Agency and oppression is something that will remain prevalent in society most likely forever. In our nations history, the dominant white society often follows a pattern of oppressing non-whites in order to lift itself up and force others down. Early colonists exercised this practice by acting as agents over the Native Americans, Americans later would oppress blacks by enslaving them, and the cycle continues even today. As we have developed into a much more free and equal nation, these agents act with more subtlety, but the effect they can have on the oppressed today remains equally terrible. In the editorial section of the New York Times, a columnist points a bold finger towards Republicans describing their campaign against immigrants as oppressive as it embodies a, "hidden a streak of racialist extremism." Racism is still a prevalent issue in America today, as well as immigration; but the Republican party and the way it chooses to deal with these topics will not allow for any easy solution. As the Republican party looks back wondering why it lost the congressional race, they see that the large number of foreigners in America were the issue. The party still stubbornly does not recognize that its anti-immigration policy is the issue it must reconsider, but instead believes it has not, "been too hard on foreigners, but too soft."
The Republican party believes it needs to work harder to seal the border and revisit the idea of deporting illegal immigrants. We already learned, however, that deportation is not going to solve immigration issues any time soon.
This editorial describes recent evidence of how this party truly shows racism towards immigrants and foreigners. Republican mailings of songs titled "“Barack the Magic Negro” or “The Star Spanglish Banner” were all parodies blatantly expressing racism. Also, Peter Brimelow, a former editor for Forbes created a website by the name of Vdare.com, a site of extreme anti-immigration. Bill O'reilly and Fox news also referred to the views of pro-immigration "left wingers" as, "racially traitorous."
The actions, ideas, and reasoning the Republican party often takes towards the issue of immigration truly set us back in the strides we've made to become a country where all people are created equal. It makes no difference to slowly over time give blacks rights, let women vote, and so on if we are going to suddenly call our country "racially traitorous."
Hopefully, Republicans will see that their policy towards immigration can lead to racist acts. One week ago, in Long Island, new evidence was brought to attention regarding a few teenagers and a murderous attack they committed against an Ecuadorean immigrant. That crime was committed a year ago, but ever since then, more reports of racial attacks towards immigrants in the area have been brought to the police's attention. The editorial says these police, "have made a habit of ignoring a long and escalating trail of attacks against immigrant men, until the hatred rose up and spilled over one night, fatally."
I'm sure the Republican party never had any intention of creating violence towards immigrants, but hatred is formed nevertheless through their use of politics. I hope the party will soon realize the consequences of its actions and the racism it can potentially create in this country. Agency and oppression is still very real today as the American "tradition" lives on.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/opinion/01sun1.html
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