.co.uk, Sunday November 30 2008 13.00 GMT
o Article history

What do Ralph Nader, John Pilger and Ayman al-Zawahiri have in common?

Before Barack Obama has even taken office or signed a single bill, all three have dismissed him as a sellout by using racial slurs. One might be tempted to say, "at least give the guy a chance," but that would be a futile exercise.

The activist Ralph Nader and documentary filmmaker John Pilger both referred to him as an "Uncle Tom", while, more recently, al-Qaida No 2 al-Zawahiri said Obama was "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X, and lumped Obama together with Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell as "house slaves". Their implication is the same: as Obama is unlikely to follow their radical agenda, he must be condemned as a stooge of the white man.

There would be little point in documenting examples of al-Qaida's own racism against black Muslims in favour of Arabs, since it's hardly an organisation with much credibility on human rights.

But the attitude of far lefties such as John Pilger is no less pernicious because it highlights a patronising attitude towards ethnic minorities. Pilger expects all black and brown people to be revolutionary brothers and sisters, and if they veer away from that stereotype, it can only be because they are pawns of a wider conspiracy. For them, it must be impossible to imagine that ethnic minorities might become successful on their own talents or aspire to be powerful without an obsession with racial solidarity. If anything, it highlights their own need to accentuate racial differences and say the actions of anyone from an ethnic minority should be "true" to their race rather than themselves.

The far left was always going to be disappointed with Obama, because he was, and is, unlikely to follow their radical agenda. But playing the Uncle Tom card is really little different from white racists assuming that an Obama presidency would mean the rebuilding of black militancy or a decline in the country's moral standing. There is an presumption that only these white socialists know what's best for poor ethnic minorities who can't think for themselves.

Some defending Pilger have said that Obama is trying to write black people out of history and adopting the language of the "white ruling classes" of solidarity and patriotism. But this ignores the fact that Obama explicitly brought in that history during his victory speech, tying the civil rights movement to the present by saying that America had a tremendous capacity to renew and change.

The difference between the narrative of old-school socialists and the younger ethnic minority generation is that we don't see everything as a fight between black and white, but rather about looking forward to a shared history. This was Obama's narrative and, eventually, he forced even people like Jesse Jackson to accept that. The world has changed, the British far left has to come to grips with this, as much as the American right does.

The wider problem with commentators such as John Pilger is that they are obsessed by foreign policy issues above everything else. In his article for the New Statesman, Pilger says that Obama will be a continuation of existing American foreign policy and was bad for the "brown-skinned" people of Pakistan (it's race-card extravaganza).

Leave aside the fact that Obama's approach to foreign policy differs in that he was always a big critic of the Iraq war, against Guantánamo Bay and will quickly reverse many of Bush's flagrant violations of domestic and international law; these subtle points are unlikely to trouble Pilger's narrative.

It is more significant that on bigger issues such as the environment and the potential destruction of our planet, Obama sees the need for quick action to reverse the policies of the previous administration. Bush wasn't just a global warming sceptic, he actively encouraged his agencies to fudge the science and spread uncertainty about the extent of global warming. In contrast, Obama has vowed to invest more money into developing energy from renewable sources and is lining up people to do just that. Moreover, he has made a central plank of his plans healthcare, an issue that disproportionately affects African Americans.

But is there any applause? No. Instead, Pilger is obsessed by the fact that Obama is surrounding himself with "Zionists". If Melanie Phillips had complained that Obama was surrounding himself with Muslims, no doubt he would be (rightly) accusing her of bigotry.

If Obama manages to make renewable energy more economically viable and take serious measure to tackle global warming, that will save more "brown-skinned" lives than Pilger would ever care to admit.