Papers? Papers? We Don't Serve Your Kind Here (Amber's Post #1)

In our class, Amcult 311: Race and Mixed Race, we recently watched an episode of the ABC News TV show "What Would You Do?" about a Muslim woman who was being refused service at a local bakery. This TV show is a cross between reality television and news, documenting the reactions that everyday individuals have to staged situations that require them to make moral choices, often revealing racism, sexism, and other social problems. I found the episode in class heartbreaking and moving at the same time, and I wanted to watch more episodes. I even found a What Would You Do Episode about racism towards Latino day laborers where the discriminatory remarks focused on and revealed the beliefs that some Americans hold about undocumented immigration. It also demonstrates how terms like "illegal alien" are used in hate speech.

So what does this show have to do with our mission? This blog is a space where we are trying to challenge racism and discriminatory language that surrounds immigration issues in our country. Eduardo Bonilla Silva, one of the authors we read, argues that in order for us to challenge racism and create change we need to blow the whistle on it wherever it's identified. Not only does he believe that this should happen at the dinner table, in a town hall meeting, etc... but he also urges us to form teams and enter our community with the task of assessing the racism present in local racial transactions. For example, two friends, one white and the other black, might both inquire about the availability and pricing at a local apartment building and then compare notes. This is exactly what the show "What Would You Do" aims to accomplish. This episode tells us, sadly, that if a day laborer in this region were to be refused service, something that Mario Rodriguez (an actual day laborer) says happens at many places, no one would stand up, and some might even cheer on the business owner and join in on the racist taunting. Yikes! But equally as important to note, are the patterns that we see in the taunting. Even though these are actors, the script is based on what victims of these verbal attacks have actually experienced, and I'm sure many of us have heard these one liners and anti-immigration arguments before. Here are some patterns that I noticed:

1) English = Citizen. 

Apparently if you speak Spanish you cannot be citizen and therefore are unworthy of service. However, America is a land of immigrants (let's not forget our history) and we do NOT have an official language (many people are misinformed about this). We should be working to make our schools, businesses, and health services accessible to people who speak a wide variety of languages.

2) Immigrants are stealing American Jobs

One way to stop discrimination is to spread the word about the real economic statistics regarding undocumented workers. In fact, their presence is actually helping the economy, not hurting it. George Borjas, a professor of Economics at Harvard, argues that while some specific regions may see more change, when averaged across the entire nation, undocumented immigration is actually a very slight improvement on the economy, raising the average American's wealth by less than 1% ("The Impact of Immigration on the Labor Market-George Borjas 2006).

3) Immigrants are cheaters and criminals

One customer supports the abusive store owner and says that these two men (the day laborers) are not following the rules (referring to immigration), and if they want to follow the rules then they could eat at this diner. Not only does he not ask for them to present papers (who says they aren't citizens or immigrants here with proper documentation?) but what's ironic, sir, is that the discrimination you're defending is in fact ILLEGAL.

and the most problematic (in my opinion):

4) No one spoke out!

Why is this? In other episodes of this show there are normally at least one or two good Samaritans who speak out and defend the individual being victimized or point. Why not in this case? Racism takes many forms. Today overt racism (racism that's in your face, clearly discrimination/hateful like the KKK) is rare (at least in public) because most of us have been trained to speak out against this. Yet covert racism (racism were hostility is not explicit but must be read between the lines, for example when a white landlord tells a black applicant that there are not apartments available right now, even though there are plenty of spaces offered to a white applicant) is ever present, and it's these moments were our ability to identify the racism and our personal conviction telling us to stand up against it gets a little fuzzy--it's easy to ignore! However, what we saw here was overt racism, plain as day. So why don't we stand up for undocumented workers? I believe that it's because of terms like "alien" and "illegal." This language dehumanizes these immigrants, and makes their very existence in question. These terms make them others. This term ("the other") refers to people who are different because they fall into a non-normative identity category, in this case, non-citizen, Spanish speaker, Latino/Latina etc.... By othering people we justify treating them differently, and in this case, we justify treating them like aliens--they are not human and therefore why should we go out of our way to defend them against racism. These individuals "don't count" in the civil rights movement. Mario Rodriguez makes a plea to us at the end of the episode, "Why do they discriminate against us? We're humans same as them." We are all humans, but this kind of language has made us forget.

This show is doing the type of work that Bonilla Silva believes can move our country forward and help eradicate racism. Perhaps shows like this work how Bonilla Silva hope, causing people (specifically whites) to be always cautious that a 'white traitor' might be among them who could out them as a racist to the community and therefore making everyone behave in a more favorable and fair way. But is this enough? If people have racist thoughts but don't act on them is that enough for change? I think this show also makes it's viewers on edge, igniting an outrage inside them that will make them want to stand up next time they see injustice. Perhaps they are being filmed, but more likely they are just standing up for what's right. That's what I urge you to do if you see or hear discrimination, specifically individuals using illegal as a noun and calling undocumented immigrants, "illegal aliens." If we can call people out, perhaps a re-taping of this show would lift our spirits and maybe one, just one person, would have spoken out.