Mexico del Norte: The Sixth Sense
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J. Mujica
Jun 24, 2010, 2:10:03 AM6/24/10
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México del Norte
Jorge Mújica Murias
mexicod...@yahoo.com.mx
The Sixth Sense
As time goes by and elections approach, the debate on immigration is
getting weirder and weirder. In itself, Arizona’s SB 1070 rarified the
air, inserting the issue of racial profiling as “reasonable suspicion”
to ask people for their immigration papers, but things are now going
beyond that.
On the side of “good news”, there’s Barack Obama’s administration
decision to legally challenge the now famous Arizona law (one good for
the many bad things he has done to us,) although they will not Couch
the “racial profiling” part, on the argument that you can’t argue
racial profiling until it actually happens, meaning until the law is
enacted and there are actual victims. Obama’s challenge will focus on
federalism, the fact that immigration policies are for the federal
government to enforce, not the states. It is too little and too late,
but a decent first step, and one that puts Obama, for a change, on the
side of immigrants.
That’s weird in itself t, because Obama has been all the time on the
“other side”, but two republicans made him look almost good this week.
Steve King, Congressman from Iowa, seems to adore his name-sake
Stephen King, author of terror-fiction, aliens and killing pets, and
seems to want to emulate the kid from Sixth Sense, the one who saw
“dead people” all around. King says there are people who see “illegal
aliens” all around.
As unbelievable as it may seem, Steve King gave a speech in the House
of Representatives defending the Arizona law, arguing that it is not
racist, because “there are people who have a sixth sense to identify
illegal aliens”. Just like it sounds, King insists that “don’t ask me
how, but there are people who can detect an illegal alien because of
their clothes, their accent, their behavior and other means.”
Probably King does not know it, but that kind of identifiers are
precisely what make racial profiling well… racial profiling. The video
is in You Tube, if you have the stomach to watch it.
“If I can do it with my dog…”
But King could not hold the crown of absurdity in the immigration
debate. A candidate for Congress, also Republican and also from Iowa,
with what it rounds to me like a foreign name, Pat Bertroche, gave the
finest example of why the term “illegal alien” should never be used.
In a word, it dehumanizes people. And once the human characteristic is
gone, you can do anything you want.
You can, for instance, microchip them.
At a candidate’s forum in Iowa, Bertroche came up with he old idea of
micro chipping immigrants to be able to find them, and solve the
problem of tourists staying after their visas expired and foreign
students staying alter they finished their studies in the United
States.
Again, as unbelievable at it rounds, Bertroche said the he “support
the idea of the microchip. I can microchip my dog and that way I can
find it”, he said. “Why not doing it to find illegals?”
That goes way beyond the sixth sense and seeing illegal immigrants all
around. When racially profiling, at least we are still talking about
human beings of a particular raze or ethnic Group, but comparing
immigrants to dogs is too much. It is to deny them the character of
humans, and therefore the existence of rights for them, not only civil
or labor rights, but basic human rights. Next will be the proposal to
keep them on a leash… oh! wait! That’s already happening! To name a
place, somewhere in Arizona a Sheriff by the name of Arpaio already
chains and keeps them “on a short leash” even tough they have being
arrested for driving without a driver’s license and not for major
crimes.
Next step, I guess, will be to buy and sell them like pets… or slaves.
And that’s why Obama’s action against SB 1070 is too little too late.
Obama’s and Congress’ lack of action is real, as Arizona folks argue.
This lack of action fertilizes the ground not only for actions like
approving Arizona’s SB 1070, but extreme and idiotic statements like
King’s and Bertroche’s. Obama can’t solve everything, but at the very
least he could stop the useless raids and deportations and treat us
like human beings… before is too late!
Jorge Mújica Murias
mexicod...@yahoo.com.mx
The Sixth Sense
As time goes by and elections approach, the debate on immigration is
getting weirder and weirder. In itself, Arizona’s SB 1070 rarified the
air, inserting the issue of racial profiling as “reasonable suspicion”
to ask people for their immigration papers, but things are now going
beyond that.
On the side of “good news”, there’s Barack Obama’s administration
decision to legally challenge the now famous Arizona law (one good for
the many bad things he has done to us,) although they will not Couch
the “racial profiling” part, on the argument that you can’t argue
racial profiling until it actually happens, meaning until the law is
enacted and there are actual victims. Obama’s challenge will focus on
federalism, the fact that immigration policies are for the federal
government to enforce, not the states. It is too little and too late,
but a decent first step, and one that puts Obama, for a change, on the
side of immigrants.
That’s weird in itself t, because Obama has been all the time on the
“other side”, but two republicans made him look almost good this week.
Steve King, Congressman from Iowa, seems to adore his name-sake
Stephen King, author of terror-fiction, aliens and killing pets, and
seems to want to emulate the kid from Sixth Sense, the one who saw
“dead people” all around. King says there are people who see “illegal
aliens” all around.
As unbelievable as it may seem, Steve King gave a speech in the House
of Representatives defending the Arizona law, arguing that it is not
racist, because “there are people who have a sixth sense to identify
illegal aliens”. Just like it sounds, King insists that “don’t ask me
how, but there are people who can detect an illegal alien because of
their clothes, their accent, their behavior and other means.”
Probably King does not know it, but that kind of identifiers are
precisely what make racial profiling well… racial profiling. The video
is in You Tube, if you have the stomach to watch it.
“If I can do it with my dog…”
But King could not hold the crown of absurdity in the immigration
debate. A candidate for Congress, also Republican and also from Iowa,
with what it rounds to me like a foreign name, Pat Bertroche, gave the
finest example of why the term “illegal alien” should never be used.
In a word, it dehumanizes people. And once the human characteristic is
gone, you can do anything you want.
You can, for instance, microchip them.
At a candidate’s forum in Iowa, Bertroche came up with he old idea of
micro chipping immigrants to be able to find them, and solve the
problem of tourists staying after their visas expired and foreign
students staying alter they finished their studies in the United
States.
Again, as unbelievable at it rounds, Bertroche said the he “support
the idea of the microchip. I can microchip my dog and that way I can
find it”, he said. “Why not doing it to find illegals?”
That goes way beyond the sixth sense and seeing illegal immigrants all
around. When racially profiling, at least we are still talking about
human beings of a particular raze or ethnic Group, but comparing
immigrants to dogs is too much. It is to deny them the character of
humans, and therefore the existence of rights for them, not only civil
or labor rights, but basic human rights. Next will be the proposal to
keep them on a leash… oh! wait! That’s already happening! To name a
place, somewhere in Arizona a Sheriff by the name of Arpaio already
chains and keeps them “on a short leash” even tough they have being
arrested for driving without a driver’s license and not for major
crimes.
Next step, I guess, will be to buy and sell them like pets… or slaves.
And that’s why Obama’s action against SB 1070 is too little too late.
Obama’s and Congress’ lack of action is real, as Arizona folks argue.
This lack of action fertilizes the ground not only for actions like
approving Arizona’s SB 1070, but extreme and idiotic statements like
King’s and Bertroche’s. Obama can’t solve everything, but at the very
least he could stop the useless raids and deportations and treat us
like human beings… before is too late!
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