There are perceptible signs of a change in Era, such as the escalation of intolerance: human predators are intensifying their ferocity against other humans. It is saddening that, in this century, they base their animosity on arbitrary perceptions -race, origin, culture- irrational subterfuges as simple as the fear of the other. Just like the ancestral cave reactions: in moments of distress, reason is cast aside and primal instincts take precedence. It is timely to remember the false accusation and unjust conviction of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, which caused the exacerbated wave of antisemitic hatred that shocked France at the end of the 19th century. The moral stature of writers like Émile Zola (his famous plea 'I accuse' still holds relevance), Anatole France, Marcel Proust and others revealed the corruption and arbitrariness that marked such 'affaire', foreshadowing the catastrophe that would devastate the world three decades later.
Current phenomena demonstrate that supremacism did not fade, it only mutated. Signs of the resurgence of powers that, for the last five centuries, have sought to subdue, if not eradicate, any different identity. Paraphrasing the ironic expression of the late Mario Vargas Llosa, we are witnessing a new campaign for the “extinction of the barbarians.” With black individuals making up only 13% of the US population, 36% of the 546,000 missing persons there in 2022 were women and young African Americans; it approaches 40% when including males. An alarming statistic, a pristine reflection of the latent structural inequality beneath the veneer of proclaimed equality. The reaction is not equivalent when a white person goes missing. Although necessary, the 'ebony alert' implemented in California, widely disseminated, is perceived as a late measure in the face of tragic realities that are usually silenced.
Accustomed to being dehumanised, criminalised and sidelined by their society and not a few official institutions, for African Americans it is purely a matter of mindset. Supremacists hung hoods and crosses; they do not illuminate the night with grim flames beneath the oak from which a lynched black person hangs. Today they wear tailored suits, legislate or patrol the streets among a negligent 'silent majority' that is indifferent. Subtleties of 'political correctness': in North America, in Europe, right here. Can one then be surprised by the radicalisation of the decolonial discourse?♦