Thread: Racism and other fears

Like the man says, when their screaming, we're winning.
Let'em scream.

Racism and other fears

BY NIDIA DIAZ — Granma International staff writer —

INCLUDED among its aggressions, genocidal wars, unilateral impositions and the threats that it tends to use in the international arena, the Republican administration of George W. Bush accumulated another historic demerit in the year that just concluded: brutality, contempt and racism in dealing with the immigration issue.

An immigration that, by the way, it has not stopped encouraging via the masquerade of the “American Way of Life” and which it has used, in the overwhelming majority of cases, to obtain cheap labor for jobs that U.S. citizens don’t want. It has also been utilized for justifying, in Cuba’s case, its hostility toward the Cuban Revolution, now extended to Venezuela and Bolivia.

The extreme right wing in the United States, which the Bush family comes from, has returned with strength to old, but never dead, concepts of the white, capitalist and Christian superiority that was once used to justify the lynching and burning of Black people.

These are concepts being used today against Latin American immigrants who — dangerously, according to this racist elite — are the largest minority in the United States after the Black population. According to the Latin American and Caribbean Center for Democracy Latinos and their U.S.-born descendants represent 14% of the country’s total population; that is the equivalent of 42.5 million people, and not all of them work in unskilled jobs.

The report says that the number of Latin American professionals and technicians who emigrated to the United States rose from 300,000 in 1990 to almost one million in 2000, a tendency that has been growing and indicates a greater assimilation of these individuals into the social and political life of the receiving country.

The extreme right does not want nor can it allow this to happen, because it might endanger white supremacy.

It was no coincidence that in 2006, U.S. territory has become a battleground for the immense majority of Latin American immigrants, in this case undocumented ones, and Congress has become the general staff of that war, issuing laws that criminalize immigrants and authorize the expansion — with deadly consequences, of the border wall that would prevent them from entering the country via its border with Mexico.

In addition, there is a campaign entrenched by the media demonizing immigrants and blaming them for taking away jobs that should go to citizens, who, for that reason, believe that their living standards have dropped in recent years.

This is a campaign that has been repeated so often that it is now accepted, and some groups have done so, in the minds of U.S. citizens who do not realize that their new situation is not due to the immigration phenomenon but to government policy that has been reducing the benefits that characterized that society in favor of an increasingly richer minority.

In May, like never before, however, immigrants took to the streets to demand that the Bush government grant legal status to the 12 million of them who do not have it, even though, for years, they have constituted the majority workforce in agricultural production, domestic services and textile and meatpacking factories, among others, contributing to the creation of wealth that Wall Street and the White House boast about so much.

As one person said during those days, Puerto Rican René Ochart, who works as a doorman at the elegant Hotel Pierre on Manhattan’s Upper East Side: “Everybody here is an immigrant. The only authentic American is the Indian (Native American).”

“A day without immigrants” was the slogan of the Latino community as part of its common demand: respect for those who are contributing to the development of the United States. They were weeks of tough battle, in which they demonstrated their strength, and above all refuted the fallacy that they are responsible for the economic deterioration of U.S. workers.

A year’s end report by the National Council of La Raza revealed that 21.8% of Hispanics in the United States live in poverty. Twelve million of them do not have documents giving them legal residency, depriving them of social security benefits and fair wages, and their children barely attend school, for fear of deportation.

A study by the UN University produced the dramatic revelation that just 2% of the world’s population possesses more than half the world’s wealth, and that the United States, where 6% of the world’s adult population lives, possesses 34% of the wealth.

These are circumstances that, together with the imposition of the neoliberal model on a excluded and marginalized region, are causing the systematic and perennial flight of Latin Americans and Caribbeans seeking the “American dream,” and in order to reach it, they risk being victims of trafficking in persons, or entering what some experts call “legal limbo,” because by emigrating from their native land, they end up in no man’s land, and subject to the violation of their human rights.

Many examples exist to illustrate these affirmations. These include the deaths – in 2006 alone – of almost 500 Mexicans along the U.S.-Mexican border, some at the hands of the immigration police and xenophobic paramilitary groups, the “immigrant-hunters” who are bringing back the image of the white-hooded Ku Klux Klan.

What happened in Cactus, a town on the border of the states of Texas and Colorado, on December 13 is another example of the double standards applied by the Bush administration on the immigration issue.

In that isolated community of 2,538, according to the Census, three of every four residence are undocumented immigrants, but they all work for the local plant of Swift & Co., the second-largest beef processor and largest pork processor in the world, with annual sales of more than $9 billion.

There, after a ferocious raid, “la migra” arrested 1,282 people, a good part of them married couples whose children, minors under 10 years old, were left unprotected despite having U.S. citizenship, given that their parents were arrested or deported. Those who were not arrested fled in their mobile homes to begin again in a new location – with the same anguish they experienced in Cactus.

The owners of Swift & Co. have not been troubled, much less fined for employing undocumented immigrants. That is the injustice of the U.S. justice system.

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/enero0 ... smo-i.html

It was no coincidence that in 2006, U.S. territory has become a battleground for the immense majority of Latin American immigrants, in this case undocumented ones, and Congress has become the general staff of that war, issuing laws that criminalize immigrants and authorize the expansion — with deadly consequences, of the border wall that would prevent them from entering the country via its border with Mexico.

It is not "U.S. territory" we are a soveriegn nation with laws and they must be upheld, it is OUR land, it does not belong to anyone else.

The border wall that would prevent these people is necessary as they cannot understand the word "NO", even if it was spoken to them in Spanish. Talk about being thick headed.

Moan and whine all you want OBLer's and illegals, you will not win this one.

If someone wants to come acrossed the border, whine about not having access to "social benefits", not have documentation, cause untold deaths and crimes against their fellow man, and then call American's "Racists"??!!!

Then I must be the biggest racists of all...because everyone who crosses to border illegally is a felon! Period...nothing more need be said except to our elected officials who have let us down repeatidly!

AmericanElizabeth, good point on the "US territory!" The other piece of propaganda that needs to be laid to rest is this "we are a nation of immigrants" baloney. This is being used to manipulate the emotions of Americans into thinking that just because we have historically welcomed immigrants, that we have no right to control who comes in here and in what manner. We have all been so brainwashed by this mantra. Americans need to understand that we are not the only country whose population includes immigrants and their descendants. Europe and Latin American countries also have had a lot of immigration and nobody questions their right to expect that their immigration laws be respected!

The one other thing that I would add, and it is not PC, but I am less and less inclined to be PC as I go along. It is this: We are constantly being accused by the OBL of wanting to retain a "white majority." It got me to thinking. In Asian countries, Asians are the majority, in Africa blacks are the majority, in Mexico, Central & South America and the Caribbean, Hispanics are the majority, in Arab countries, Arabs are the majority. Nobody seems to take exception to these facts. Are white people the only people in the world who are not allowed to be a majority anywhere? Now, I firmly believe that anyone who comes legally to the US, assimilates, learns the language, and has loyalty to America is welcomed no matter what their ethnicity or race. But, I'm just asking what is so bad about having a "white majority" when every other race on the planet is a majority somewhere? Not PC I know.

noyoucannot says:
Are white people the only people in the world who are not allowed to be a majority anywhere?



It is also the ONLY race that Cannot Yell Rascisim or have anything that is just White like Collage funds, Colleges and much much more. Yet we are the Majority ??? I will never believe that.

I'm white, and I think Nidia Diaz, the author of the above article, is a racist. Aaaahhh! I feel much better now.

Ok, I'll bite...

In May, like never before, however, immigrants took to the streets to demand that the Bush government grant legal status to the 12 million of them who do not have it, even though, for years, they have constituted the majority workforce in agricultural production, domestic services and textile and meatpacking factories, among others, contributing to the creation of wealth that Wall Street and the White House boast about so much.

Yes, and I should 'sneak' into Mexico (or other country du jour), get a job, demonstrate publicly about how horrible life is for me, and then demand that I get an exemption to all the laws I've broken to do this....riiiiiggght!
Oh, I forgot, if you do that in Mexico (or other country du jour) you get put in jail and/or summarily deported. Hmmmm.... sounds just a bit incongruent to me...

A year’s end report by the National Council of La Raza revealed that 21.8% of Hispanics in the United States live in poverty. Twelve million of them do not have documents giving them legal residency, depriving them of social security benefits and fair wages, and their children barely attend school, for fear of deportation.

OK, let's work on that last one a little:

a). LaRaza is far from an unbiased impartial adjudicator of such social conditions - eg. they have a vested interest in showing a certain outcome

b). "12 million are 'without documents'...",
actually, they do have 'documents', they just happen to be fake.
The only way to get 'legal residency' is to complete the naturalization or immigration process - documents are merely the culmination of the process.

c). "depriving them of social security benefits and fair wages, ..."
Very much consistent with the policies of every other country on the planet as well. Actually, considering the number of illegals (criminals) and the scope of their crime (illegal entry, document fraud/forgery, working without permission, and often, tax evasion, etc) they are treated considerably better than most everywhere else...!

d). I wonder if the author knows the poverty rates for non-Hispanics or other demographics in the US? (Hint: they're not too far off)

A study by the UN University produced the dramatic revelation that just 2% of the world’s population possesses more than half the world’s wealth, and that the United States, where 6% of the world’s adult population lives, possesses 34% of the wealth

UN University? Ahh, ok, I get it - we're supposed to feel guilty because we're a relatively 'rich' country and we're trying not to accept every poor person from every country on earth... see folks, only when they have made us as poor as 'them', will they no longer be able to use the mantra of: '...but, they're a rich country'

What happened in Cactus, a town on the border of the states of Texas and Colorado, on December 13 is another example of the double standards applied by the Bush administration on the immigration issue

Wow, there you go you Coloradans - you're now a border state! (although, to be serious, at times it probably does feel that way there...)

and 'double standards applied by the Bush Administration', actually, there are no standards applied by the Bush Administration.


The BS propaganda never ends....

Oh, and forgot this little tidbit:

It has also been utilized for justifying, in Cuba’s case, its hostility toward the Cuban Revolution, now extended to Venezuela and Bolivia.

Yeah, hostility alright - I know 2 people that are ex-Cubans and 1 of those that came to the US via living in Venezuela first. Both are naturalized US citizens and have done very well here.
If things are so bad here, why aren't they back in Cuba experiencing the 'Revolution', eh?

WAAAHH! WAAAAAH!!!! This woman whines and cries like a baby. I guess she thinks she is helping the illegal alien criminals. I think not.

wilro wrote:

WAAAHH! WAAAAAH!!!! This woman whines and cries like a baby. I guess she thinks she is helping the illegal alien criminals. I think not.

That's right she is just making all of us more POed, which is not good for the illegal criminals.