Based on Joe Biden’s statements and voting record in the last 10 years, his policy on immigration while can seem immigrant-friendly and “Open-Border” type can be summarized in three simple words: “Maintain Cheap Labor”. He seems to maintain a position that is conducive to the creation of a low-end immigrant labor class that serves the needs of frugal exploitive employers. We have to examine his positions both on skilled workers and unskilled workers to arrive at that conclusion.
H1-B visas are provided for skilled educated workers. Joe’s stated that H1-B visas should be provided only for jobs that American’s can’t do and has voted “No” on visas for skilled workers. The key here is if he believes in “can’t do” or “won’t do”. It would be hard to take any job and argue that Americans can’t do it and stay true to the “Yes We Can” promo. So, it’s more likely that he means jobs American’s won’t do which are low-end jobs. Having a policy of immigration that supports only low end jobs would certainly be for the benefit of employers eager to exploit foreign workers.
Joe opposes granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. Why would a low end worker who’s “bussed” to and from work need a driver’s license? Joe opposes requiring English as the national language. Not providing the tools that this section of the populous could use to better themselves keeps them indentured to their current job and status. Allowing these immigrants to have identification and the knowledge of the English language would probably enable them to get an education or start a small business and grow out of this cheap labor force and that Joe doesn’t seem to want.
Joe has stated that it is impractical to deport 14 million illegal immigrants. Impractical! Impractical! Impractical is the word that Joe chose to use. Not immoral, not tragic, not un-American but “impractical”. Again this goes to show that he simply values these immigrants as low-end resources for their mighty employers and it would be too expensive to bus these resources out of the country and find costlier native-borns to take their positions. Ask yourself this question: Who would choose the word impractical? Someone who’s after practical things. A cheap labor-force is very practical.
He’s voted for the border fence but has stated that it is to tackle drug trafficking, not that it would stop illegal migration into the country which is consistent with his policy of maintaining cheap labor.
Joe’s voted yes on continuing federal funds for sanctuary cities, no on limiting welfare for immigrants, yes on allowing more foreign workers for farm work, yes on allowing illegal immigrants to participate in social security by way of receiving benefits, yes on comprehensive immigration reform that legalized illegal immigrants by providing them with a “Z” visa where what they could do was limited.
Let’s analyze this voting record. Sanctuary cities are not needed for skilled immigrants as they are legal in the first place. Sanctuary cities are needed to protect the low end labor force. Skilled immigrants are not after welfare either nor depend on social security benefits though they pay into it. While voting no on skilled and H1-B visas, Joe consistently votes yes for low-end immigrant farm workers. Providing welfare and allowing illegal immigrants to participate in social security is simply because Joe realizes that the low-end needs the support of the tax payer so that wages can continue to be low and tax-payer subsidized employment can be made available to greedy employers who need them.
Looking at his protectionist policies for the natural-born American labor force, his anti-skilled immigration stand and open border approach for unskilled low-end immigrants makes it clear that he wants natural born Americans to prosper and attain great heights while the jobs they leave behind should be handled by temporary low-end guest workers creating a low class society of foreign immigrant workers. He wants to see the lower stratum of society be exclusively foreign born. If I’m mistaken, then Joe should make his position clear.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Friendly Racism
I wrote this piece a while ago and thought I would go ahead and publish it after Barack Obama's speech today.
The discussion of racism has to start again. Not so much for the old atrocities or today's discrimination for one can argue that one must be let go off and the the other is no longer blatant. The discussion must be had to begin the process of elimination of a much more subtle kind of racism - racism with a small "r" if you will. It is not the racism of treatment but of feeling. As long as a White person feels that they may offend some Black person by saying something even minor, as long as a Black person feels that they were asked for more documentation to take a test drive because they were black, there is racism. Human beings are not like video cameras that capture exactly what's out there. What's out there does not matter most of the time. What matters is what's in here, buried deep in your heart.
So this is what I wrote:
"I hate to call myself anything but American, but to illustrate a point I'll offend myself by hyphenating me for a little while and calling me "Indian-American". Well now then I am special. That's how this country of mine makes me feel everyday. I would still like to hope that a majority of the people who treat me differently do so not with malice but out of ignorance. That is consolation to a degree but some days I think, can I not expect, given the opportunity that this country has for people to know about me, where I come from and more importantly what I aspire to be, to not treat me special? Is this ignorance justified?
So who are these ignorant racists I keep running into? The store clerk who asks me to repeat my question due to his unshakable belief that he’s got to struggle to understand me? The insurance agent I've been talking to over the phone for several years, talking slowly to me in person as suddenly my look convinces him that I may not understand what he's saying? The nice people at church who welcome me to "their" culture despite the fact that that's the only culture I've known since birth? The people who make it a point to tell me there's meat in what I am eating? The people at work who seem to think I have two countries where I can search for jobs in case of a layoff? The people who simply wonder why I won't retire in my "own" country? Yes, these are the friendly racists to whom I feel like screaming, "I am in my country idiots. Stop handling me with care."
The recent George “Macaca” Allen episode is such a classic example of the assumptions I talk about. An Indian-American was welcomed to America!! I don’t know George and am not going to judge him except to say that he did make an assumption. On the other hand, I am not sure why Webb sees it necessary to repeatedly point out that Siddart stayed at a family member’s house. Should Siddart feel grateful that he’s been accepted!!
It is not just White people who fall into this category of ignorant friendly racists that I am supposed to forgive. People of my "national origin" - to use a term that no one can clearly define - expect me to be "them". I get invited to "festivals" that I have never celebrated in my life but my co-national-originees seem to think I would want to anyway. These people, who expect me to be somewhere, do something; vote in one way, wave one flag or the other, are also an increasing and annoying makeup of the friendly ignorant racists I tolerate each day.
I ignore the deliberate caustic racists who just won’t change but am saddened by the unbeknownst racism that exists in many a decent, fair person’s heart. I believe that people do understand that others who look different want the same good things in life. To these people, I say it is far better to make mistakes due to ignorance of specific customs than to follow an assumption that some people are different and continuously exhibit to them that they are. The commonness of where we are going is more important to me than the differences of where we came from. So let’s simply bond on that, stop the unintended insult and for heaven’s sake, let me eat my pork."
The discussion of racism has to start again. Not so much for the old atrocities or today's discrimination for one can argue that one must be let go off and the the other is no longer blatant. The discussion must be had to begin the process of elimination of a much more subtle kind of racism - racism with a small "r" if you will. It is not the racism of treatment but of feeling. As long as a White person feels that they may offend some Black person by saying something even minor, as long as a Black person feels that they were asked for more documentation to take a test drive because they were black, there is racism. Human beings are not like video cameras that capture exactly what's out there. What's out there does not matter most of the time. What matters is what's in here, buried deep in your heart.
So this is what I wrote:
"I hate to call myself anything but American, but to illustrate a point I'll offend myself by hyphenating me for a little while and calling me "Indian-American". Well now then I am special. That's how this country of mine makes me feel everyday. I would still like to hope that a majority of the people who treat me differently do so not with malice but out of ignorance. That is consolation to a degree but some days I think, can I not expect, given the opportunity that this country has for people to know about me, where I come from and more importantly what I aspire to be, to not treat me special? Is this ignorance justified?
So who are these ignorant racists I keep running into? The store clerk who asks me to repeat my question due to his unshakable belief that he’s got to struggle to understand me? The insurance agent I've been talking to over the phone for several years, talking slowly to me in person as suddenly my look convinces him that I may not understand what he's saying? The nice people at church who welcome me to "their" culture despite the fact that that's the only culture I've known since birth? The people who make it a point to tell me there's meat in what I am eating? The people at work who seem to think I have two countries where I can search for jobs in case of a layoff? The people who simply wonder why I won't retire in my "own" country? Yes, these are the friendly racists to whom I feel like screaming, "I am in my country idiots. Stop handling me with care."
The recent George “Macaca” Allen episode is such a classic example of the assumptions I talk about. An Indian-American was welcomed to America!! I don’t know George and am not going to judge him except to say that he did make an assumption. On the other hand, I am not sure why Webb sees it necessary to repeatedly point out that Siddart stayed at a family member’s house. Should Siddart feel grateful that he’s been accepted!!
It is not just White people who fall into this category of ignorant friendly racists that I am supposed to forgive. People of my "national origin" - to use a term that no one can clearly define - expect me to be "them". I get invited to "festivals" that I have never celebrated in my life but my co-national-originees seem to think I would want to anyway. These people, who expect me to be somewhere, do something; vote in one way, wave one flag or the other, are also an increasing and annoying makeup of the friendly ignorant racists I tolerate each day.
I ignore the deliberate caustic racists who just won’t change but am saddened by the unbeknownst racism that exists in many a decent, fair person’s heart. I believe that people do understand that others who look different want the same good things in life. To these people, I say it is far better to make mistakes due to ignorance of specific customs than to follow an assumption that some people are different and continuously exhibit to them that they are. The commonness of where we are going is more important to me than the differences of where we came from. So let’s simply bond on that, stop the unintended insult and for heaven’s sake, let me eat my pork."
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