When I talk about immigration in my classes, one of my favorite questions to ask is: who is an "illegal" immigrant. Most of my students think all undocumented immigrants are Latin American. I then show them a group picture of undocumented immigrants receiving assistance from a local immigration center here in Boston. With only a handful of exceptions, the group of about two dozen people are white. I would imagine that they are probably Irish. My students are usually dumbfounded. Depending on the time available we discuss whether it changes their view of the issue. Most of my students need more time to think it through. Or at least time to forget what they just saw.
Today in the Boston Globe, Kevin Cullen wrote about a local undocumented immigrant who died of pneumonia. As he states, no one will ever know if the young man didn't go to the hospital because of fear of getting caught and deported, "stubborn pride", or simple lack of knowledge. The young man in the article is Irish.
I give Cullen credit for humanizing the often overheated rhetoric around immigration. If you listen too much to the likes of Lou Dobbs, it would be very easy to forget or ignore the fact that immigrants are human beings. Strategically, Cullen's article is helpful in showing people, mainly white Americans, that undocumented immigrants are not some unknowable "other". Undocumented immigrants are, and look, just like them.
And that is also why I find this article discomfitting. Human beings have a knack for rationalizing contradictory rules in order to reduce cognitive dissonance. This means that behavior that is considered unacceptable for some is excused for others. This happens in race relations all the time. Even today, it is o.k. for white men to have sexual relations with women of color, however there is widespread discomfort when black men have sexual relations with white women. Studies of the sentences given to white men versus black men who have committed murder find that the harshness of the sentence is significantly related to the race of the victim; black murderers of white victims get considerably longer sentences and are more likely to receive capital punishment than white murderers of black victims. In this case, Cullen's article may simply lead white people to forgive the undocumented status of this Irishman but continue to view undocumented Latinos and Asians as criminal.
The Irishman in the article was hardworking, skilled, and employed. There is no mention of whether he paid his taxes, or whether his employers made their Social Security and Medicare contributions as they are supposed to. I would bet that most would assume that he did, if only because he is white. I would also bet that an equally sympathetic portrayal of a hardworking, skilled Latino immigrant would be met with accusations or at least assumptions of not paying taxes and taking jobs away from people who are allegedly "entitled" to those jobs.
Cullen's article is necessary in order to inject a little bit of rationality and understanding in this discussion. It is may also unfortunately have the effect of reifying racialized understandings of which "illegal" immigrants deserve sympathy. It is time to see the immigration debate as one based primarily on race. An undocumented Irishman faces the same risks and likely harbors the same fears as an undocumented Latino. Except that I doubt that South Boston or Dorchester is on ICE's list of next likely places to raid. I would bet that if an ICE agent walked into the Eire Pub, it would be to have a beer after coming from community sweeps of Chelsea or New Bedford.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
Why I might vote for Obama
I realized the other day that I have become inclined to vote for Obama, despite some reservations I have about some of his positions, because I have become more conscious of the racism in this country. When I lived in California, I was a member of the largest non-white group in the state and the large demographic group in So.Cal. Almost everyone I went to school with at CSULA was non-white. Everyone I worked with was Latino and, if I wanted to move up in my profession, others would see me as white and I would still be Latina. Granted, I lived in L.A. during the governorship of Pete Wilson, which I see now as the beginning of the contemporary wave of anti-Latino sentiment. But I don't think I felt the level racism that his policies embodied because when I looked around, I saw my people everywhere. They were definitely in low paying janitorial jobs at my college and they were picking strawberries in Ventura County. But they were also reporters on the news, they were sitting on the city council, they were teachers, doctors, lawyers and business owners.
Moving out to the East Coast where I was truly in the minority really opened my eyes to this thing called racism and the issue of race relations. It also made me more aware of my white skin privilege. Here people took it for granted that I was white and would say things to me or in front of me that they would never say in front of my darker skinned parents or my long-haired, mustachoed, Mexican American husband. Moreover, many white people here are so racist they don't even see the racism in their words and deeds. In California, white racists owned their racism. Here, they don't see the prejudice in making assertions about who deserves to have access to a college education, to be able to get health care, to be provided the same rights in the criminal justice system, to even be in this country. And pointing it out to them just makes them either really uncomfortable or really angry. They aren't racist. They have friends who are brown. They give scholarships to brown people all the time. They don't necessarily want too many them sitting on the board of directors of local organizations, but they are happy with providing them with social services and other benefits. We aren't racist, they say, because we give them free after school tutoring and basketball uniforms.
I also think my experience with a friend's campaign for the state legislature this last summer reinforced to me that we have a long way to go to improve race relations. This became clear not just because the campaign brought out the racism that I already knew existed in this neighborhood, but because of the blindness to racism among these white "progressives" who were assisting us. These folks, although clearly understanding and sympathetic to the issue of racism and prejudice, had also clearly never seen it. They not only did not know how to handle racist comments when confronted with them, they still could not get themselves to see that people still do believe these things. Whenever confronted with it, it was treated as a fluke and not a norm. In fact, it is the norm in this neighborhood and in many others. It may be more overt here and more subtly pernicious elsewhere. But racism and prejudice is alive and well and I see that more clearly today than ever before.
I suppose I hope that if Obama were to be elected president, maybe, just maybe, it might start to change the way white people think about non-white people. Maybe they would see us as less of a threat. Maybe they would be willing to open up their neighborhoods, their loan funds, and their play groups to us. Maybe the teachers, school counselors, and administrators will be less likely to write so many of us off. Maybe, just maybe, it might inspire black and brown folks to believe that things could actually be different for them. Maybe the lack of hope that pervades our brown and black neighborhoods would ebb just enough so that there is one less excuse for believing that doing well in school is "acting white", one less excuse for the drug dealing, gun slinging, gang banging way of life. Maybe the apathy will subside just enough to get people out to vote and involved in their local schools, local non-profit organizations, or at least involved with their neighbors.
Yes, it is a vote for the symbol. But, no more so than voting for Clinton because she is a woman. When there is little difference between candidates on the issues, don't we then vote on ideology? Don't you then vote for the person who symbolizes, and hopefully will put into action, a world that you would like to see made into reality? Obama symbolizes the hope that maybe this country can get past the specter of race so that brown and black peoples can finally have the freedoms and opportunities promised to us.
Moving out to the East Coast where I was truly in the minority really opened my eyes to this thing called racism and the issue of race relations. It also made me more aware of my white skin privilege. Here people took it for granted that I was white and would say things to me or in front of me that they would never say in front of my darker skinned parents or my long-haired, mustachoed, Mexican American husband. Moreover, many white people here are so racist they don't even see the racism in their words and deeds. In California, white racists owned their racism. Here, they don't see the prejudice in making assertions about who deserves to have access to a college education, to be able to get health care, to be provided the same rights in the criminal justice system, to even be in this country. And pointing it out to them just makes them either really uncomfortable or really angry. They aren't racist. They have friends who are brown. They give scholarships to brown people all the time. They don't necessarily want too many them sitting on the board of directors of local organizations, but they are happy with providing them with social services and other benefits. We aren't racist, they say, because we give them free after school tutoring and basketball uniforms.
I also think my experience with a friend's campaign for the state legislature this last summer reinforced to me that we have a long way to go to improve race relations. This became clear not just because the campaign brought out the racism that I already knew existed in this neighborhood, but because of the blindness to racism among these white "progressives" who were assisting us. These folks, although clearly understanding and sympathetic to the issue of racism and prejudice, had also clearly never seen it. They not only did not know how to handle racist comments when confronted with them, they still could not get themselves to see that people still do believe these things. Whenever confronted with it, it was treated as a fluke and not a norm. In fact, it is the norm in this neighborhood and in many others. It may be more overt here and more subtly pernicious elsewhere. But racism and prejudice is alive and well and I see that more clearly today than ever before.
I suppose I hope that if Obama were to be elected president, maybe, just maybe, it might start to change the way white people think about non-white people. Maybe they would see us as less of a threat. Maybe they would be willing to open up their neighborhoods, their loan funds, and their play groups to us. Maybe the teachers, school counselors, and administrators will be less likely to write so many of us off. Maybe, just maybe, it might inspire black and brown folks to believe that things could actually be different for them. Maybe the lack of hope that pervades our brown and black neighborhoods would ebb just enough so that there is one less excuse for believing that doing well in school is "acting white", one less excuse for the drug dealing, gun slinging, gang banging way of life. Maybe the apathy will subside just enough to get people out to vote and involved in their local schools, local non-profit organizations, or at least involved with their neighbors.
Yes, it is a vote for the symbol. But, no more so than voting for Clinton because she is a woman. When there is little difference between candidates on the issues, don't we then vote on ideology? Don't you then vote for the person who symbolizes, and hopefully will put into action, a world that you would like to see made into reality? Obama symbolizes the hope that maybe this country can get past the specter of race so that brown and black peoples can finally have the freedoms and opportunities promised to us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)