[Peace-discuss] Anti-Immigrant in Black Face?

[Ricky Baldwin]

I got this from a friend very timely, I thought.  And
it's excellent, too...
Ricky

http://www.blackcommentator.com/231/231_cover_anti_immigrant_in_black_face_fletcher_ed_bd.html
http://www.blackcommentator.com/231/231_cover_anti_immigrant_in_black_face_fletcher_ed_bd.html>
> Black Commentator
> May 23, 2007
> 
> Anti-Immigrant in Black Face?
> 
> By Bill Fletcher, Jr. - BC Editorial Board
> 
> The picture in the ad immediately caught my
> attention.
> The photo was of a very dignified older African
> American man looking into the camera, very
> determined
> and equally pensive. Underneath his photo was a
> caption giving his name "T. Willard Fair" and the
> fact that he was the veteran of 40 years of struggle
> in
> the Civil Rights Movement.
> 
> This was certainly enough to pique my interest.
> 
> Beneath the caption was a statement declaring that
> the
> alleged threat to African Americans comes from
> documented and undocumented immigrants. He went on
> to
> suggest that any notion of legalizing undocumented
> workers was a slap in the face of African Americans.
> The ad is associated with a group called the
> "Coalition for the Future American Worker."
> 
> Fair's attack is not surprising, although the
> virulence and historical nature of it is very
> unsettling, particularly because it is bound to
> strike
> a chord among many African Americans.
> 
> Black America has been taking a prolonged economic
> hit
> since the mid 1970s. The economic reorganization
> which
> many people call de-industrialization has had a
> devastating impact on the Black worker,
> disproportionately so. The elimination and/or
> shrinkage of manufacturing jobs in urban centers has
> had the effect of hollowing out entire communities,
> destabilizing Black America economically, socially
> and
> politically. Rather than the flight of the so-called
> middle class, Black America has witnessed the
> disintegration of segments of its working class and
> professional/managerial class.
> 
> This crisis began well before there was a
> significant
> influx of immigrants, and it is this crisis that has
> been haunting us. This crisis has been compounded by
> the right-wing political assault on the public
> sector,
> largely through anti-tax revolts and privatization,
> which has resulted in both a decline in services and
> a
> decline in employment (with the latter also having a
> disproportionate impact on the Black worker).
> 
> Fair and his coalition mention nothing about this,
> which in and of itself is quite significant. Instead
> they focus on the competition from the immigrant
> worker. While competition exists, particularly in
> very
> low wage work, the problem does not lie with the
> immigrants but with the desire on the part of
> employers
> to find workers who will accept the lowest possible
> wages. This has been demonstrated in any number of
> industries, not the least of which was the
> janitorial
> industry during the 1980s that went from very
> African
> American to very Latino after the industry was
> reorganized.
> 
> Fair makes it appear that immigrants are the ones
> closing steel mills and auto plants. They are not.
> Fair acts as if the immigrant workers are carrying
> out
> ethnic cleansing against African Americans. They are
> not. We are, however, being cleansed from entire
> industries because of the greed of employers who are
> always looking at the bottom line and who seek the
> cheapest possible workforce, and eventually, if
> possible, no human workforce at all, but just a line
> of
> robots.
> 
> Instead of Fair and his grouping focusing on the
> policies that have been destroying African American
> employment, they instead pick the easy - and wrong -
> target of the immigrant. And, it is easy to pick the
> immigrant. For instance, in the construction
> industry,
> an industry that African Americans, along with non-
> immigrant Latinos (particularly Puerto Ricans and
> Chicanos) and Asians fought for years to get into,
> immigrant workers are increasing dramatically as a
> significant proportion of the workforce. What is
> noteworthy is that this is happening largely in the
> lower-paid, non-union construction workforce where,
> once again, the "logic" of capitalism prevails in
> the search for a low-wage workforce. While the Black
> worker wants a construction job, s/he is not looking
> for low-wage construction work with no benefits.
> Consider the conditions into which Latino immigrant
> construction workers were placed when many were
> brought
> to New Orleans for the reconstruction of the city.
> Under non-union conditions, they were often housed
> in a
> prison-like environment, and frequently cheated out
> of
> pay.
> 
> No, Mr. Fair and your cohorts, the problem is not
> the
> immigrant worker. The problem is the system. And,
> just as African American workers were used in
> certain
> industries as low-wage workers in the late 19th and
> early-to-mid 20th centuries, in order to undercut
> higher paid workers, this changed dramatically
> through
> a combination of unionization and the Black Freedom
> Movement.
> 
> What lessons can we draw from this?
> 
> * As long as there is a vulnerable workforce,
> capitalists will seek them out to utilize against
> other workers.
> 
> * Low-wage workers will not be competitors if they
> cease being low-wage workers, i.e., if they are
> unionized and gain power in their workplaces or
> jobs.
> 
> * Part of changing the character of work can be
> found in the demands of a social movement that
> combines the fight for political and social
> justice, with economic justice. To a great extent,
> the crisis facing the Black worker today can be
> linked to the failure of the Black Freedom Movement
> to pursue the path suggested by Dr. King toward the
> end of his life, that united the fights for racial
> justice with economic justice along with what later
> came to be known as global justice.
> 
> Without disrespecting the life and history of Mr.
> Fair,
> who I am sure made contributions to our struggle for
> justice, somewhere along the line he fell prey to
> the
> emotional and hallucinatory appeal of attacking
> immigrants as a means of saving the Black worker.
> Not
> only is this morally bankrupt, but it is also
> politically bankrupt. If we do not have an accurate
> analysis of the problem, we cannot possibly develop
> a
> good strategy to resolve it. Or, perhaps it was
> better
> and more succinctly put by the Cheshire Cat in Alice
> in
> Wonderland when he said, "if you don't know where
> you
> want to go, any road will get you there."
> _____
> 
> BC Editorial Board member, Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a
> long-time labor and international activist and
> writer.




       
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