VivirLatino

The immigration debate and black America

14:36 H | Topics: Immigration - Race

Here we go again: more divisive rhetoric from the media, pitting black America against immigrants. The headline of the article referenced is not an accurate reflection of what is contained in the piece; the article actually has a lot more blacks standing up for immigrants than the opposite. This builds off of Mala's post from this morning, and is probably the tenth time we've talked about the black vs. Latino issue on VivirLatino.

As Congress tussles with immigration reform, many African-Americans worry that more undocumented workers would make it tougher to earn a good living -- and to close stubborn economic gaps between blacks and whites.

Newcomers make black progress harder -- they're "taking us back, us black people," said Wesley Crawford, who works at Source of Knowledge, a bookstore and gift shop in Newark. "It's a misconception that they're taking jobs we don't want. If you give people a good job, they will work."

The NAACP president disagrees:

"People are yielding to the temptation to pit black against brown," he said. "This has existed for years, but it's deceptive."

Deceptive and counter-productive. In this game of the strong and the weak, the "us" and the "them", the only thing that this does is make them stronger and us weaker.

Via / Newsday

Related

• Katie Couric Tries to Boost Sagging Ratings on the Backs of Immigrant Women (Tuesday, Apr 08 2008)
• Taxi! Do Drivers of Color Get Less Tips? (Thursday, Mar 27 2008)