A proposal to right the wrongs of white supremacy and American imperialism

[John Dule]

It's no secret that, in recent years, Americans have become a little more sensitive to our colonial legacy and our impact on the peoples of the world. We're trying to figure out how to right these wrongs and to lessen the terrible burden of economic inequality that persists between the nations of the world today. At the forefront of this discussion is our historical mistreatment of Indigenous, Latinx, Afro-Diasporatic, and AAPI people.

Today, people from these ethnic groups flock to America in search of better lives-- due to our tight immigration restrictions, they are often forced to do so illegally. We've locked ourselves in an endless debate about the people who try to come to America. How many should we accept? What should we do with the illegal immigrants who are already here? What measures, if any, should we take to limit illegal immigration in the future? On and on it goes. We need to tackle this issue in new, innovative, sustainable ways, using methods that are attuned to the trauma inflicted on black and brown bodies by white supremacy. This got me thinking: What if instead of forcing these people to come to America, we had America come to them?

Think about it: A new infrastructure and development program designed to improve the lives of people living in impoverished countries. I imagine that a good starting place for this program would be Latin America (we could run a pilot program in Puerto Rico before moving on to places like northern Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Venezuela, and Cuba). Essentially, this would involve a massive investment of American capital in developing nations, creating jobs and improving infrastructure. Engineering corps would build paved roads, shipping ports, airports, hospitals, sanitation, and other vital pieces of infrastructure. Following this, the government could incentivize (using tax credits or some kind of other rewards system) American entrepreneurs and workers to relocate to these countries and start businesses. Existing corporations could also open up new sites in these developing countries, providing thousands of people with jobs, money, and capital. American policy advisors could work with local government officials to ensure that these businesses flourish, creating the initial influx of capital necessary to rapidly improve people's living conditions. In this way, the blood money extracted from the Third World by white oppressors would directly return to its native soil, rejuvenating the local population and providing them with upward mobility.

A big part of this would involve investing in education. We could build schools and develop textbooks for these countries, providing People of Color with the skills they need to survive in the modern economy. Of course, this would have to include some lessons in English (sadly it's becoming increasingly necessary to be fluent in English; being bilingual would make it easier for these kids to find jobs in the global market). In doing so, we would also foster goodwill towards America on the global stage-- kids in impoverished countries would grow up seeing America as benevolent and beneficial, and we could teach them about our history in the process.

As time passes and this new generation of #BIPOC leaders comes to power, their countries would prosper due to the new wealth being generated and the stable environment for investment their leadership would create. We could set up freedom-of-movement treaties between our countries like in the EU, allowing people from these countries to easily immigrate to the US (though by this point, we'll have improved their countries to the point that we won't experience a massive influx of refugees). From there, free-trade agreements and other special economic cooperative treaties could be signed. Who knows? Maybe after a couple generations, these countries would be interested in fully "tying the knot" and becoming US states. That way, we could truly bring the American dream directly to everyone-- not just those who risk their lives coming here.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

 

[John Dule]

Imagine a place where aspiring young leaders could go. A place to learn about ethical leadership, democracy, and the uncertain and complex security challenges of the Western Hemisphere. A place where training promotes innovative critical thinking built on basic respect for human rights. It would be a sort of school, you might even call it a School of the Americas.

Wow, that sounds like a really good idea. Has it been done?

Anyway, this reads like someone has seen the new and widely-shared PR video from the CIA.

Good point, and I neglected to mention this-- the CIA and other intelligence agencies would surely have a part to play in all this. The sad truth is that many people leave these countries because they're controlled by dictators and strongmen (not unlike Drumpfh). These dictators have no interest in changing the status quo because they profit from the extractive resource model and have no incentive to switch to a system where resources are more evenly distributed. We could probably find some way to use our intelligence agencies to destabilize or even remove these leaders from power-- freeing POCs from the control of a lunatic dictator is an important first step towards improving the lives of POC across the globe.

[Diabolical Materialism]

You're a funny guy John, I'll put in a good word with the gulag commissioner when the time comes.

[PSOL]

Your submission has been received into the thousand flowers commission. We will let you and other intellectual thinkers know of what is to come shortly after we build specialized reeducation camps schools to synthesize Dule High-Moraen thought.

[Damocles]

This proposal has much in common with Romer’s charter city concept, but all attempts at implementing that have fallen flat on their face. How, specifically, is this different?

[John Dule]

This proposal has much in common with Romer’s charter city concept, but all attempts at implementing that have fallen flat on their face. How, specifically, is this different?

That's a bad proposal, mostly because the primary issue in Africa and Central America is related to infrastructure. Our number one priority should be building modern road networks to help capital move to the places that most need it, not building one single isolated modern city.