The Sleeping Giant is Awake and Bleeding
DEAR MISTER PRESIDENT ELECT: You are too smart to pretend you don’t see all this. So I say if you do not act on it and soon, you are nodding along with this scourge that threatens both our peoples and the whole nation as a consequence. And I know I don’t need to be overly direct about this, but I will anyway:
I CAN’T EVEN REMEMBER how many times I’ve written on hate crimes against Latinos, or how the MSM spins the news and what it features to perpetuate fear and loathing and tired roleplaying of Brown/Black/Golden as Other/Evil/Contagion/Alien, or the advertisements that do the same, and the putos and haterz and abettors of the growing violence against mi gente. Some claim their virulent resistance to those from South of the “border” is all about “law” when clearly it is about culture and resistance to change at best, and naked racism at worst. (Some sound advice on how to take the shifting culture with perhaps some humor, rather than abject fear.)
The Clotty Red Stopper should not be yanked from its bottle so casually, as both Sarah Palin and John McCain ought to know by now. Demons claw at the cork all night. They gain legs in the silences left by the Left and are called forth from many foaming mouths on the Right.
Marcello Lucero was killed late Saturday night near the commuter railroad station in Patchogue, N.Y., a middle-class village in central Long Island. He was beaten and stabbed. The friend who crouched beside him in a parking lot as he lay dying, soaked in blood, said Mr. Lucero, who was 37, had come to the United States 16 years ago from Ecuador.
The police arrested seven teenage boys, who they said had driven into the village from out of town looking for Latinos to beat up. The police said the mob cornered Mr. Lucero and another man, who escaped and later identified the suspects to the police. A prosecutor at the arraignment on Monday quoted the young men as having said: “Let’s go find some Mexicans.”
And it is now time, with the rise and fall of Palin Politics, to move in a new direction. A direction that does not demonize the undocumented or their families and that does not feed the heinous undercurrents of hate in this nation, one that does not whisper to ghosts through lips bloodstained and withering. It is time to look honestly at the hate speech that travels under the name of “Right Wing Radio” and undergirds too much of the GOP’s politics. Because just as so many finally took notice, through the campaign of John McCain, these ideas lead directly to hateful energy and violent intent.
A possible lynching in a New York suburb should be more than enough to force this country to acknowledge the bitter chill that has overcome Latinos in these days of rage against illegal immigration.
The atmosphere began to darken when Republican politicians decided a few years ago to exploit immigration as a wedge issue. They drafted harsh legislation to criminalize the undocumented. They cheered as vigilantes streamed to the border to confront the concocted crisis of Spanish-speaking workers sneaking in to steal jobs and spread diseases. Cable personalities and radio talk-show hosts latched on to the issue. Years of effort in Congress to assemble a responsible overhaul of the immigration system failed repeatedly. Its opponents wanted only to demonize and punish the Latino workers on which the country had come to depend.
A campaign of raids and deportations, led by federal agents with help from state and local posses, has become so pervasive that nearly 1 in 10 Latinos, including citizens and legal immigrants, have told of being stopped and asked about their immigration status, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Now that the economy is in free fall, the possibility of scapegoating is deepening Hispanic anxiety.
As I wrote the night before the election
Will Obama rise to the challenge? Because as happy as I am with so much that is coming undone, and coming together, still the conversation about immigrants in this “nation of immigrants” remains woefully untouched and relegated to areas where nobody has to look at it or do much about it, and as a whole only profit from the entire system.
And people keep dying. In this atmosphere that so many with power in this system have created, guns are being bought up at record rates, nooses appear with alarming frequency, hate groups are stacking up new members, and people are being hunted and killed. For looking or sounding like the Invading Other that the Right Wing has sneered at, dripped bile at, offered threats to, and piled hate on.
Dear Mr. President Elect: You are too smart to pretend you don’t see all this. So I say if you do not act on it and soon—given the time frame available of course—you are doing worse than ignoring these crimes and this desperate situation. You would be nodding along with this scourge that threatens both our peoples, and the entire nation as a consequence. And I know I don’t need to be overly direct about this, but I will anyway: I certainly know that my people will hold your party responsible at the voting booth if the Republicans successfully take up this challenge I now lay down—
Republicans, want to win many of us Latinos back? Forge your new Resurrection plan and fashion at its core a new view on (im)migrants. Create an immigration reform proposal that stops the raids right away and creates a path to citizenship and lays off of the punitive and hostile vibe that looms over so many Americans and is just goddamn reasonable, for crying out loud. And if you beat the Democrats to it, I will start praising you on this blog. Regularly. And wholly independent of my own efforts, you will gain a whole lot of votes.
So I’m talking about action from all of us to properly frame and denounce the hateful rhetoric that any sensible person knows holds the hand of violent sentiment and violence itself. And I’m talking about legislative action to bring about humane immigration reform and stop the ICE raids immediately.
Oye: I find all these people nowadays telling Obama what he needs to do annoying, too. But this ain’t simply about favored policies or my personal idea of how “center-right/left” the nation should be or who I fancy for a particular cabinet position. This is simply about lives. About nights at the movies that end in blood, and banging on the door that ends in the destruction of the family. This is about many lives lost and hearts broken, and many many people suffering even as I write this. And as I said, it doesn’t need to be Obama or the Democrats who offer the first attempt at reform.
The Sleeping Giant is wide awake and watching.
Tags: Barack Obama, Fear, Hate Crimes, John McCain, Marcello Lucero, Sarah Palin
Posted in Borders, Criminal Justice System, Cultura, Culture of Criminality, Democratic Party, Hate Groups, Human Rights, ICE, Immigration, Latinos, Prison for Profit, Raza, Republicans, The Long War on the Indigenous, The Vote, United States Politics, Violence
Honestly Nez, I think that Obama and his crew have been so non-confrontational during the primaries/general election that any direct attacks on racism and bigotry aren’t very likely to ensue during this administration. Instead, I think Obama will eventually get around to handling some of the aformentioned problems indirectly through some incomplete hate crime bill or something to that effect.
Don’t get me wrong: I dig Obama and I admire his approach the winning the White House. But being anything besides a political and social pacifist is out of his realm.
Nez, i worry too. I’ve only caught a couple references to immigration in any of the political banter…let alone any confrontation of the violence and hostile rhetoric.
i really hope someone in a political power position stands up about it. So many of us are still falling through the cracks, whether we are “illegal immigrants” (ha-let’s go back to history class, shall we?)–or not.
[...] Obama safe as this period brings the racism and eliminationism out of the woodwork and it can be confronted and defeated. This is beyond the policy let downs, Emanuel, Summers etc represent, if the forces of bigotry [...]
this is getting back to the reality that as of yet nothing has changed, (could even be tougher in some respects due to fear based problems), except for the transition in the upcoming change of leadership. (“snap back to reality, oops there goes gravity”)
we hope this transition is what will facilitate the mandatory change we have to insist on with vigilance. these are not issues to be bartered with, but be dealt with in a direct manner without compromise. we have to get people out of danger, poor living conditions, out of criminal status, out of jails and prisons. there has to be an end to ice – period. there has to be a release of individuals who are being held for victimless offenses. language, dialog, focus has to be a tool for compassion and a direction that promotes all aspects of health personally and globally. this is a sensitive time that commands action taken with integrity. this should be a time of opportunity, considering obama’s statements made and the unifying effort demonstrated, for this very thing.
we the people are who/what it is going to take, to “get er done”. we have to keep obama accountable, as we have seen what happens when we get complacent with our leaders and where they will take us. government/corporate/world order does not rest and neither can we. we have to make our bid continually with vigilance and mindfulness.
one love people.
1) hope and prayer are powerful. And we can hope Obama is a leader like he was during the election, and takes a leadership role on immigration.
2)Even if he wants to make a more humane immigration policy, he’s going to have to have a lot of other supporters to make it happen. Those of us lucky enough to have citizenship have to use it in the voting booth and by calling and writing our congressman, senators, governors, state representatives, county commisioners, mayors, city councilmen, school board members. People on the other side make their voice known, and then we have to react. So we need to have our voice heard more often, and first.
and 3)supporting with our money and time the churches who help immigrants, programs that support them and their children whether free health screenings or free English classes, and groups that keep an eye on the justice system with respect to immigrants.
wait. you mean he can’t just use his powers to make it all happen at once? man. i’m beginning to lose faith in SuperObama.
thanks malicia for the concise and practical ideas and facts and reminder of our part in what needs to be done. what’s exciting about obama, for one thing, is that he seems to believe in a few things and act in a few ways, and come from a background that make petitioning him feel worthwhile.
word malicia… a great outline for how to get it done. it is a matter of voice isn’t it, and this election shows the people do have one…we have to just use it now. thanks for clarifying so simply and truly how to use that voice.
Nezua, long time no read, babe. I have been back to work full time waitressing again at a newly opened restaurant and blogging time is limited. But I wanted to hear the Latino take on this election.
As usual, you nail it.
I worry about a backlash of “Well he could do it, its your own fault if you can’t” to minorities in this country who do not even have half a level playing field.
Couple anecdotes: My 9 yr old came home Nov 5th, upset a kid next to him told him “He hopes someone kills Obama so McCain could be president.” My son fired back, (yeah hes 9, but he’s MY kid, dig) “Thats not the chain of command, that would make Biden president…”
Anyway, after he told me, I fired off a phone call & email to the school. Come to find out this kid’s Dad is a State Trooper. Yeah, I have been watching my rear view mirror for that chicken to come to roost. Get a Cop’s kid in trouble, you get trouble.
The kid got a talking to, but the hate is still alive in 4th graders even. I explained to my son that silence is complicity, and even if it is hard and you may lose friends you have to stand for something.
2nd post-election anecdote: White privilege alive and still totally clueless they even do it…
Before we opened yesterday, I was out front talking with one of the cooks. He speaks halfway decent english, I speak no spanish, but we manage to always chat a little. (Yeah, most of the front of the house is white, most of the cooks Latino…sigh…)
Anyway, in walks a Fed Ex guy with a small package. He brushes right by my friend over to where I am washing tables with my hands in a water bucket. “Sign here.”
I glared at him and said, “He can do it! What the Fuck?” He looked incredulous, and the cook signed it, took the package, smiling.
When the idiot walked out, he looked at me quizzically.
(he speaks pretty good english, and understands more, yet I am totally single-languaged, english… so who’s smarter there? Not me)
I turned to my friend and said “Can you believe that bastard walked right past you to me, thinking cuz I’m white, I should be the only one trusted to sign? What the fucking fuck? I’ll bet he didn’t even realize it, but he just treated you invisible, fucking white bastard! Brush by a full grown man standing there to a waitress scrubbing tables. I shoulda said you were my boss.” Ok, said is an understatement, I was ranting.
He smiled at me…. and went in the kitchen. I came in after, and all the guys were whipping off in Spanish, I presume talking about it, because they turned to me and smiled with new respect. I wish I were bilingual. I think I made some new friends. Heh.
One of them asked why I did it, and said it was cool because Luis is very sensitive… and I just said that letting people act racist in front of you is being racist, and it pissed me off. They made a couple jokes about my temper and then of course we joked about what else is that hot. I’m a smartass, they already KNOW that much. LOL.
I think the Fed Ex guy hates me though. I can live with that.
My point?
Obama is a symbol, but it is the People who must make the change. One at a time. And the ones who must change the most are white people like me.
[...] 5. “The Sleeping Giant is Awake and Bleeding.” [...]
Rock on Diane. Lovin’ it. Thanks for taking the time to tell that story here. Good to see you!