Blacks for Immigrant Rights!
Enough of the race-baiting!
Too much of the corporate media continues trying to antagonize Black v. Brown, Brown (whether you’re Latin@, South Asian or otherwise) vs. Black. And in doing so, grossly misrepresents what the current Civil Rights Movement is about: those denied their rights fighting to win/gain equal rights.
In the process of writing about racial beefs that aren’t there, they fail to discuss the hypocrises of Dick Cheney about the banderas from centro- y suramerica, considering that he’s never tooted once about all those Irish nationalists flaunting clovers, leperchauns & the Green-and-Orange on St. Patty’s Day.
I saw it in New York just last week when my mellow my man, Dominic Carter (of Time Warner’s NY1’s ‘Inside City Hall’) attempted to antagonize Rev. Al “Quick & Witty” Sharpton. To which Sharpton easily dissected Carter’s, NY1’s and most of the corporate media’s efforts to continue to pit Black versus Brown.
Yet, why is there no public acknowledgement of the many African-American voices affirming the rights of immigrants (of all nations, religions & INS/ICE status). If you dare tell me that you haven’t seen a single voice from the Black community supporting their fellow working-class brethren, here are a few Black journalists tellin’ it how it is (even if they are inside the corporate media Top Ten or 20):
1. Eugene Robinson, “My Immigration Solution.”
Washington Post, April 14.
2. Derrick Jackson, the BOS Globe who has written about multiple aspects — many that are rarely addressed — of the immigration crossroads we are at, including Trent Lott’s racist sensationalism as well as the disproportionate contributions that undocumented immigrants make towards public coffers (even in pure expenditure terms, not to mention overall social & cultural benefits).
3. the folks at Black Commentator — who are always tellin it like it is. Not only on immigrant rights, but also some of the first to call the sell-out Blacks who are Blue Dog Dixiecrats or corporate-held members of the CBC.
May 18th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
It would be a real mistake to believe that ‘racial beefs’ don’t exist just because the right wing is trying to inflate and inflame them. The Black Commentator is great; it’s also radical, which most people aren’t. And whatever given commentators or proclaimed leaders say, they aren’t necessarily the voiceboxes of the masses. I’ve heard plenty of anger toward immigrants among black people, in schools, community, labor unions, even among militants in labor unions. A couple of years ago when org. labor put together the Immigrant Freedom Rides, the great Rev. James Orange did an awful lot of meeting and talking to get black trade unionists on with idea, and also to break the notion that all immigrants are Latino. On May Day in New York, Sharpton spoke, Roger Toussaint spoke but they didn’t bring any people out. In Colombia, South Carolina, on that day people in the black community, even long activists, were complaining that the slogan “We are all immigrants” denigrated the history of slavery. In Cambridge, Mass, high schoolers told their classmate, a Latina friend of mine, that “as soon as the Mexicans learn English, they’ll be ‘white’ and we’ll be back where we’ve always been”. Sharpton has been in argument mode with some of his supporters, saying, “Like we had jobs before the Mexicans came??” There’s no monolith; people are all over on the issue. It’s just a mistake to believe everything’s hunky dory, black-brown together forever. The right wing knows exactly what it’s doing by playing to black as well as white racial fears.