Not so a trip across the American southwest via Mexico. Why are we free to enter from the north and not the south?
Nineteen members of Al Qaeda attacked the United States and suddenly everyone south of the border is a threat to our national security. We equate “illegals” with “Mexicans” (be they from Mexico, Nicaragua or Peru) and “terror” when the only “terrorist” charged entered at the Canadian border.
Crudely, albeit accurately put, the darker you are the less “desirable” you are under U.S. immigration law. Infamously amended in 1924 by politicians openly belonging or sympathetic to the Ku Klux Klan, race has been the driver behind our immigration policy.
Race divides the “desirable” from the “illegal.” The hatred once openly perpetrated against African Americans—the lynchings and bombings and other such homegrown terrorist attacks—is now the assault on “illegal immigrants.” Days into our newly “post-racial” world dawned with the election of Barack Obama as president, brutal attacks on “Mexicans” were reported; one such attack in New York resulted in death.
The thing is this: all things are one.
Immigration and segregation, attacks on gays, incivility toward women candidates; news clips of soldiers off the “kill the sand niggers” of Iraq; all these are one. It’s all about power: who has it and who doesn’t; what it means and what we choose to do with it.
In these troubled times we have a decision to make. Will power be about whose seat we can take or how many seats we can provide? Will it be about wielding power or can we muster the bravery of an eight-year-old to follow in the footsteps of Rosa Parks—a woman who empowered millions with her “conviction,” her courage, and her grace?
Janus Adams, an Emmy Award winner, journalist/historian, talk show host, and cultural critic, is the author of nine books including Freedom Days, a history of the Civil Rights era. An expert on African American and women’s history, she is known for her historical insights on current events. An NPR contributor and former correspondent, her syndicated column is in its 14th year. She is a participant of the Women’s Media Center’s Progressive Women’s Voices. Her website is: www.JanusAdams.com.
Written for The Women’s Media Center, a non-profit organization founded by Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem, and Robin Morgan, dedicated to making women visible and powerful in the media.(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
