White Washing

When I first heard about the new Arizona immigration law I was appalled. The very idea that an American citizen could be pulled over by a policeman for no reason and forced to provide proof of citizenship is so 1930’s Nazi Germany and even apartheid era South Africa. The weekend the bigoted Governor of Arizona signed this law into effect we had company over and in discussion I was practically alone in my assessment that this law was put in place to target people of color. In support of their argument for this law people trotted out the same old “we gotta do something about all the illegal immigrants” to which I agreed. We need legislation to combat the affects of illegal immigrant on our economy. However, to target someone based on what they look like is out and out racial profiling. And to make it into a law is nothing less than Institutionalized Racial Profiling. How dare they assume that based on someone’s ethnicity they may be in this country illegally and that assumption alone is enough to harass them. You can be sure there will be no stopping of Irish, Italian, German or even Canadian immigrants by Arizona law enforcement. By turning us against each other, white America has succeeded in convincing minorities that we should view one as better than the other. If they start by going after the Latinos, what’s to stop them from targeting us next? Well guess what? That same bigoted racist governor of Arizona just signed another law.

The new law makes it illegal to teach ethnic study courses in Arizona public schools. The reason? State schools chief Tom Horne says these programs teach minorities that they are oppressed by white people…yeah, he actually said that. I don’t know about you but growing up I never needed a special course to teach me of this oppression, I saw it every day and quite frankly I don’t think things have changed all that much so the students of today see it as well. Horne, a Republican running for attorney general, also said that ethnic study programs promote "ethnic chauvinism" and racial resentment toward whites. Where did this man come from?

According to the Tucson Unified School District, which is the main target of Mr. Horne’s attack, they offer specialized courses in African-American, Mexican-American and Native-American studies that focus on history and literature and include information about the influence of these particular ethnic groups on American history. But with this new law they will no longer be able to include African-American slavery, the Jim Crow laws of the south, the occupation and eventual conquering of various Native-American tribes, the original Latin-American settlers or the contributions of any of these ethnic groups to the building of this nation. How is this a true teaching of American history? It seems as though the state of Arizona wants to literally “white wash” American history.

This is only the beginning folks and there is definitely a movement taking place. As white Americans face the realization of becoming the minority in this country, they are fighting to maintain political dominance. Just like Nazi Germany this movement targets a popular criticism and builds from there. For the Nazi’s it was the persecution of homosexuals which led to the same for Jews. For the Tea Party and those akin to their ideology it begins with illegal immigration and ethnic studies. Who and what will they target next?

A Conversation

My boss just copied me on an email he sent out. The email reads “Obituary, Born 1776, died 2008” and shows a picture of the United States embossed with RIP and President Obama dressed as the Grim Reaper. The email goes on to blame President Obama for all of America’s current woes and includes the following “facts”:

Number of States won by: Obama: 19 McCain: 29
Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000 McCain: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million
McCain: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Obama: 13.2 McCain: 2.1

It also states the following:

"In aggregate, the map of the territory McCain won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country. Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."

I should state that my boss is a White man and although I have always been aware of his conservative politics we’ve enjoyed an amicable relationship. Still, I’m confused as to why he would include me in this email and I’m pissed off because now I have to have a “conversation” with him. Perhaps it was a mistake and I shouldn’t have been included at all and when I speak with him he may be totally surprised that I received the email. But what if he sent it on purpose? As I stated before I’ve always been aware of his point of view as he has been quite vocal of his displeasure with President Obama, illegal immigrants and any Liberal minded views. In fact we did have a conversation during the election of 2008 where he made it very clear how he felt about Democrats in general and I was sure I made my views clear as well. But afterwards I chose to ignore him and now I’ve begun to question myself…have I gone soft?

By not wanting to rock the boat have I in some way given this man the idea that I agree with him or he can say or do anything he wants around me? What if somehow in all my years of working in Corporate America I have become complacent let down my guard and allowed others to view me as insignificant or not see me at all? I’m not saying I should go all Huey Newton on the man but if in my efforts to maintain a cordial working environment I have in anyway contributed to this perhaps I need to be more vocal. Like I said earlier, my boss and I enjoy a great relationship in fact this is my second time working for him. But what if he’s some closet racist who sends out those bigoted cartoons and depictions of President Obama as Hitler and the devil? What if this man is not only conservative but also secretly a White Supremacist? How well do I really know him, I mean these emails may have been going on for some time before I was included, right? The end of the email instructs you to “pass this along to help everyone realize how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.” Who exactly is everyone and what is at stake? Sounds like Tea Party speech to me. Have I somehow become privy to what goes on inside this movement?

Whatever, the fact is like I said earlier, I need to have a “conversation” with the man.