Those in the Radical Right who Fear of a Brown Planet are calling on Dudya to support the creation of the “Great Wall of America.” There pundents can be found in the latest issue of FrontPageMagazine in a recent article by Dick Morris.
Its aim is to keep terrorists out and regulate the of number “illegal immigrants” into this country. Simply put, it is nothing more to keep out us job stealing non-English learning dirty filthy stinky wetback Mexijicens/mesikens out of this God lovin’ Christian country.
Currently in New Orleans, the creation of racial tension that will soon look like the current racial tension occurring in TX and other large urban cities.
At a time when we should be united, tensions are arising at the community level between immigrants and US-born communities of color. The reason this is happening is because of the anti-immigrant racism brought on by the same organized anti-immigrant racist movements based primarily in the white community, the hypocrites who want all undocumented workers out are the ones the ones bringing them in for cheap labor.
The truth is Immigrants, US-born Hispanics and African Americans are facing many of the same obstacles that include the very same forms of oppression and discrimination. Often, however, it is difficult to build and sustain multi-racial coalitions to challenge the dynamics of oppression.
In major cities around the country where there were none are now becoming a racial/ethnic war zone and these cities include: Dallas, Houston, Miami, Chicago, New York, and Los Angles. A 1999 report by the US Commission on Civil Rights concluded that a majority of these tensions and conflicts are cause over issues of jobs, schools, housing, and representation in leadership positions.
Currently in New Orleans, the small fire that was brought on by Bu$hCo is in danger of becoming a raging inferno. A couple of weeks ago Mayor Ray Nagin contributed to the fragile divide.
Nagin stoked the racial/ethnic divide between black and Hispanic people recently by asking: “How do I ensure that New Orleans is not overrun by Mexican workers?”
Although Nagin’s comment is the most often-quoted within the Hispanic community, he is not the only one questioning the questionable hiring practice that is meant to help in the clean up effort and rebuilding of New Orleans. Granted, the language he decided to use should have been more eloquent for a leader, but the issue is a real issue – as a Hispanic, I will be the first one to admit using undocumented labor to replace New Orleans’ local workforce is very troubling.
However, Nagin said what he said and it was caught on tv therefore his comment will be seen as another “us against them” among both ethnic and racial groups, which will add fuel to the racial/ethnic tension fire.
The current hiring conditions in New Orleans can be seen as a favorable “Petri dish” for questionable and illegal hiring practices which none of our own political leaders is willing to address. As of now, no one is asking the vital question which could answer Nagin’s and other concerned community leader’s question of the influx of undocumented workers. And that question is “Why is this happening?”
Dudya’s pro-business policy decisions are a major and a large reason for this influx. While the Dudya was promising everything short of declaring another “War on Poverty,” it was Dudya who decided to suspend the fair-wage guidelines in an effort to speed recovery. It was Dudya who decided to suspend the Davis-Bacon Act, which guarantees prevailing local minimum wages be paid for by government contracts, shortly after Katrina hit. The idea being that projects which are paid for through tax dollars will have guaranteed employees a livable wage and therefore, the bidding would be based on the quality of workmanship and not on cheap labor. Fortunately, there was enough protest that the wage-rule was reinstated. It was Dudya who decided to suspended the affirmative action guidelines, which would guarantee equal opportunity employment and contract to for New Orleans’ women, African Americans and other minorities, in short the local workforce.
The fair-wage that Dubya decided to suspend, opened the door to labor abuse. Some of the Hispanic laborers have been brought in by out-of-state so-called specialized disaster clean-up firms. Because of the neo-con’s never ending love of the free-market, Bu$hCo will never do anything to ensure that more local businesses receive contracts.
The Department of Fatherland Security decided to suspended fines for companies caught knowingly hiring unauthorized workers. The (il)logical reason: People may have lost their paperwork proving their right to work here legally. (Later on, Fascist Chertoff makes a statement, he was going to round-up every Mexkin and haul them off back to Mexico. To me, this is code talk for drafting the undocumented to go fight in Bu$hCo’s war.)
Currently, there is little to no workplace enforcement. In a recent GAO report, the number of companies being fined for knowingly hiring undocumented workers dropped from 417 in 1999, to a mere 3 last year. If people really think that corporate America finally got the idea that hiring undocumented workers is wrong, then I know some Federal property through the use of eminent domain they can get for free.
By giving business carte blanch, honest employers who would normally hire legal, documented workers are tempted to go the illegal route because they, too, are wanting to survive in this lackluster economy. These hard working immigrant workers are eager to work for lower wages and that becomes a huge factor when deciding who to hire.
Nagin needs to be honest about the grueling work going on in his city. Latino immigrants will flock where work is plentiful. See, to an immigrant, when it comes to the issue of wages, a large majority consider making $3 to 4 dollars an hour like hitting the financial jack-pot. Even if this means working the nasty tasks that U.S.-born folks shudder at performing. Immigrants are willing to sleep and work in conditions that would be considered illegal to some born in the U.S. Employers are aware of this and they are willing to exploit the immigrant. The immigrant does not complain because he knows he may face deportation.
The fact that FEMA scattered a large majority of the evacuees across the four winds without any means to return home is another reason many people have not returned for jobs. Houston alone had an increase in its street homeless population. If this has happened in Houston, what are the chances it is happening in the other cities FEMA has chosen as an evacuation site? Families who have children in school are not likely to take their child out of school so they can return home.
To answer the housing problem, elected officials need to providing housing to those who’s home is unlivable is one of the best ways officials could make it feasible for former residents to return to their city and local jobs.
Blaming immigrant workers who are “taking the jobs” should not be the target for a situation they did not create. Nor should they become scapegoats when it is the system that has been put into place by Dubya that has made them the scapegoats for everything bad that happens to this country.
And the Main Stream Media continues to flood the airwaves with negative stereotypes and damaging images of immigrants.
Whether in the news or entertainment programming, the media rarely acknowledges the white racism that has continually been a factor in this tension. The racial and ethnic hostilities in US culture, especially in the South and Southwest, reflect radicalized power relationships as much as stereotypes and negative attitudes. When the Main Stream Media does discuss the issue, it prefers to ignore the dynamic complexity of economic life for both groups, and instead, it only presents the simplistic stereotypes that mainly serve to bolster the neo-con political agenda: divide and conquer.