Today is May 1. This doesn’t mean find a maypole and dance a jig.
Today is a historical day signifying the organization of workers, often manifested by labor unions, to fight for workers rights. It is an internationally recognized movement. In this country, we benefit from the labor movement through the creation of a minimum wage standard, an eight-hour work day, weekends and holidays off, and laws against child labor. More recently, May Day events advocate for a living wage policy and immigration reform.
The immigration debate is emotionally heated and often gives way to us vs them language. However, on this day last year, thousands of immigrants—documented & undocumented, Central & South American, Asian and European—gathered to protest the unfair, racist immigration policies in the United States.
This debate really isn’t about foreign workers taking jobs from Americans. This is about a racist ideology that the US is a nation of English-speaking, freedom-loving, truck-driving, flag-waving, gun-toting, white patriots. To be truly “American” one must do all the above and then some. The face of closed-borders, guest-workers ideologues is a white face. And often a male face. In contrast, the face of the immigrant is stereotyped as a brown face. Often a Spanish-speaking face. The fallicy of this belief is evidenced in the multicultural, multiracial, united front present at immigrant rights rallies across the nation.
Immigrant rights should not characterized by brown vs white arguments. Go back to your history books folks. We are all immigrants.
Thus immigration laws, essentially labor laws, should be the concern of all citizens. Immigration rights are not a brown struggle, a black struggle, or a white struggle. It is a working class struggle. It is a struggle that is above and beyond tiffs characterized in the slogan, “Stop immigration and keep Americans working”. Amazingly enough, is anyone doing the $*# jobs that so many immigrants are willing to work? The irony behind the “us vs them mentality” is that we are “them” and they are us.
Slogans like “Let’s get rid of the Mexicans” or “Immigrants bring crime” are indicative of the racist attitudes aimed at keeping hierarchical social order. If you want to talk about immigrant crime, then let’s talk about the atrocities done to the Native Americans by the British settlers.
Behind the disparity in jobs and wages is the capitalist machine, the hand of the corporate greed. It’s to the benefit of Big Business to keep the worker pool low-skilled and low-paid. In a way, it’s out-sourcing on home soil. Our solution isn’t to send anyone anywhere—we’d all be gone if that was the policy. We should be working to for the benefit of all workers. What would it look like for workers to actually make what it takes to live, for families to have healthcare, and for CEOs to receive a pay cut?
We should all be concerned with issues of justice for every member in society. And to the fellow holding the "I didn't ask for diversity" sign I say, why don't you go home. Or better yet, dig a hole, climb in, and bury yourself. You can't avoid diversity.
