Get angry, get very angry!

So apparently, Muslim children are getting gassed in Mosques ... guess where? United States of freedom fuckin America.

Here's a story about it over on Daily Kos. I am not sure exactly how this movie that it is being linked to is tied into McCain supporters, but I am too pissed to do the research right about now.

An excerpt:

"She told me that the gas was sprayed into the room where the babies and children were being kept while their mothers prayed together their Ramadan prayers. Panicked mothers ran for their babies, crying for their children so they could flee from the gas that was burning their eyes and throats and lungs. She grabbed her youngest in her arms and grabbed the hand of her other daughter, moving with the others to exit the building and the irritating substance there.

"The paramedic said the young one was in shock, and gave her oxygen to help her breathe. The child couldn't stop sobbing."

Sick. Just sick.

"They're taking our jobs!"

I've heard the above refrain more than a few times from white and Black alike.

Welp, they're right!



Via Of America.

Legal Murders

One of the good things about having cable and nothing to do after 5 pm is that I get to watch lots of CNN. I think of it is as research for this blog, since CNN never fails to provide plenty of material to blog about (most of it in some sort of fury).

Yesterday, they broke the news about this guy in Houston, TX who shot and killed two men who he saw leaving his neighbours house after a break in. He was cleared of all criminal charges. That is after he called 911, and the operator explicitly told him NOT to go outside with his gun.

"Don't go outside the house," the 911 operator pleaded. "You're going to get yourself shot if you go outside that house with a gun. I don't care what you think."
"You want to make a bet?" Horn answered. "I'm going to kill them."

Now I am thinking: the men were shot in the back, there are no reports of either of them being armed, and does it count as self-defense if you voluntarily leave the safety of your house after being told not to by law enforcement? Isn't saying "I'm going to kill them" an expression of pre-mediation? The guys were burgalars, they probably woul'dnt have gotten more than 10 years for unarmed robbery.

It just was'nt making any sense. How could a court come up with this decision. Then the anchor guy asks the question, "can't the family of the murdered file a civil suit?" and the other anchor guy (can't rem their names) says "well ... not really ... I mean if they were illegal immigrants they don't have any rights to do that." And the first guy goes " so they were illegals" and the second guy says "im not sure, its highly possible though. They were from mexico ... or maybe puerto rico, dpesnt matter its the same thing. But I think they probably were illegal." And the picture of two brown men pops up on the screen. Fade to white anchor guys shrugging, and moving on to the next story.*

Just for the record, the CNN print version of the story says that the murdered men were Colombian, and would be classified as illegal immigrants.

*This dialogue might not have happened word to word as written, but it's pretty close.

Juan Crow

I first heard Roberto Lovato speak on Juan Crow back in January. At first, I thought it was just a witty, satirical analysis on the current hysteria surrounding undocumented workers. Reading more into it, it's much more than satire.

In his piece in The Nation, he writes:

The toll this increasingly oppressive climate has taken on Mancha represents but a small part of its effects on non-citizen immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, and other Latinos. Mancha and the younger children of the mostly immigrant Latinos in Georgia are learning and internalizing that they are different from white--and black--children not just because they have the wrong skin color but also because many of their parents lack the right papers. They are growing up in a racial and political climate in which Latinos' subordinate status in Georgia and in the Deep South bears more than a passing resemblance to that of African-Americans who were living under Jim Crow.

Call it Juan Crow: the matrix of laws, social customs, economic institutions and symbolic systems enabling the physical and psychic isolation needed to control and exploit undocumented immigrants. Listening to the effects of Juan Crow on immigrants and citizens like Mancha ("I can't sleep sometimes because of nightmares," she says. "My arms still twitch. I see ICE agents and men in uniform, and it still scares me") reminds me of the trauma I heard among the men, women and children controlled and exploited by state violence in wartime El Salvador. Juan Crow has roots in the US South, but it stirs traumas bred in the hemispheric South.

Read more here.

Bajo La Misma Luna

Saw this movie last weekend and trust me this preview does not do it any justice.
This movie is about Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto to allow undocumented people to obtain driver's licenses, the risks immigrants face in coming to the US, the daily terror that day laborers endure to earn a day's worth of wages, and tying it all together is the story of young boy risking it all to be reunited with his mother in the US.

It was most definitely a tear-jerker, but it was amazing to see so many Latina/o families all sitting in one theatre. Hey, it's not everyday we get the chance to see so many brown faces, amazing Latina/o actors and performers all on one screen, and especially in mainstream venues.

Day Laborers, prostitution, and "reform"

As immigration reform sits idly on the desks of American politicians, the pressure has only increased for many undocumented workers who are finding it even harder to get work in construction or agriculture. Many still gather early in the morning with hopes of landing work for the day, but instead of being offered traditional jobs, they're being offered cash in exchange for sex.

La Opinion initially broke the story, which was translated into english over at New American Media:

Their faces reflect how uncomfortable it is for them to talk about. On street corners where day laborers congregate, it’s no longer as easy to find work – but there are plenty of offers of sex for money. There is also a high incidence of workers being drugged and raped, something suffered by many, and hidden by all out of shame.

"The situation is happening more frequently. It happens more on the unorganized corners than in day labor centers, but the problem itself is widespread. It’s like a well-known secret that everyone knows and has experienced, but no one talks about,” explained Pablo Alvarado, national coordinator of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

As if the brutal seperation of families, downright racist exploitation and NAFTA weren't reason enough to hasten some sort of meaningful, comprehensive immigration reform in congress, now surfaces the dirty underbelly of just how> some of the nation's most vulnerable workers are being exploited.

La Opinon reporters took an all-up-in-that-face approach when investigating the story:

Of the group that continued negotiating, only the youngest got in the truck.

“What’s your motive for hiring day laborers?” La Opinión asked the two older white men as the worker settled into the backseat of the truck.

“Who are you? What’s this for?” the driver asked defensively.

Inside the vehicle, the worker looked scared.

“We are doing an investigation about people who hire workers for sex acts. What do you think about that?” La Opinión asked.

“I don’t know anything,” the driver answered and accelerated, clearing a path through a group of curious onlookers who were approaching the car.

STAND UP!!! LGBT and immigrant friends and allies, UNITE!

The vigil for Victoria was just postponed. It will take place ONE WEEK from today. Today's demonstration will focus on the recent deportation of Elvira Arellano which occurred yesterday at La Placita Church.

Elvira had been on a speaking tour of churches to raise awareness for the New Sanctuary Movement. She was leaving the church with her young son when ICE agents surrounded her and her car. She asked for a moment with her son, who remains in the US, and then she went with the federal agents to the Federal Building where she was subsequently deported the same night to Tijuana.

Tonight's vigil will be another in the long struggle for human rights and dignity against oppressive immigration laws. Elvira Arellano, as well asVictoria, highlight a system that has no regard for human life, nor demonstrates dignity and respect each human being. Radio pundits, federal spokespersons and wedge driving politicians will proclaim that laws were broken and the law must be upheld.

People who cherish freedom, civil and human rights and still believe in a system of justice understand that laws should be based on reality and compassion. Laws are man-made and can be re-made to reflect justice, humanity and fairness. We say laws that allow mothers to be separated from their children and laws that allow the denial of life-giving medication are unjust, inhumane and should be changed. We demand that change.

Are Immigrants and Refugees People of Color?

In this month's edition of ColorLines, publisher Rinku Sen takes up the argument of whether immigrants and refugees should be considered among the often broadly used term "people of color". She argues about why and how the struggles of these communities have placed them at economic, social and political disadvantages in a system that privileges whiteness and wealth.

In her explanation for RaceWire, Sen writes:

As the immigrant rights movement prepares for the next round of fights for legalization and humane immigration regulation, it should take this opportunity to examine the decisions of immigrants to identify (or not) with U.S.-born Blacks, Latinos, Asians and American Indians.

In “Are Immigrants and Refugees People of Color,” published in the July issue of ColorLines, I reflect on the resistance I have encountered from immigrants to discuss the role race plays in the lives of their communities.

All identities are a little bit forced. Some labels are imposed on us by oppressive social structures. Others we pick up to define ourselves in opposition.

I wrote this piece because colleagues and activists asked me about the origins of the “people of color” identity, what it was for and whether it still seems useful. The questions led me to think hard about the role of identity in political action, and how the two change each other. While I was reporting it, I was surprised at the large number of intense reactions the term seems to generate.

But "people of color" is an identity that heavily shaped my politics, and that, I argue, should shape those of the immigrant rights' movement today.

I’ll be taking all comments and new questions as fodder for future writing, so send them in.

Here's the full story.