How the Right Uses People of Color to Foster Racism

By Margaret Kimberly, Black Agenda Report. Posted April 4, 2007.

White supremacy, sensing the need to repackage itself for consumption in polite company, partially fills the demand for racist bile by outsourcing to mercenary writers of color. Michelle Malkin and Dinesh D'Souza -- of Filipino and Indian descent, respectively -- are top guns of the genre, ever eager to slander non-whites, especially Blacks, as threats to Euro-American white "civilization."

For premium fees, Malkin and D'Souza act as trusted Gunga Dins and shock troops for fascism. The corporate media makes advocates of racism and white American supremacy very rich. American racism also gives certain non-white people advantages. They are able to escape the indignity that black Americans face. They are then able to disassociate themselves and become allies with the very worst and most dangerous aspects of political life in this country.

Michelle Malkin, born Michelle Maglalang, is a dark skinned Filipino-American who loves the worst that white American civilization has to offer. Malkin is a darling of the right wing, a blogger and author who is eager to advocate invading other nations, and spewing hatred of immigrants in general and of Muslims in particular.

Malkin constantly rails against immigration, complaining about "drive by" and "accidental" citizenship attained by the children of immigrants who she and others label "anchor" and "jackpot" babies.

Malkin never told her loyal readership that her father came to the United States in 1970 on a temporary work visa. She was born in October 1970. Malkin is herself a jackpot baby, given automatic citizenship when her parents were not even permanent residents. The truth may set you free, but it doesn't get you on Fox news.

In 2002 Malkin wrote that the internment of thousands of Japanese-Americans was "wrong and abhorrent." Who knows if she ever believed those words, but times changed quickly and there was a book deal waiting for an Asian who would approve past and future efforts to profile and then incarcerate non-white people.

Malkin is not just a self-hating Asian. She is a two-faced liar, having condemned Japanese internment just two years before defending it in print. In 2004 she wrote In Defense of Internment: The Case for "Racial Profiling" in World War II and the War on Terror. When racists fantasized about interning Arabs, she helped provide ammunition:

Make no mistake: I am not advocating rounding up all Arabs or Muslims and tossing them into camps, but when we are under attack, 'racial profiling' -- or more precisely, threat profiling -- is justified. It is unfortunate that well-intentioned Arabs and Muslims might be burdened because of terrorists who share their race, nationality or religion. But any inconvenience, no matter how bothersome or offensive, is preferable to being incinerated at your office desk by a flaming hijacked plane.

White people are never "inconvenienced" by raced based incarceration, even though there are white domestic terrorists, serial killers, and shooters in schools. Apparently Malkin thinks that is just fine.

Common sense makes it obvious that Malkin's dark skin has been problematic for her and she admits as much. "Here are some of the racial epithets I've been called in my lifetime: Chink. Gook. Jap. Nigger. Slant eyes. Dog-eater." She also suffered the color consciousness created by European colonialism:

Back in the Philippines, upscale restaurants refuse to hire natives with skin darker than sand. The movie industry promotes model 'mestizos' and 'Maria Claras' -- pale as paper due to the blanching effect of Spanish blood. Lighter-skinned cousins mocked me as 'The Brownie.' Pitying aunties suggested rubbing my skin with pumice stones for a more desirable complexion.

Malkin could have used these painful experiences to fight against racism, but that is a much tougher way to live and to get paid. Being a mouth piece for white/right America is a more certain path to a fat bank account.

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Margaret Kimberley is a freelance writer living in New York City. She also maintains the Freedom Rider blog.

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