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May. 1st, 2006
True Colors
May. 1st, 2006 09:45 pmIn the past week I have heard more racist remarks than I have heard in a decade. I am beginning to believe in the Republican claims of widespread moral decay, if it weren't for the fact that I know that they're talking about a different subject entirely.
I had a conversation with an acquaintance the other day. It started with a story I told about a former roommate who unexpectedly began spouting theories about racial purity; how black people should not intermarry with whites. As a white kid who grew up with a black dad, I tend to look at that sort of attitude as outlandish. I finished my story, and the woman to whom I told it began to quiz me about why I thought retaining racial purity was a bad idea. Racial purity? What race? Show me a culture or a race that is pure, or for that matter, define purity. I gave the example of Native Americans. The concept of blood quanta is an entirely European one. Diverse tribes had different standards of deciding who was a member, and it rarely had to do with whether you were full-blooded. It may have been whether your mother was a member of the tribe, or your father was a member of the tribe, true, but in those cases it was only that parent. Then there were the cases of adoption, which occurred freely among tribes, whites and slaves. Once you were adopted, it was as if you were born into the tribe. Racial purity? That is a Eugenics concept dreamed up by fascists. For that matter, who is pure white? The Brits? Germans? Scandinavians? etc etc....
Today on the radio I heard callers on a talk show talking about those awful Mexicans that steal jobs, then have the audacity to march in the streets demanding rights. I had to do a double take. I was listening to liberal talk radio. Does no one get that, while the majority of illegal workers are Mexican, many are from Eastern Europe and Asia. It's easy to come and overstay your visa. Hey folks -- you are buying the right wing racist line!
Think about the situation in a different way. There were huge factories that were closed today because their illegal workers didn't work today. Why are we so upset at the illegal workers who are trying to make a buck to feed their families and not at the corporations who get off without any penalty for hiring them? People come along and say "leave the market alone - don't tell corporations how to run their business." That only works in a system where there is fair competition. If the corporation can bring in a labor force that is outside the competitive market and pay that force wages that are far below the cost of living in the local area, it is no longer a laissez faire economy. The scale is tipped too far in favor of management and labor cannot compete. The illegal worker is forced to work in indecent conditions and is often subject to, at best, indentured servitude, at worst, sexual slavery. They cannot seek legal remedies for their plight for fear of deportation.
If that is not enough to convince you that racism is alive and well in this world, I give you skin whitening. Thousand of Asian women ruining their faces and getting cancer to appear white.
I had a conversation with an acquaintance the other day. It started with a story I told about a former roommate who unexpectedly began spouting theories about racial purity; how black people should not intermarry with whites. As a white kid who grew up with a black dad, I tend to look at that sort of attitude as outlandish. I finished my story, and the woman to whom I told it began to quiz me about why I thought retaining racial purity was a bad idea. Racial purity? What race? Show me a culture or a race that is pure, or for that matter, define purity. I gave the example of Native Americans. The concept of blood quanta is an entirely European one. Diverse tribes had different standards of deciding who was a member, and it rarely had to do with whether you were full-blooded. It may have been whether your mother was a member of the tribe, or your father was a member of the tribe, true, but in those cases it was only that parent. Then there were the cases of adoption, which occurred freely among tribes, whites and slaves. Once you were adopted, it was as if you were born into the tribe. Racial purity? That is a Eugenics concept dreamed up by fascists. For that matter, who is pure white? The Brits? Germans? Scandinavians? etc etc....
Today on the radio I heard callers on a talk show talking about those awful Mexicans that steal jobs, then have the audacity to march in the streets demanding rights. I had to do a double take. I was listening to liberal talk radio. Does no one get that, while the majority of illegal workers are Mexican, many are from Eastern Europe and Asia. It's easy to come and overstay your visa. Hey folks -- you are buying the right wing racist line!
Think about the situation in a different way. There were huge factories that were closed today because their illegal workers didn't work today. Why are we so upset at the illegal workers who are trying to make a buck to feed their families and not at the corporations who get off without any penalty for hiring them? People come along and say "leave the market alone - don't tell corporations how to run their business." That only works in a system where there is fair competition. If the corporation can bring in a labor force that is outside the competitive market and pay that force wages that are far below the cost of living in the local area, it is no longer a laissez faire economy. The scale is tipped too far in favor of management and labor cannot compete. The illegal worker is forced to work in indecent conditions and is often subject to, at best, indentured servitude, at worst, sexual slavery. They cannot seek legal remedies for their plight for fear of deportation.
If that is not enough to convince you that racism is alive and well in this world, I give you skin whitening. Thousand of Asian women ruining their faces and getting cancer to appear white.
