By: Amy Ketner
Racism and
immigration reform are often not blatantly named in the same sentence, although
they are dangerously tangled. One
article in Time U.S. addresses the
two issues together though and notes the importance of doing so. Although this article is over six years old,
it could be republished today and the issues would still be relevant.
The author,
Massimo Calabresi, explicitly acknowledges the ways in which racist thinking
influences immigration laws. Racist
scholars and politicians, as well as a racist public, push for stricter laws
that will seal the border and push out Hispanics and Latin@s. While there are ways to mask this discussion
and make it seem more about employment and other statistics and demographics,
for many people immigration is simply a matter of keeping non-whites out of the
country, perpetuating a racial dictatorship.*
Calabresi
discusses a comment of one Fox News member, John Gibson, in which he implores
white people to have more babies because soon the minorities will be a
majority. Not only does Calabresi
discuss the statistical inaccuracy of this comment, but also the meaning of
it. There is a clear sense of fear in
his statement. Heaven forbid that there
are more minorities in this country than the white majority. If this happens, it is more likely that
whites will lose pieces of their white power.
Perhaps Gibson and others like him feel as if this is another small step
closer to becoming the oppressed rather than the oppressor. Perhaps he feels that if enough people from Mexico
and Latin American countries enter the US that it will no longer be a country
ran by those who were born and raised here, by those who are like him. The country his grandchildren are born into
could look significantly different than that into which he was born. It seems as this is a scary concept for Gibson
and many others like him.
This is a mentality
that frequently plays into immigration debates, though perhaps not commonly as explicitly
or crudely as Gibson’s encouragement of white procreation. This is an example of how racism is
transforming over time. In this
post-Civil-Rights era we are often fooled to think that because we are not
shackling people of a certain color into slavery or labeling water fountains as
white or colored, we are being progressive and beyond issues of racism.
Racism still
permeates society. It exists. It is powerful.
Discussions of
immigration reform are a platform for these racist tendencies to shine their brightest. Some Americans state that they don’t want
Latin@ immigrants in the US because they will steal our jobs. Translation: we fear “the other”. Some say that Hispanics and Latin@s bring drugs
and gangs and violence. Translation:
Hispanics and Latin@s are criminals and immoral. Those who say these things do not consider
socioeconomic status, nor the roles that the US has in this lack of employment
in other countries. They forget the role
Americans have in drugs, violence and gang activity that a few immigrants
participate in. The immigrants become
the scapegoated other, and therefore the feared other. ‘Immigrants as the other’ becomes ‘Hispanics
and Latin@s as the other’. This was
demonstrated in our survey when participants responded that “Mexican” and “Hispanic”
came to mind when thinking of the word illegal.
Racism is a
significant factor in the immigration debates, yet one we somehow manage to not
acknowledge. Calabresi is not afraid to
name this racism and, with reason, urges us to openly talk about this
fact. We cannot let this racism persist
in such a huge issue that affects millions of families. We cannot let white power (and white fear)
continue to control this entire system that is changing the face of our
country.
Works Cited:
* Michael Omi and
Howard Winant. “Racial Formation,” Racial Formation in the United States: From
the 1960s to the 1990s. New York: Routledge, 1994. 53-76.
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