Racism on Full Display: When Normalization Becomes Complicity

I know I said I was going to be featuring Ms. Fotune today, but I couldn’t let this go today. I promise, tomorrow, we will continue.

This morning, I was listening to a podcast, and an elected official, who represents Dallas Texas, claimed that residents are afraid of “mosques” and “brown Islamic jihadist.” This kind of talk should concern anyone paying attention to how political rhetoric travels and mutates.

Those talking points did not appear overnight. It is the endpoint of a normalization process in which racialized fear is repeatedly introduced, softened, defended, and eventually spoken aloud by people in power.

This pattern is now WELL documented in the United States.

Over the past decade, public rhetoric has increasingly crossed from dog-whistle declaration - including the circulation and amplification of overtly racist imagery and language by senior political figures. When leaders share or excuse material that dehumanizes racial or religious groups - including depictions comparing Black public figures to animals - the effect is not ambiguity… It’s giving permission.

The measurable consequences are NOT theoretical.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the predominant drivers of domestic terrorism in the United States remain far-right and white-supremacist extremist movements, not Muslim communities. Hate-crime reporting consistently shows spikes following periods of inflammatory political rhetoric - not policy change, not security events, but speech from the people who are supposed to be supporting ALL of us.

Canada is not immune, as it reflects the same trend.

Federal threat assessments have repeatedly identified ideologically motivated violent extremism - particularly far-right extremism - as the fastest-growing threat, while Muslim, Jewish, and Black communities are disproportionately targeted by hate incidents. This rise has coincided with a political climate in which leaders increasingly refuse to draw clear boundaries around race, religion, and belonging (remember my p2025/Alberta Strategy comparison… Identity).

Alberta is absolutely not insulated from this trajectory, as a matter of fact, with the current government, we are further along in the processes than the United States.

Political leaders may insist they do not control what extremists say. That is true. BUT, they do control what becomes acceptable to imply, tolerate, or strategically ignore. When elected officials flirt with identity-based suspicion, echo grievance narratives imported from U.S. politics, or remain silent as dehumanizing language and imagery spreads, they participate in the same permission structure… whether or not they speak the most extreme words themselves.

What makes the targeting of Muslim communities particularly revealing is how intellectually hollow it is.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are ALL ABRAHAMIC FAITHS. They trace their origins to the SAME GOD, share prophets, moral traditions, and centuries of intertwined theology. To single out one of these faiths as inherently violent while treating the others as culturally legitimate is not a security judgement. It is racialized storytelling dressed up as concern… (FEAR.. remember?)

When mosques are framed as threats, the rhetoric contradicts both EVIDENCE and BASIC RELIGIOUS LITERACY.

History shows this slide clearly. It is gradual. It is always minimized. AND it is always justified as “just asking questions” until the damage is already done.

Free expression and open debate are not shields against responsibility, as a matter of fact THEY REQUIRE IT! A political culture that allows entire communities to be cast as latent dangers is not protecting free speech - it is eroding social trust and public safety. In a recent statement, the Premier said that she couldn’t ignore 1 million of her constituents…what about the rest of us? Alberta is 4.5 Million… That math is not adding up!!

At this point, clarity matters.

Do political leaders reject the framing of religious spaces as security threats?

Do they reject the racialization of fear?

Do they reject the normalization of suspicion toward Muslim or other religious faiths communities - explicitly and without qualification?

Because guys, silence, in moments like this, is not neutrality…. It is PERMISSION.

Political cultures are watched, learned from, and replicated. What is tolerated in one jurisdiction becomes the template elsewhere, as we have seen.

Guys, the lesson from Dallas should not be dismissed as an American problem… We need to fix our own backyard before looking at the mess next to us.

This is the part where I ask for coffee… or not!! Either way, you should subscribe to keep connecting the dots to the rot! Please… Like.. COMMENT.. and share to keep this conversation alive. Thank you to all my subscribers!!! Have a wonderful day with these BEAUTIFUL temps!!!

All sources are federal law-enforcement, public safety, or international human-rights institutions.

Sources / References

1. Domestic Terrorism & Extremism — United States (FBI)
Federal Bureau of Investigation – Congressional testimony & threat assessments
🔗 https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/terrorism
🔗 https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/confronting-white-supremacy

The FBI has repeatedly identified racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism, particularly white supremacist extremism, as the primary domestic terrorism threat in the U.S.

2. Hate Crime Data — United States (FBI UCR / NIBRS)
FBI Crime Data Explorer
🔗 https://cde.ucr.fbi.gov
🔗 https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/hate-crime-statistics

FBI data shows hate crimes rise during periods of inflammatory political rhetoric, not following immigration surges or mosque construction.

3. Terrorist Threat Assessment — Canada (Public Safety Canada)
Public Report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada
🔗 https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/ntnl-scrt/trrrsm/index-en.aspx

Identifies Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremism (IMVE) — especially far-right extremism — as the fastest-growing terrorism threat in Canada.

4. Hate Crimes Targeting Religious & Racialized Communities — Canada (Statistics Canada)
Police-reported hate crime statistics
🔗 https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/
🔗 https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/subjects-start/crime_and_justice

Muslim, Jewish, and Black communities are disproportionately targeted by hate crimes despite being statistically unlikely to commit violent offenses.

5. Dehumanization as an Early Warning Sign (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)
Early Warning Signs of Mass Atrocities
🔗 https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/how-to-prevent-genocide/early-warning-signs

Documents animal imagery, dehumanizing language, and group scapegoating as recognized precursors to broader societal harm.

6. Abrahamic Religions — Shared Origins (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
🔗 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Abrahamic-religions
🔗 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Islam
🔗 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christianity
🔗 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Judaism

Confirms that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share a common monotheistic origin, overlapping prophets, and intertwined theological foundations.

7. Free Speech & Responsibility (UN OHCHR – Rabat Plan of Action)
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
🔗 https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/rabat-plan-action

Clarifies that freedom of expression does not absolve public officials of responsibility when speech contributes to discrimination, hostility, or violence.