“Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Saturday that part of his immigration policy would be to build an electrified fence on the country’s border with Mexico that could kill people trying to enter the country illegally.
Mr. Cain added that he also would consider using military troops ‘with real guns and real bullets’ on the border to stop illegal immigration.” [ READ MORE ]
If a white presidential candidate declared that as part of his anti-crime policy he would build an electrified fence around inner cities, because it’s an indisputable fact that blacks commit crimes way of proportion to their numbers. And he went on to say to that he would urge the police to use real guns and real bullets instead of tasers against law-breaking blacks; he would be universally condemned as a racist.
Only a racist believes that most African Americans who live in the inner city are violence prone. There are many hard-working blacks, who obey the law, pay their taxes, who are trapped in the ghetto through no fault of their own.
Cain’s inflammatory words should be condemned by Democrats, Republicans, Independents and everybody else who hates racism.
Herman Cain is pandering to the vilest instincts of the Tea Party crowd. Mr. Cain, how low will you descend to win the Republican nomination?
As an Hispanic I am outraged by Cain’s depiction of undocumented workers as subhuman. Most migrants of Latin descent are hardworking and law-abiding; they seek only to improve the fortunes of their families.
I urge African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities to think twice before voting for Cain. His pernicious tomfoolery has no place in a democracy.
By: Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez In Arizona, we fight because we are spirit. Yet, in recent travels, I’ve gotten the distinct impression that many people think that human beings are made simply of flesh and blood and that only things material have consequence.
Human beings also have spirits. In Arizona, bigot forces are not content with simply getting rid of as many brown bodies as possible, but also ensuring that those that remain become assimilated into intolerant copies of themselves.
The world appears to be knowledgeable about the effort — via SB 1070 — to legalize hate, fear and racial profiling in Arizona. What most seem to be unaware of is that there is also an effort by state schools superintendant, Tom Horne, to brainwash the state’s school children via HB 2281 — the anti-Ethnic/Raza Studies law that unless stopped — will go into effect on Jan 1, 2011.
There is a third law in the works; the effort by state rep. Russell Pierce, chief sponsor of the state’s apartheid laws, to nullify the 14th Amendment in Arizona [guarantees U.S. birthright citizenship].
Tolteka, a renowned Los Angeles hip hop artist — inspired by a recent column — From Manifest Destiny to Manifest Insanity — has penned a rhyme called: The Trilogy of Terror. It breaks down these so-called laws that are intended to destroy our minds and spirits.
Those of us here in Arizona do not recognize these apartheid schemes as laws. At least not as moral or legitimate laws. Even the courts have already struck down the most odious parts of SB 1070.
But back to HB 2281. This is the one people are paying least attention to. While denouncing SB 1070 in May, five UN Special Rapporteurs also denounced HB 2281. They said: “Such law and attitude are at odds with the State’s responsibility to respect the right of everyone to have access to his or her own cultural and linguistic heritage and to participate in cultural life… Everyone has the right to seek and develop cultural knowledge and to know and understand his or her own culture and that of others through education and information.”
They further pointed out that controlling immigration and adhering to fundamental principles of non-discrimination are not mutually exclusive. “States are obligated to not only eradicate racial discrimination, but also to promote a social and political environment conducive to respect for ethnic and cultural diversity.”
Their report is self-evident, yet, we should pay close attention to the illogic of the bigoted forces; they claim they are not against immigration: only illegal immigration. So what does anti-bilingualism and Ethnic Studies have to do with illegal immigration?
There is an equal danger to both SB 1070 and HB 2281; one attacks our bodies, the other our minds and spirits. HB 2281 targets Tucson’s highly successful Raza Studies program. But as written, it applies to the entire state, and it can become copycat legislation — state by state — not simply targeting k-12 education, but universities as well. The authors erroneously claim Ethnic Studies result in hate, segregation, anti-americanism and advocates the violent overthrow of the U.S. government.
What’s at stake with HB 2281 is not simply an attack on a program (Raza Studies), but on the right to teach/learn and the right of students to succeed as a result. As signed, HB 2281 creates a mechanism by which books and curriculums will be subject to approval by the state. The premise is that only Greco-Roman culture (“Western Civilization”) is acceptable for Arizona curriculums. Knowledge from other cultures is henceforth deemed to be “un-American.” Books such as Occupied America (Acuņa) and Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire) have already been singled out.
In Arizona, the state superintendant of schools has appointed himself not simply education czar (opposing local control), but also, royal cosmographer — determining that not only is maiz-based or Maya-Nahua culture and knowledge — the philosophical foundation for Raza Studies — outside of Western Civilization, but also outside of humanity. In effect, he also fancies himself head of the BIA — determining who/what is Indigenous.
While singling out people of color, these Inquisition-era “laws” in reality, are an attack against all people. The legalization of racial profiling and cultural mind-control belongs in the Dark Ages and the battle against the sanctioning of hate, censorship and forbidden curriculums is being fought right here in Arizona (This is the subject of a forthcoming conference in December at the University of Arizona). Within weeks, this battle will step into the courtroom via a lawsuit against the state. We are confident we will easily win against the forces of fear, hate and ignorance.
• Rodriguez can be reached at: XCol...@gmail.com or PO BOX 85476 – Tucson, AZ 85754
SALT LAKE CITY — A list of 1,300 Utah residents described as illegal immigrants has sown fear among some Hispanics here, and prompted an investigation into its origins and dissemination.
Each page of the list is headed with the words “Illegal Immigrants” and each entry contains details about the individuals listed — from their address and telephone number to their date of birth and, in the case of pregnant women, their due dates. The letter was received by law enforcement and media outlets on Monday and Tuesday. A spokeswoman for Gov. Gary R. Herbert said Wednesday that an investigation was under way to see if state employees might have been involved in releasing the private information.
A memorandum accompanying the list said it was from Concerned Citizens of the United States. It urged immediate deportation proceedings against the people listed, as well as publication of their names by the news media. [ READ MORE ]
Washington– President Obama received Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer in the Oval Office on Thursday, but the two made no progress in bridging the enormous gulf that divides them — and the country — over illegal immigration and border security.
Brewer, who recently signed the racist law requiring Arizona police to check the status of people they lawfully stop and suspect are illegal immigrants, wants more federal resources — including troops, helicopters, drones and fences — devoted to controlling her state’s border with Mexico.
She said she got no commitments from Obama other than a promise of better communication.
“I am encouraged that there is going to be much better dialogue between the federal government and the state of Arizona now,” she told reporters outside the White House.
In a nod to those seeking more enforcement, Obama last week promised to spend an additional $500 million and send 1,200 National Guard troops to the border.
The president believes, however, that enforcement should accompany a comprehensive change in immigration law. He supports the latest Democratic version of such a bill, which requires a tamper-proof Social Security card, a temporary worker program for foreigners and a path to legalization for the 11 million immigrants already here. Such steps, backers say, are designed to close down the market for undocumented labor that draws people to cross the border illegally.
“I want the border secured first,” she said. She noted that after the last immigration rewrite in 1996, “Amnesty was bestowed upon people but we never secured the borders.” [ READ MORE ]
—————————————————— Media missing half the story on public attitudes about immigration policy: While addressing both Arizona’s controversial new immigration law and national immigration reform, media outlets have reported that polls found widespread support for Arizona’s law. But these reports ignored recent national polls finding that large majorities also support providing a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants in the United States. [ READ MORE ]
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A majority of Americans also wanted “separate but equal” segregationist “Jim Crow Laws.” What people fail to see here is the harm SB 1070 inflicts on U.S. citizens of Hispanic ancestry. No one should have to prove they are a U.S. citizen if born here–certainly not because of the federal government’s failure to reform immigration.
Many Americans also approved of slavery — white barbarism, which was eventually struck down. That SB 1070 incorporates a ban on racial profiling is wishful thinking. Racial profiling in the U.S. has been in force ever since the United States was founded.
Sarah Palin’s “real Americans,” Lou Dobbs’ birther madness, Glenn Beck’s conviction that President Obama “hates” white people: All of this is best understood in context of the hard, cold reality of demographics. The Times’ Frank Rich said it best after the White House beer summit: “Beer won’t cool the fury of those who can’t accept the reality that America’s racial profile will no longer reflect their own.”
By Kai Wright
The rapid browning of America is making the radical right crazy. Here’s why it should worry all of us.
There are no “minority” races in the public school systems of America’s Southern and Western states. Literally. A new study, released some weeks ago week and reported in the New York Times, reveals that white students are no longer a demographic majority in the 15 states of Dixie. The same has been true in the West since 2003. And no majority means no “minorities,” either.
This is exactly the kind of thing that’s making the Sarah Palins and Glenn Becks of the world so damn crazy. But it’s also the thing that will permanently cripple this country if we don’t finally address the striking opportunity gap that still exists across racial lines.
The school studies are, of course, about a lot more than schools. They are the latest bits of data in a building mound of evidence that America’s cultural complexion is rapidly darkening. The Census Bureau estimates our national demographics will defy majority/minority groupings altogether by 2042, when whites will account for about 46 percent of the population, down from 66 percent in 2008. Among kids, the white majority will disappear by 2023.
And all of that’s without factoring in the Census’ routine undercount of urban populations in general and Latinos in particular. Latinos, by the way, are driving the population shift. While the absolute number of white Americans is likely to shrink over the next 40 years, the number of Latinos is expected to nearly triple. One in three Americans will be Latino by 2050.
No wonder Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann — who made a name for herself in 2009 with hysterical reactions to Barack Obama’s presidency — is so frightened by the upcoming 2010 Census that’s she’s calling for civil disobedience. She’s vowed that she’ll violate the law and refuse to fully fill out her Census form. Bachmann is convinced ACORN — you know, that frightening group that’s always trying to do stuff for poor black people — is up to something ominous surrounding the decennial population count. In a June Fox News appearance, she actually invoked the 1940s Japanese internment camps in explaining her reluctance to give the government too much personal information.
Sarah Palin’s “real Americans,” Lou Dobbs’ birther madness, Glenn Beck‘s conviction that President Obama “hates” white people: All of this is best understood in context of the hard, cold reality of demographics. The Times’ Frank Rich said it best after the White House beer summit: “Beer won’t cool the fury of those who can’t accept the reality that America’s racial profile will no longer reflect their own.”
I’ve written previously about the anxieties America’s changing culture and economy understandably present for working-class and low-income whites. Progressive political leaders have consistently avoided speaking to those anxieties in a meaningful way; demagogues like Beck and Palin have predictably stepped in to fill the emotional gap.
But the Southern schools study raises another dangerous point about our collective reluctance to face the inevitable browning of America: The huge opportunity gap between white kids and kids of color — particularly blacks and Latinos — is a time bomb that will eventually explode.
The Southern schools study, published by the Southern Education Foundation, charts a slow, steady rise in the percentage of students across the region who are people of color, starting in the 1960s and topping the 50 percent mark this year. But it also notes that in 2007, the South became the first region to have a majority of its public school students poor enough to qualify for the free lunch program. These two trends are, of course, related.
Nearly a quarter of both black and Latino Americans lived in poverty as of 2008; that same year, more than a quarter of black families struggled to pay for food. With the massive job loss in both communities during 2009–nearly a quarter of each group is out of work or getting by with part-time jobs–these poverty and hunger numbers have likely worsened dramatically. As schools get blacker and browner, they will also get poorer.
Which means students will struggle to learn. “Children growing up in food insecure households are more likely to be in poor physical and psychological health,” writes the Economic Policy Institute’s Algernon Austin. “They have more behavioral problems and do worse in school. We want black children to do better in school, but academic improvements are not likely to occur when more and more black children are growing up in households facing hunger.”
The Mississippi commissioner of higher education, Hank Bounds, put it more bluntly to the Times: “An affluent 5-year-old has about the same vocabulary as an adult living in poverty.”
Since Reconstruction, we have talked about race and opportunity in America as though it’s a problem for some of us only: Black people are poor; what should good white folks do to help them? That construction has always offered false comfort to a country that leverages deep inequality to fuel massive growth. But as we barrel toward the point where blacks and Latinos can no longer be dismissed as “minority” populations, it’s a fantasy Americans cannot continue to indulge.
About The Author: Kai Wright — is a freelance journalist in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn. Visit her site: http://www.kaiwright.com/
