I wanna talk about the term "Racist", I also want to talk about the new AZ immigration law SB1070. Bring your hate.
I am so fucking sick to death of the word racist being thrown around like candy. Words like cunt, fuck, tits and even racial slurs say more about the person using the words than they say about the person the word is used on. If someone calls someone a slur, no one is going to fire the person the slur was used against. No one will even think less of that person. If anything that person can capitalize on the sympathy and outrage of others if they are of the attention whoring persuasion. Now I am not saying this was historically the case, or devaluing the suffering of minorities and the fight for equal rights. However, living in the now, I can't think of anyplace where if person A calls person B a racial slur, person B comes out of the situation worse than person A will end up coming out of the situation. Person A will be labeled a racist. They could be fired, disciplined and socially ostracised. The label of "Racist" is a powerful word, much more powerful than any slur out there. It bothers me when the label is applied indiscriminately.
Adolf Hitler was a Racist. People in Florida who trapped, castrated and set on a fire a black doctor for voting in the early part of the 20th century are racists. Those same Floridians who then set an entire black community on fire and trapped men women and children in burning houses because of the man voting, they are racists. The KKK are racists. I will not lump a guy like Don Imus for example into that category, he said something stupid. From all accounts I have seen and heard, he is not racist. I would say Mel Gibson is racist, because while he has not committed mass genocide, he has aligned his thinking with those groups and said some pretty definitely racist things. However, it is a free country and he has a right to say those things and make himself look as much like an ass as he wants to. Case in point, the term racist applies, Jewish people come out of his little rant looking like victims, we all think Mel is an asshole.
When things which are culturally insensitive or stupid at best are labeled as "racist", it pisses me off. It devalues true racism. It makes people stop caring. It's the boy who cried wolf.
It pisses me off about as much as when people of various races are lumped into broad categories. Like "the Black community" or "Hispanic community". As if all people of whatever race or group have some form of hive mindset especially based on the opinion or speaking of a single individual.
An ethnic or other group doesn't have an opinion until that group has voted and all voiced their opinion. I will agree to being lumped into "The American people" with regard to overall laws and actions, though as an individual I have often voted against or disagreed with many of those actions and I would take offense to someone holding me personally accountable, while I will accept a broad statement lumped onto the nation if it is accurate as in "The Arizona voters wanted the tax hike", I will accept that statement but I actually voted against the tax increase as an individual. If this makes sense.
So, on to SB1070. It is the new Arizona illegal immigration law getting so much attention.
The law states that immigrants, and really everyone must carry proper documentation of their legal status and present it to law enforcement if requested. It requires law enforcement to request proof of legal status (your state issued ID) if there is reasonable suspicion the people are here illegally.
This sounds a bit scary, even Nazi, when you hear it, until you realize it is ALREADY A FEDERAL LAW!!! This law has been in place for ages. The only thing SB1070 does is allow local law enforcement to enforce a federal law already in place. If we are going to label the state of Arizona "Racist" because it expanded on the ability to enforce an existing law, then we better label the United States as a whole as racist.
Right now, pre SB1070 being in effect, if an illegal immigrant is caught driving drunk, there is SO much paperwork for the cops that they usually simply tell the guys to park the car and get a cab or walk home. They have no drivers license, no state ID, nothing so the police officer can't arrest them the way they would arrest and charge someone like me if I were to be caught driving drunk. This law allows the officer to arrest them and have them deported. If nothing else, it is a deterrent for breaking American laws.
Right now, illegal immigrants are being smuggled here, held as prisoners and made into slaves. Something needs to be done to stop this. Quite honestly, changing our national policy with regard to Mexico is what is in order, but I think too many people are benefiting from keeping Mexico a poor country. Mexico is an amazingly beautiful, fertile and culturally spectacular place with resources and amazing climate. Mexico should be rich, but then who would we farm our cheap labor off to? If we want to throw big words like "Racist" around, maybe we should look at the economic hardship faced by so many of the lower classes of citizens in Mexico so we can have non-union labor assemble our Ford's in Mexico and sew our cheap clothes we like to buy and pick our cheap peppers and cucumbers. It's not quite genocide, but it's pretty bad. Certainly worse than enforcing existing federal laws and returning people to their country of origin and telling them to get in line.
My family immigrated here, legally, except for my grandfather who jumped off the boat and swam ashore because he didn't like paperwork (and he was a serious asshole and a criminal who should have been sent back to China). His presence here did not make America a better place. My mother became a citizen shortly before she got married to my father and gave birth to me. She had to wait, she had to take classes and she had to spend money becoming a US citizen, and while I disagree with her on many issues, you have never met a more patriotic person than she. We all speak with accents. I took classes to speak American. We could be asked for papers. Thankfully, because I'm a citizen and federal law requires it already, I do carry my ID with me pretty much at all times.
It bothers me when illegal immigration and immigration are lumped into the same category. I don't think too many people are anti immigration. I got misty eyed yesterday when we voted because a man who was just recently naturalized was voting for the first time. He immigrated from Iraq and he was SO happy. There was a single measure in the ballot, a tax hike, so voting took all of about 2 seconds. We went to vote at the busy time, right after work, and there were 4 polling workers and about 10 people there to vote. When he voted, we applauded for him. You would have though he just won Miss America the way he beamed. Out of the 14 people there, we all applauded and were truly moved by his experience. No one there was anti immigration. I'm sure at least some of us were anti illegal immigration.
While I'm sure the plight of the impoverished Mexican citizen is great and tragic, is it any worse than the hardships this Iraqi man came from? Worse than someone from many places on the African continent? I think not. Just because it is geographically easier for people to sneak in here doesn't give them the right to do it. Everyone who wants to come here has a reason.
I think of it like a concert. I spent $300 on pit tickets for my favorite band. The arena is sold out. I've paid my money, discarded my key-chain and had my purse searched and been frisked by a humorless old woman who looks like humpty dumpty. I then got in line to have my ID checked so I could get a bar bracelet. Then, after paying $20 for beer I get in line by the pit area where a security guard is checking my tickets to make sure I am sitting/standing in the area I paid for. This is me, jumping through the hoops, following due process. How would I feel if some people found a hole in the arena fence and just started flooding into the pit area? They paid nothing, have not been searched by security. Now the pit which was fire rated for 300 people is flooded with 500 people. Now, I'm not up close and personal with the band, I'm being trampled and I can't see. How would I feel? Would I expect security to come and start checking ticket stubs and throwing motherfuckers out or would I think it was cool to just let them all in? Personally, I would be pissed. I would expect security to throw them out.
Arizona is not actually a racist state at all. It is a republican state, it is not perfect, but places like Georgia and Florida you can FEEL the racial tension. In Arizona this is not the case. There are so many US citizens with Latino heritage that while occasionally some little race skirmish will happen between individuals, overall, I don't feel it or see it regularly. It is not the same as the feelings in the south. I have lived both places, it is not the same.
It really pisses me off that nationally the state is being called racist and places are boycotting. Los Angeles wants to boycott and end lots of contracts with AZ. Oddly they are not targeting our nuclear power plant they happily get 25% of their power from and more power from the coal and other plants owned by the same Arizona based power company. Thinking about that concert analogy, kind of like if the band tells security to let all of the crashers stay or threatens to stop the concert for everyone. Cool for the crashers, but since the band only gets a small portion of the overall ticket prices and consumers would be demanding a full refund, the venue owners and shirt vendors and everyone else would be getting screwed. It would be cool like it's cool to be the last person at the table when the bill comes. That's what boycotting AZ is like. Stupid and misguided.
The moment this law causes racial profiling and round ups or begins to resemble Nazi Germany, I will be the first one protesting and calling for the heads of politicians. As of now, the term racist is more damaging than the term Mexican, so I highly doubt too many police officers or law enforcement officials are going to risk their jobs, friendships and standing in the community to misuse SB1070.
Let's be more judicious with term racist, lest no one care anymore when something really racist happens. Honestly, assuming all illegal immigrants are Mexican seems more racially inappropriate than anything else.
/ end rant
I am so fucking sick to death of the word racist being thrown around like candy. Words like cunt, fuck, tits and even racial slurs say more about the person using the words than they say about the person the word is used on. If someone calls someone a slur, no one is going to fire the person the slur was used against. No one will even think less of that person. If anything that person can capitalize on the sympathy and outrage of others if they are of the attention whoring persuasion. Now I am not saying this was historically the case, or devaluing the suffering of minorities and the fight for equal rights. However, living in the now, I can't think of anyplace where if person A calls person B a racial slur, person B comes out of the situation worse than person A will end up coming out of the situation. Person A will be labeled a racist. They could be fired, disciplined and socially ostracised. The label of "Racist" is a powerful word, much more powerful than any slur out there. It bothers me when the label is applied indiscriminately.
Adolf Hitler was a Racist. People in Florida who trapped, castrated and set on a fire a black doctor for voting in the early part of the 20th century are racists. Those same Floridians who then set an entire black community on fire and trapped men women and children in burning houses because of the man voting, they are racists. The KKK are racists. I will not lump a guy like Don Imus for example into that category, he said something stupid. From all accounts I have seen and heard, he is not racist. I would say Mel Gibson is racist, because while he has not committed mass genocide, he has aligned his thinking with those groups and said some pretty definitely racist things. However, it is a free country and he has a right to say those things and make himself look as much like an ass as he wants to. Case in point, the term racist applies, Jewish people come out of his little rant looking like victims, we all think Mel is an asshole.
When things which are culturally insensitive or stupid at best are labeled as "racist", it pisses me off. It devalues true racism. It makes people stop caring. It's the boy who cried wolf.
It pisses me off about as much as when people of various races are lumped into broad categories. Like "the Black community" or "Hispanic community". As if all people of whatever race or group have some form of hive mindset especially based on the opinion or speaking of a single individual.
An ethnic or other group doesn't have an opinion until that group has voted and all voiced their opinion. I will agree to being lumped into "The American people" with regard to overall laws and actions, though as an individual I have often voted against or disagreed with many of those actions and I would take offense to someone holding me personally accountable, while I will accept a broad statement lumped onto the nation if it is accurate as in "The Arizona voters wanted the tax hike", I will accept that statement but I actually voted against the tax increase as an individual. If this makes sense.
So, on to SB1070. It is the new Arizona illegal immigration law getting so much attention.
The law states that immigrants, and really everyone must carry proper documentation of their legal status and present it to law enforcement if requested. It requires law enforcement to request proof of legal status (your state issued ID) if there is reasonable suspicion the people are here illegally.
This sounds a bit scary, even Nazi, when you hear it, until you realize it is ALREADY A FEDERAL LAW!!! This law has been in place for ages. The only thing SB1070 does is allow local law enforcement to enforce a federal law already in place. If we are going to label the state of Arizona "Racist" because it expanded on the ability to enforce an existing law, then we better label the United States as a whole as racist.
Right now, pre SB1070 being in effect, if an illegal immigrant is caught driving drunk, there is SO much paperwork for the cops that they usually simply tell the guys to park the car and get a cab or walk home. They have no drivers license, no state ID, nothing so the police officer can't arrest them the way they would arrest and charge someone like me if I were to be caught driving drunk. This law allows the officer to arrest them and have them deported. If nothing else, it is a deterrent for breaking American laws.
Right now, illegal immigrants are being smuggled here, held as prisoners and made into slaves. Something needs to be done to stop this. Quite honestly, changing our national policy with regard to Mexico is what is in order, but I think too many people are benefiting from keeping Mexico a poor country. Mexico is an amazingly beautiful, fertile and culturally spectacular place with resources and amazing climate. Mexico should be rich, but then who would we farm our cheap labor off to? If we want to throw big words like "Racist" around, maybe we should look at the economic hardship faced by so many of the lower classes of citizens in Mexico so we can have non-union labor assemble our Ford's in Mexico and sew our cheap clothes we like to buy and pick our cheap peppers and cucumbers. It's not quite genocide, but it's pretty bad. Certainly worse than enforcing existing federal laws and returning people to their country of origin and telling them to get in line.
My family immigrated here, legally, except for my grandfather who jumped off the boat and swam ashore because he didn't like paperwork (and he was a serious asshole and a criminal who should have been sent back to China). His presence here did not make America a better place. My mother became a citizen shortly before she got married to my father and gave birth to me. She had to wait, she had to take classes and she had to spend money becoming a US citizen, and while I disagree with her on many issues, you have never met a more patriotic person than she. We all speak with accents. I took classes to speak American. We could be asked for papers. Thankfully, because I'm a citizen and federal law requires it already, I do carry my ID with me pretty much at all times.
It bothers me when illegal immigration and immigration are lumped into the same category. I don't think too many people are anti immigration. I got misty eyed yesterday when we voted because a man who was just recently naturalized was voting for the first time. He immigrated from Iraq and he was SO happy. There was a single measure in the ballot, a tax hike, so voting took all of about 2 seconds. We went to vote at the busy time, right after work, and there were 4 polling workers and about 10 people there to vote. When he voted, we applauded for him. You would have though he just won Miss America the way he beamed. Out of the 14 people there, we all applauded and were truly moved by his experience. No one there was anti immigration. I'm sure at least some of us were anti illegal immigration.
While I'm sure the plight of the impoverished Mexican citizen is great and tragic, is it any worse than the hardships this Iraqi man came from? Worse than someone from many places on the African continent? I think not. Just because it is geographically easier for people to sneak in here doesn't give them the right to do it. Everyone who wants to come here has a reason.
I think of it like a concert. I spent $300 on pit tickets for my favorite band. The arena is sold out. I've paid my money, discarded my key-chain and had my purse searched and been frisked by a humorless old woman who looks like humpty dumpty. I then got in line to have my ID checked so I could get a bar bracelet. Then, after paying $20 for beer I get in line by the pit area where a security guard is checking my tickets to make sure I am sitting/standing in the area I paid for. This is me, jumping through the hoops, following due process. How would I feel if some people found a hole in the arena fence and just started flooding into the pit area? They paid nothing, have not been searched by security. Now the pit which was fire rated for 300 people is flooded with 500 people. Now, I'm not up close and personal with the band, I'm being trampled and I can't see. How would I feel? Would I expect security to come and start checking ticket stubs and throwing motherfuckers out or would I think it was cool to just let them all in? Personally, I would be pissed. I would expect security to throw them out.
Arizona is not actually a racist state at all. It is a republican state, it is not perfect, but places like Georgia and Florida you can FEEL the racial tension. In Arizona this is not the case. There are so many US citizens with Latino heritage that while occasionally some little race skirmish will happen between individuals, overall, I don't feel it or see it regularly. It is not the same as the feelings in the south. I have lived both places, it is not the same.
It really pisses me off that nationally the state is being called racist and places are boycotting. Los Angeles wants to boycott and end lots of contracts with AZ. Oddly they are not targeting our nuclear power plant they happily get 25% of their power from and more power from the coal and other plants owned by the same Arizona based power company. Thinking about that concert analogy, kind of like if the band tells security to let all of the crashers stay or threatens to stop the concert for everyone. Cool for the crashers, but since the band only gets a small portion of the overall ticket prices and consumers would be demanding a full refund, the venue owners and shirt vendors and everyone else would be getting screwed. It would be cool like it's cool to be the last person at the table when the bill comes. That's what boycotting AZ is like. Stupid and misguided.
The moment this law causes racial profiling and round ups or begins to resemble Nazi Germany, I will be the first one protesting and calling for the heads of politicians. As of now, the term racist is more damaging than the term Mexican, so I highly doubt too many police officers or law enforcement officials are going to risk their jobs, friendships and standing in the community to misuse SB1070.
Let's be more judicious with term racist, lest no one care anymore when something really racist happens. Honestly, assuming all illegal immigrants are Mexican seems more racially inappropriate than anything else.
/ end rant
VIEW 21 of 21 COMMENTS
As for LA's boycott, the point is to put political pressure on Arizona, not for LA to cut off its nose to spite its face. Is there a lack of conviction in boycotting hotel accommodations but now power? Well, yes, but LA citizens also aren't setting themselves on fire in front of Phoenix courthouses. An LA boycott of Arizona power would result in, at best, a pyrrhic victory for LA. Reasonable people don't go for the pyrrhic victory unless all other options have been exhausted.