Archive for Racism

Lessons from MLK

// January 18th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Human Rights, Racism

My middle-order MLK and the DREAM for Immigrant Rights was posted earlier today at Change.org but I will use my space here to share with you two more great lessons from Martin Luther King Jr., that guides my daily life and philosophy. The source is Letter from Birmingham Jail and this time, it is the “white moderate” under attack:

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
-Martin Luther King Jr, Letter from Birmingham Jail

I have already once blogged this quote here, while deriding people in the ‘immigrant rights’ movement for holding the DREAM Act hostage. It still holds true today when ‘immigrant rights’ people are quick to blame and judge ‘anarchists’ for creating an atmosphere of violence when it is simply PIC who feel that pepper-spraying children is a necessary action when it comes to “crowd control.”

But it is not our ‘allies’ that I am too concerned about nowadays. We know how to use them and they know how to use us–it is an exploitation based on a symbiotic relationship. I am more concerned about those in our ranks who choose to do nothing.

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Recap of Netroots Nation San Francisco Event

// January 15th, 2010 // No Comments » // Immigration, Racism

I had the pleasure of attending a fantastic Netroots Nation event yesterday where once again, advocates brought up the terrible idea of ‘piecemeal approaches,’ derided DREAM advocates and then proceeded to say that the best we could hope for is that things do not get worse in this climate.

A speaker from Nancy Pelosi’s office told us all that we did not have votes to pass the DREAM Act and that they were looking towards President Obama to frame the issue. The CHC was NOT going to support any ‘piecemeal approach.’ That was the best they could do. It was so positively empowering for all the young people in the room. My immigrant youth friend and I gained a lot from the event; we realized that we should skip going to anything where we are not represented.

I believe the most enlightening quote of the night was from the Asian Law Caucus representative, who said “the only thought out there in the universe promoting a piecemeal immigration effort is MALDEF.” Fantastic. The only thought in my head after hearing that is DUMB. Don’t get me wrong. I totally support comprehensive immigration reform but anything short of a complete overhaul (including the inclusion of UAFA) is ‘piecemeal’ so I will never understand why young immigrants are so derided for taking reins of their own cause. It’s like accusing queers of only wanting marriage for themselves. Now regardless of what we think about marriage, WHO goes around saying that?

Now of course, people will be clamoring to ‘talk to me’ about ‘MY issues’ after the fact, which is so typical of our (racist) hierarchical power structure. The outspoken queer woman of color (aka B-I-T-C-H) has ‘issues’ of course and everyone else doesn’t. Now why is it that people of color have to be offended before being taken seriously and called for dialogue? Don’t bother answering that because I am highly disinterested in wasting an iota of my precious time talking to anyone and their lackeys.

This is precisely what happens when immigrants and immigrant youth get purposely left out of panels concerning their own issues even by so-called allies. I repeatedly asked to be included on the panel concerning “online organizing for immigration rights” only to be told that there was no space for me. Literally. And I have no interest in listening to citizens talk about immigrants and “their rights.” That’s like being gay and sitting in a room where straight people are lecturing about tenets of the LGBT movement. My mind is not colonized enough to accept that.

For the ‘white liberal racist’ we are mere tokens, only for interest when it comes to collecting stories and posing for documentaries. And when their million-dollar strategies fail to bear fruit, we are blamed for ‘ineffective advocacy.’ We, the immigrant youth, fighting to keep our homes, find and hold down jobs, somehow get 3 meals per day and struggling to grapple with refugee status in our own homes just did not try hard enough to lobby for ourselves. We failed even though we are mere caricatures in a simulated game.

Luckily for us, I know how to create alternative spaces so people haven’t been able to entirely put the ‘ignore and discard’ stamp on us. You can’t control messaging online, and that is why real voices are more powerful, more successful than the mutts guarding traditional gates would like.

I am in the “moving on” and “moving out” process in my life. This chapter is so closed that it hardly matters. It’s NEVER going to come in the way of my actual life what with full tuition offers from law schools filling up my mailbox. But I thought I would mention it in passing to the other ships still blindly navigating the waters in the dark to nowhere. Your biggest opposition is not the ignorant anti-immigrant foes with their copy-paste comment spam. Your biggest opposition is the attrition you will face from people supposedly on your own side. Trust no one. Good luck.

Avatar – Epitome of Apologetic White Guilt

// December 27th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Racism

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/2605/avatar2kz.jpg

SPOILER WARNING.

It’s The Last Samurai in a new Avatar.

Ex-Marine from “jar-head clan” finds himself in a lush and rich planet called Pandora, falls in love with an exotic ‘native’ and becomes one with the ‘good indigenous people’ after warding off the evil humans trying to drill the planet for X natural resource. It all sounds eerily familiar.

Jack Sully, the lead antagonizing protagonist, is just like his surname. Hollywood-esque, most of the characters are reduced to mere caricatures. The scientist is the anti-imperialist, anti-corporate liberal do-gooder whereas the military official takes pleasure in blowing up things and the corporate honchos are only worried about PR and profits.

While perceived as anti-colonial, the entire narrative is still colonial, still about doing the right thing for “those people” from our point of view. The movie can be summed down to good white people vs. bad white people. Why the beautiful Na’vi princess, given all the stereotypical traits of human females, would ever choose to mate with the dull and dud white marine officer escapes all logic. The indigenous population is either put on a pedestal or reduced to some helpless aliens who cannot fight back humans without the heroic, liberal white male yearning to belong somewhere, given his own physical and mental incapacity. Whitey not only assimilates; he becomes their leader! It’s the ultimate white fantasy about race relations. The colonialism continues albeit it is neo-colonialism of white guilt in sci-fi terms.

Still, the movie gives us solid, entertainment value after spending some $300 million. I do wonder how the Na’vi would react to this narrative about them, told from the eyes of someone else.

Now we await the second-life video games enabling us to pick our own Avatars, fall in love with an exotic princess, and escape the horrendous conditions that human beings have created in the world around us. Whiteness is the ultimate privilege here, with the power to construct and refine good and bad, the power to choose sides, and the ultimate power to emerge as the victor.

And while we are at it, capitalism is having a good time as well with the cash registers running.

Fort Hood Sparks Muslim Bashing in Mainstream Media

// November 7th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Discourse Studies, Ethnic Studies, Racism

Media Bias on Fort Hood Tragedy

This isn’t particularly surprising.

American civil liberties get massacred during such crises. Instead of calling Major Hasan an ‘alleged’ shooter till he is confirmed guilty by a court of law (Fifth Amendment), speculators have already gone judge, jury and executioner on him.

What’s despicable is that allegations of Islamic terrorism are already in the media spin and public discourse over this gruesome incident. The mainstream media wasted no time in linking a minority religion to a mass murder simply due to our preconceived notions of who commits ‘terrorism’ or ‘jihad’ for that matter. As a response to this unjust heterogenous racial interpellation, Muslim organizations were quick to come out and condemn the attacks. As a response to backlash, many will back away from the interpellation (I am not a Muslim) rather than condemn all violence.

United States national identity has always predicated on a phantasmic threat of an internal or external Other, from indigenous peoples to slaves to USSR during the Cold War to immigrants and anyone that can be marked with an old Orientalist trope. Often, labels create a self-fulfilling prophecy that reinforces a bi-polar world-view. The case of Major Hasan might just be one of those self-fulfilling prophecies hidden beneath moral panic.

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My Name is Khan And Hence I was Detained

// August 15th, 2009 // 8 Comments » // Desi-Indian, DesiPundit, Immigration, Racism

Imagine detaining Tom Cruise in Mumbai because his common name is on a list of common names allegedly associated with ‘terrorism.’

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Shahrukh Khan is living a Kafkaesque nightmare — detained in New Jersey for his last name while he is in the United States shooting “My Name is Khan.”

And ironically, he was detained because his name ‘Khan’ (a common Muslim last name) is on some ‘no-fly’ list. Talking about giving credence to his new movie.

The Times of India reports:

The actor, who is visiting the US to attend a South Asian event where he was the guest of honor was released after Congress MP Rajiv Shukla spoke to the authorities in the US and the Indian consulate. The actor was detained after his name flashed on the computer. He was asked several questions about the purpose of his visit. His hand baggage was checked. He was not allowed to even make a phone call for nearly an hour.

I know about ridiculous things that happen due to airport security paranoia. I know that even former Indian President, Abdul Kalam, was frisked last month by an American airline in New Delhi.  Shahrukh seemed offended and perturbed, rightly so.

“I told them I was a movie star and had recently visited the country for the shooting of my film. Nothing seemed to convince the immigration officer. There were other immigration officers who even vouched for me but this particular officer did not listen to anyone. I even told them I had an invitation from the South Asian community and was there to attend an event.’’

What’s interesting is that Dave from Change.org was just telling me earlier today that Newark is not a safe space to travel for undocumented immigrants. Apparently, immigration officers don’t just discriminate based on documentation but race is also a proxy for criminality.

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Morons of the Week: Those Britons Who Voted for the BNP

// June 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Immigration, Moron of the Week, Nationalism, Racism

In elections held 2 days ago, Nick Griffin and the far-right British National Party won seats for the FIRST time! All was celebratory in the BNP camp till he got pelted with eggs for his reactionary point of views.

The British National Party opposes what Nick Griffin calls the ”creeping Islamification” of Britain, supports voluntary repatriation of immigrants and wants to take Britain out of the European Union and NATO. It’s nativism 101 and it’s ugly.

Immigrant scapegoating is a sad answer to recession. It’s sadder when the spineless left and Labour Party serve to appease xenophobia rather than confront it.

As The Herald puts:

The way to tackle racism is to confront it, not appease it; to show consistently the benefits that immigrants bring to society; to point out that British history has also been a history of emigration; to work harder to achieve integration; and to recognise our own immigrant backgrounds.

Britain and all other countries face a fundamental choice right now. They can either accept that the movement of peoples between countries is and always has been part of the natural order, and is especially encouraged by neo-liberal policies purported by the G-8. Or they can join the BNP and the Nazi parties in embracing right-wing xenophobia and nativism as an answer to societal ills brought about by a system that benefits a few over many. Most would elect to walk the middle-line out of cowardice.

On a related note, here is the latest map of exploding hate groups in the United States.

This comment on the CNN blog wins quote of the week on blog:

There should be a “cute” little symbol centered on Washington. Until our country’s government recognizes all American citizens as equal, it will continue to serve as a paradigm for hate groups everywhere.

Amen.

‘The Tan Klan’ Bandaid Badge

// June 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Immigration, Racism

Anti-immigration forces call groups like the National Council of La Raza ‘The Tan Klan’ and the latest insinuation is that judicial nominee Sotomayor is also a part of the Klan.

What is the Tan Klan? The so-called Latino Klan without the hoods and nooses.

Of course, one would never find members of La Raza and ‘the Tan Klan’ lynching and violently attacking persons who are deemed different. The label not only insults and trivializes the horrific history of black Americans who suffered at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, but also unjustly purports that contemporary brown people somehow have the same power of persecution without consequences.

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I decided to make a badge in support of ‘the Tan Klan.’ A friend remarked that it looks quite like a bandaid, and we both agree that Comprehensive Immigration Reform is a bandaid solution. The anti-immigration forces do not have solutions. The solutions offered by the Tan Klan are not long-term.

Real immigration reform involves battling how neo-liberal globalization drives migrants from poorer countries to richer countries, how the state constructs the labels and categories of legal and illegal. No one in the DC establishment is willing to do that.

Biopower – The State Killed Luis Ramirez

// May 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // Immigration, Racism

From the Sanctuary:

Ramirez, a father of three, was beaten to death in the streets of Pennsylvania by as many as seven young men who were at the end of a night of drinking. The motive? Judging by the slurs heaped upon him along with the many blows to his body: apparently nothing more than being out at night while Mexican. The teens who ganged up on Ramirez came upon him walking with a young woman, reportedly his girlfriend’s sister. Obviously bringing threat, they asked him what he was doing out at that time of day. Then they set upon him. In the end it was a final hard kick to the skull which left the 25-year-old father convulsing on the concrete with fatal brain damage.

[...]

The murder of Luis Ramirez-like the murders of Marcelo Lucero and Wilter Sanchez and Jose Sucuhañay-are but logical steps in the process of defining a subhuman class of ALIEN and inciting anti-Latino violence, which will continue unless marked changes are made in our society. Changes in the immigration dialogue. Changes in the way pundits frame and discuss the issue. Perhaps even more importantly, changes to the fashion in which both Republicans and Democrats pitch and move legislation. The entire “Enforcement Agenda” that directly links immigration status (and thus all Latinos) to criminality, discussed coolly by seemingly rational voices on both Right and Left, is but the socially and politically acceptable umbrella which shields crimes like the murder of Luis Ramirez. The ubiquitous message resonating from coast to coast of this continent, across which peoples of Latin American descent have been migrating back and forth for thousands of years, is that we are in the crosshairs. And that we deserve to be in those hair-trigger sights.

[...]

Though it is necessary and a good thing, it is not enough to pass H.S. 1913, the current Hate Crimes bill that has cleared the Senate and is now headed for the House. Nor is it adequate to simply pass the D.R.E.A.M Act (though, again necessary, so please sign), and/or to legalize the immigrants who are working and raising families in the US, and be done with it. These things must be done, and soon. But we must not rest there.

First, we must demand a satisfactory accounting find its way to this unresolved injustice. (Please sign the petition to add your voice.)

This brings back memories of the Gwen Araujo case here in Fremont, which initially resulted in a ‘mis-trial.’ Four teens raped and killed a transgender teenager and the defence purported that it was a ‘crime of passion,’ arguing that Araujo had led the boys on due to her sexuality and they were enraged upon finding out that she was a ‘man.’ Yes, it was horseshit–much like the murder trial of Luis Ramirez is horseshit.

We can punish these teenagers but it is a bandaid, not a cure. We live in a system that legitimates a culture of violence, especially one directed against fellow human beings who are labelled ‘Others’: gay, undocumented, ethnic minority, and so on. Through biopower–identifying, labelling and reifying the position of people in society on some social hierarchal totem pole and designating ‘them’ as opposed to ‘us’–the state reproduces the otherization of difference, and deems certain people as less worthy, less important. Race, being an undocumented immigrant, a homosexual and whatever subgroup or subclass is not a neutral or naturally occuring phenomena. These are all productive mechanisms of enhancing state power: producing hate and also initiating solutions like ‘hate crimes bills’ for that hate. At the end of the day, it is the state that is responsible for the murder of Luis Ramirez, and the subsequent ineffective prosecution of those that are responsible for this heinous crime.

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