By Diditi Mitra

“Umrika, condolences” — the status update of a Facebook “friend” from India to which I awoke on the day after the U.S. Presidential Election of 2024, with the results confirming Donald Trump’s smooth return to the White House. This Facebook update sat uncomfortably with me. And, frankly speaking, annoyed me. Yet, I understood the reason for this bit of schadenfreude seemingly directed to all Americans regardless of color, gender, class and other social categories. A bit of resentment mixed in there as well for not being part of this collective privilege of living in the global north, or so it occurred to me.

The US is the empire, despite rumblings in some circles of its decline, and Americans of all colors, genders and classes (among other identities), by way of that, are implicated as oppressors reaping the benefits of the nation’s global exploits. After all, immigrants arriving from countries destabilized by the US empire do subsidize the American middle classes by working for low wages. The family (mother and daughter who are sometimes accompanied by the teenage son/brother) that cleans my house, for instance, are immigrants from one of the many South American nations destroyed by American interests. The American passport, a stamp of approval from the empire, is itself another source of privilege. This valued possession eliminates the requirement for American citizens to obtain visas to most parts of the world and thus, eases international travel. I have one. The professional class of immigrants, whether arriving as foreign students or workers, who “choose” to leave India also stand to gain from dollars earned in the empire. Surely, then, I do understand the angst underlying “Umrika, condolences.” 

At the same time, “Umrika, condolences” presents an overly simplistic and essentialized understanding of the US and all Americans. It willfully ignores the fact that not all Americans are equally privileged, not to mention that advantage and disadvantage should not be conceptualized in binary terms to begin with. Further, this newly anointed mad king of the empire has the power to cause an incredible amount of harm to the rest of the world as well. 

This story was originally published in americankahani.com. Read the full story here.