The Hispanic Paradox
Who should this country blame for the higher cost of living, rising gas prices, higher insurance premiums, global warming and this Administration corruptions? Ah yes, its those damn border crossers. Send them hell back!
It always seems like whenever something goes wrong in the United States, immigrants are the first to be blamed or suspected. Basta!
Beginning last year, the wing-nut experiment in extralegal policing by the xenophobic dumbfuck version of the Nazi stormtroopers - Minutemen - began "patrolling" the borders from lazy, shiftless, drug smuggling South-of-the-Border varmints. If that is not bad enough, they are now found "other ways" to take care of the immigration problems, they have taken to chasing day laborers at pickup sites.
The muscle for outright oppression of anyone who hasn't savored the wingnut kool-aid is already being rehearsed in the form of racist paramilitary groups like the Minutemen. To show that the US is "getting tough," last December, the anti-reconquista brigades in the House passed their draconian legislation, H.R. 4437. If passed by the Senate, the new law will now make felons of all undocumented immigrants as well as persons who assist them. Pat Buchanan's wet dream come true.
Worst yet, these fascist assholes, wrap themselves around the American flag, crying foul if anyone dares to call the racists. Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado), the Lou Dobbs of the House, wrote one of his fascist op-ed propaganda pieces in the L.A. Times:
Over twenty years ago, a researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston coined the phrase the "Hispanic paradox" - the tendency for Hispanic people to have lower than average rates of some chronic illnesses despite the fact that many of them live in relatively poor social or economic conditions. At the heart of the anti-immigration debate resides a distinct paradox. As Merriam-Webster defines it a paradox is an idea, thought, or accepted notion that may be contrary to the truth.
The "Hispanic Paradox" is that the country's political culture cannot function without scapegoating migrant laborers either. America's fear of immigrants is not new. In the 1920s, Congress passed Immigration Act of 1924, which placed immigration quotas that barred Asians, Italians, Greeks, and Jews. These quota laws, passed after lobbying by the Ku Klux Klan, Immigration Restriction League and others, codified the eugenics theories of Madison Grant, whose work focused on the supposedly inferior skull sizes of Jews and other immigrants.
To begin with, immigrants have contributed to the United States experience of its last economic boom and this country can continue to recover from its current crisis thanks in part to their contributions as well. There is a tendency to argue that immigrants take from this country much more than they give. This is myth created by many neo-cons to create anti-immigrants sentiments. Here are some facts about the jobs we are stealing:
War does not always take the form of tanks and bombs. They self-righteously bombarding the airwaves of some faux "invasion" of the United States by undocumented workers, sending fear to the suburbs by evoking images of drug use, crime, and forked-tongues. Americans are "smothered" by their own media. So, how much you want to bet that the suburban wingnut would have a problem with out of state scumbags descending on their neighborhoods fully armed?
Mi gente, this is their war on all of us, and it is a class war that seeks to divide this nation into two classes: Rich and poor. And if you are poor you will also have no rights. Ask yourself this, do you really think things will get better? If you are one of the many just trying to get by, I am sorry my friend you are like many of us Xicanos. You can kick out all the Hispanics, but you will never belong in their demographic. Make no mistake about it, those now in power do not care about you! How much more suffering will we have to endure at the hands of these dirty greedy bastards who have no morals, conscience, or values other than benefiting themselves?
They talk about crime and taking jobs away. It is not the immigrants who are outsourcing American jobs, its the Wal-Mart Republicans. The Republicans continue to succeed in propagandizing to the American public into believing that they and they alone can keep America secure, there's no reason why the "War on Terror" should ever have to end. In fact, by giving the right-wing a monopoly on "keeping America safe" it would make sense for them, in terms of maintaining power, to allow just enough terrorist attacks against the American civilian population, or at least the perception of its imminence, to keep up a level of hysteria without also making themselves seem incompetent.
While all this happy horseshit is being flung against the wall, almost completely ignored are the atrocities occurring in Iraq.
America is beginning to default on its promissory note insofar as democracy is concerned. We have been given a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds. Now is the time to make real on the promises of democracy! Now is the time to make justice a reality!
It always seems like whenever something goes wrong in the United States, immigrants are the first to be blamed or suspected. Basta!
Beginning last year, the wing-nut experiment in extralegal policing by the xenophobic dumbfuck version of the Nazi stormtroopers - Minutemen - began "patrolling" the borders from lazy, shiftless, drug smuggling South-of-the-Border varmints. If that is not bad enough, they are now found "other ways" to take care of the immigration problems, they have taken to chasing day laborers at pickup sites.
The muscle for outright oppression of anyone who hasn't savored the wingnut kool-aid is already being rehearsed in the form of racist paramilitary groups like the Minutemen. To show that the US is "getting tough," last December, the anti-reconquista brigades in the House passed their draconian legislation, H.R. 4437. If passed by the Senate, the new law will now make felons of all undocumented immigrants as well as persons who assist them. Pat Buchanan's wet dream come true.
Worst yet, these fascist assholes, wrap themselves around the American flag, crying foul if anyone dares to call the racists. Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado), the Lou Dobbs of the House, wrote one of his fascist op-ed propaganda pieces in the L.A. Times:
People who say it's racist to want secure borders are insulting the intelligence of the American people, and such charges betray an empty arsenal of serious arguments.Tancredo and his rag-tag trigger happy white, jack-booted, skinhead army continue to beat the drum that securing the borders isn't racist. But it is wingnuts lunitics like Tancredo that treat assholes running around with guns as real patriots. Is it a coincidence that racist-affiliated right wing groups like the Minutemen are being mainstreamed at the same time that time that other members of the racist-affiliated right wing are trying to restore the reputation of Joe McCarthy? Some pundits have argued that internment camps were and are a good idea while pieces of race-baiting, academic jihadist shit like David Horowitz have constructed an entire bogus database, DiscoverTheNetwork.org, connecting anyone left to terrorism. That is just the tip of the "race-baiting iceberg," there are subtle messages being spread widely and effectively distributed by think tanks, academics, radio pundits and right-wing politicians, who have created an industry that interprets whiteness in an unprecedented context - in which many whites feel uncomfortably surrounded by "minorities." Take the California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR), on there website one can find propaganda bullshit trying to insight fear with their faux public-policy observations, such as their xenophobic view on Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa - Meet the Mechista Weasel who Wants to Be L.A's Next Mayorista. Or on AmericanPatrol.com, where they urged people "Help keep this Mexican nationalist out of the L.A. mayor's office," in last year's mayoral race. As I stated before, the anti-illegal-immigration movement is sweeping the country like wildfire. Some of the more asinine comments about groups like the Minutemen have been compared as a Neighborhood Watch program.
Over twenty years ago, a researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston coined the phrase the "Hispanic paradox" - the tendency for Hispanic people to have lower than average rates of some chronic illnesses despite the fact that many of them live in relatively poor social or economic conditions. At the heart of the anti-immigration debate resides a distinct paradox. As Merriam-Webster defines it a paradox is an idea, thought, or accepted notion that may be contrary to the truth.
The "Hispanic Paradox" is that the country's political culture cannot function without scapegoating migrant laborers either. America's fear of immigrants is not new. In the 1920s, Congress passed Immigration Act of 1924, which placed immigration quotas that barred Asians, Italians, Greeks, and Jews. These quota laws, passed after lobbying by the Ku Klux Klan, Immigration Restriction League and others, codified the eugenics theories of Madison Grant, whose work focused on the supposedly inferior skull sizes of Jews and other immigrants.
To begin with, immigrants have contributed to the United States experience of its last economic boom and this country can continue to recover from its current crisis thanks in part to their contributions as well. There is a tendency to argue that immigrants take from this country much more than they give. This is myth created by many neo-cons to create anti-immigrants sentiments. Here are some facts about the jobs we are stealing:
- 162,000 work in nation’s miscellaneous agricultural industry;
- 161,000 are maids and housekeepers;
- 132,000 are grounds keepers;
- 174,000 are construction workers;
- 114,000 are production workers;
- 194,000 of the nation’s cooks, and
- 153,000 of the nation’s janitors.
War does not always take the form of tanks and bombs. They self-righteously bombarding the airwaves of some faux "invasion" of the United States by undocumented workers, sending fear to the suburbs by evoking images of drug use, crime, and forked-tongues. Americans are "smothered" by their own media. So, how much you want to bet that the suburban wingnut would have a problem with out of state scumbags descending on their neighborhoods fully armed?
Mi gente, this is their war on all of us, and it is a class war that seeks to divide this nation into two classes: Rich and poor. And if you are poor you will also have no rights. Ask yourself this, do you really think things will get better? If you are one of the many just trying to get by, I am sorry my friend you are like many of us Xicanos. You can kick out all the Hispanics, but you will never belong in their demographic. Make no mistake about it, those now in power do not care about you! How much more suffering will we have to endure at the hands of these dirty greedy bastards who have no morals, conscience, or values other than benefiting themselves?
They talk about crime and taking jobs away. It is not the immigrants who are outsourcing American jobs, its the Wal-Mart Republicans. The Republicans continue to succeed in propagandizing to the American public into believing that they and they alone can keep America secure, there's no reason why the "War on Terror" should ever have to end. In fact, by giving the right-wing a monopoly on "keeping America safe" it would make sense for them, in terms of maintaining power, to allow just enough terrorist attacks against the American civilian population, or at least the perception of its imminence, to keep up a level of hysteria without also making themselves seem incompetent.
While all this happy horseshit is being flung against the wall, almost completely ignored are the atrocities occurring in Iraq.
America is beginning to default on its promissory note insofar as democracy is concerned. We have been given a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds. Now is the time to make real on the promises of democracy! Now is the time to make justice a reality!
Tags:
