Posted on 05/31/2007 6:11:36 AM PDT by radar101
first read the name “Carol Swain” while scanning a 2004 Boston Globe column by Cathy Young, who’d written about a panel discussion that took place around the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education – the Supreme Court case that outlawed government-mandated racial segregation in government schools.
Swain, a professor at Vanderbilt University Law School, talked about subcultural factors that impede the academic progress of black students, such as a lack of parental involvement in schools, the “acting white” phenomenon, and lowered standards and expectations. Quoting Swain, Young wrote that these factors “created a negative incentive structure for African-Americans who have either internalized societal messages about inferiority or have chosen an easier path of not exerting themselves too vigorously.”
While Swain probably wouldn’t describe herself as politically conservative, her ideas certainly are atypical of many liberals. She’s written about the negative effects of illegal immigration on low-income black Americans and the Congressional Black Caucus’s (CBC) stunning silence on the issue.
Because the CBC has “elected to organize as a racial caucus,” Swain wrote in a Washington Times op-ed, members have “placed upon themselves the obligation to represent the interests of the millions of black constituents who have faithfully and repeatedly sent them to Washington.”
Swain cites statistics that show the national unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in April 2007. For Hispanics, it was 5.4 percent. For blacks, 8.2 percent. For black men, the rate of unemployment was 9.7 percent.
Swain accused the race-centric, taxpayer-supported caucus of turning a blind eye on a mounting pile of data that reveals illegal immigration is harming low-income, low-skilled black Americans. In a new book of essays, Debating Immigration, Swain contends that lax enforcement of immigration law helps businesses hire wage-suppressing illegal aliens at the expense of citizens.
But the CBC couldn’t care less. The group hasn’t listed immigration reform as a legislative priority, according to Swain, and it mentioned illegal immigration in only one press release out of close to 100 on the web site. Instead of focusing on the well-being of constituents, the CBC is forming a black-brown coalition with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to “create a task force to study immigration issues and provide information about the impact of immigration reform on the black and Hispanic communities,” according to The Hill.
The CBC’s lower-income constituents don’t need a task force to “provide information” on illegal immigration’s “impact” on them. They live it. A national black-brown coalition is nothing more than an excuse to waste even more tax money studying the obvious. And it’s all for show, anyway. Hispanics are just as race-conscious as blacks, and they have no interest in forming a meaningful partnership with another racial minority.
Speaking of which, one government policy affected by the surge of illegal aliens is race preferences, purportedly put in place to make amends for slavery and Jim Crow. Hispanics are benefiting from this odious policy, and Swain scoffs at historical comparisons between Hispanics and blacks. “Most illegal immigrants have willingly left their homelands to seek their fortunes in a more prosperous nation. They were not brought in chains,” she said.
The battle between blacks and Hispanics for preferred minority group status is only beginning. But blacks don’t need to look to pencil-pushing politicians to “lead” them on this issue. All that is required is common sense and the will to demand that elected officials support immigration law enforcement and oppose any bill that grants the blessing of American citizenship on people who have no regard for this country’s laws.
La Shawn Barber is a freelance writer and Townhall.com book reviewer who blogs at www.lashawnbarber.com.
Soooo.... the folks who are “doing the jobs Americans don’t want to do” are threatening the well-being of the people who don’t want to do them. Sounds like New Orleans...
Democrats used to advocate for the poor, but now they want to represent the middle class. I would sure like to see someone step up and claim those jobs Americans won’t do for Americans who want to get ahead. Some might even take two.
“Most illegal immigrants have willingly left their homelands to seek their fortunes in a more prosperous nation. They were not brought in chains,”
Yes, by right they should be enjoying the paradise of Sudan rather than suffering the indignity of America.
Yup... AND their fellow Africans have not stopped peddling slaves... on a smaller scale now but it still goes on.
As I said, that was ten years ago. From what I hear today, the situation has even reached the south.
BTTT.
It would be ironic that 20 years from now, 90 percent of blacks will vote GOP and cancel out the Hispanic vote for the Dems. I think that is possible, given the fighting between blacks and hispanics in the LA schools. Blacks resent the hispanic takeover and hispanics look down on blacks as inferior and lazy. As local government become dominated by hispanics, mistreatment of blacks will only increase. Today in LA schools if fight breaks out between hispanic and black students, the hispanic dominated school admin will suspend the black students and let the hispanic students off with a slap on the wrist.
“...some might even take two.” Yes, and get penalized for it by the IRS.
Work overtime at your job or take two and you become “the rich”. You are then the ones the Dems want to soak for taxes for their feel-good welfare programs. There is absolutely no distinction between people making 65,000 a year by working 70 hours a week and someone collecting that much from
his/her trust fund(except the trust fund person probably has a tax lawyer keeping his money safe in tax shelters. The libs want to take away initiative
and ambition. They want us dependent.
I wish “the people” would learn to understand lib-speak. When they talk about the idea of taking more taxes from the rich to pay for programs, they are THINKING everbody making 50,000 a year or more (that’s families earning that much). YOU are THINKING—they mean millionaires. Wroooooonnnnng! Wait till the tax man commeth.
In Lib-Hillary-speak, she just made a speech that should send a shiver down every middle class spine—from low middle-class up. When she said we all need to be in this together and share the wealth, she TOLD us plainly what her theory is. Refer to the above paragraph if you can’t figure it.
VAUDINE
Lets not forget what Bush means when he says “the illegals are just doing the work citizens won’t.”
He means: “the illegals are doing the work Black Americans won’t.”
Who truly is the racist.
You are preaching to the choir. I had a couple of good years and paid through the nose. Then the Dems destroyed my biz as a favor to a crony. Class envy is real painful when one is on the receiving end.
Too many poor blacks let their hatred of whitey cloud their judgement on the illegal immigration issue. I don’t have to worry about losing a job to a campesino who just crossed the border, DeShawn in North Philly does.
“...preaching to the choir.”
I know. It is a shame we do not have a forum to preach to the masses. We just have to go one on one every chance we get. I wish some of the natioinal Repubs had the brass to articulate the truth. I’m not sure many of them even KNOW the truth these days.
vaudine
The low income Blacks are Americans. They deserve the best we can do to help them get on their feet. Their leaders are selling them out for face time on tv.
“the illegals are doing the work Black Americans won’t.”
Do you have a link to that quote?
I know plenty of lazy white people.
ping
They can do all the touchy feely group grope task forces and studies they want but nothing will change.
Blacks consider Mexicans as inferior lowlifes, and Mexicans consider blacks as lazy and worthless.
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