Though I cannot walk, I stand beside you, hopefully as a friend, if not, then as an ally, if not then I still stand because I cannot stand for the injustice we are seeing today.

I guess my lesbian sisters and gay brothers are too busy with the possibility of passing a federal hate crimes bill. That's what all the "liberals" seems to be too busy talking about to really think and learn about what happened on May 1st. (With the infamous TRex leading the charge on Firedoglake; don't even get me started.) None of them noticing that the greater hate crime is being committed against the person who washes their dishes after they've had a rollicking good time at their "Drinking Liberally" gathering where the lone person of color showed up and either drank alone, or got too much of the wrong kind of attention; either way, leaving with the feeling that what was going on wasn't for her or him.

Hey? Have we had any more lunches with Brother Bill? I distinctly remember there being promised more lunches where people of color could be part of the group that was eating and hobnobbing with the stars instead of serving the food and cleaning up afterwards. Remember that promise? That unfulfilled promise? The one that was going to make all the hurt go away, because even though they denied anything untoward happened, they did stomp their feet and say that fine, there would be plenty more lunches and people of color would be invited to *those* lunches and that would make everything all better and it was *our* fault for being jealous and not patient enough and being bad writers and not acknowledging our betters who got to go to the first lunch and can't we just learn to wait in line and be okay with getting to go to the next lunch.

Did that lunch ever happen?

It gets clearer and clearer every day that white liberals are not our allies. Now, I'm white, why am I saying "our"? I'm not claiming color, but I know full well what it's like to be on the other side of these people. I know that they will *never* get it. They are working towards a completely different goal than we are.

It's time for a whole new leadership. The set that just anointed themselves leaders and "gate crashers" has proven time and time again to be corrupt and chasing after their own personal glory. I think it's fair to say that they will be welcomed to the new movement as supporters, but no, they don't get to be on television except as a face in the crowd. They have abused their chance. There's no great shame in that, because that's what most people would do. It's time for those who have proven their ability to stand firm in the face of temptation and to stick to their principles to be supported and followed.

Nezua, you've been through the trial of fire and you've come out all the stronger for it. You're not the only one and I'll name names if I have to but I don't think I have to because we all know who. And we all know who has failed not only themselves but the rest of us.

To those who have failed, you fell into the most simple and deadly of traps, you became what you resisted. You no longer have the moral authority to claim to lead anyone. You're bright and smart, but you're ignorant. The new leaders will show the way and you'll learn to serve the people instead of yourselves.

This is where it begins.

Illegal...let me count the ways....

If the people that pick, ship, prepare and serve you the food are illegal, the your food is illegal....

If the people that clean your lawns and the inside of your house are illegal, the your home is illegal....

If you vote for policies that exploit your southern neighbors just so you can a few bucks off at the local Walmart(tm) then your vote is illegal....

If living in a land you have taken from others by force of arms and trickery is illega, then YOU ARE AN ILLEGAL!

That... is quite the apt comparison. Wow. I don't know that I would have ever thought about it, but it's exactly right. The othering, the value judgment, the utter contempt and violence that comes through with the term... that's it exactly.

My only quibble is a purely semantic one. While there are no true* conjugations of "nigger" that are neutral in the English language, there are quite a number of uses for the term "illegal" which are valid, which makes it extremely difficult to simply ban the term outright. The thing, of course, is that illegal things are acts.** Not people.

Reducing a person to an act of theirs, especially one so... irrelevant to one's personhood... is trivial, at best, and disgusting at worst. That is, of course, the point.

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* That is, as the "oh but I'm not being racist" etymological crowd pointed out, "niggardly" and similar words do actually have distinct etymological roots, even if they aree often used merely to get away with saying something that sounds the same as the word the bigots want to use.

** Or possibly objects, but even that depends on the aspect of the object's existence rendering it illegal; hence "illegal firearms" are in themselves illegal for their existence, while "illegal oranges" are only illegal insofar as they were improperly transported. To use the modifier properly, one would generally refer to "illegally imported oranges" or the like.

The "n-word" it denotes to stupidity and ignorance; it linked the racist expected/assumed character of the person's actions with an immutable quality they couldn't change. It connotes to anyone with identifiably African features, though the application of the connotative association has sort of made it equal opportunity. You can say a lot of the politics surrounding who can say the "n-word" and why has to do with shifting connotative and denotative meanings over time.

I can go on a tangent about "n-word" politics forever, but it's not really relevant. The fundamental association is a negative state of being or acting with an immutable characteristic -- both "illegal" and "alien" are dehumanizing. Though you can use it to modify other actions or objects, as you say, it has little to no designations with an illegal being or an illegal person until now. It's taken form; it's being warped and desensitized with each ICE raid, with each destroyed May Day rally -- it's not going to be long before any citizen who opposes current policy or law becomes "illegal." And with people's warped sentiments towards actual criminals -- how they should be treated, what rights they have -- this system might as well be welded into steel.

Rafael, I like that little tree you identified; makes me wish I had time to map out a little illegal tree. Accessories before the fact, accessories after the fact, contraband... But hey, this use of undocumented workers for shit-pay jobs is largely white collar crime; unless we know it's Martha Stewart behind it all, we aren't really going to put anyone in jail for it. At least not until we're sure the prisoner can buy his way into a little room away from the real criminals and illegals. Two different things to have performed a crime and to be a walking transgression.

yes, i did mean more the dehumanizing aspect. and i know i am introducing fire with the word, possibilities of volatilities distracting, and that there is no perfect corollary. but rather than get too detoured in that, i hope you can see the horrible part of what is done with calling people ALIENZ and such. that is really what i meant to highlight.

thank you DI. you touch here on the entire "WHITEPROGRESSIVE" thing i got irked about enough to write that post Definition of Terms. I think we have to accept that until we fight for human rights equally applied to all, we can't expect anything to get better, and we dont really have the right to single only ourselves out for rights. Seems simple. Like you, I am not interested in fighting for the status quo that props up one privileged class and type, but am for giving all people the power and autonomy and respect and chances that we all feel we should have. whoever wants to be on board with that is cool with me. but first and foremost, in this time, i will lend my hand to this immigrant issue. wherever i am able to.

There's a good piece on Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/03/1357234

I dunno if this is stupid or not-
but I keep thinking about Spartacus, (which ok, may be bad idea because he lost in the end) but when the army was defeated the Romans came and asked for Spartacus to stand up so they could arrest and execute him. All of them stood up, the cry spread, men and women- I am Spartacus-(as spoofed in 'Life of Brian') but it really happened, not just in the moovees. The Romans crucified thousands (ok again, a bad ending). But it's the story of solidarity that spoke up to me. I'm just trying to say fuck anyone who thinks this is not part of a cause of justice, equality and human rights. This was state forces attacking a powerless group, always wrong, always to be fought against. Looked a lot like an overseer action.
So in the same way they all stood up to the bastards, -I am illegal- you wanna hate people? add me to the list.

Not sure if you're speaking to magniloquence, me, or both of us, but I see. I think it's a good comparison. They're both culturally-perverted adjectives-turned-nouns intended to degrade people. Both words stand on people's backs -- that's what we need to fight. We need to end the culture that creates these back breaking and humanity destroying designations.

And if you take your words and your plan to the border, send a sign so other bloggers can link up with you. You don't have to take the trip alone.

The term "illegal immigrant" reminds me of one of those things people put over the phone to disguise their voices when they want to say something but they don't want anyone to know who is saying it.

Only in this case, they don't want anyone to know what they are saying. Because "illegal immigrant", of course, is now synonymous with "Mexican". And points south, but that doesn't much matter because to most USans all Latin@s are Mexican. And all people of Mexican descent in the US are "illegal immigrants" until proven otherwise.

I was thinking today about language and framing and false flags, or possibly trial balloons. In California there is never a shortage of people to hate because we are a destination for any number of immigrant groups. Thinking back on some of the stories in the media... and it is the media that controls a lot of this, as we know... a few years ago here there was what seemed a sort of um... round robin effect.

There'd be story after story, over weeks or months about Russian and/or Eastern European immigrant enclaves, many of whom were not documented... more concentration on the Russian ones tho because they were sexier, having a mafia and all. Then those stories stopped... quite abruptly.

Then there were the stories about Hmongs and other Asians, quite frequently undocumented and again sexy because while lacking a mafia, they had triads!. So, every day there were stories relating to that, and kidnappings and drugs and and and... then those stopped too. Abruptly.

Of course we all know about anti-Muslim hate - which is actually anti-Arab hate, for the most part - but that is another one where a basically neutral appellation (anyone can become a Muslim) is used as replacement for a specific people.

Not to mention the undocumented Irish who were sometimes in the news (probably more so back East), especially around the times when the IRA was most active... but that was more with a wink and a nod than anything else, if memory serves.

I think the first two stories... the Russians and the Hmongs, and others were sort of trial hate balloon thingies. And I think they faded away a bit because they were rarely to never mentioned without the qualifiers of "Russian", "Latvian", "Hmong", "Korean" and so on... far too close, for some, to outright racism. It's okay to hate the amorphous "illegal immigrant" or "Muslim", though, even if you do mean "Mexican" or "Arab" because you never have to say that's what you mean.

And you know, I was following my own thoughts, trying to tease out where in the heck I was going with them - I quite agree on the dehumanization aspect, obviously, but now that I've gotten to this point - while I understand where the commenter was going with the N word and I am not offended or anything by his use or the rest of your post how it relates to it, I don't think it's a good analogy in one major way; people who use the "N word" are saying what they mean, and (many, not all of) the people using "illegal immigrant" are attempting to hide what they mean. I don't know how effective the comparison is.

(I have more blather! We'll see how far I can go before the comment system says "no more!")

I know part of the strategy has been to change the use of the term "illegal immigrant" to "undocumented worker" and probably other phrases as well... but I don't think those are or will be effective, because they are still faceless. It's still okay to hate "undocumented workers". It's more difficult to (publicly) hate an "undocumented Mexican". Or "undocumented Honduran". Or... etc. I don't know how to fix this language, or if it is even fixable.

And I still don't know where I was going with all this, sigh. It'll come to me, though.

I totally got the WHITEPROGRESSIVE thing from reading your definitions page, of course. :)

Every blogger has their priorities and it is only a choice to respect them or go somewhere else and I am not going anywhere.

I'm glad to hear that, DI.

RIght on, RIckB. thank you for that comment, man.

The term "illegal immigrant" reminds me of one of those things people put over the phone to disguise their voices when they want to say something but they don't want anyone to know who is saying it.

Only in this case, they don't want anyone to know what they are saying.

oh man yeah. that's beautiful. es la verdad.

Though I cannot walk, I stand beside you, hopefully as a friend, if not, then as an ally, if not then I still stand because I cannot stand for the injustice we are seeing today.

thank you for this.

jeje...funny but dead-on, rafa.

it is a very special application. "Illegal" changes from adj to noun.

they are Illegals.

it becomes a noun previously undefined. "Illegals." it doesn't even mean "illegal alien" anymore, hell, in terms of legal words as they pertain to naturalization, "alien" doesn't even mean what it used to. it means one thing, only one grain remains from that word:

Not of worth.

Oh yes, I know. It's a total shift in usage, to connote that... difference, that less-than-ness.

I meant my quibble less about the literal wording and more about the arguments that are often marshalled. Because, as Nanette points out, it is a term people use when they're trying to hide their hate. "But they are illegal aliens! I'm just being technical." And when you point out how this usage differs - how reducing a person to their immigration status, to one tiny attribute which may or may not be any of their fault is a very different thing from simply naming that attribute - when you point this out, then they accuse you of being a 'grammar nazi.'

It's brilliant, in its simplicity - our long ingrained online annoyance with those who will ignore the entirety of an argument merely to point out spelling or punctuation mistakes* is turned neatly on its head. People distrust semantic arguments, and disdain any discussion of how their words might hurt. As long as they avoid the most blatant of slurs... as long as they pretend colorblindness and basic civility ("I'm not talking about all Mexicans! Only the evil evil ones that come here illegally and break our laws. You know, the bad ones.")... as long as this is true, they can pull the thick veil of privilege and politeness down to hide their cruelty.

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* And analogous in-person annoyance with those who pretend that if you don't sound like a white Californian speaking the Queen's English (don't even ask me how those two things got to be synonymous) that you must be ghetto or country or dumb... and use that presumption to undermine any actual content you might have.

I don't have a lot to add or say about the semantics, but my experience as a white person who grew up in an ultra-conservative family it Texas says that you have a point Nezua. Growing up I lived with the blatant racism of the south focused almost exclusively on African Americans. In the last couple of years, when I visit my family down there, I've noticed that I don't hear so much about that any more (I'm not saying its gone away - just not hearing about it regularly). What I am hearing regularly are incredibly racist things about Mexicans. Last time I was with them I had my heart broken. Two of my nieces, who I love dearly, tried very hard to start an argument with me about it all, claiming things like how wrong it was to go to the drive-through at McDondalds and have the worker not be able to speak English. I didn't know what to do, they kept saying such amazingly awful things, but I really didn't want to argue with them - they just kept baiting me. It was hard to see these children I love being taught to hate and unfortunately, I was at a loss for words.

NLinStPaul, thank you for your words here. I appreciate them.

At the same time, I hope next time you can muster the courage and heart to speak them to your family. And just as persistently as they bait you. Because you know, your words are very important in those situations.

If a room of people are potentially going to start hating on a group, just one or two people standing strong in that room can make the tone change, can make it clear that the hate and ignorance is not going to rule. If nobody speaks up...that anger can grow and turn into a lynch mob. It may anyway, but those people who dare to speak up in that moment may stop it. If they don't, they'll never know for sure except that they didn't try. I'm not here to guilt you. But this is true. And you have a better chance of making an impression than a random person, if it is your family.

I hear you Nezua and thank you. And I can still talk to them about it - its not too late. At the moment, they were just looking for a fight, and I knew that was not the way to engage them. At least they knew what they were saying would not sit well with me and they were strong enough to want to engage me about it. I'm still looking for a way that I can tap into their natural compassionate hearts rather than through angry words that just increase the distance. My overall goal, I guess, is to help them trust their natural instincts for the good, and feed their desire to question the whole package of the cult mentality they have been taught. That's how I "got out" and was able to begin the healing process for myself.

Hope this makes sense. Writing that paragraph helped me to think more clearly about it all. But I'm certainly open to challenges and suggestions. I know the battle is important, its just that especially when we're talking about these children that I love, I'm more interested in positive change of the heart.

yes i understand it is wise to know how to pick a productive moment. of course. clearly, your judgment is sound. and i love your view on their heart. reading that, i know you will do well with this situation. and my heart thanks you, too. i had thought you meant you had given up trying to speak to them on it.

maybe think of a "tricky" parallel. the Othering of humans only happens when we cannot identify with them. just as in the movies, a law officer will try to get a hostage-holder to humanly identify his potential victim so he has a harder time killing his hostage (using the hostage's name a lot, inserting life details about them in the conversation), perhaps you can "trick" the kids into realizing how we all share the same feelings, wants, rights. set up a situation where they understand something but want it explained to them. but why shouldn't they know it already? (Language metaphor, not knowing English; English as Unknown fact in this admittedly poor metaphor, think of your own no doubt) why should you cater to their understanding? get them to argue for the Mexicans without knowing it, is what i mean. then point out they have argued for the rights of the Mexicans. there is probably a better example, i'm winging it here, not editing.

or perhaps on the language thing you could attack the root of their logic. why is English expected to be known? because it was "here first"? so...because people who slaughtered all the indians were English speaking? i mean, is it because might wins out? why do we not need to know the Indians langauges? they were here first. Mexicans were "here" first. if it's "Here First" stuff, explain your lineage. and how you all came "here." (i don't know what it is, i'm assuming European but i could be wrong, of course!) unless your family is Native American or Mexican, it wasn't your people "here first," nor was it any English speakers. It was Nahuatl or Spanish or some other Indian tongue.

or historical: the treaty Mexico signed, giving up their land when America precipitated war (against Abraham Lincoln's will, but he was just a junior senator at the time, Polk was the plotting invader) guaranteed Spanish language rights. but the US congress decided to totally edit the treaty and ratified a version Mexico never approved. they reneged on the treaty Mexico thought it was signing. Crooked war, crooked treaty, and yet the oppression continues in politicians, in average people, and even in children today despising Mexicans for not speaking the conqueror's tongue.

or on the educational/knowledge/smarter tip: why should Americans not know Spanish? do you? do your kids? Look at America, bordering a Spanish Speaking country. why do we not ALL know spanish? Why do swedes and japanese people and so many other nations know English? but we want to stand behind an arrogant monolingual argument that can only be based on ethnocentrism and elitism. every other developed nation learning English from when they are small, along with their own tongue. and our own children's brains kept lazy? appeal to their ego and sense of pride. are other children smarter than american children?

on the fun tip: wouldn't it be great to know that language? like a code? you could be in on it. you could speak to your friends in different langauges. switching, depending who is around!

it sounds to me these kids have simply absorbed the dominant sociopolitical memes that keep the average american glued to their White Lens. and really, what kids like this need, and many kids today as well as adults, is real history. if they had a real grasp of the history of the continent, they would know how to think of Mexicans today. simple.

it's like Bob Marley said so succinctly:

If you know your history
then you will know where you're coming from
then you won't have to ask me
who the hell do I think I am

maybe you need more education on the topics to better convey the message? i do have some books linked here. maybe one or two would be helpful. you do have to be careful where you get your history of Mexico and Mexican/Chicano people, as much of the history when written by white Americans has a certain slant that only feeds the White Lens.

and thank you again for living consciously, making these efforts. they do matter, as you know, as you say yourself.

My southern roots still emerge occassionally, like when I want to say things like "bless your heart, Nezua." I appreciate all the suggestions more than you know - and also the fact that you care enough to lay them all out.

One of these two girls is 13 years old and a voracious reader. She calls me her "book aunt" because I always get her books as gifts. I think I'll go look for a good one to send her that might help her learn about this topic and then I could follow-up with her to talk about it.

And speaking of learning accurate history, another niece just participated in something called the "Cotton Palace" in Waco, Texas (a kind of rich folks cotillion extravaganza). Apparently they did a theatrical presentation of the history of Waco and my brother (the only other one who was able to escape the cult) said it was an all-white history. According to them, there were never any brown folks involved.

We have a lot of work to do!!!

ah! the Book Aunt! so yes, you definitely have a door into their hearts and minds! good idea. choose those books wisely, follow up...exciting! i hope it bears fruit, this great idea. it is really amazing what a little education can do in the right spot. entire careers have been formed from a child reading the right book at the right time. entire lives have switched around from as much.

yes, a lot of work. but enough of me and you and people like you, and the load is considerably lightened.

I'm not nearly as profound as your other commenters but I just wanted to say that I also agree with your comparison. As a Native American and Black woman, I refuse to go along with calling Latin@s illegal given the fact that the average person crossing the border is more closely related to the original inhabitants of this country than the white people here are. As far as I'm concerned, they have no right to use this term until they start accepting the fact that if "illegal immigrant" is a legitimate term, then it should be applied to them first and foremost.

Yeah, I agree with Nanette that the difference between the n-word and today's code language is that the latter is intended to cloak the former. But I definitely see what you're saying, Nez. All too true.

Bint's comment reminds me of this. Cheers.

As an old nigga and a new one, thank you

This was an excellent perspective
I am inspired by the deeper thinking
I am working for peace and justice for all
Thanks for the well conceived point and for sharing it
I am enlightening others to this perspective

"No Human is Illegal"
Peace From,
Joe Anybody