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pgdudda
[racism_101]
06 October 2011 @ 03:37 pm
Occupy Wall Street and immigrant voices  
I have been following the #OWS protests with a great deal of interest. I have seen a fair bit of discussion (e.g. on Racialicious) about how race and racism play out to marginalize POCs in these protests. This is an important conversation. What I haven't seen is a discussion on why immigrants, and in particular, immigrants of color might not be seen at these protests. One reason is that participating in these protests puts immigrants (documented and not) at risk for deportation, if only because of the framing as an "Occupation". Others I've thought of are socioeconomic, such as the need to keep a job in order to be allowed to remain in the country. In both cases, being a POC increases the risks inherent in participation and the likelihood of apprehension by authorities with subsequent questions about one's status.

I'd like to see a discussion of how the intersection of race and immigration status operates to silence and disenfranchise immigrants of color - whether naturalized, documented, or undocumented. Thoughts?
 
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tea berry-bluezia_narratora on October 6th, 2011 09:02 pm (UTC)
I know a few "Occupations" are being organized in Alabama...I'm wondering especially about how the new racial profiling laws are going to inform who is able to take part in such a demonstration.
Shameless: marxist feministliminalia on October 6th, 2011 09:17 pm (UTC)
I've been active on the http://occupychi.org site in the past few days, and there are posts there (not the majority, but some) from people blaming immigrants for taking US jobs.There are other people trying to foster diversity and fight racism, but I think perhaps the immigrants that know about this movement are waiting to see if the movement is for them or against them.

Plus, it's a young movement. There are plenty of people of all races who don't know anything about it yet. If you're not on the net a lot, there's not a lot of coverage, especially of cities other than NYC.

There are also language barriers to immigrants participating. A friend reports he saw a Spanish-language flyer in Chicago, but so far the vast majority of the messaging has been in English.
-pd-: Citizenshippgdudda on October 7th, 2011 01:45 pm (UTC)
Thanks for the reminder about language barriers. I grew up in the US with parents fluent in English, so it's easy for me to forget about that!

And I agree about waiting to see what stance #OWS groups take wrt immigration. Post-9/11 and "PATRIOT" Act have not made me feel welcome in this country, and I pass as a (White) American male, so I get a lot of conditional privilege. [I'll stop there, as this is debunkingwhite, not debunkingcitizenship. ;-) ]
-pd-: Citizenshippgdudda on October 7th, 2011 01:48 pm (UTC)
Oops, I meant racism-101, not debunkingwhite. But I hope the intended meaning is clear.
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