By Jugraj Singh
“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.”-Karl Marx
Gina “Conviction” Carano’s conscience and political awareness are threatening to destroy her glamorous career. For those who may not know, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees five freedoms: the right to peaceful assembly, the right to petition, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and one other freedom which is difficult to remember—oh right, freedom of speech.
In the times that we are living in today, freedom of speech is certainly not guaranteed. For the opportunist, figuring out what the people in power want to hear can be very lucrative. On the other hand, saying anything that challenges the narrative of the ruling capitalist elite can ruin a career, as could happen to Ms. Carano. So, one must be very cautious as to what they say.
Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy (aka Tail-Gunner Joe) became infamous for destroying the careers and lives of many politicians, actors and intellectuals whom he would label as being communist, without virtually ever being able to prove it. In the current scenario, roles are reversed as liberals are creating a similar political climate, and instead of leftists being targeted by a Republican, former President Trump, his supporters and non-liberal opinion holders are being targeted by Democrats: McCarthyism 2.0. Anyone who challenges the narrative of the party in power or says anything remotely in support or defense of Mr. Trump or the right cannot be tolerated and must be persecuted. Although it appears that the American capitalist elite are apolitical, they are opportunists who generally support whichever party controls the white house. Ironically, this was not the case with Mr. Trump because the elite felt that since he was a pure capitalist and not a career politician, he was bad for their business—no Honor among thieves?
Nike, an American sports company, was quick to jump on the BLM (Bourgeois Lives—wait—Black Lives Matter) movement bandwagon because it was more profitable to do so than to remain neutral or join the opposing, pro-establishment side; a literally opposite movement could have been made as well, WDDM (White Deaths Don’t Matter…?). This is quite hypocritical of Nike since they are the same company suspected of exploiting factory workers in third world countries for decades, beginning in 1970. In 1991, Jeff Ballinger, a human rights activist, published a report about Nike paying low wages and having bad working conditions in its factories in Indonesia (“Sweatshop labor”). According to the report, one worker was paid $0.14/hr (14 cents an hour); Indonesian factory worker lives probably do matter somewhat to Nike, since it is much more difficult to make dead people work. So Nike exploited poor people in third world countries for decades and got away with it—but who cares, right? Disney has taken a decidedly better course.
The 1941 cartoon film Dumbo starred a group of crows, with the main character named Jim Crow and voiced by a white actor, Clifton Avon Edwards. Disney deliberately chose the name Jim Crow in support of segregation laws. The voices of the other crows were provided by Hall Johnson Choir, a black religious choir. The crows are a terrible stereotype of black people. In 1993, the lyrics of “Arabian Nights” from the 1992 film Aladdin were changed because they promoted stereotypes against Arab people. The original lyrics were “Where they cut off your ear/If they don’t like your face/It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.” These lyrics were changed to “Where it’s flat and immense/And the heat is intense/It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.” I thank the website Zimbio and their writers for their research.
So while Disney justified firing Ms. Carano for “denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities,” to my knowledge, they have never apologized for their racist depiction and denigration of black or Arab culture and religious identity, nor have they received any reprimand. Disney did the next best thing in dealing with the crows issue by sweeping it under a rug; Tim Burton’s 2019 remake of Dumbo does not feature any scene of the crows and the original version of the film on Disney+ starts with a brief warning message that reads as if it were written by a group of people like Mr. C. Montgomery Burns from The Simpsons with a sprinkle of token minorities (aka Diversity Hires) to aid them. How convenient for Disney to get away with racial and religious denigration while wrongfully and unjustly throwing Ms. Carano under the bus; the pot calling the kettle…
The only American corporate capitalist to speak truthfully about how he felt regarding BLM was Mr. CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman; if only he had kept quiet, lied, or done as Nike, Disney and other companies had done, he may not have lost his job. By socially and economically distancing itself from Ms. Carano, Disney has protected its business interests over respecting her freedom of speech. The pearls of wisdom which Ms. Carano can take away from this ordeal are 1. sell out to the establishment, 2. do not threaten the interests of the capitalist elite, and 3. keep your mouth shut (or at least don’t share your opinion publicly) especially if it will not be favored by the party and people in power (read Uncle Geriatric Joe and dear Aunt Kamala).
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”-George Orwell
A few years ago, I read a very well-written article by the eminent columnist S. Nihal Singh about Germans and the Holocaust. His main argument was that there should be a time limit on how long the Jewish community can hold the generations born after World War 2 responsible for Nazism, and that this should not go on indefinitely. I bring this up because of the Holocaust, which Ms. Carano used as a comparison to the current situation of being hated for having a non-liberal or pro-Democrat (read Republican) political view in America to being hated for being Jewish in Nazi Germany; and the more dangerous point of state repression of dissent and/or minorities beginning not outrightly by the state, but by the state encouraging people (neighbors) to hate them.
Whether she really feels this way or if this was to draw attention to the unfortunate reality of political intolerance, and the very real fear of persecution for differing political views, which is not just an American but a worldwide phenomenon, needs clarification. Should Ms. Carano have stuck with a vague reference to the Holocaust and said something less controversial like “Nazism began with intolerance and hatred for differences”? I think that she did the right thing. In fact, we should commend her effort to educate an increasingly ignorant population. I shudder to think how many people can find Germany on an unlabeled world map.
A serious problem regarding the Holocaust is its politicalization and concerted efforts to make it appear that only Jewish people were targeted. Yehuda Bauer, an Israeli Historian and Chairman of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, estimates that while close to 6 million Jewish people died in the Holocaust, either 29 or 35 million (almost 5 or 6 times more) non-Jews were killed by the Nazis during World War 2. Clearly, it is irresponsible and unfair to say that only one community was persecuted by the Nazis or that the entire Holocaust belongs only to them.
Apart from the history and geography lessons, the bigger point is that by way of a historical example, Ms. Carano has attempted to universalize history from belonging to one group of people (this is my history, bro) to all people (this is our history, bros), and has provided a warning in advance, akin to the proverbial canary in a coal mine; history teaches us that if present trends remain, what begins with silencing political dissent non-violently (firing people from their jobs, etc) can end in violence of varying magnitude. Had roles been reversed (Ms. Carano being a liberal/Democrat supporter under a Republican administration), the outcome would probably have been similar. American corporate capitalists do not want workers to have opinions, especially strong opinions, since such opinions run the risk of hurting their profits.
My views on the Black Lives Matter movement are that economics are above race. Being rich and black can be forgiven by the establishment, whereas being poor and black cannot. The lives of two famous and rich, black boxing champions, George Foreman (net worth $200 million) and Floyd Mayweather Jr. (net worth between $560 million and $1 billion) and the life of track legend Flo Jo Florence Griffith-Joyner (net worth $1.8 million) did matter to the establishment, while tragically, the life of a poor black man, Geo Flo George Floyd, did not (he died because he did not have $20.00 to pay for groceries).
It is my hope that my views are not misinterpreted as being against any particular political party or religion as I try my best to dislike all political parties and organized religions equally. I will remain indebted to the Jewish community for providing me with approximately four treasures: Karl Marx, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, and one-half of Lenny Kravitz.
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”-Albert Einstein
I first learned about Gina Joy Carano when she was featured in ESPN magazine and remember seeing her in Michael Jai White’s film Blood and Bone. Since then, it was quickly apparent that in addition to being a phenomenal martial artist and elite athlete, she is talented and intellectual. A few months ago, I watched the first season of the Disney Star Wars show that she was a part of, which I like to call The Nelson Mandalorian.
I was shocked at Disney’s hypocrisy in supporting writer and director Rick Famuyiwa with his anti-Vietnam War views. In Chapter 15, The Believer, one of the last episodes of the season, the comedian Bill Burr makes an appearance again as Migs Mayfield, a former soldier of the Empire who like many American soldiers who served in Vietnam, questions the purpose of the war and struggles with having taken part in committing atrocities, only to be abandoned by the establishment. The episode was almost entirely political and it was grotesquely obvious that the writers were protesting American intervention in the Vietnam War. A horrific conclusion is reached during a meeting with Valin Hess, Mayfield’s former commanding officer. It is anyone’s guess which American military officer Hess is supposed to represent, although I think Hess draws inspiration from the war criminal Second Lieutenant William Laws Calley Jr., who was responsible for the My Lai Massacre. After arguing with Hess and becoming increasingly angered, Mayfield murders him.
How and why Disney allowed the glorification of this violent act is as shocking as the fact that most mainstream media conveniently chose to remain silent about it. What was even more shocking was that I watched the show with two middle aged Americans, one college educated and the other a post-graduate, and neither understood the political commentary that the writers had made and had no idea that the entire episode was a criticism of and protest against the Vietnam War; ignorance is bliss. From my experiences, I have concluded that to succeed in America, the establishment requires slightly above average intelligence and intellect is neither appreciated nor encouraged, even worse intellect is unnecessary.
Disney’s support for an anti-Vietnam war message, which is anti-establishment, but punishing Ms. Carano for expressing an opinion which is anti-establishment, is hypocritical. What I admire most about Ms. Carano is that she is a sincere martial artist and has the courage to say and stand up for what she thinks; knowing well that doing so will only lead to punishment and repression by the establishment. I am reminded of an excerpt from Charlie Chaplin’s autobiography and his statement after Director of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover and the INS revoked his re-entry permit to the US; we should all think about this and make sure that history does not repeat itself:
“Friends have asked how I came to engender this American antagonism. My prodigious sin was, and still is, being a non-conformist. Although I am not a Communist I refused to fall in line by hating them.
Secondly, I was opposed to the Committee on Un-American Activities, a dishonest phrase to begin with, elastic enough to wrap around the throat and strangle the voice of any American citizen whose honest opinion is a minority of one.”
“… Since the end of the last world war, I have been the object of lies and propaganda by powerful reactionary groups who, by their influence and by the aid of America’s yellow press, have created an unhealthy atmosphere in which liberal-minded individuals can be singled out and persecuted. Under these conditions I find it virtually impossible to continue my motion-picture work, and I have therefore given up my residence in the United States.” -Charlie Chaplin
Jugraj Singh, MD MHA, is a BC-based writer.
