Immigrant Bashing For Colonial Control
by Manuel Garcia, Jr.
www.dissidentvoice.org
June 6, 2006
Do recent immigrants from Latin America diminish the economic advancement of other Americans, in particular black
Americans?
“The reaction to foreign immigrants, as also to internal migration, comes partly from the belief or, in any case, the assertion
that the newcomers are taking jobs that properly belong to established workers already in residence. That many of the
immigrants, if not most, take employment for which the resident workers are not available or that they no longer seek goes
unmentioned. A further, much cultivated negative reaction is ethnic and social -- the newly arrived are thought to bring a
different and presumptively defective racial, religious, familial, hygienic or civic culture to the established community.”
--John Kenneth Galbraith, The Good Society, 1996
A very clear statement of this argument is given by Brother Pruitt, Chairman of the Committee for African-American
Reparations, in Los Angeles, California, reproduced here in full:
On Wednesday, May 31, 2006, "Bro. Pruitt" <AfrikaSpirit@aol.com> wrote:
Greetings,
African-Americans have been injured, excluded and held back since coming to America, so now they have greater
expectations and desires to achieve equality than ever before. Groups who have not been in this country as long as blacks or
have not contributed to the growth of this nation as blacks have are given access to certain rights and privileges that
guarantee them entry into institutions and services that enable persons and groups to progress and become equal. It is a
crying shame to see the descendants of slaves denied entry and find themselves left out of sharing in this vast structure and
fortune that came about from profits of slavery, which materialized in the foundation and infrastructure of this nation. The
Civil Rights Movement was based on a struggle for blacks to overcome constraints and obstacles in society that prevented
them from reaching equality.
Though blacks have made marginal progress since that era, they are now losing ground they gained. African-American
workers, educators and students should not feel uncomfortable when their peers speak Spanish. If Spanish-speaking people
want to come to America they should speak English, just as other minority groups do. African-Americans should not sit by and
watch their brethren in certain fields be forced to learn Spanish because Spanish-speaking people are not forced to learn
Swahili. That is a true encroachment on the rights of black people, and as a proud black man it pisses me off to know this is
exactly what is happening. Those in politics have got to stop this madness and make those Spanish-speaking people know that
it is their responsibility to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and learn to speak English if they want to stay in America,
and learn to respect what blacks, whites and others have come to accept as a melting pot. This means that there is nothing
wrong with being proud of your heritage, but you must learn the ways that people of this country have become accustomed
to, to keep the social fabric of this nation intact.
When Spanish-speaking people began this mass migration into Los Angeles thirty years ago, they were just as nice and
cooperative as they could be. They went out of their way to learn how blacks made it in a society where they are the
underclassmen and underachievers ... they learned the skills and trades of blacks, and they copied them in social activities.
Now that Spanish-speaking people have numbers, they are using race-based tactics to give those who speak Spanish
advantages over others, and they are applying these unfair means to overload the system in competition for programs and
services. They have become very disrespectful in the communities, schools, and prisons, and they are a threat to blacks in
terms of employment, housing, health care, safety, business and education because they are trying to get citizenship for 12
million illegal aliens.
It does not matter what anyone says ... the statistics are there. Spanish-speaking people are receiving free health care that
has been denied to blacks for generations, and they have invaded communities, jobs, schools and public programs that have
historical significance in housing and helping blacks. If the government does not want to provide enough resources to meet
the needs of both groups, blacks had better come together and demand Reparations to ensure their piece of the pie, because
the climate in America is leaning towards the 'new Negroes'.
African-Americans should look at this immigration issue in terms of others getting resources and concessions that they should
have received long ago. Blacks have never been compensated for unpaid slave labor, psychological abuse caused by suffering
from displacement, lynchings and segregation, and the powers that be broke promises that were given to them in social,
political and legal actions to assist them in life after slavery. Blacks should demand the immediate production of an
African-American Reparations Package that will guarantee them land, resources and technology to meet the needs of their
people to improve Integration, establish Repatriation and secure Separation. If we blacks do not stand up to fight for what
is rightfully ours, we will recede to a lower status in image and standing in this nation, and around the world.
I know this is heavy information, but if you read my home page thoroughly, you will understand this position for
African-Americans: http://hometown.aol.com/blk2day/myhomepage/index.html.
In loving memory of our ancestors, Bro. Pruitt, Chairman, Committee for African-American Reparations (CAAR) 6614 South
Western Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90047
[letter of 31 May 2006, distributed by John Wilmerding, CERJ@igc.org]
I do not think it is possible to change the type of thinking expressed by Brother Pruitt; it represents a justifiable frustration
within a limited conceptual framework.
In framing a response I will use the word "native". If this makes you cringe, good, I want you to think about why this is so.
Colonial administration always relies on creating dissension between subjugated "native" tribes and populations. The
fundamental white-power core of the American ruling class manages the nation in the colonial style. It sees itself as a small
elite of elevated race (with a sprinkling of approved and tested tokens) that must control a vast, lower-class population.
Setting the natives against each other in petty jealousies helps to fragment any opposition to their true masters.
The "carrot" always offered to subjugated natives is the chance to "sit at the right hand of the master, at his table." This is
an avenue of advancement for a select few -- the Clarence Thomases, the Alberto Gonzalezes -- to implement the rule of the
elite to the detriment of their own tribes, but for personal gain. Such people have been termed the "comprador" class in the
literature of colonial administration. These are the "native bosses" who buy the labor needed for elite projects (e.g., native
troops and native police), and keep current on doings in the tribes, to ensure the elite can quell independent thinking should
it threaten to arise (e.g., weed out opposition leaders). They also man the facade of "diversity" and "equal opportunity"
which all colonial administrations find useful for public relations. See the movie "Burn" by Pontecorvo (1970, starring Marlon
Brando).
What can frustrate many natives is that the comprador option is just a cynical ploy, not an indication of real avenues of
opportunity. So it is only open to a few, and these must be both highly capable and thoroughly compromised. Thus there can
be much frustration among natives who are taken in by the ploy yet unable to actualize the false promises. Many want to "sit
at the table" and believe themselves worthy, either on the basis of their own talents and achievements or by association with
a reliably exploitable tribe ("we deserve it").
Some, like Malcolm X, come to realize that there will NEVER be a time when their kind will be welcomed "at the table." I
could say "at the table of the (Great White) Father" to add the religious connection generally implied by the hierarchical
concept enshrined in Judeo-Christian religions; this concept is melded to a racial hierarchical concept. Mark Twain was one clear voice about this racist reality of American religious conceptions. But, I digress.
Accueil 
