June 24th, 2007
Krusin’ the Capitol Newsletter Archive
2007
Topic A – Racism
June 23, 2007
Racism.
For my first “occasional paper” in the legislative interim I will write about what we are not supposed to talk about. My hope is we will think about what we really must think about. Racism in Nebraska and in the U. S. Our values, dreams and expressions of democracy are being critically delayed by attitudes about race. I am not calling for more dreams or programs. We must think about removing barriers. I apologize that I cannot make it brief.
We have made tremendous gains against racism since the 60s, to the point we can avoid talking about it. However, racism is alive and well in Nebraska. We are in an awful debate whether Omaha is first or third in the nation as worst in poverty of Black children. In the nation! Only half of our Black children graduate from high school. Unemployment for Black, Hispanic and Indian young people is many times higher than for whites. Several factors are involved, including imagery of slavery in young minds, contributing to lower self worth. But these figures are not possible without racism in attitudes, in language, in arrests, in prosecution, in hiring — in living. We are beginning a major Omaha initiative in education, but racists remarks and attitudes were everywhere as we discussed it. The remarks have a terrible price and the only way I know to do better is to openly talk with each other, to identify and confront those attitudes. A friend came out of a board meeting with his arms waving in despair, talking to the wind: “People, listen to what you are saying!”
Evidence of racism is plentiful. It is of course national in base. These weeks the target is immigrants, legal or illegal. We excuse our attitude because some Mexicans are “illegal.” (Forget that they have never been arrested, charged, or in a court which said they have broken a law. Forget that living here breaks no law. Local officials are called ‘cowards’ for not going after people who are not breaking a law — except having the wrong skin color.) Our noisy wrath about ‘illegals’ is a sham that covers a pervasive racist attitude so effectively we fool ourselves.
The evidence is in conversations, comments, emails that are shameful in their attacks, and in congress where every side has a spin to make us look good and them look bad. We hear angry jabs at “12 million who snuck across the border.” Well, 5 of the 12 flew here. From non-Latin countries. To study and work. At universities and research labs. They simply did not go home. I hear no outrage against the multitude with white skin.
Mexicans came here to work. As did my great-grand parents. They took hard, low paying labor, to do anything to survive. As did my great grand parents. Some of them do not try to learn English. Nor did my g.g.p., who lived here for 50 years. We educate their children, which is in our (!) constitution, put there for my grandfather, who became a teacher. And for his son, my father, who knew no English when he started to school. Mexicans brought strong family values, as did my g.g.p. However, my ancestors did not prove values by sending most of their income back to family in the Old Country. (These 7 million have sent billions of dollars home.)
Values? The Mexican loyalty to family and community puts us in the shade. They have a higher ratio of marriage among young adults and a lower ratio of divorce even with the huge pressures of separation. They exhibit a higher support for their businesses and community. Blacks and whites will typically go sailing past a friend’s or neighbor’s business to save a buck at WalMart. Mexicans could teach us about community.
I do not ignore the misdemeanor of crossing the border, but shades of Victor Hugo! In that time, the majority community threw a father in prison for stealing a loaf of bread for his family. Would I, if I were the father in a family where the children are desperate for food, risk crossing the border at night to get a job? Yes. Would I prefer to stand in line for that job? Yes. The problem is, there is no line. We have thousands of Mexicans who cross our border every day, go home every night. Comes from an old system which we created but now cannot figure out. Why would we be shocked that a father would risk his life (thousands have died) to use that method to provide for his family? Some would consider him a hero, not a bum. There are Mexicans who create fake IDs, like our youth, or who drive drunk without a license, like thousands of our adults. Arrest them all. Most Mexicans are here to work, at a tremendous personal sacrifice.
Our bishop, caught with a group on the wrong side of a Mideast border, grabbed her suitcase and, under cover of darkness, with the others made the desperate walk to cross the border to safety. I cannot imagine any one of us objecting. As I consider her story, I hold my mental breath, not for the breaking of someone else’s law, but for the risk. The group could end up for months in some remote jail. It is a real world out there, and our government is not always our protector. Breaking a minor foreign law is a risk, not an issue of patriotism.
We hear people bloviate about how Mexicans come here to get on welfare. Badly informed nonsense. The last place an undocumented person will go to be checked out is a government office. A letter to the editor, from an obvious fat cat, says he would like to trade places and have his taxes reduced and all these benefits lavished on him. The chances he would be willing to exchange legal situations? Zero. If he did change he would be surprised at how few benefits there are. (Hospitals must accept any emergency.) Folks like him charge that families collect $30,000 a year. Try an average between $10,000 and $12,000. And that they pay no taxes. ‘Illegals’ have income tax withheld, get no refund. They pay full social security taxes, into your and my fund. They have added over $3 billion to our account, with no possibility of benefits from it. If they were white we would thank them.
If racism were not involved, we would still try to control the borders and deport those who are caught. But we would be doing it in an even way — not making up “facts” about folks with a different look and being emotional in judgment. When I was helping register Hispanics for voting in South Omaha, a group of flag waving shouters across the street objected. About what? About “Helping these people!” How about “Helping citizens to vote?” Get real. I was embarrassed on behalf of our flag.
This is not new. The Irish who came to frontier Omaha were told, in shouts, to go back home. Many were ‘undocumented,’ having walked across the border from Canada, which, like Ireland, was a part of the British empire. We hypocritically pontificated against slavery. Irish, considered another race, were our slaves and a better deal. Nebraskans did not need or want owned slaves. For Africans, you had to put up $1,500 for a strong male; for Irish, you paid a dollar a day and if they became ill you did not pay them. If one died you got another, free, for a dollar a day ‘fee.’ That is about the equivalent of what we pay our immigrant slaves today, and when you think about it, explains why high paid corporate types recruited them to come and are urging the president and congress to figure a way for them to stay. We do not have slavery but we do have workers in the role of slaves, with no rights, no say about pay or working conditions, and no future except more of the same. How in God’s name do we lay our problems of attitude and non-action on the Mexican worker?
The Irish, of course, tried hard to “become white.” (Check out a 1996 book: “How the Irish Became White.”) It t
ook two generations. They put up with the ghettos and horrible treatment until they could do the same to the Italians. And the Polish. Then Greeks. All of them gathered to put the Africans on the lowest rung. One thing in our future is clear to me. In two generations the Mexicans will own homes in west Omaha and we will have found a new group to misuse. It helps if they look slightly different.
After the slaves were freed, the U. S. had major “Homeland” projects, with big money raised, to send all Africans back to where they came from. After all, they were not here legally. As was the case with many Irish, all of whom some politicians tried to send back. In Omaha (1909) citizens drove every Greek person out of town in three days, for the stated reason that we did not like their culture. We have done this before, are doing it now and have the attitude to do it again. Our hypocrisy of pious statements is wearing thin. Worse, it is hurting us more than those we blame for the problem.
I realize that racism is only one part of the way we compromise our values and I will be writing about other parts. Such as, our put down of workers, who are pushed down in earning capacity while CEOs and management go higher. Or the fellows replacing our roofs in summer heat, paid one fourth of the wages we paid (for them) to the white guy on the ground. We regularly find ways not to pay what someone is worth to us.
When Black Power was scaring folks in the 60s, a wise woman with light skin said, “Why fear Black Power? It could not be worse than White Power.” How about Brown Power? I dream of the time when we put our power together, to give respect to every worker, every child, every adult.
Many citizens will howl in protest when we talk about these facts this plainly. Understandable. Change is tough. All I ask is, think.
With a heavy heart, but living in hope.
Lowen
Note to those near Lincoln. Next weekend I will join William Jennings Bryan, George Norris, and Angie Newman in Lincoln’s Chautauqua. What company! I will speak on the changing (Nebr.) attitudes toward those in need. At St. Paul United Methodist. A Chautauqua lets you pick and choose, come and go. It is a wonderful mix. Details are on the church’s website: www.SaintPaulUMC.org
The outcome of my bills is now updated on my website, where you can also find a link to all back issues of the newsletter: www.lowenkruse.com