The vile inequality of equality

Irsquom worried about America Not South America which is going down the drain quite well by itself without help Not Canada which has managed to stay a cool dude Not Mexico either because why on earth Itrsquos that big selfconscious country called the United States of America land of the free and home of the braveIrsquom worried specifically about their Declaration of Independence carefully crafted in 1776 at the beginning of the American Revolution by Thomas Jefferson ldquoWe hold these truths to be selfevident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life Liberty and the pursuit of HappinessrdquoWhat worries me in that declaration is the bit about all men being created equal Did Jefferson really mean all American men are created equal It is difficult to imagine an American in 2021 holding a Chinese Russian Arabian or Indian human being as their peer Even Americarsquos cousins ldquoacross the pondrdquo the British are regarded as being a few pegs lower After all America was built by Britons who broke away from Britain Prime Minister Tony Blair was famously known as George W Bushrsquos pet poodleThere was a memorable demonstration of highpitched American superiority at Dubai International Airport once when I and several hundred other tired passengers were waiting to board a packed plane to somewhere There was a sudden commotion and a lanky bearded gingerhaired white man with a backpack became visible shoving his way past the queued passengers shouting ldquoLet me through Irsquom an AmericanrdquoBehind him perfectly mimicking his flapping movements was a slightly taller coalblack Somali man chiming shrilly ldquoLemme through Irsquommarsquomericanrdquo Several hundred people were laughing The American was oblivious to the frivolity around himDonald Trump has told Americans over and over again to thunderous applause that Mexicans are ldquorapists and criminalsrdquomdashwhich presumably no American is He has identified several lsquoshitholersquo countries none of them with whiteskinned populationsWait Is that it Are there in fact two missing words in the US Declaration of Independence That all white American men are created equalTo take the simplest example history tells us unequivocally that Americans have long felt superior to black Africans whom they called Negroes chained together and brought in shiploads to work as slaves in southern plantationsThe tradition continues In February 2020 a young black called Ahmaud Arbery was hunted down and shot by three white men while he was out jogging in his neighborhood because he ldquolooked like a thiefrdquo If one could put a value on a life then to his murderers the value of Ahmaud Arberyrsquos life was zeroNot so very long ago though a US law explicitly stated that a black person would be counted for census purposes as threefifths of a human being This would be used to determine the lsquorealrsquo population of slaveowning states and in turn the number of congressmen who could be elected from that stateDuring the Rwanda genocide when Clinton was trying every trick to prove it was not actually a genocide and therefore required no US intervention a US official called his counterpart in the US Embassy in Rwanda to say ldquoWe are doing our calculations back here and one American casualty is worth about 85000 Rwandan deadrdquoIn other words a black Rwandan is worth a fraction of a black American who himself till not long ago was worth a fraction of a white AmericanWhat worries me the most about the American Declaration of Independence is that it leaves out half the planet Mind you Jeffersonrsquos words were not idly penned they would have been read reviewed edited vetted drafted and redrafted Each word in it is fully intended So when it says ldquoall men are created equalrdquo be sure they considered and rejected every alternative people persons human beings individuals They actually meant that men are created equal women were another matter entirelyThe American woman no less than an Afghan or Indian woman is in the sights of a brutal patronising hypocritical and dehumanising patriarchy The USA consists of elderly white Americans who understand neither a womanrsquos body nor her mind but are obsessed with controlling her fertility The USA has enacted more devilish laws to inhibit and curb abortion rights than any other country on the planet including forcing a woman to listen to the fetal heartbeat and more recently in Texas to allow vigilantes to sue anyone suspected of having or enabling an abortionIn the coming week we will all watch the USArsquos Supreme Court take the first steps to kill abortion rights dead in the waterSo here edited with logic and brought up to date is the new Declaration of Independence We hold these truths to be selfevident that all people are created equal as long as they are white American and 10037 maleHere viewed from there C Y Gopinath in Bangkok throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai the city that raised him You can reach him at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to ailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper