By Note: It’s important to clarify that the author equates minority groups and political figures in order to engage discourse that is meant to enlighten from an alternative perspective. Systematic oppression is, in reality, a complicated issue. As such, it cannot entirely be equated fully when working with varying factors in individual oppressed groups. We feel it is important to express this view for the sole purpose of furthering that discussion.
What do Muslims and the X-Men have in common?
Yes, we are both super, but the answer is registration.
This past Wednesday when leading a Trump troglodyte rally, Trump asked all those who were not Christian conservatives to raise their hands and identify themselves.
Non-Christians (and Christians with sense and compassion) around the world gave a gasp and a shudder.
While so many elders including World War II veterans and Holocaust survivors have recently compared Trump to Hitler, citing his xenophobic and fear-mongering platform, I was also reminded of another pedantic politician: Senator Robert Kelly.
Senator Kelly is a fictional character in the X-Men comic book universe who, like Trump, brings the fears of a paranoid nation to a rolling boil by singling out minority populations and insisting that they pose an imminent threat to the American people.
And by the “American people,” both Trump and Kelly only ever mean people who look, act, and believe the way that they do.
Immediately after Trump infamously called for a “complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” — and then further insisted that Muslims should be registered in some sort of database, or wear identification, many Americans rightfully cringed.
When someone with the IQ and complexion of a goldfish stands at a podium and shouts, “We must kill them before they kill us,” — someone else, either here in the U.S. or halfway around the world, whispers the same hateful sentence.
Trump’s statements echoed the xenophobia that led directly to the registering, identification, displacement, and eventual extermination of so many Jewish people, as well as ethnic and religious minorities, gay people, and people who were considered “enemies of the state” by Hitler’s Third Reich.
Here’s another odd comic book/real-life parallel: what do the X-Men and Trump have in common?
Sure, some mutants are orange and have bad hair, but the answer is genocide.
After Senator Kelly becomes successful in passing the Mutant Registration Act through congress, mutants everywhere are rounded up in a witch-hunt-style panic.
Senator Kelly insists this will make the nation safer. So does Trump.
As many people can imagine, the creation of division through fear mongering does not lead Kelly’s America to peace and harmony.
Instead, it creates an America in which mutants, their friends, and their families are persecuted unjustly, simply for the way they are born or the way they become mutants.
Donald Trump isn’t making America safe, he’s promoting a narrative of fear, hatred and murder that hurts peaceful people and inspires some to commit heinous acts of terrorism.
Some bear this humiliation and daily torture with as much dignity as possible, while others grow angry.
And decide to do something terrible about it.
If you have seen any of the recent X-Men films, you know that while ultimate villain Erik Lensherr (aka — Magneto) has legitimate gripes against the homo-sapien government, he is, himself, not a peaceful freedom fighter like Professor Charles Xavier.
Rather, Lensherr is a terrorist. Lensherr doesn’t care about collateral damage, and targets government officials and civilians alike, often racking up quite a body count before Xavier and his X-Men can stop him.
Why is Lensherr important? Follow me.
Senator Kelly can in this example be comparable to Donald Trump, in which case, consequentially Muslims can draw parallels to mutants, and Lensherr to a terrorist.
Donald Trump isn’t making America safe, he’s promoting a narrative of fear, hatred and murder that hurts peaceful people and inspires some to commit heinous acts of terrorism. When someone with the IQ and complexion of a goldfish stands at a podium and shouts, “We must kill them before they kill us,” — someone else, either here in the U.S. or halfway around the world, whispers the same hateful sentence.
Both sides prepare to do violence, and good people, humans and mutants, Christians and non-Christians, get caught in the crossfire.
Trump isn’t protecting anyone from terrorism: he’s throwing gasoline on sparks and blowing wind at them.
After the country is terrorized by vigilante mutants like Magneto, Bolivar Trask steps in to deal with the “mutant problem.” Trask develops the Sentinels; stone-faced automatons whose sole purpose is to seek and destroy mutants.
Still following me?
Bolivar Trask can be comparable to Heinrich Himmler, in that the Sentinels directly mirror the helmet-headed SS.
You might now be looking out your window for strange flying purple-and-magenta robots. We aren’t there quite yet, but that’s where we’re headed, and that’s what Trump and his hate mongering cronies are after: division and registration of Americans by race and religion, just as Kelly prescribed the division and registration of Americans by mutant or non-mutant status.
Stay with me now. We know how Hitler’s genocidal mania began, how it manifested, and how it ended.
After the Sentinels round up and exterminate all of the obvious mutants, they proceed with turning their scorched-earth practices on humans, including the elitist jackasses that invented them. Why? Because deep down, everyone is a mutant.
We know what happens in the Marvel comic universe as mutants are exterminated. (Hint hint, it’s not a picnic). We don’t yet know how this insanity will play out with Trump, but following history and well-crafted comic book lore, we may as well be reading a map.
A map of the not so distant future.
Time for another question: what do X-men and voters have in common? Time-travel.
Now you’re probably just rolling your eyes and thinking, “This CineSister chick is as nuts as a two-pound bag of trail mix,” but hear me out.
We can’t go back and restore to life and to dignity the millions of Hitler’s victims. We can’t change the past, but the X-men did.
After the Sentinels round up and exterminate all of the obvious mutants, they proceed with turning their scorched-earth practices on humans, including the elitist jackasses that invented them. Why? Because deep down, everyone is a mutant.
Keep up! I’m building literary parallels and shit, it’s going to be awesome.
In the MCU, every human carries genes that can eventually mutate, creating mutant offspring. In our universe, everyone carries within them something that someone else could hate, fear, exploit, or destroy.
When the Sentinels come, they come for everyone. When Trump and his ilk spew hate, it doesn’t end when all the Muslims are registered or killed. It doesn’t end when all the Mexicans are deported. It doesn’t end when all the poor are enslaved in for-profit prisons. It. Doesn’t. End.
When Kitty Pryde, aka ShadowCat and the X-Men time-travel in the “Days of Future Past” sub-series, they are able to change the events that lead to the creation of the Sentinels, the genocide of the mutants, and the downfall of the human race.
They halt the exterminations before they even happen. Kitty and the X-men can’t destroy hate altogether, but they can exert their incredible powers to ensure that hate is rendered impotent, and in doing so, they save not only the mutants, but all of humanity.
When Trump and his ilk spew hate, it doesn’t end when all the Muslims are registered or killed. It doesn’t end when all the Mexicans are deported. It doesn’t end when all the poor are enslaved in for-profit prisons. It. Doesn’t. End.
Here’s where it gets juicy! I’ve been waiting for this part, keep following!
YOU are changing the events of RIGHT NOW. You can use the lens of the past (and comic books) to see into the future, and change it.
Here’s what do to:
1. Fight hateful rhetoric with logic and compassion.
The best defense against hatred is love. The best medicine for nonsense is logic. When you hear or see someone like Trump attempt to scare you into hating another person, think logically, and think with compassion.
Yes, terrorism is scary, but you’re more likely in this country to be killed by a toddler. (Yikes). Before you go hating and fearing all toddlers, get me: you don’t need to fear or hate anyone.
Logic will tell you that the minorities Trump constantly spears are not nearly the threat he makes them out to be. Compassion will tell you that these people he constantly dehumanizes are human beings. They are your neighbors, your friends, your coworkers. They are your fellow human (even if they’re a mutant).
2. Hug a mutant.
Get to know some of the people constantly being demonized in the media. The Mexican family who emigrated here most likely did so legally to build a better life for their children.
The Muslims next door would love to have you over for “Game of Thrones.” The gay couple across the street are just people, and they might have great recipes or travel stories.
Share human experiences with the rest of your wonderfully mutant/human family.
3. Vote.
Don’t let our personal Senator Kelly rise to power. Remember, Hitler was democratically elected with a stunning majority vote.
It wasn’t until later that people realized the enormous error they had made in electing a man bent on destruction.
Vote. If you are reading this as a Trump supporter, remember: genocide didn’t end with Jewish people, the Sentinels didn’t stop with mutants, Trump’s hatred won’t end with me. Hatred is insatiable: it will destroy everything, including even those who vote for Trump and consider themselves safe from his pre-genocidal policies.
4. Listen to Master Yoda.
Yes, I know, you’re totally thinking, “This girl is switching fandoms, she’s bonkers.” Hear me out: “Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hatred, hatred leads to the dark side.”
If you read nothing else in this article, I hope you read this. It’s simple and needs no further explanation, other than this: the opposite of fear, anger, and hatred is just one thing: love.
It’s frightening how X-Men seems to never stop being topical.