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During
an extended stay in Mexico, a few years ago, I lived
with a well-to-do Mexican family. Family members routinely
asked if my son was into gangs and drugs (He was a university
senior at the time). I did not regard this as insensitive
or even racist. I chalked it up to the one-dimensional
depiction of blacks in the global media world.
The indigenous black population in Mexico is tiny and
confined to several enclaves. Most Mexicans have little
opportunity to interact with prominent blacks in business,
the professions and politics. That cultural isolation
helps reinforce negative stereotypes. But so does economics.
In decades past, Mexican immigrants were brutally exploited
as cheap labor in mines, factories and the fields in
the Southwest. During the 1950s when they became labor
expendables, the INS launched "Operation Wetback" sweeps,
and deportations. Many Mexican immigrants overcame the
vicious racial exclusion and economic exploitation and
have managed to build thriving businesses and climb
up the professional ladder. That seems proof positive
to them that anyone who is willing to work hard and
marshal his or her resources can succeed in America.
If many blacks, despite being in America for centuries
still remain trapped in a hopeless morass of poverty,
crime, violence, drugs and family deterioration then
blacks can't blame their plight on illegal immigration,
racism, or government and corporate neglect but themselves.
This victim bashing fails to understand the lingering
damaging affects of two centuries of chattel slavery
and a century of Jim Crow segregation.
Ethnic insensitivity, however, is a two way street.
Blacks have little understanding of the political repression
and economic destitution that drove many Mexican immigrants
to seek refuge in the United States. Many have fled
from the civil strife, massive land dislocation, the
chronic lack of industry, and an exploding population
that has racked Mexico. There is no government safety
net in the country for Mexico's unemployed and landless.
Mexican immigrants face the daunting problem of readjusting
to a strange culture, customs, and language in the U.S.
They also live in constant fear of being discovered
by the INS, police and other government authorities
and sent home. Fox made his intemperate quip not to
demean blacks but to slam Bush and Congress for their
get tough crack down on illegal immigration. Bush had
just signed a law to make it harder for illegal immigrants
to get drivers licenses and to build a wall along the
Mexican-U.S. border.
Many blacks engage in ethnic one-upmanship that minimizes
the suffering and plight of poor Mexican immigrants.
They play the slavery and civil rights card. They note
that Latinos (and other non-whites) did not experience
chattel slavery and its legacy. Their family and ethnic
cohesion was not ruptured. They were not color-stamped
with the badge of inferiority. To them, this is tantamount
to a racial pass that makes it much easier for immigrants
to secure business loans, credit, access to education
and the professions than blacks.
Many blacks take sole credit for the civil rights victories
of the 1960s. Those victories broke the back of legal
segregation, and shattered the barriers in corporations
and professions to minority advancement. The implication
is that blacks made it easier for immigrants to succeed,
and that their success has come at the expense of black
struggle and sacrifice. That ignores the fierce civil
rights and farm worker battles that Mexican immigrants
waged for decades.
Fox's quip rudely rammed the racial myths that fuel
tensions between blacks and Mexicans to the surface.
The racial dialogue that Sharpton wants between blacks
and Mexicans is much needed and long overdue. Such a
dialogue could be a start toward alleviating some of
those tensions.
Earl
Ofari Hutchinson is a columnist for BlackNews.com, an
author and political analyst.
For
media interviews, contact:
Mr. Hutchinson at 323-296-6331 or hutchinsonreport@aol.com
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