LA riots are descending into ethnic conflict - UnHerd

The Right’s preferred take on the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles is that they’ve brought together the full spectrum of hard-Left ideals — what Mary Harrington has labelled the “Omnicause”. At National Review, Jeffrey Blehar sighed that in LA, “all the radicalisms combine into one.” Some of the riots’ college-age protagonists no doubt accept that framing, donning kaffiyehs to signal that they are united in one universal struggle against white supremacy (or whatever).

Yet the most dominant images and slogans from the riots suggest that the motive force might be something else entirely. Consider the numerous photos and videos of balaclava-clad rioters waving the flags of Mexico and other Latin-American nations and shouting slogans such as “Viva La Raza!” — long live the race. Rightly understood, these symbols and watchwords evoke not progressivism, but instead nationalism and reactionary cultural revanchism, with Mexico and Hispanic identity as their objects of devotion.

What we’re dealing with, in other words, is a scenario more akin to banlieue riots in France, in which a subset of the population feels little to no attachment to their country of citizenship and is bent on claiming — or reclaiming — space for other national or civilisational identities. Every few years, rioters claim the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis for Algeria or Islam. Likewise, LA is being claimed for the spiritual geography of Hispanidad.

via unherd.com

Sohrab Ahmari.