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

Tue Jun 12 21:45:31 CDT 2007

First and simplest, Fletcher mentions an assault since
the 1970's because before that wages and working
conditions for African Americans were improving. 
Another migration North, good jobs in steel, autos,
etc., followed by a steep decline - hit hardest once
again when American workers in general took a big hit.
  It's a particular trend, the latest phase in a
centuries long pattern of abuse, you might say.  He's
obviously not arguing that everything was peaches and
cream before 1970.

More obvious, what's "new" is that Fletcher is
responding to particular campaign: the very one you
brought up (which, as I was saying, is itself old wine
in new bottles). 

And, yes, Fletcher's *reminding* us (hopefully
reminding, or if not, informing us) that pitting one
abused worker against another is not the solution to
injustice.  

Have more men been out of work or paid less because
more women have been working, usually being paid less?
 Does it mean women shouldn't be allowed to work?  Are
white workers' wages lower because black Americans are
in the workforce getting less pay?  Isn't that exactly
what having an underclass is all about?  No matter who
that underclass is?

I think it's also worth mentioning, in the particular
case of the Mexican border, where most of the
attention seems focussed, that slaveholders from the
US stole much of that land in the first place from
Mexico, and that before that many of the peoples - if
we must group workers by descent in order to discuss
this - that are crossing that border (Mayan, etc.)
were uprooted and displaced by a European invasion,
followed by subsequent attacks including US trade and
drug policies that are now forcing them off their
land.

Is that the fault of African Americans?  Is it the
fault of the people being coerced off their land?  I'd
argue it's no one's fault except the ones who are
doing it.  I'd also argue our time is better spent
focussing on the real enemy instead of quarreling over
who took whose place in line at the soup kitchen,
methadone clinic, or the line up for the truck to go
to that 10-12 hour a day job harvesting potatoes.

Hope that clarifies.
Ricky

--- Jenifer Cartwright <jencart7 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Nothing new here, same old same excuse is that it's
> really the fault of The System (which we all agree
> is the case), and that pretty much ends it: until
> The System itself is fixed, there's no point in
> recognising that a bad situation w/in a bad system
> merits our concern, will (continue to) be
> affected/worsened by foreign workers, and that we
> need to be aware of this when we address the
> question of  immigration reform.  
>    
>   The writer says, "African Americans have been
> taking a prolonged financial hit since the mid
> 1970s".... as tho' he thinks things were fine for
> blacks before that?!?! (What planet has he been
> living on??? The 1670s would be more accurate...)
>    
>   Whew! I've already more-than given my perspective
> in my first couple of emails, so if folks haven't
> understood and sympathized by now, they probably
> aren't going to, no matter how many emails I send...
>    
>   Jenifer
> 
> Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com> wrote:
>   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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