Racism's Anti-Immigrant Unintended Consequences

[Brewman_Jax]

Racism is a double-edged sword with a back-handed swing.

Draconian anti-illegal immigration laws in various parts of the USA are having unintended consequences. Farmers and business owners within those states, esp. low-skilled and relatively low-paying jobs normally staffed by immigrant labor, are crying foul at their state legislatures. Their employees are leaving by the score. The ones without papers are gone because they don't want to be arrested, the the ones with papers are gone because they don't want to be harassed by the police. Produce goes unpicked, meat goes unprocessed, beds go unmade. The jobs aren't staffed by non-immigrant American citizens because so few want to work that hard for so little pay and little or no benefits.

Why are they crying? That's what they voted for.

Alabama is one of the states with the draconian anti-illegal immigration laws, and is in the midst of a real PR nightmare. In the past two months, a Mercedes-Benz exec from Germany and a Honda exec from Japan were arrested in accordance with the state's latest immigration law. The Japanese exec had all of his documents, and was still arrested; the German exec had forgotten his driver's license and passport and was arrested. The historical irony aside, someone the law was not intended for was arrested. The state legislature is taking another look at the law and considering changes--because the wrong people were arrested.

The backswing cuts deep, too.

Racists have always whined about how "those people" are coming across the border to get on welfare and take all the jobs, which shows the level of delusion that racists live under. Thinking about that for a moment, people can't do both. Not to mention, what they, and the GOP and rabid RW scream about, would qualify as fraud. You'll notice that they have all these BS "welfare queen" stories, but no evidence and no prosecutions. Anyone familiar with the racist justice system knows that POC are arrested for the most paltry of reasons (see NYPD stop-and-frisk), so it is an absolute lie that POC are getting away with "welfare fraud." Racists aren't mentally stable people.

Racists like the law, as long as it is selectively enforced. An estimated 2-5 million illegal immigrants come from Europe, but they don't have a problem with THOSE illegal immigrants--only the ones with the wrong skin color. Law is not supposed to be a fine scalpel for selective enforcement, but a heavy ax, meant to strike impartially and without prejudice.

Little known fact: major US corporations, though unintended allies in the struggle, helped to end Jim Crow segregation in the South during the 1960's. The major Southern cities wanted Big Corp's money and jobs, but Big Corp did not want to be associated with the South under Jim Crow. Jim Crow had to go. In the 21st Century, Big Corp may be helping again.

The protection of the corporate brand and reputation is one of the few things that keeps CEO's and senior executives up at night. The automakers, and other big corporations, like the anti-union sentiment of the South. However, they don't like being associated with white supremacists and racists and other unsavory characters. The nightmare scenario would be that foreign automakers may choose not to expand their existing factories, or leave and avoid the places with draconian anti-immigration laws altogether.

Seems that racism will end at the societal level when the price of maintaining it gets too high. There are still too many that would rather starve than share, but their numbers are dwindling. It is sad that doing the right thing for its own sake is not enough, but, it has never been enough. It's about time that they learned that starving is not the right choice.




References:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011...s-arrested

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content...bankruptcy

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/why...92011.html

[jaxx]

Those corporations had better get on the ball because the racism is as blatant as I've seen it for a long time.

[Brewman_Jax]

(01-07-2012 08:46 AM)jaxx Wrote:  Those corporations had better get on the ball because the racism is as blatant as I've seen it for a long time.

So true! I wish the big corporations would worry about more than just the bottom line.