Racism and Hatred Run Rampant During Turbulent Times

SANTA FE, NM (By Judy O'Meara, The Jon Garrido Network) August 13, 2011 ― Racism is the belief there are inherent differences in people's traits and capacities which are entirely due to their race, skin color, language, customs, place of birth or any factor that supposedly reveals the basic nature of that person, however defined, and which consequently justifies treating people different from those doing the observation.

During the past 500-1000 years, racism on the part of Western powers toward non-Westerners has had a far more significant impact on history than any other form of racism.  The most notorious example of racism by the West has been slavery, particularly the enslavement of Africans in the New World. This enslavement was accomplished because of the racist belief Black Africans were less fully human than white Europeans and their descendants.

The Africans were not originally considered inferior. When Portuguese sailors first explored Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries, they came upon empires and cities as advanced as their own, and they considered Africans to be serious rivals. Over time, though, as African civilizations failed to match the technological advances of Europe, the major European powers began to plunder the African continent and forcibly remove its inhabitants to work as slave laborers in new colonies across the Atlantic,

Africans came to be seen as a deficient "species," as "savages." To an important extent, this view was necessary to justify the slave trade at a time when Western culture had begun to promote individual rights and human equality.

One important feature of racism, especially toward Blacks and immigrant groups is Jews are usually seen as subhuman. Yet they are considered superhuman:  Devilishly cunning, skilled, and powerful.

Blacks and others are seen by racists as merely subhuman, more like beasts. If the focus of anti-Semitism is evil, the focus of racism is inferiority.

In the second half of the 19th century, Darwinism, the decline of Christian belief, and growing immigration were all perceived by many white Westerners as a threat to their cultural control. European and, to a lesser degree, American scientists and philosophers devised a false racial "science" to "prove" the supremacy of non-Jewish whites. The Nazi annihilation of Jews is an example of controlling Jews primarily because of envy using the pretext Jews crucified Jesus.

At the same time, some public figures in the American Black community have championed the supremacy of their own race and the inferiority of whites, using nearly the identical language of white racists.

All of these arguments are based on a false understanding of race. In fact, contemporary scientists are not agreed on whether race is a valid way to classify people. There are few genetic characteristics found in any population that differ biologically to any significant degree.

Some of those who argue there are such inherent differences also argue one race may be inferior over another. In the case of institutional racism, certain racial groups may be denied rights or benefits, while others receive preferential treatment.

The following information from the Jim Crow Legislation Overview, by Susan Falck, M.A., Research Associate for the California State University, is just a mere glimpse of the humiliation bestowed upon the blacks in America during 1865 and 1967:

More than 400 state laws, constitutional amendments, and city ordinances legalizing segregation and discrimination were passed in the United States between 1865 and 1967.

These laws governed nearly every aspect of daily life, from education to public transportation, from health care and housing to the use of public facilities. African-American children got their first taste of racial discrimination when they found themselves barred from attending school with white children, and being sent, instead, to inferior facilities.

Growing up, these children learned their lives were equally restricted outside the classroom.

They were forbidden from sharing a bus seat with a white passenger or to ride in the same compartment of a train. They were denied access to public parks and restaurants, and, in some states, were forced to enter public amusements like the circus through a separate entrance. Black movie theater patrons were seated in the balcony, separated from white customers in what was commonly referred to as "Nigger heaven." When they went to work, African Americans were forced to use separate entrances and bathrooms and to collect their paychecks at separate windows. Even in death, legislation ensured the races would remain separate. Several states prohibited hearses from carrying both races, and cemeteries were required to maintain separate graveyards.

While the majority of Jim Crow laws discriminated specifically against African Americans, other minority groups also were frequently targeted. Western states routinely passed discriminatory legislation against Asians and Native Americans, passing 51 Jim Crow laws, 12 percent of the nation's total. Outside the South, California passed more Jim Crow laws (17) than any other state in the country.

Miscegenation statutes, intended to prevent racial interbreeding, led the list of Jim Crow laws enacted. At least 127 laws prohibiting interracial marriage and cohabitation were passed between 1865 and the 1950s nationwide, with 37 percent of the statutes passed outside the South. Western states enacted 33 such laws (27 percent). Both whites and blacks who ignored the law could receive sentences for up to ten years hard labor in prison in a number of states. Punishment for miscegenation in state statutes was still in force in the 1960s in Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, and North Carolina.

Further testament racism existed nationwide is evident in education laws. States outside the South enacted 23 percent of the laws that authorized segregated schools.

Likewise, seven of the 12 laws required race to be considered in adoption petitions were passed outside of the South.

Although the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision formally made segregation illegal, southern states continued to pass Jim Crow legislation well into the 1960s, particularly in the area of school segregation. Historian C. Vann Woodward estimated 106 new segregation laws were passed between the Brown decision and the end of 1956. By May 1964, the South had enacted 450 laws and resolutions to frustrate the Supreme Court's decision. Many of these statutes were passed at the local level and were particularly dehumanizing. In 1960, the city of Danville, Virginia, attempted to maintain segregated library facilities by establishing a "stand-up-pick-up-your-books-and-go" policy. Tables and chairs were removed from the library so patrons could not sit down. The cost of a library card was $2.50 and new black applicants were required to furnish two credit references and two character witnesses. As late as 1967, the city of Sarasota, Florida, prohibited blacks and whites from using the same beaches and authorized police to clear the area if such mixing occurred.

The threat of physical pain, public humiliation, and death held Jim Crow laws firmly in place through 1880 through 1964.

Rosa Parks “the mother of the freedom movement” sought to fight this tidal wave of hatred and discrimination. Her refusal on December 1,1955 in Montgomery, Alabama to give up her seat at the front of the ”colored section" of a bus to a white passenger, defying a southern custom of the time created a distinct moment in history.

Following her arrest, the Montgomery black community launched a bus boycott lasting more than a year until the buses were desegregated on Dec. 21, 1956. 

As newly elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was instrumental in leading the boycott.

This short excerpt from his compelling “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963 revealed where the movement was going:

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal”

It was not until Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964 that this equality of the law began. The Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also provided the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation. This far-reaching law included provisions to protect the right to vote, guaranteed access to public accommodations, and withheld federal funds from programs administered in a discriminatory fashion.

There was still discrimination towards the blacks, but it could no longer be carried out by the unlawful Jim Crow Laws (1880-1954) and the cruel Ku Klux Klan during its infamous period (1960-1970) without penalty of the law.

Racism is a disease that festers and develops blurring ones common sense and destroying compassion for mankind. History reveals its ugly destructive power, but few fail to learn.

It is now Hispanics or Latinos population that must fight this tidal wave of discrimination.

Many Mexicans cross over our borders daily to find work because they live in a country that offers them no safe opportunities to support their families. They do the laborious work that is hard, dirty and dangerous while being paid cheaply for their services. It is type of work many lazy Americans will not do. Yet we refuse to treat them as human beings.

We have thousands of young adults in our country for no fault of their own are caught up in this scenario. They were brought to the United States as children from Mexico, living here for most of their lives and knowing no other way to live. Yet, they face the threat of deportation.

It has taken people like the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to fight their battle with the reintroduction of the Dream Act. Many resisted and it failed to become the law of the land.

The Dream Act is only one piece of the immigration puzzle, but it caters to a group of undocumented immigrants who are considered the most sympathetic. It provides a route to citizenship for current college students and military enlistees who were brought to the U.S. as dependent children.

Because it’s a fairly popular provision of the immigration bill, the DREAM Act has served both as the linchpin to hold together the diverse array of enforcement enhancements and visa expansions that collectively comprise “comprehensive immigration.” It also serves as the last and best hope to give undocumented immigrants, and by extension, the majority of the Hispanic voting community, some sort of victory to hang their hat on.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, Roman Catholic Archbishop of the Los Angeles Diocese has recently retired. He is planning to visit our universities to reach out to the Hispanic or Latino young adults. He encourages us to focus on the positives and reach out to our immigrant Hispanic or Latino neighbors and their children. Information posted on January 16, 2011 from his blog indicates what is needed to improve relationships with the immigrant peoples:  

Over the years immigrant peoples have become very dear to me, and Jesus continues to call me to walk with them on their journey. I intend to spend the coming months and years walking in solidarity with the 11,000,000 immigrants who have come to the United States to improve their own lives and the life of our country and to advocate on behalf of the silent millions.

For so many immigrants in the United States today, life is not easy. With the terrible downturn in the economy the past two years, millions of people have lost jobs in every field of employment. Many have had to give up their homes and to make deep sacrifices to keep their families going. So many voices blame immigrant peoples for our economic woes. This is unjust and flies in the face of the facts.

Some 11,000,000 of our immigrant brothers and sisters are misunderstood and maligned. Without legal documents, their livelihoods and their very lives are at risk. They live in the shadows of our society. They are easy targets of blame for everything that has gone wrong, and is going wrong, with our country. But a little historical perspective sheds light on our current situation and gives hope for the future, helping us to see immigrants not as “those people,” but as brothers and sisters living in our communities with the same longings and aspirations as all Americans.

If we would refresh our memories as a nation, we would see that the presence of immigrants — with or without legal documents — never a cause of concern when the unemployment rate is low and our economy is sound and expanding. For example, in December 2000 the nation’s unemployment rate was 3.9%. Those were the heady years of the technology and construction booms, and we needed everyone available to fill the jobs. But after the financial and housing collapse of early 2008, the unemployment rate has grown to 9.8% in December 2010. As the economy improves, gradually, the need for workers will also increase.

I am encouraged by the prospects of helping these silent millions in our midst. A review of major national polls since 2007 shows the reason for my optimism, the majority of people polled believe our borders need to be made more secure and  illegal immigration needs to be controlled. But the same polls reveal a majority of people polled [63% in one poll, 81% in another] are open to a structured path to earned citizenship for those who are here in our country without papers but who pass background checks, pay fines, and have jobs.

These high percentages tell me that our Catholic Gospel values and the American spirit are still alive among us. I suspect that many anti-immigrant feelings and sentiments arise from frustration with the seeming inability, or the unwillingness, to fix our broken immigration system.

I would like to focus on the positives and encourage all of us to get to know our immigrant neighbors more personally. We will discover their core values are the same as ours, and that they are here to help enrich, not diminish, our fine country. Once we put a human face on an immigrant, the stereotypes and across-the-board characterizations begin to dissolve.

When the disciples ask the King, “When did I see you a stranger and welcome you?” Jesus responds: “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matt. 25:38, 40). Let’s begin a deeper conversation among ourselves without the harsh accusatory rhetoric, which has so clouded this debate in recent years.

Across the country we have so many immigrants who are invisible and strangers. I have great hope in working with our Catholic people at the parish level in order to understand Jesus’ invitation “to welcome the strangers in our midst.”

I feel we need to engage our Catholic business and professional leaders, our Catholic colleges and universities, our national Catholic organizations to provide assistance to our immigrant children and their families as they struggle to find their rightful place. We need to help them become active participants in our communities, working jobs and paying taxes, and giving their very best for our country.

As I move forward to the next stage of my journey in faith, I ask you join me in prayer and mutual support for these people.

Unfortunately with the passing of the Arizona Senate Bill 1070, three hundred and fifty thousand Hispanics or Latinos have left Arizona in order to prevent racial profiling, abuse and the separation of families.

Many Arizona’s citizens support Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his vicious behavior towards the Hispanic or Latino detainees. He promotes himself as America's toughest sheriff and is well known for his outspoken stance against illegal immigration. He has become a flash point for controversy surrounding Arizona's SB1070 Anti-Illegal Immigration Act.

He has been the subject of FBI United States Department of Justice and Federal Grand Jury investigations for civil rights violations and abuse of power, and is the defendant in a federal class-action suit for racial profiling. He has become controversial for aggressive publicity-seeking retaliation against political enemies, abuse of power, civil rights violations, and financial mismanagement. The only saving grace is his popularity has waned since 2007. Unfortunately not enough has been done to bring about fair and just treatment.

It will be up to the Hispanic or Latino population to bring about change. They no longer can move from state to state in order to avoid racial profiling and discrimination. Many states, like Texas, Georgia, Alabama and Pennsylvania are now adopting even worst legislation than Arizona Senate Bill 1070.

It was not so long ago the blacks fought as one for equality. This can only be accomplished if Hispanics or Latinos do the same.

To create change they will need to unite with Solidarity USA.  From there they will need to register to vote. Followed by, the election of qualified Hispanic or Latino government representatives who are willing to take Immigration Reform to Washington, DC.

Few realize the necessity for meaningful and comprehensive immigration reform. Without it there will be an economic disaster confronting the agriculture industry in our country if it is not passed and implemented soon. Many other U.S. industries are faced with the same problems because the orderly supply of workers is not in harmony with the demands for workers.

Time is a motivating factor behind this uphill battle of discrimination. According to the latest United State 2010 Census, the Hispanics or Latinos are the fastest growing population in America. Like the black population, they too will win equality.