From Mumia Abu-Jamal on death row
Immigration blues
Published Apr 27, 2006 9:23 AM
Taken from an April 2 commentary.
Now, as
polls show growing disenchantment with both political parties, the issue of
immigration is raised once again, as politicians seek to stir the pot of social
resentment.
Voices are raised, tempers are frayed, proposals are launched,
and the destinies of millions are apparently held in limbo.
But, in
numbers not seen for generations, mostly Mexican-born (or related) families
pound the pavements in protest, demanding amnesty for the millions who live and
work, in the most thankless jobs, here in the U.S.
The immigration
“discussion” masks deeper currents in American life, of those who
dread the approaching dawn when those who number the nation’s majority are
brown, instead of white.
As the government and the servile corporate media
hawked fear to trap the nation into the Iraq War, so now fear is once again
merchandised for political gain. The perpetual fear of the foreign other, the
fear of Spanish-speaking people, who are called “criminal” for
daring to cross the Rio Grande, to inhabit the lands stolen from their
ancestors!
The truth of the matter is that it is highly unlikely that over
11 million men, women and children will be returned to Mexican territory.
That’s because businesses, especially those engaged in agriculture, would
virtually go out of business if their immigrant-based workforce up and
disappeared.
But, like most people, many Latino@ immigrants are involved in
other businesses and industries in U.S. life. Guess who’s doing the
lion’s share of the work to actually rebuild New Orleans? (In case
you’ve not guessed, let me just say it—It ain’t
FEMA!)
With the exception of Native Americans (as in so-called
“Indians”), and African Americans, every person in the U.S. today is
a descendant of a willing immigrant. (OK, strict historians will object that
many poor whites, especially in the Southern states, were sent to Prince George,
Maryland, as indentured servants, as part of a penal sentence.)
But the
point is clear. Immigration was consciously used to craft the U.S. as a white
nation. For centuries, certain racial groups, like Chinese, for example, were
specifically excluded by law from citizenship. (Like their Mexican counterparts,
many Asians were needed in the building of this country as cheap
labor.)
As law professor Ian F. Haney-Lopez has shown in his book,
“White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race” (N.Y.:NYU Press,
1996), American courts and legislatures have consistently defined
“citizens” as “whites” and, over the course of
centuries, millions of people were denied entry to the U.S., or even if allowed
in were denied citizenship, because they were not “white.” In 1882,
Haney-Lopez explains, the U.S. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which
barred Chinese workers for a decade. In 1884, the Act was expanded to bar all
Chinese people, and shortly thereafter an indefinite ban was implemented. State
and federal court decisions banned Syrians, Asian-Indians, Palestinians,
mixed-race people and multitudes of others on the basis of insufficient
whiteness!
That ugly history may be reborn in this latest
“battle” over Mexican immigration. Political storms have a way of
giving way to political hurricanes that even those who planned them cannot
control.
Several years ago, a right-wing politician in California tried to
ride the anti-immigrant train to the White House. This man was Pete Wilson, and
his playing with fire left him politically burnt. Angry Hispanics in California
sent him, and some of his colleagues in the Republican Party, into
retirement.
But this era of politicians, trying to create an issue that
protects them from the falling numbers of the incumbent Bush Administration,
look at Wilson’s fate as ancient history.
Perhaps the recent
demonstrations, massive in their size, vociferous in their spirit, have given
them pause.
Time will tell.
The political entity that truly
befriends this growing segment of the U.S. population will have tapped into a
powerful social force.
Don’t expect it to be either the Republicans
or the Democrats.
Go to prisonradio.org to hear Mumia’s audio
commentaries.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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