Wednesday, August 21, 2013

We are Untermenschen to Them: The Tea Party Faithful Cheer and Mock a Hispanic Child Whose Father is Going to be Deported


What happened to compassionate conservatism? Did it ever really exist?

In a meeting last week, Josie Molina, an 11 year-old Hispanic child whose father is being deported, asked Tennessee Republican representative Scott Desjarlais if anything could be done to help her family in this time of crisis. He said "no". The crowd of Tea Party members enthusiastically endorsed his answer with clapping and screams of support. Josie Molina looked deflated, wilted, and heartbroken.
 
The Republican Party faithful have cheered for the idea of using electric fences to kill "illegal" immigrants. The Republican Party faithful have booed gay soldiers on live television. The Republican Party faithful have cheered on someone dying because the latter did not have insurance.

The Tea Party GOP are a death cult. They are also, for all intent and purposes, a White Identity organization, one that is willing to betray all norms of good governance and consensus in order to advance a narrow set of interests which are sold to their public through the politics of white racial resentment and white grievance mongering.

When we survey the various grotesqueries of human history, there is a fundamental question that must be asked: how can human beings treat each other so badly?

To enslave people by the millions, commit genocide and mass rape, steal and destroy the land, territory, and property of others, murder defenseless children and others by bombing them, using the machete, the gas chamber, the machine gun, or by hand, would seem to require some extraordinary act of human will.

Modernity would suggest that such acts are all too easy and common to commit. They are legitimated by the very processes at work when Scott Desjarlais and his supporters cheered the suffering of a little girl: you destroy the shared sense of belonging which grounds human empathy, and thus you create a class of people now marked as some type of "Other".


Josie Molina is an alien outsider to the White Right and the Tea Party GOP. Because she is racialized as being "different", her father is a type of perpetual stranger. For the Authoritarian, especially those in the Tea Party who have now internalized the idea of "white politics" and "white group interests" as being synonymous with "real America", those who are not white--or overly identified with Whiteness through a type of "honorary" status (see George Zimmerman or Clarence Thomas)--are not worthy of dignity or respect.

Once more, the word "herrenvolk" is a perfect descriptor for the Tea Party GOP. The lack of empathy towards a non-white child is a means of reinforcing how the fruits of democracy and liberty are demarcated and limited for conservatives by the color line, and through a sense of "us" and "them", in post civil rights America. Ultimately, if the Tea Party GOP are the herrenvolk, Josie Molina, her father, and people of color, more broadly, are the untermenschen.

Beyond conjecture or mere observation, research in social psychology reveals the power of racial difference to influence how white people perceive and respond to the suffering of non-whites.

For example, The Journal of Experimental Psychology reports that:
“Previous research shows people are less likely to feel connected to people outside their own ethnic groups, and we wanted to know why,” says Gutsell. “What we found is that there is a basic difference in the way peoples’ brains react to those from other ethnic backgrounds. Observing someone of a different race produced significantly less motor-cortex activity than observing a person of one’s own race. In other words, people were less likely to mentally simulate the actions of other-race than same-race people”. The trend was even more pronounced for participants who scored high on a test measuring subtle racism, says Gutsell.

“The so-called mirror-neuron-system is thought to be an important building block for empathy by allowing people to ‘mirror’ other people’s actions and emotions; our research indicates that this basic building block is less reactive to people who belong to a different race than you,” says Inzlicht.
The researchers who conducted the experiment made the following disturbing discovery:
Typically, when people observe others perform a simple task, their motor cortex region fires similarly to when they are performing the task themselves. However, the UofT research team, led by PhD student Jennifer Gutsell and Assistant Professor Dr. Michael Inzlicht, found that participants’ motor cortex was significantly less likely to fire when they watched the visible minority men perform the simple task. In some cases when participants watched the non-white men performing the task, their brains actually registered as little activity as when they watched a blank screen.
Powerful. How can one have feelings or empathy for someone when they are quite literally invisible to your brain?

Could such a finding help to explain the ruthless efficiency of the plantation, the death camp, or any other social order where race and labor and class are synonymous and co-mingled?

Inzlicht and Gutsell's findings are part of a larger social phenomenon where it is assumed that black people do not feel pain in the same way as white people. This has broad implications. As reported by NPR:
Sure, sure. You know, I think that, look, if we can see that people generally assume that black people feel less pain, you can imagine all of the different social problems that this explains. One area is healthcare, but it's also the criminal justice system. We know that race and empathy impact jury decisions, and we know that black defendants receive harsher sentences for the same crimes. But in particular, if we take a close look at the juvenile justice system, what we start to see is that young youth of color are being tried much more aggressively than white youth. And why is this? We've also seen research that it's because there's a certain perception that black juveniles are not treated as innocents.

They're not treated with compassion. But at every stage, they're treated much more like adults and therefore subjected to harsher treatments, tried in adult courts and given adult sentences for things that, for white students or white juveniles, would be just written off as perhaps pranks or something that could be a slap on the wrist.
Racial ideologies are not only a matter of public policy and the distribution of resources. Racial ideologies locate individuals and groups in relation to one another, and by doing so to help determine "who is the most" and "who is the least' among us in a given society.

The status and sense of being the herrenvolk--the chosen people--is a powerful social force. It can mask hypocrisy (To point. Scott Desjarlais is a criminal who is lecturing a child about the inviolate nature of the law) and legitimate contradictions (the Tea Party faithful want to keep social security and government resources for "people like them", but to simultaneously deny it to those "undeserving" black and brown folks).

For the Tea Party members who cheered the breaking up of a child's family, the latter is not really an innocent. Because she is some type of Other, Josie Molina is subjected to a process of "adultification".

By comparison, a white child would be protected and fawned over. She would be in need of help at a minimum; in the best case scenario, a white child would be given assistance and her family made an exception for an "unfair" law.

And just as black youth are not allowed to be either children or innocent in the eyes of the White Gaze and the State, Josie Molina must be cruelly introduced to the realities of the adult world. In all, and as we saw with the smearing of Trayvon Martin by the Right-wing media, one of White Supremacy's most powerful weapons is its capacity to rob black and brown youth of their innocence.

Scott Desjarlais and his White-Right herrenvolk cheerleaders who celebrated the deportation of Josie Molina's father are dream stealers. They may have a sense of empathy for some people...but not for those little brown kids like Josie Molina and their families.

54 comments:

Learning is Eternal said...

Mixed MSG's? We let Zimmerman walk, so... You, you, you & hundred mo' of y'all, all going on the first thang smoking. Words escape me. Commenting emotionally sometimes fail. You right CDV, conservatives no joke. This there land & they can't come within sight of the rio grande of it. Those Klan members of yesteryear made a cheaper version (like public schools) w/o hooded uniforms called Republicans...

chauncey devega said...

Colorblind racism is one of the most dangerous versions of it. Be mindful.

Shady Grady said...

What do you think Desjarlais' answer should have been?

The Sanity Inspector said...

Here is the issue in miniature: There is in my town a soccer complex, next to which are apartment buildings full of illegals. The local soccer leagues pay registration fees to use the fields, and of course only use them when the fields are open. Not so the illegals! They hop the fences at night or out of season, tear up the fields having their own tournaments, todo gratis, por supuesto. Now expand that to include schools, hospitals, all other social services, and scale it up into the tens of millions.


The United States is a nation of laws. Mexico, and no few other latin American countries are governed para la mordida. Having millions of people living here who, more from acculturation than malice, have no respect for the law, can't help but spell trouble down the road. A societal ethos of honesty, integrity, and fair play, no matter how tattered at times, becomes quite conspicuous in its absence.



As for the child, it is of course a trusty tactic of the Left to personalize and sentimentalize an issue in order to advance their side. A program's too expensive, too cumbersome, too wrongheaded, too discredited? "If it helps even one child, etc." is the standard comeback.

chauncey devega said...

Talking points and anecdotes...just like the white privilege infused mythic black student "who took my spot in college" nonsense.


Not very critical or "sane" to play on your name. Who is this "Left?" you speak of?


What is your practical solution to a broken labor market? Would you like to deport people in mass? Would you like to deny people basic healthcare and access to other services?


I laugh at the contradictions and hypocrisy on this issue, especially as offered by many white folks whose own people immigrated here not too long ago and were greeted with similar concerns about public services, assimilation, not learning English, etc.


Myopia and selective amnesia serve whiteness well.

chauncey devega said...

I think the man should have had some compassion just like the clowns in the audience should have thought about how they would feel if that were their child in such a horrible position. The Tea Party GOP's family values and concern only extends to white families it would seem.


If he were a decent person, he would have said that is very sad and we need to work harder in this country on helping people who want to stay here to keep their families together. Then, if he were a decent human being, he would have told his staff that they are going to meet with her and her family to see what can be done in their particular case.


And of course, if he were a decent human being he would have told the Tea Party bigots in the audience to shut up and there is nothing to clap about here.

Vic78 said...

If it's a trick of "the left," then why did stupid fall for it? The truth is the right is overrun with hateful morons. You're just another example of that. If you know it's a trick, then pretending to be decent is called for.

Tim said...

Nothing to clap about -- yes, that is the really striking thing here. It could be argued (not that I would, but as they say, for the sake of argument) that Desjarlais' answer, while somewhat matter-of-fact, blunt, and cold, was basically acceptable, as far as manners go. He did say thanks for being here; I know this is intimidating, etc. I don't for a moment believe that it was really a good-faith answer or attempt to help her, just that it didn't grossly violate the absolute minimum standards of "civil" discourse.


But the audience reaction was the really disheartening thing (I don't know much of anything about Desjarlais besides this, but it did seem like he was a little taken back by the vehemence of the crowd. But then again, he didn't say anything to them about it). They didn't just applaud, even loudly, which would have been bad enough. It was that loud "YEAHHHHH!" and the whoops and hollers. They didn't just want to express approval of the answer; they wanted to SIT HER DOWN the way a particularly obnoxious ref might extend his whistle-blowing and finger-pointing until the fouling player plops down dispiritedly on the bench.

Tim said...

The only things in miniature here are your heart and soul, if you even have them.

Wavenstein said...

Just another soulless right wing lunatic who thinks anybody who isn't white exist solely to take something he feels "belongs" to him. You can click on his comment history to see where his head and heart is at. How do these freaks even find this blog?

j.ottopohl said...

I live in a country that is 99% Black and their actually existing policies towards illegal aliens are much, much, much harsher than anything ever proposed by US Republicans. People without proper up to date visas, residency permits, work permits, and National Identity Cards are arrested and forcibly deported. Last summer the police rounded up dozens of illegal Chinese in their homes, work places, and eating establishments and deported them. It is considered to be the sovereign right of countries to be able to enforce their immigration laws. The US has the most lax immigration laws and enforcement of any country in the world, In Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America there are no amnesties for illegal aliens ever.

Shady Grady said...

But if he doesn't agree with "immigration reform" as apparently he does not, why should he have changed his POV b/c a child was asking him a question? Is there not something to be said for someone who stands up and lets you know where he stands, even if you think he's wrong?

chauncey devega said...

Funny how those American exceptionalism arguments can be used to fit almost any situation huh? My favorite is when white folks and others talking about slavery--oh those Africans did it to, makes it okay. But, I thought America was better than that is my reply. Insert crickets.


I hear you. America is not really an immigrant nation; it is a white settler state that brought in black slaves, stole land from first nations people, and allowed migration to the degree necessary for elites to fuel the labor market/create a surplus to drive down wages.


I am for immigration reform--sensible, smart, humane immigration reform.

j.ottopohl said...

I agree that immigration should be reformed in the US. But, I think things need to be put into perspective. I used Ghana as an example because as a long term resident alien here I am familiar with the process. Although I will admit that I don't have nearly as much trouble as Chinese or Africans from non-ECOWAS countries do. White Americans and Europeans are treated far better by Africans than Africans are treated by the US and Europe. I could have used an example from Europe where I haven't lived in a decade and where immigration restrictions unlike in Ghana have a strong white supremacist element. A much more supremacist element than US immigration laws. But, my point is that almost every country in the world has stricter enforcement of their immigration laws than the US. If you don't have a proper visa and permit they deport you.


I also agree that the US was formed as a white settler state like Australia. I don't think this is controversial. There were severe restrictions on non-white immigration into the US until 1965. Even now over 90% of visa applications from Ghana to the US are denied. I am told it is the highest denial rate in the world and it is based mostly on the fact that the US does not want a lot more permanent Ghanaian immigrants. But, even so the US is still a lot more accepting of immigrants than is Europe. I think this accounts in part for the fact that I have completely failed to convince any of our graduating MPhil students go to my alma mater in London for their PhD. They all have chosen to go the US to study.

chauncey devega said...

Israel too is a white settler state which is little discussed by the mass media. Mexico is vicious towards immigrants from Honduras and elsewhere. El Norte should be required viewing in all high schools.


You are also spot on in terms of how U.S. immigration laws have for the majority of the country's existence been explicitly designed to create a white republic by law.

The Sanity Inspector said...

Whiteness has nothing to do with it. I feel the same way about illegals from any country--including the Eastern European ones, and including from the Asian nation my spouse is from. And I welcome and appreciate the legal immigrants, wherever they are from. (Do you know how to say "How's it goin'!" in Amharic to the Ethiopians of your acquaintance? I do.) Yes, the Ellis Island immigrants were given a rough ride--but they were legal.


My solution to the issue I withhold, as I have none. If it were an easy problem, smarter and better people than me would have wrapped it up long ago.

The Sanity Inspector said...

I'm here, as well as at a few other left-of-center blogs, because I like to be exposed to and engage with other viewpoints. Sometimes I learn something, always I am reminded that my views are not universal. I try not to comment too often, for fear of threadjacking the post.
/back to lurking

chauncey devega said...

No need to lurk. You always have something to offer. Reasonable disagreement is a good thing, amen corners not so much.

chauncey devega said...

It is hard, but the horse is out of the barn and the woman is pregnant too late to put on a condom. I say have folks pay back taxes if they have not been, get them in citizenship and language classes (got to spend that money), target visas and citizenship to those w. in demand skills, and have people pay a fine. Employers who knowingly hire folks w.o. proper papers also get hit very hard to remove the incentive to exploit people.


Those not here legally who are felons/serious criminals should be deported after a hearing.

chauncey devega said...

I disagree with his position. He is also a hypocrite to channel all that law and order talk--look up his resume and behavior. Fraud.


There are many ways to tell the truth. My favorite movie is Star Wars. Obi-Wan Kenobi tells a preferable lie to Luke that is better than the truth. He could have done that. Funny thing, Kenobi never really lies--the truth has many valences.


Also, as a representative of the people, he stands in for all of us. He has an obligation to be an advocate--especially for a kid who is hurting and in trouble.


I am a tough love real talk sort of guy as you know from WARN. I can think of any number of ways that meeting could have gone down differently.



Obvious--shut up the cheering troglodyte bigots.


Second, show some concern for a hurting child. Ask yourself, how would I feel at that age if I were her? What if that was my daughter or son? Hell, lie to them and meet in private--don't break her that way....what is gained?


Extend a hand or a hug for a little girl with that much courage and true grit. Then see what you can do. There is the law and then there is the LAW... as you know a whole lot can be done from the inside of the system w. a phone call if you so desire and are positioned.

Bob robins said...

The insanity inspector is exactly whom this article is about. A racist who makes up facts to support his point of view, and presto, his monsterous opinion is somehow justified. And he gets the added benefit of demonizing those who disagree with him. He is not interested in facts, logic, or American democracy. Just hate. And he is clearly an expert in it.

Wallrat said...

I'm a little confused when you conflate the desire of people playing soccer on a field to "schools, hospitals, all other social services".


A couple of things here, people often cite concern over 'illegals' hanging out on street corners or getting involved in gangs etc. Folks coming together to play soccer sounds like a fine thing to do. Perhaps the city / town you live in ought to consider encouraging more participation in the leagues by lowering the fees?


When it comes to schools - I thought as Americans we believed that an educated society is a good society. I want all kids in school to learn and be able to contribute. Why would I want a class of uneducated fellow community members? You may argue that they're really not community members because they're 'illegal', but I'd point out that the fact that our neighbors are those who live near us, and aren't defined by papers.


As for hospitals, lets do open a dialogue on why health care is a privilege in the country and not a right. Again, I prefer to live in a community where all members are healthy, not just those who can afford it.


Finally - social services? I'd like to know what government programs the so called 'illegals' are accessing, as they can't. Oh wait, except for Social Security - to which we let them pay in, just not take anything out.


What Chauncey was getting at is the approach we take in life to others. Are we "we", or are we "us vs. them"?


I choose "we"

DeistPaladin said...

I cringe every time I hear "Tea Party". These poser-wannabes, in addition to being the psychotic radical right wing of the GOP, have little in common with the anti-corporate activists of some 240 years ago. In many respects, the modern attempt at an analog to the original Tea Party is actually diametrically opposed to what they stood for.

Don't get me wrong. I realize there were many failings of the men that founded this nation but they at least pointed us in the right direction. The American Revolution is, I believe, an ongoing struggle to create a more perfect union. I see Emancipation, Suffrage, Civil Rights and other struggles as battles in this long conflict. It's up to us, and likely those who come after us, to complete the journey.

It shouldn't be a controversy to state that the modern so-called Tea Party is a reactionary movement against The American Revolution. Their movement is to take us backward. The "liberty" they so cherish as a brand-name would be replaced by corporate power.

Fascism, which is by definition what you get with the corporate control they promote, also needs an "other" for people to fear. Keep people fighting one another over constructed divisions and they won't notice how badly they're being oppressed by the elite. And, as you have written, the "other" must be dehumanized.

It is we progressives who have the rightful claim to wear the tri-corner hat. We are the ones who are fighting for The American Revolution and are the REAL Tea Party's successors.

It would be more appropriate if they put on Confederate Uniforms and chanted "C-S-A! C-S-A!" at their political rallies.

Dan Lee Uhl said...

I, and many kids I knew did the same thing with the local football field, growing up. If that is your main proof, you've got nothing. I'm a Caucasian as they come.

1GG said...

What happened to compassionate conservatism? Did it ever really exist?

No, it did not exist, it was only a figment of Karl Rove's brain.

Dan Lee Uhl said...

"A program's too expensive, too cumbersome, too wrongheaded, too discredited? "If it helps even one child, etc." is the standard comeback."
Yet when paranoid conservatives claim there is universal voter fraud, but can't show proof of voter fraud, we must accept their waste of tax dollars chasing phantoms. We understand. You're too hyperpartisan to look at issues fairly.

The Sanity Inspector said...

Well I do appreciate you saying that. I enjoy spray-marking among my own pack as much as the next partisan, but I don't like for my bubble to get too thick.

The Sanity Inspector said...

Couple that with aggressively securing the border, and that might be a workable solution.

The Sanity Inspector said...

As I went on to say, my example encapsulates the larger issue, scaled up. And the people in my example abusing the community spirit aren't kids, btw.

addicted4444 said...

You are aware that net immigration from Mexico is pretty much down to 0 for the last few years, right?

I agree that illegal immigration can be an administrative problem. Securing the borders is a fine idea, which the Democrats have ALREADY agreed to.

The real question is what to do with the illegal immigrants already here. Many of which are contributing members to society. The compassionate Christian family values answer seems to be "tear apart their families, and make their lives so miserable that they self deport".

Okay....

glennisw said...

How do you know the people you are talking about are "illegals"?

glennisw said...

Ellis Island immigrants were only "legal" in the fact that there were no laws prohibited immigration at all until the 1870 - when this nation decided to discriminate against Chinese immigrants.


Anytime someone touts the "my European ancestors came here legally" crap, I have to laugh - there was no such thing as "illegal immigration" - until the Chinese Exclusion Act.

glennisw said...

You're talking about a man who "stands up" against abortion and for the so-called sanctity of marriage, but forced the woman he was having an adulterous affair with to have an abortion. Principles? Him?

TomT said...

Aggressively? What's that mean to you? Which border? Mexican? Or *Canadian*? Whichever one (and I'm betting you didn't even think of Canadian until I typed it in front of you), it's a repulively stupid idea. It didn't work for the USSR, it wouldn't work for ours.

As the previous poster pointed out, net immigration to our country has been about zip for the last few years. I suggest you adapt yourself to reality asap.

TomT said...

Agreed. The only problem is getting folks on the rolls, not worrying about "whaaaa, why are dey here!?!"

wasted daze said...

hmmm... crickets, eh?.


let me step in for the insanity specter:


"because they're BROWN, of course!"

linusbern said...

It is one thing to have a differing opinion about immigration, it is another to be cheering the clear desperation and sadness of an eleven year old girl whose family is being ripped apart, or cheering when a sick person is told they should just die because they aren't getting healthcare, or cheering the idea of electrocuting people with a border fence. These people are despicable monsters without conscience.

porric said...

I am a first generation American of Northern European immigrants and I am happy to break this news to you: by 2040, the white population of the USA will be in the minority. It is this fact that is behind the current right-wing backlash in this country as the white trash pucker at the thought that then it could be their turn to sit at the back of the bus, and hoof it 5 miles to vote and hope that their id will get them into the voting booth. "As you sow, so shall you reap." Start walking.


And remember, the first settlers weren't invited here, they just showed up one day without visas and barged right in and took over and slowly but surely began with some success to eliminate the resident population; the same thing could happen again. Wouldn't that be ironic.

chauncey devega said...

That is very incisive. The Tea Party as reactionary and fascist--absolutely. But the framing of them as the opposite of the imagery they channel is very provocative. Much to think about.

chauncey devega said...

The fence fixation always made me laugh too. Few folks talk about all the white illegals from France, Ireland, Russia, Poland, etc. who got in airplanes and overstayed their visas. Crickets. Those are good "assimilable" white people.

The Sanity Inspector said...

If that happens, then sic transit gloria mundi, and so much for the Dream. But I doubt it'll be that way. I live and work in an area that is newly majority-black, thanks to the Great Reverse Migration, and so far people are just continuing to make their way in life, same as before.

BCJ said...

If Israel is a "white settler state," it is only because the Jews who aren't considered "white" generally had no choice of where else to go. (Hint: they were forced out or threatened with genocide.)

chauncey devega said...

God forbid the people already living there. Sucks to be them huh?


Israel, like the u.s., south africa, and australia created systems of racialized citizenship and apartheid. There is lots of good scholarship on the parallels.

BCJ said...

Oh, you mean like the Jews that had lived in Baghdad since about 400BCE? How many Jews are in Iraq now? Zero? How many Arabs in Israel? A couple million? Hmm...
Or are we talking the Jewish communities in Akko or Eastern Jerusalem that were driven out in the early 20th century...


The only reason why there's so little persecution of Jews in the Middle East today is only because they've been ethnically cleansed out of most of the reason.


~600k Palestinian Arabs in 1948.
~800k Jews in 1948.
Only one group is refugees today because their fellow Arabs WANT them to remain as such.


Are there Arabs living of their own choice in majority-Jewish cities? YES. Was this the case during apartheid? NO.

Buddy H said...

Here is the issue in miniature: There is in my town a soccer complex, next to which are apartment buildings full of illegals. The local soccer leagues pay registration fees to use the fields, and of course only use them when the fields are open. Not so the illegals! They hop the fences at night or out of season, tear up the fields having their own tournaments, todo gratis, por supuesto.


It seems those on the right have so internalized the concept of everything being completely privatized, that you can't imagine a soccer field being open to all residents. Everything has to have a fence around it, and a dollar sign attached to it. You never imagine a public commons.


In my town there is a public park. At one end there is a river. Privateers have put up a dock; it is used only by a stunt waterskiing team. The dock is roped off with a PRIVATE PROPERTY sign. Years ago, when my children were small, there was a free dock open to anyone who wanted to launch a rowboat. My kids and I fished from it from time to time. I don't know what I would have said to my kids if they'd seen the roped-off dock. "Sorry, this is a public park, maintained with my taxes, but that's a private dock."


Bullshit. In the minds of the right, the illegals are "hopping the fence" to illegally use the soccer field. When I was a kid, my small town had baseball fields we could use whenever we wanted. There were no registration fees. Just like I could walk into my local library and take out books. Sanity Inspector, could you please step back and take a look at the bigger picture, and ask yourself why everything has to be privatized?

linusbern said...

Deportations went up under Obama, there is a huge fence along many parts of the southern border, border patrols have increased greatly, the budget for patrolling the border has increased greatly. Obama has consistently done what Republicans have demanded for border enforcement, but it will simply never be enough for the tea party. You could wrap the whole of the US in cellophane bubble ten feet thick and teabaggers will still refuse any type of legal status for undocumented immigrants living in the US. Full stop.

DanF said...

Compassionate Conservative was always a kind of code. To the center it meant, "That Bush fella has a heart." To the right it meant either opening up the government's wallet to help faith-based organizations with their outreach, or "tough love." It's considered compassionate on the right to preach the gospel of self-reliance, to tell others to lift themselves up by their own bootstraps - even if they don't have boots. They genuinely believe this to be sage advice that the poors simply don't understand.

chauncey devega said...

And what does any of this have to do with the price of tea in China or if Israel is in fact a white settler state which it clearly is.

chauncey devega said...

and where sombreros and worship Poncho Villa.

The Sanity Inspector said...

I didn't mention it and therefore you couldn't know, but the soccer fields I speak of are in a public park. It cost money to maintain, staff and protect them--everyone involved is very civic-minded. Everyone except the illegals, who bring with them the attitude formed by their harsh experiences back home: In a nation run by innumerable caudillos big and small, it's most sensible to just grab what you can for yourself before someone bigger grabs it away, and not fool with the charade that passes for law. That's the attitude that I don't want to have take root here.

And if you'd like to do a kindness to your local librarians, go in and tell them how wonderful it is that all those books are free. The laugh will do them good.

HiStoryNut said...

All of this talk about illegal immigrants is very similar to the hatred spewed by white protestants during the late 19th century when the Irish immigrated to America. They were also poor, uneducated, and seen as a drag on society who gave nothing and took everything. Many of their descendants are the same people who are so vocal about immigrants crossing the southern borders.

BCJ said...

It has everything to do with it, as it seems your definition of "white settler state" is "any place I don't like that happens to have white people in it." Which is ludicrous, as a plurality of the people in Israel didn't settle there by choice, nor would they generally qualify as "white" in the USA or Europe. Although I will grant you that Israel is a State.
The ignorance that many Europeans and Americans have regarding non-European Jews is staggering.

Robert Albright said...

i am white (french actually) and deeply loved a person of color. i read this article and couldn't believe this way of thinking exists. i must lead an insular life, because I find beauty in every color. Either I am weird or the world is.

chauncey devega said...

We need to love and be good to each other. Unfortunately, such principles are in short supply in many circles.