Before I forget my promise, please sign this petition against Lou Dobbs.
In this video, Lou Dobbs hates on those damned (cotton pickin') politicians [of color] who dare to mention in the nicest way possible that the grand ole United States of America might not have the most squeaky clean history of racism (or the most open dialogue currently). The weird thing is that both Condoleeza Rice and Barack Obama are being extremely mild in their criticisms, and placating. Is it any wonder that people like Dobbs, who can't see the effects of racism that are still very prominent in this society, would be the same ones who would deny fervently that any racism is involved in the anti-migrant movement?
No, because Dobbs has his get out of racism free card. Any time he's accused of it, he can just point to his Mexican-American wife and her Mexican immigrant parents. But why should this be an out for him? Some of the most racist people I've ever met have had children or spouses who were outside of their race. I just have to wonder what the effect of his constant criticism of Hispanics will be on his kids.
The racism in the anti-migrant movement (and society as a whole) is pretty obvious. I do not mean to imply that all people who oppose our cause are racists (for I must placate as well), but that a good deal are to varying degrees. Racism is more than burning crosses, remember. While some of the worst racists may be the ones like Pat Buchanan, who decry the influx of Latino immigrants because it means that there will be fewer white babies, or the ones who call Mexican immigrants cockroaches and advocate covering the border with barbed wire and machine guns to mow down any of the workers and children who dare cross the border to escape poverty. But there are also the racists who are simply blind to the inequality of our society, who brush off the more extreme racism when they see it, who hold grudges against Latinos and black people and other people of color because they don't see the difference between advocating for equality and advocating for supremacy.
Lou Dobbs says that it is all too easy to have an open discussion on race in this country, but that's only the case if it's done on the terms of people like him. If we allow white people to go through the motions and admit that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great man and we might have killed some Indians (but they scalped us!), and sure there might be a few rednecks in the Bodunk, Alabama who hate anybody that can't pass the paper bag test, but they will never admit to the things that they might have to take action against, that they might benefit from, such as the fact that people with traditionally African-American names are less likely to get hired than people with white names, or that it is much harder for people to immigrate from countries that have mostly non-white populations, or that young black men who commit the same crimes and have the same records as young white men are still punished much more heavily, or that police, those great protectors of humanity, are often racist, or that thousands of young men of color are rotting in prison for years simply for having some pot or some cocaine, while white kids get off the hook or aren't caught at all for using the same drugs, or that the hate crimes in this country are rising all the time, or that Latino citizens and legal immigrants are often detained or harassed by ICE in their home or their vehicles simply because of their appearance, or that Indian reservations are deeply sunk into poverty and have high rates of unemployment, or that we encourage Cubans to risk their lives like it's a game.
The crazy thing is, people will probably call me racist just for mentioning that this stuff is happening. Well, I'm white. Now let's have an open dialogue on race: what is your opinion of the effect that race has on the immigration debate, and who do you think is the most guilty?
