"Racist" - Stigma or Spitball?
FLIMEN Commentary: Racism and discrimination, to some extent, do exist and should be reduced. However, US immigration policy has been held hostage to the race card for 2-3 decades and that must end. US immigration policy should be based on the rule of law but pro-AMNESTY, pro-open borders, anti-enforcement immigration advocates have insisted that US immigration policy instead be based on race, ethnicity and culture. The bottom line conflict between the rule of law and false racial allegations has resulted in non-enforcement of immigration laws, porous borders, widespread document fraud, among other substantial negative impacts.
Anti-enforcement immigration advocates knowing that they can not win any rule of law debate have honed false racial allegations for 2-3 decades in order to get their way on immigration policy. Because the liberal media is so obsessed with race, ethnicity and culture, the threat of any racial, ethnic or cultural allegation often is enough for the anti-enforcement immigration advocates to get what they want. Likewise, it is difficult to win an argument against racial, ethnic or cultural allegations because it is so subjective. To the detriment of US citizens their strategy has worked very well.
Overall the immigration issue has not been a debate. For 2-3 decades the issue has been more of a tirade based on name-calling, lies, clichés, oxymorons, distortions and redefinitions by anti-enforcement immigration advocates. In order to gain sympathy anti-enforcement immigration advocates have resorted to redefinition of the word "racism" in order to piggyback on black American's civil rights movement. The major flaw in the comparison to black Americans is Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity, not a race. Another flaw with the comparison as applied to Hispanic illegal aliens is that aliens are not citizens, whereas black Americans are citizens. If there is a problem it should be termed anti-Hispanic discrimination, not racism.
Because of the dynamic and erroneous definitions of "racism," it has become necessary for FLIMEN and others to often reference race, ethnicity and culture interchangeably. Linguistically it is impossible for a person who allegedly makes an anti-Hispanic statement to be a racist but that's the path we've been on.
The rule of law is the doctrine that all government officials and all private citizens must follow the laws of the nation and must be treated equally under the law. To argue against the rule of law is to argue against democracy. To argue against democracy is to argue against the United States of America. The body of immigration laws that have been enacted since the late 1800's are part of the rule of law. To argue against immigration enforcement is, at its core, anti-American. Yet widespread lawlessness exists with respect to immigration enforcement as demonstrated by the fact that 10-20 million illegal aliens reside, with many benefits, in the US.
Supplementing race, ethnicity and culture as the basis for US immigration policy are the bogus goals of 'diversity' and 'multiculturalism' instead of the American principle of equality. Diversity and multiculturalism which seem to have unfortunately superceded equality as a goal are well entrenched in liberal academia as well as in the 'progressive' business world. Perhaps a more accurate word for diversity might be 'divisity' because diversity tends to break American unity into bickering factions. Have you noticed this trend?
The concept of multiculturalism is leading to the erosion of assimilation which also furthers the breakup of American unity into bickering factions. Please view the PBS WPBT Connections video clip below where Florida International University (FIU) Professor Louie Rodriquez questions whether assimilation should be replaced by acculturation. Acculturation is the process whereby the attitudes and/or behaviors of people from one culture are modified as a result of contact with a different culture. Acculturation implies a mutual influence in which elements of two cultures mingle and merge. In other words, you must adapt for immigrants and illegal aliens which is not the case with assimilation. Have you noticed this trend?
Supporting the contention we are losing an American identity comes from the Bradley Report, as reported on the Lou Dobbs show:
http://www.bradleyproject.org/EPUFinalOverview.pdf:
Americans agree fairly equally across party and age categories that the U.S. is divided along ethnic and cultural lines. 80% of Whites, 86% of African-Americans, and 74% of Latinos are concerned about this division.
To further demonstrate the extent to which factions are being created take a look at federally mandated "Re-Identification" procedures:
http://www.isbe.state.il.us/research/pdfs/race_ethnicity_data.pdf
Illinois State Board of Education
New U.S. Department of Education Race and Ethnicity Data Standards
AN INTRODUCTION TO UPCOMING CHANGESRe-Identification
School districts will need to re-identify race and ethnicity for all students and staff. Identification for students should be done by their parents/guardians. Observer identification by school/district staff is required if a student's parents/guardians decline to indicate race and/or ethnicity.
The article below properly states the racism definition as: "What the word once meant - and still does in Webster's dictionary - is someone who believes in the inherent superiority of a particular race or is prejudiced against others." Yet perhaps the most accurate common use definition of racism is: You are a racist when you disagree with a liberal.
Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor can not escape commentary. Before confirmation she said multiple times; "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." Doesn't her inclusion of "Latina" and "white male" make her statement inherently racist and within the racism definition above? Given the dynamic definition and dynamic application of racism/discrimination allegations it is not a surprise that such repeated statements did not preclude her from confirmation.
Is the tide turning on the power of false racial allegations? Let's hope so but don't hold your breath. The last paragraph of the article link below may be a good summary with respect to blacks and racism but carefully omits any reference to Hispanics and alleged racism:
"In 100 years, when people chronicle how America got past race," said McWhorter, "the uptick in white people calling blacks racist is going to be seen as a symptom of the end."
Without the rule of law eventually anarchy will prevail.
Dave Caulkett, VP, FLIMEN
You are encouraged to visit the link below.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32899516/ns/us_news-race_and_ethnicity/
September 18, 2009