Eternal Colonialism

Professor David Leman, from the Political Science department introduced Dr. Russell Benjamin, the associate professor of political science at NEIU, and the co-editor of Eternal Colonialism. The event was sponsored by NEIU Political Club, Pi Sigma Alpha and the department of Political Science to celebrate the book release and signing of Dr. Gregory Hall and Dr. Benjamin's book, Eternal Colonialism. Dr. Hall is the department chair and associate professor of political science at Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia.

"It all started when Pakistan had its nuclear test back in 2003, and President Clinton wasn't happy about it," said Benjamin, "They never wanted any Asian or Muslim country to have their own nuclear missile."

This got him thinking of global colonialism, "Hall and I had the term of 'eternal colonialism' in our minds since 2001," said Benjamin, "...and in 2003 we finally considered working on this book."

Hall has been traveling all over the world and has been sharing his experiences and the rising colonialism he saw with Benjamin. "I define the term 'colonialism' as, at the most basic level, any control of an area and its people by a certain power," said Benjamin.   

The book begins with the discussion on colonialism within the U.S., how U.S colonizes African-American communities, and the resulting domestic racial politics. Benjamin gave the example of the comic book character The Hulk.

"Since [the] 60's, back when I was a kid, I am seeing that Hulk is still a Hulk, sometimes he is green, sometimes he is gray, sometimes he is intelligent, sometimes he is dumb, he rises from the hero to a sort of antihero," said Benjamin.

He explained how this hero/antihero setup is similar to colonialism, "Colonialism is still colonialism and when you look beneath the surface you'll see the same patterns. Colonialism has been existing in different forms in this nation," said Benjamin, "Sometimes it took the form of slavery, and sometimes it took the face of a big multinational corporation."

"Colonialism is characterized by racism; discrimination of the people of color, sexism; denouncing the rights of women, and gender racism; which is a combination of sexism and racism," said Benjamin, as he continued his explanation. "The cumulative effects of racism, sexism, gender racism characterizes colonialism, which leads to the super exploitation of the economic system of the U.S."

Benjamin then said that colonialism has created manufactured leaders, which Benjamin explained as being leaders from a specific race group who dominate workers of other race groups.

He also explained how the book details the ways in which eternal colonialism has been manifested in U.S.  This was explained when looking at African-American businesses and how they only make one percent of the national business receipts, because they do not have a good customer base. This also has to do with the fact that they have very limited access to government contracts, while problems with lending money are also a leading cause for the downfall.

Benjamin's book also discusses eternal colonialism of the Latino and the Caribbean community in the nation.  Hall argues in the book that we are the victims of a global colonial mindset of the West.

"Caribbean community faces the issues like sex trafficking and exploitation of the working women, and the practice of hiring people for low paying jobs," said Benjamin, "while Fiji is colonized by Australia and New Zealand."