Monday, November 20, 2006

Anti-Immigrant Racism

Apparently, it is now illegal in some parts of the country to fly a flag other that the ol’ Stars and Stripes. Saying that again…you can be punished by the government for flying a politically incorrect flag.

Now…many Conservatives rail against “immigrants”, with the excuse that these immigrants are not even demonstrating any desire to become Americans, as evidenced by their displays of loyalty to their former homelands. Not coincidentally, many Conservatives have a fetish about “protecting Israel”. So I found it particularly amusing when Ruben Navarette, Jr. wrote an op-ed piece and stated:
Besides, the spectacle with the Mexican flags was no different than what happened a few weeks later when American Jews marched in Los Angeles and New York, waiving the Israeli flag to show support for Israel in its war against Hezbollah. About that, there were few complaints. Somehow, I doubt many Conservatives will acknowledge the hypocrisy of their silence.
Apparently, waving Mexican flags is bad, while waving Israeli flags is good. Which brings up a bigger point about the nature of the Conservative hypocrisy. I’ve long held that there was a racist element to the Anti-Immigrant movement. Navarette expresses my very thoughts on the subject:
What I don't understand is how immigration restrictionists can still insist, with a straight face, that the immigration debate and its offshoots haven't become anti-Mexican. When people brush aside distinctions of legal versus illegal immigrants and start banning the Mexican flag, what else do you call it?
However, this should not be surprising to anyone who has actually paid attention to one of the leading anti-immigrant groups, The Minutemen, whose membership include many Neo-Nazis and other racist fringe elements , who are simply picking up the torch passed by some less than savory predecessors .

Yeah.. Let the Anti-immigrant crowd say that they are just for "the enforcement of the law". Riiiight. We know better.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

And what about all those damned Canadians coming down here taking "Good American Jobs"?? To loosely quote a classic episode of WKRP, I say we "round up the little guttersnipes; shoot 'em down!".

Seriously, though, you make a good point about the racism involved in this particular movement. Being one of those "damned immigrants" for the last 8 years, I can tell you first-hand that when I confront someone on this issue, I generally hear the words (or some variation of) "oh, we don't mean Canadians...they are okay".

Let's try to at least be honest about this. What those individuals mean has nothing to do with legal vs. illegal immigration. This particular argument goes to a much more less than subtle level... just once I want one of these people to say what they mean, rather than just what they can get away with...

"We don’t mind Canadians because they aren’t ~brown~".

IMHO anyway. For what it's worth, coming from a "damned foreigner".

9:03 AM  
Blogger Vache Folle said...

It's not always Mexicans that rile folks up. In the Pacific NW, it was Vietnamese and Cambodians and Chinese. In New York, it's Dominicans, Haitians and West Indians. Okay, it's also Mexicans in those places, too.

12:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, sure... much of my family lives in the PacNW (Vancouver), and there is an equal amount of bias against Asians there as we are seeing about Mexicans here.

More to my point on racism, though: rather then saying "you arent brown (which was meant to include most nationalities commonly associated with immigrants), perhaps a more encompassing phrase should have read "We don't mind Canadians because they are ~white~".

Either way, it sickens me.

1:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I too am Canadian. I absolutely loathe when Americans bitch about the influx of Hispanic immigrants. I hate it when they say 'You're in America, learn to speak ENGLISH.' Whenever I interject in one of these conversations.. I get the same standard answer.. 'Well I didn't mean you, YOU can speak English.' (And, of course, I am a white woman with blonde hair).
At any rate, it sickens me too.

2:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hmm... This is why I fly my Gadsden first and foremost.

11:41 PM  

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