Writers on the 2016 US Election: Osama Alomar
by Osama Alomar translated by C.J. Collins / November 30, 2016 / No comments
Osama Alomar is the author of Full Blooded Arabian, published by New Directions. Image via City of Asylum.
Racism is a kind of backwardness that truly doesn’t discriminate between the First World and the Third World.
When I woke up on the morning of November 9th and found out the results of the election, I felt like I had traveled backwards hundreds of years. It wasn’t the first time I had been invaded by such feelings, but they had certainly never been so real, so close to the harsh reality of events. I felt myself standing completely naked, looking in the face of racism, hatred, absurdity, and a total rejection of the Other.
How terrible, this return of the Middle Ages with all their human and moral backwardness, but this time armed with the newest weapons and most refined technological means, able to annihilate the Other in the blink of an eye.
And racism is a kind of backwardness that truly doesn’t discriminate between the First World and the Third World. The same goes for vanity and arrogance.
The Earth–this atom lost in the universe–is much too small to hold all this hate and racism.
Is the future walking with firm footsteps towards the dark corridors of the past, holding high the banner of intolerance and hate?
-Osama Alomar, Syrian short story writer, poet, and essayist
