Last week, the trolls over at the TucsonCitizen message board were feeling particularly fiesty; especially with respect to the human rights crisis that exists along la frontera. Regarding a Guatemalteca woman’s body being recovered from the blistering, arid desert, one such troll spat forth:
Comments such as these play well to a populace that lives their lives in search of a target on the lower rungs of society. It is a fear and loathing that is nothing new for the United States.
This particular strain is nasty, though, because instead of the scary hordes of invaders being Catholic Irish, German, etc etc etc that at least had the decency to cross an ocean to get here, these modern day economic refugees are lazily trotting across 120 degree waterless wastelands. It makes them more dangerous (supposedly) because they are violating the Good Neighbor Rule.
Imagine the outrage if I were to suggest that these people had it coming, too:
Or, perhaps, that these victims of human trafficking networks had/have zero sympathy from me, a law abiding citizen?
Coyotes of the past – and they say prostitution is the oldest profession…
So what can be done in this modern day age of digital databases and unmanned drones patrolling our borders to avoid the exploitation of new arrivals? Well, for starters, let’s ditch any idiotic ideas to launch telephone hotlines
“There’s nothing unconstitutional about putting up a hotline,” Arpaio said, pointing out that U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have similar hotlines.
Sheriff Joe “My Pink Boxers are Secksy” Arpaio is correct that it’s constitutional – but does it foster true justice? Racial profiling is rampant in this country, just look at prison statistics or the latest rundown of ethnicities of workers rounded up by ICE. These hardliners like to pretend that “things are different now” and not comparable to prior waves of immigration. True to form, however, they inadvertently fall into the same role as inquisitors past.
When the exclusion act expired in 1892, Congress extended it for 10 years in the form of the Geary Act. This extension, made permanent in 1902, added restrictions by requiring each Chinese resident to register and obtain a certificate of residence. Without a certificate, she or he faced deportation.
“She had it comin” – the sentiment echoed through the ages that have been aimed at the ears of every group of Other imaginable. It was inhumane then, and it remains so today.
Crossposted from Latino Político
Speaking of constitutionality, the so-called Hazelton ordinances are under judicial siege. Good.
The propensity of humans to engage in this kind of behavior and express these types of views toward other human beings seems almost like an involuntary, knee jerk response these days. The daily inculcation we receive about the “evil dark-skinned menace” has created the environment where they viewed as nothing more than animals, less than human.
This, of course, is nothing new in this country. The nativist, white Anglo-Saxon viewpoint has always been one of a manifest destiny of superiority over the “lesser peoples”. And in today’s society, with all the uncertainty, both economic and as regards security, it is easy to find fertile ground for this type of eliminationist viewpoint.
I feel like the only way to really start to deal with this is on the individual level. I, at times, have had friends or family say something as shocking and inhumane as those comments posted in Tucson. And when you call them out on it and point out the cruelty and inhumanity of what they just said, they often will become ashamed that they even said it. Does this do anything to become to dissemble a sick and insensitive viewpoint they might have? I don’t know. But it is a start.
thanks for reading, Mike. I’m starting to come around to your point of view that it will take one-on-one vigilance to beat back the hate, but it’s flippin hard to stay patient. You’re right, though, one person whose consciousness is raised makes the world a drop better than before. Here’s to that start.
And… sad to say, these folks (and law enforcement) are the ones who have the guns. People like me and my family would REALLY be at a disadvantage if there ever was a revolution. And I hope there won’t be, for many reasons, especially thinking about who has the guns.
hi mythmother, great to ‘see’ you.
violence begets violence – not just a catchy phrase.
Yup, ME, not just a catchy phrase.
(Nice to ‘see’ you too!)
The many facets of pro-life.
If only we could keep the discussion on finding a true solution. The corporationists have us fighting over the scraps. Policies like NAFTA have destroyed the economies south of the border. Workers with no legal rights will accept almost anything. Wages here fall through the floor, and we all lose.
yup – unfortunately true solutions are coming under the guise of greater militarization of the southwest.
I always wonder at what age it becomes acceptable to lose compassion for another human being. That first post claims to be concerned that the woman was endangering a 10 year old child, as if we believe that is what’s really behind his disdain for this dead woman.
As a mother I’ve had to made decisions to feed my children that I wouldn’t normally have done and this was the result of only mild poverty and inconvenience. If I had to sneak across the border to provide for my family I would do it too.
Luckily, compassion is a renewable resource – we should all work to harvest it.
I think a lot of people in the US have absolutely no comprehension of just what US “free trade” policies like NAFTA have done to the agricultural economy of Mexico, and the ability of small farmers to support their families on their own land.
Because based on all they’ve heard — either from from talk-shows like Rush Limbaugh, talk around the water cooler or coffee station, stories passed on through email and newsletters, or even on network news, they actually believe that people are risking the desert crossing and life under the legal radar to get access to the US welfare and/or Social Security programs, thus taking benefits away from “real Americans.”
No one in the media talks about the price of American corn and other food products imported without tariffs that undercut local farmers — just as cheap imports from China have all but destroyed the textile industry here. No one talks about the agricultural workers forced to work in fields that have just been sprayed with dangerous pesticides, ignoring manufacturer warnings and wait times. No one talks about the construction workers brought into the Gulf Coast to do hazardous clearing and rebuilding, who can be paid less than prevailing wage standards and cheated even of that, because they don’t dare complain to anyone who might report them to INS.
All we hear on the media is that “these people” are here illegally. Even other immigrant communities, some of whom wait for years to bring family members legally into the US under tight INS quotas, buy into this meme. The stress is always on the law, and “protecting” the borders, and the threat of losing future Social Security benefits — the “immigration problem” that is somehow appearing out of nowhere, as if nothing we’ve done here or abroad has any connection whatsoever to why people are risking their lives to get here and work for low wages.
God forbid anyone talk about what “expanding markets for US exports” or “greater access to world markets” or “low low prices” really means in terms of human lives.
The current hostility to Latin American immigrants puzzles me. On the one hand, all of the immigrant neighbors I’ve had have been, with few exceptions, a distinct improvement over the meth-addicted white trash they replaced. And on the other hand, if you are a white man, with all the privileges and advantages that entails, and you are still working at the kind of unskilled, bottom-rung jobs that are typically filled by immigrants, you have no one but yourself and your lack of ambition and effort to blame.
And that’s what really bugs me about it in the end. The howling from the rabble of the right is a complaint that they can no longer sit back on their lazy, willfully-ignorant asses and slide along on their eighth-grade educations. White people have no fucking room to bitch about immigrants. If their jobs are threatened by immigrant labor, it’s their own damn fault.