*Warning, this post contains racially charged language, not as a reflection of my views, but to expose the ugliness and hatred of racism for the horrifying thing that it is.
Part 2 reflected, in part, on where your jobs went; the fact that “Free Trade” had little to do with anything other than being able to enter other countries and exploit their workers at a cheaper rate.
That shouldn’t be so hard to do the Math on, since the template for it exists right in your own backyards. American companies have been exploiting a segment of your fellow workers for years, and have taught you to HATE those exploited peoples by playing off of human’s innate fear of different appearances.
They told you the biggest lie of all, and many of you believe it.
“Its the niggers and wetbacks taking your jobs.”
I cannot cure this racist bullshit in one post, but maybe I can show you the Math on why racism is just a tool they use to fuck workers into less wages, and more profit for themselves. I can show how ultimately this is bad for EVERYONE.
This first formula is so simple, no one can disagree!
1. You take the best job you can get.
Everyone wants a job they love, a job they are well treated in, a job that pays good money. You with me so far?
No one takes a job that is hard and very physical for as little pay as possible.
Does anyone willingly choose to clean toilets for $5 an hour, all day every day? Would you want to work digging foundations and laying block in the Arizona heat for 12 hours a day for $8 bucks an hour? Would either of those jobs allow you a single family dwelling in the suburb in which you work?
I do some housecleaning, my best friend does it as her exclusive means of income. We are both paid well for it. We like our clients and are well treated, we don’t mind the work. We are both lucky enough to be born into the white privilege that allows this to be true. So, there is nothing INNATELY wrong with any job. Often, your choice of job is influenced by both the respect with which you are treated, and the livable wages which you receive.
Let me take you the next step into racist, divisionary think.
2. We’ll start with the White version of the Lie.
If niggers and wetbacks didn’t do those kind of jobs, and wanted OUR jobs, we would have no jobs left!Besides that, nothing could get built, because white people won’t do those jobs, and if you paid Union Scale, no one would be able to afford housing.
Ok, do any of you remember the term “Skilled Trade”? Do you have an Uncle or Grandfather that was a Carpenter, a Journeyman Carpenter or Plumber?
At one time, white America did build things, and at that time, since everyone made equitable pay, everyone could afford housing.
At that time, a family could buy a house with a single income, and feed and clothe said family.
What changed?
It wasn’t that blacks and immigrants came and stole his job.
It wasn’t that niggers and wetbacks worked for way less to steal that job. If that was true, wouldn’t housing be even CHEAPER????
DO THE MATH, YOU RACIST IDIOTS!
A builder somewhere decided that paying less, and raising the pricing of housing made for…
can you guess it?
BIGGER PROFITS!
…and now neither your grandfather or uncle, nor the men of color who built the houses can afford one.
2.5 The sub-lie to this lie is the Black version:
“We were already getting shit jobs, and now the Mexicans and Eastern Europeans have come and stole them all. Damned illegal immigrants. We deserve better, because we didn’t come here by choice, they snuck in illegally by choice.”
This goes back to the first point.
You take the job you can get.
Do you think anyone who wasn’t grossly oppressed or starvingly poor would chance illegal immigration, work for slave wages, and choose to share a dwelling with other families in the same situation?
This takes the Caste system of Class warfare up a notch, and plays directly into the hands of the exploiters.
Classic warfare:
Divide and Conquer.
DO THE MATH.
They didn’t steal your jobs, the sweat shop factory owners found someone in more dire circumstances to exploit.
Which brings us around to those who claim to oppose Mexican immigration solely on LEGAL grounds.
(and I will leave the missives about how we are all here illegally from a Native American standpoint on the sidelines for now… and the fact that generations of people from Europe are here as result of illegal immigration as well… remember that the term “WOP” for Italian Americans meant “With Out Papers”…)
3. The next lie is about Immigration, and I will use Mexican immigration as my example.
Illegal Immigration has drained our economy. Those wetbacks don’t pay anything in, and expect everything for free.
Lets start with the OBVIOUS.
You claim they steal your job, yet do nothing for the system. They are WORKING. Many, if not MOST, pay taxes under some fake Social Security number to not get caught and deported. Money they will never see a return on.
Now, the LESS OBVIOUS question is this?
Why do they have to come here illegally?
It is because the US has set a wildly low bar on the number of Mexican people who can enter legally.
Why would they do that?
DO THE MATH.
Because ILLEGAL labor is cheaper.
Really.
How many times have you read that some government official gets caught with their tits in the wringer for having an illegal work at/on/in their homes?
These are the Lawmakers themselves. The big money Lobbyists don’t EVER push for more LEGAL immigration, for a LEGAL laborer can demand more money. (at least in States that still have minimum wage laws)
Now, as to draining resources, as in Social Security?
Were they allowed to become citizens, pay into social security, we would be close to solvent in that department.
Add a gazillion now-legal immigrants to the coffers and WOW!
BIG MATH!
The drain on medical care would be resolved if all of us ACTUALLY HAD medical care that was based on Heath, not PROFITEERING, anyway.
Even a DUMBASS could get that MATH.
I want to keep this simple, really, I do.
Right now, the traditionally multi-tiered Caste system is being compressed.
It scares the fuck out of white people, who suddenly are being as poorly compensated in an ever increasing cost of living world as their Black and Mexican counterparts.
Right now?
It is becoming the poor (read workers) and the wealthy (read owners) with little in between.
Here is the MONEY EQUATION for ya folks. read it twice if you have to.
THEY WILL PAY AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE TO WHOMEVER THEY CAN TO MAKE AS MUCH PROFIT AS POSSIBLE ON WHATEVER THEY PRODUCE.
THEY WANT YOU TO BLAME EACHOTHER, WHILE THEY FUCK YOU ALL.
IT KEEPS YOU FROM BLAMING THE LOW WAGE SETTERS, AND HIGH PRICE DEMANDERS.
THEM.
Instead, hate crimes between us are rising, and we are all losing ground in the ability to survive.
Whites blame “niggers” and Blacks blame “wetbacks” and the Christinazis blame “faggots” and so on and so on….
They have taught WE THE WORKERS to BLAME OURSELVES.
They have exploited what we perceive as DIFFERENCES amoung ourselves to keep us from remembering the most basic fact of all.
1. You take the best job you can get.
Now, they have us fighting for less jobs, poorer pay and basic survival. They like racism as a means to this end:
WHAT THEY DON’T WANT US TO LOOK AT IS, WHOSE FAULT IT IS THAT THERE ARE LESS JOBS, POORER PAY AND WE CANNOT BUY THE SHIT WE MAKE.
The Profiteers, man.
DO THE FUCKING MATH.
Or, cling to your ugly racism while we all starve.
Your choice.
I think we are all related.
If you cannot overcome your racism, perhaps survival will teach you to support your real brothers and sisters.
Amen.
(apologies to those who cringe at racially-charged words, but people do think this way, and it needs to be addressed, than squashed for the hating stupidity that it is)
I’ve been meaning to write a topic in my diary on the subject of the nexus between Right-wing Authoritarianism and Racism for some time now; I’ve got the topic name posted but I’ve never found the time, and it’s a daunting task, too.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2008/8/21/204527/901
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2008/8/21/222517/994
With all due respect, Dianne, it’s not the math, which implies that there’s necessarily an economic motive underlying the immigration debate and that there’s a rational self-interested motive submerged under the anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Those on the right who depend on immigrant labor can hold a disparaging view of immigrants but there’s subtle and important difference between their attitude and that of the virulent racist or xenophobe. An example of the first would be a racist contractor who relies on illegal immigrants for labor. An example of the second would be a lower class white who vilifies immigrants (not just undocumented ones) as the source of all problems in our society.
These two types can overlap on their political views but one personally gains from immigrant labor while the other does not (at least not in a tangible way). There is a paradox here, and it was pointed out, once again recently, in Thomas Frank’s What’s the Matter with Kansas? Explaining the “no-nothing” xenophobes’ attitudes towards immigrants is difficult on economic grounds since undocumented aliens are considered an economic boon under free-market economic theories favored by the right-wing.
One explanation that’s often used to explain the difference between these two types of conservatives is a two-tiered economic motive, where one type has an economic self-interest in preserving immigration while the other is threatened by competition for jobs, which explains the second’s animosity but not the first’s.
A simpler explanation could explain the attitudes of both types, and this is where I was going with my diary entry on the nexus between racism and authoritarianism. I’ll make this as brief as I can.
Right-wing authoritarians are characterized by two perspectives (there’s a third, too);
What should be apparent about these two attitudinal clusters is that “submissiveness” is often translated into the “free-market fundamentalism” that rationalizes any kind of economic outcome as the omniscient workings of the invisible hand while the “aggression” against “outgroups” further rationalizes mistreatment of undocumented workers, in a sort of functional attitudinal compatibility. Hiring immigrants at sub-minimum wages is justifiable under the economic logic favored by the contractor while both the contractor and xenophobe can rationalize aggression against aliens because of their undocumented status.
Let me weave one more element in — Modern/Symbolic Racism (David Sears). Modern Racism could be described as what happened to overt racism once it was no longer socially acceptable. It went underground. Instead of justifying prejudice under theories of race, the newer version clothed itself as the Protestant work ethic.
http://science.jrank.org/pages/10839/Prejudice-Varieties-Prejudice.html
Curiously, one of the complaints against immigrants is that they’re motivated by the desire to “feed off the system.” I should point out that inconsistency is also one of the traits of RWAs, and what’s noticeable here is the logically contradictory position of “they’re taking our jobs” with “they’re too lazy to work and just want to feed off the system.”
I’ll stop now, but I wanted to show how logically contradictory and seemingly disparate beliefs could spring from a common source.