Racism Continues to Surge In USA

If there was any doubt that open racism is now acceptable in the upper classes of US society:

In January, students at Clemson University in South Carolina and a number of other institutions of higher learning opted to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day with what were called "ghetto-fabulous" parties at which White students dressed in blackface, drank 40s, wore fake teeth grills, flashed gang signs and, in some cases, padded their posteriors to conform to their stereotypes of the Black female body. A month later, White students at Santa Clara University in California threw a "Latino-themed" party, where young women feigned pregnancy, the young men played at being cholo and everyone reveled in the symbols and spectacle they associate with Latinos.

The article, by two university professors, makes the connection between these disgusting spectacles of class and race defamation, and the continuing "corporatization" of American higher education. 

That is all too obvious when we consider how the economic elite have transformed the American workplace by first creating a market for undocumented workers, and then used them as scapegoats as the gulf between the rich and poor grows.  That spawned a backlash (sadly enough) among many working class Americans, and has given rise to a "deport them all insanity."

That resulted in a surprising immigrant rights movement rising in 2006, and a not so surprising illegal crackdown by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Latinos in the American workplace that is ongoing.  At this point xenophobic rants against "illegal immigration" are all the the GOP has to use in the coming '08 national elections (even the theocratic echo chamber has keyed in on it).

This crackdown isn't going uncontested however, as the UFCW union, who represents many immigrant workers, is filing a lawsuit against ICE for violating the constitutional rights of members.  Their case is a compelling one.  In the Swift packing plant raids all of the workers were detained, even native born citizens.  Workers weren't allowed to call their families or for legal representation.  If it wasn't obvious that workers aren't the real targets (immigrants or otherwise) in this mess, it should be now.

This new acceptable racism goes beyond the question of immigration, and heralds the horrific return of a patronizing "white man's burden" attitude that is expressed by mainstream (although very right-wing) pundits.  It is a world in which victims of substandard levies are blamed for their plight.  It is a time when privileged white kids can mock those who create the wealth that they enjoy with callous contempt.

It has to stop. 

tags: racism  class  immigration  ice  

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