Many Progressive Blacks On Immigration: THEY Don't Want Either Of Us Here

THE MO'KELLY REPORT: The Racial Hypocrisy of Univision?

It is clear to me that certain Black people are able to redirect any concerns that they have about the impact of unchecked illegal immigration upon the Black community by focusing upon the perpetual enemy: THEY.

As I noted from a few weeks ago on the show "Washington Watch", the guest made a comment that was similar to this blog's title:  "We should make sure that we keep an eye on the immigration debate because if THEY had it their way WE would not be here either".  This was enough, it seems, to disarm any negro that might be inclined to demand better control of our border to the southwest and the southeast - as Haitians come that way and we should support the Haitians. 

It is clear that the same mental force that allowed the NAACP's Ben Jealous to talk about some celestial "THEY" when he talked about those who are allowing public schools to fail is this same amorphous force that is seeking to do the illegal immigrant wrong, unable to consider the desperate situation that he finds himself in.

In as much as there is no enforced "ownership" construct where people who pontificate as such are made to see how their theories bear down directly upon their own standard of living - they will not be forced to change their views from the present "morally superior" entrenchment.  As long as they figure that there is some unsettled land to the West for them to expand their theories to they will not make note that they have reached the metaphorical "Pacific Ocean" and thus need to double back and actually begin to MANAGE the affairs within.

I know of no MANAGER who escapes being called a "no good scalawag" but someone somewhere.  It comes with the job when one if faced with economic reality and thus has to make tough decisions about scarce resources.  To those with no such consciousness they see themselves as being a greater person by allowing that 25th person onto a life raft that was built for 15.  If the vessel capsizes and all perish but him - he are inclined to file a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the raft for failing to accommodate 25 or 30 souls. 

The actual story that triggered this post focused upon the cultural insensitivity of some Spanish language television shows piped in from Mexico.  As the writer details the "human level" connectedness between Black and Brown he fails to note that in LA County - the most frequent occurrence of "Racial hate crimes" is between Black and Brown.  The "THEY" that is so frequently referenced as a unifying force is not found in this equation.

Beyond this tenuous common fate must be the consciousness of your own ultimate interests which can't always be hoisted upon someone else as the reason why you remain as you are.


The article

For all the talk as to how this country should or should not effectively deal with both illegal and legal immigration to the United States, less has been discussed as to how we Americans are doing thus far on a human level. Congress can legislate policy, but it can’t outlaw ignorance and insensitivity.

My concerns as an African-American man lie more with Black and Brown relations on a day-to-day level and less with one’s immigrant status. The tension between African-Americans and Latinos has been well-documented and exists on varying levels from the gang-infested streets to the progressively integrated corporate suites. Ostensibly African-Americans and immigrating Latinos are more similar than disparate, given the African diaspora and the historical issues of race in America. And that’s saying nothing of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers Movement. You’d think we’d be brothers-in-arms in 2009, yet reality suggests something else.

“We have fought hard and long for integration, as I believe we should have, and I know that we will win. But I’ve come to believe we’re integrating into a burning house.”

- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

One could make the argument that immigration in 2009 is “integration 2.0” where once again America in a legislative sense deals with the realities of the evolving hues of her citizens. Dr. King feared that African-Americans were integrating themselves into a society that did not understand the plight of the disenfranchised and poor, disproportionately made up of people of color.

He was right.

I would submit the question today in relation to the immigration/integration conundrum confronting Black/Brown relations in 2009 is whether Black/Brown relationship-building must begin far in advance of those wishing to cross the U.S. border; not after we’ve been thrust together.