Anybody who is acquainted in even the smallest part with anti-immigration rhetoric, knows that littering and pollution are actually both reasons that we are supposed to be anti-immigration. That is, when immigrants ’sneak’ over the boarder, they leave trash in the desert, thus increasing pollution, garbage that needs to be cleaned up, etc.

So it was interesting to me to see this series about the South Pole over at Dark Roasted Blend, in which ghost towns and other abandoned ‘trash’ are documented and discussed. Some of the ‘trash’ includes massive rotting whaling ships, entire towns including churches and cemeteries, airplanes and abandoned (or lost) base camps of travelers.

Some of the towns/base camps are actually considered tourist attractions now and accept money to help with preservation costs. It really made me consider–why is the ‘trash’ of a certain group of people (who happen to be colonizers looking to basically harness the land for money or ‘quick gold’) considered tourist attractions worthy of preserving–and the ‘trash’ of others (namely brown and poor) considered a good enough reason to use militaristic means to prevent those people from traveling?

Is there a reason for this discrepancy that makes sense?