The Gloves are Off
Put forth on February 15, 2007 by XicanoPwr
Posted in Aztlán, Civil Rights, Eliminationism, English Only, Englishnistas, Immigration, Immigration Debate, La Reconquista fable, Nativism, Prejudices, Propaganda, Racism, Raza, Xenophobia
The most striking thing about our national debate over immigration is the utter lack of attention to the root causes of mass migration from Mexico or to the moral dimensions of the injustice and human tragedy that is unfolding before our eyes. There comes a point where turning away from violence, and not standing up to it, is worse than appeasement: It’s active encouragement. So it is time to take off the kid gloves and roll up your sleeves and break through the collective delusion mentality that now embraces (some might say constitutes) the far Right.
I am tired of the relentless lies and meanness of special pleading right-wingers whose cloying candy coating can hardly conceal the poison pill inside and unfortunately, there are many people who uncritically accept any sort of mental dandruff people shake off their heads. Yesterday, a request came my way by GayPatriot to “confirm” if Daniel Maldonado, Editor and Publisher of Aztlan Electronic News was the same Daniel Maldonado (aka Daniel Aljughaifi) who was recently arrested for training with Al-Qaeda to become a terrorist bomber.
Well, la de friken da, give this man a prize. Do you actually think that every Tomas, Pablo, and Enrique you see and hear on the news are all the same? Just because you can do a simple Google search, it gives you the right to say “Gotcha!” All it shows is that you and your ilk, the Lou Dobbs, the Pat Buchanans, the Bill O’Reillys, the Michele Malkins have only one intent and that is to harm anybody who is Brown. I think George Carlin had it right when he said “If You’re Brown, You’re Goin Down! … You got some brown people in your country? Tell ‘em to watch the fuck out, or we’ll goddamn bomb them!” And in this case, we’ll deport your ass.
In order for the right wing to sustain their collective delusion, it seems, they must make shit up. For people who disliked the former Soviet Union, they really do enjoy using old Stalinistic tactics to get rid of their perceived enemies by tarring every opponent with broad accusation all for the “public good.” What do Latino immigrants have to do with Al-Qaeda? The answer is nothing at all! However, this is the same mental crap that is being peddled by the right-wing talking heads.
However, this is not new. These are the same tactics that have used by John Tanton, of US English and Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), who planted the seed for English only movement that began in the 1980s; and Glenn Spencer, of the American Patrol, who planted the seed for La Reconquista fable - the alleged plot to turn several American states into a Mexican state or some kind of puppet government controlled by Mexico - that started in the 1990s.
The gist of the anti-immigrant sentiment is that the newcomers are up to no good, they just want a handout, they have too many babies and they are hell-bent on contaminating our precious bodily fluids and, besides, you wouldn’t want your daughter to date one. In fact, the whole anti-immigrant sentiment is starting to turn out to be anti-Brown, where some state are creatively coming up with “anybody but Brown folk” laws.
So this time, their sole argument is based on a Nationalistic pride, which they strike their chest on the mountain top proclaiming, “This is Amerikkka! Secure the borders from the Brown menace!!” That is why it is imperative to construct the new right-wing boogeyman through a shell game that allows them to find anything “INTERESTING,” no matter how obscure, that could connect “the Latino Boogieman” and the Aztlán movement to Al-Qaeda. Like Michele Malkin who has repeatedly TRIED to link migrant farmers or starving family members to those people who flew the planes on 9/11. There isn’t any sinister conspiracy, the true villains are “ethnic bosses” who keep their people in bondage.
Despite all the discussion about civility, the right wing relies on forms of violence, whether verbal, implied or actual. For many people this appears to be the appeal: a way for the otherwise inadequate to act like solid guys, their violence safely done at a distance and by proxy. One of the right-wings favorite tactics is manufacturing plots, which serves them well as a weapon to attack its “enemies.” This is done so they can avoid having to debate the issues and incite fear in their audiences.
One can find a laundry list of right wing militarists who have adopted this type of tough talk attitude, however, they are the least willing to accept the consequences for it, much less place themselves at risk. The leading targets of such rhetoric have been undocumented immigrants from leading pundits as Michele Malkin, Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh to name a few.
Even the most marginal member of the right-wing echo chamber does their part not only selling the lies, but also making a hash of American politics, the rule of law and the expression of simple decency. Therefore, it is not a surprise to find on the net the use of eliminationist rhetoric among right-wing bloggers, such as GayPatriot.
Back in 2005, GayPatriot embarrassed himself by beginning to believe his own fantasy of right-wing shit-talking strength. Within the confines of his own site, he can do and say whatever he pleases. Apparently, GayPatriot tried to engage in some form of thuggish behavior by labeling two activists and bloggers, Mike Rogers (BlogActive) and John Aravosis (Americablog), as “Gay Terrorists.” On a post entitled “WANTED: GAY TERRORISTS,” with photos of Rogers and Aravosis, GayPatriot wrote:
Wanted for crimes against the gay community. Wanted for repeatedly conducting outing witch hunts against gays who do not believe in radical liberal anti-American ideals. For repeated violations of privacy of gay Americans. For conducting systematic civil liberties attacks on gay Americans.
WANTED! Let’s do something about these gay terrorists who have infected our community with their hatred and self-loathing bigotry of gay Americans who wish to live their lives in peace.
It was all fun and games until Michael Rogers called GayPatriot’s place of employment immediately following the post and spoke to GayPatriot’s secretary and boss. Rogers said he asked GayPatriot to remove the post and replace it with a post about non-violence or he would launch a national boycott of GayPatriot’s corporate employer and pursue all avenues necessary to protect himself. Rogers call to GayPatriot’s employer put an end to that nonsense, the post was removed and GayPatriot temporarily stepped away from the blogosphere.
However, that does not mean he stopped engaging in thuggish intimidation. It really is not a surprise to find more eliminationism rhetoric on GayPatriot’s site, this time targeting Maldanado.
They should put this guy in front of a firing squad at Ground Zero in NYC.
Its people like these who expect us to say “Si, Señor” while licking their boots, and not speak unless spoken to! But the minute we do stand up for ourselves, we are demonized, slandered, libeled, the same way the Iraqis were right before going to war, all to make themselves look like the “good guys,” the true American Patriot, in fact, they are nothing but a wolf under the a fine suit, with a bag of tricks. They want us to believe how GRATEFUL we should be to live here in Amerikkka, and how we should feel GOOD about licking the boots of our masters. That is why xenophobic jackbooted racist repeat the same Republican meme on how America has given us everything and all we are to take and give nothing back.
Well, I am fed up with the sheer venom and rage that is displaced on the Latino community. Call it “shrill” or “unhinged,” the truth is, it is the same rage that permits their followers to practice eliminationism, where they have no qualms about shooting them all up while letting God sort out their mess. The right isn’t afraid of the occasional incredibly dumb and horrible act by some otherwise political opponent. What they fear is justice.
Sabes que GayPatriot, I refuse to be anybody’s “Si, Señor Spic” for some racist prick to kick around. I have contributed as much blood, sweat, and tears, and money, as any person, only to see clever and greedy bastards from your Party squander it away in your murderous wars.
It is time to demand justice NOW and say NO to poverty, to substandard schools and housing, to inferior wages and shit jobs, to old and new-fashioned discrimination, to Driving while Black, Mexican, or Puerto Rican. NO to apocalyptic fantasies of political demagogues and the depraved appeals of right-wing pundits, white supremacists and bigots, even if it’s found wearing a “progressive” disguise, who seek to inflame racial passions.
The gloves are off, cabron!
Technorati Tags: John Tanton, US English, FAIR, Glenn Spencer, American Patrol, Reconquista, anti-immigrant, Latino Boogieman, Aztlán, undocumented immigrants, eliminationism, white supremacists
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This is the blog of Edmundo "XicanoPwr" Rocha, a social worker, an activist, freelance writer and founder and editor of The Sanctuary. My interests include: immigration reform, critical race theory and it's interaction with equality/inequality and freedom/oppression as they relate to the experiences of people of color in the Americas.
Para Justicia y Libertad is a Latino-centered political blog focusing on the humanistic perspective of politics, history, and society as they relate to the Latina/o community throughout Texas and the United States.
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For your information, I inquired due to a simple Google search for Maldonado’s name. I have no clue nor interest in Maldonado’s ethnic background… I simply wanted to find out more about the American terrorist.
Since I got a form letter back from David at Aztlan Electronic News, that means I wasn’t the only one that did a simple Google search.
In addition, the slanted anti-American reporting of Aztlan would lead any thinking person to wonder if there is some connection between the two Davids. Obviously not.
On the Rogers matter, you have your facts all wrong… but that isn’t surprising based on what I see here.
“In addition, the slanted anti-American reporting of Aztlan would lead any thinking person to wonder if there is some connection between the two Davids.”
So, Gaypatriot, you are saying that if a person has criticisms about American policy in regard to immigration and related topics, it is perfectly reasonable to conclude that there is a tie to Al-Qaeda (I did see your original email to XP). Here, you say “any thinking person,” injecting an Appeal to Intelligence in your self-justification. And then you have the nerve to talk of “thinking persons” as if you rely on logic.
You can dance if you like. For myself I see your agenda. It is not new. It is what the extreme right has been trying to do (in the style of their verbal conflation of iraq and 9/11 leading up to the invasion of iraq) with immigrants and terrorists for years now. You are another sad hatemonger who is dying to find a connex between Brown and Evil.
And with YOUR history, you can speak of “slanted reporting”?
haha!!! You’re a comedian, too.
——-
XP, a great post that had me cheering.
Looks like GP has his Paydroes and Paw-blows all mixed up. And who is “david?” Even in their own (English only) language do they botch my ethnic sounding name: “Daniel.”
Please, call me JULIO. These default settings seem so much easier for you folks.
But anyway, after exchanging a couple emails with XP I decided to write the “For the Record” statement because XP was right, this isn’t about me, it’s about millions of Meso-Americans who need to work and earn their basic staples of life.
Normally it would seem like a match made in heaven, the settler nation’s human ant farm cannot produce its own workers fast enough which creates a vacuum for labor that draws our people in who do not have work near their own homes.
But no, the racists see their white America getting darker and darker. And dark people are, well, dark.
Normally I dismiss these email queries and sometimes when things are slow and I need a laugh, I post them.
Years ago one didn’t care what others thought. Today, if one does not immediately repudiate even an innuendo then they are as good as guilty.
This is part of the eroding way of life that the Euros must deal with, along with the loss of the faux liberties.
It appears that the U.S. gov is now tolerating cultural warfare so long as it is practiced like American class warfare, from the top down.
But not all those who are on top are white. aside from this being an annoyance it causes another problem too and, hence, we are traitors.
We are traitors. We are not loyal (enough) to the settler nation who steals our land and resources and denies us our right to self-determination and who colonizes us and forces our hungry people to face death in the desert for chance at being exploited by the faux capitalist.
Tap your heels together oh settler and call us Hispanic. You will find comfort in believing we are Euro just like you.
But heed this: you will never de-indianize us. NEVER. We are indigenous to this land, from Aztlan to Meso-America and back, for over 12 thousand years.
And in the end, your pork belly, monument to government waste and corrutpion border will be like the Berlin wall and the Great Wall of China before it, a mere tourist attraction.
You have built your settler nation on our ancestral homelands and you say that we are not welcome. and in so doing you have failed to notice the world has moved on without you. They have ignored your spent hegemony and moved on without you. When the wind finally blows the smoke of you bombs away you will see how unimportant you have become.
And you vent your anger out on us. Have you had your google today, señor settler?
Because Mexico is now under threat of Al=Qaeda attacks for being your amigo, amigo.
Funny how this “it’s us or them” attitude was supposed to have been voted out of office in the last elections.
Apparently someone forgot to inform GP.
I love political quotes but right now a cliche comes to mind: “when you’re living in a glass house, don’t throw stones.” And so there be no equivocation just let me say to you GP, given you knack for spotting “slants.”
If you are gay, then it’s just a matter of time until the gestapo comes knocking on your door, too.
Don’t look now, it’s the gay fascists, and they’re coming for you GP because you’re just a patriot and they’re fascist and that makes them higher than you.
Don’t worry GP, we’ll hide you. We know you’re not rotten, we grew up with guys like you. And the place we hide you in we’ll call: “the hiding place” or is that name taken?
I think that name’s been used… yup. Taken by a family named Frank.
See you around the net GP but before I go…
here are two quotes that i truly believe in:
“Dissent is the highest for of patriotism” - Howard Zinn
and
“The best way to stop terrorism is to stop practicing it” - Noam Chomsky
Thanks for hosting this site XP
Now that’s a comment! Great stuff, Daniel.
Count this brutha as a soldado for justicia y libertad alongside the Brown Pride Wave against these racists that hunt down and shoot folks who won’t just stay in their home countries and die so white supremacists can have their delusional ‘white’ country! From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the anti-miscengenation laws of the 1600’s, the Mann Act, the Bracero program, the “national Origins” quotas placed on immigrants of color, this virulent strain of White Supremacy has ALWAYS been a part of this country since it’s appropriation and genocide of the 1st Americans, who were native to this land for thousands of yrs.This brand of new metal fascists and bigots is no different from them, only the means of conveying their uglyness. Basta! We will fight dem back under the rocks they came from!
GP,
“I inquired due to a simple Google search for Maldonado’s name.” Did you also inquire about Daniel Maldonado the boxer? What about Daniel Maldonado the stunt man? Or the architect? the musician? All Daniel Maldonados that jumped up in my goggle search yet you assume he just *had* to be the one connected to Aztlan? interesting…
I guess we are all related thu and, apparently, we all know each other. Hey, XP, I met this girl named Maria the other day and I was wondering if you could confirm that she is indeed the same Maria from that Carlos Santana song “Maria, Maria.” Thanks.
Excellent post and hilariously insighful comments, everyone.
I wonder how long America and the West will exploit the brown man and terrorist enemy link. They can’t figure out an effective way to eliminate all brown without ruining the land for which they have this insatiable craving. The deliberate ignorance of another’s existence — the ignornace that refuses to recognize white supremacy and superiority — is becoming clearer and more damning on the micro and the macro level.
WTF? What self-respecting gay person can afford racism? Oh… wait a minute. We’re talking about GayPatriot here. Damn X… I don’t think I even want sloppy seconds after the way you reamed that fool a new one. ¡Carrumba!
Yeah, InsomniacGringoRichMex, that’s the worst part. This cat is totally lost, just like maglalang. Lovin up on the oppressors who would as soon hunt him down. Its sad.
GP - I really hope you are not trying to insult my intelligence with that sorry excuse of a reply.
Let me see -
Ummm, please …. Maldonado is such a common English sounding name, I can see how you were not interested in his ethnic background, since we are living such a perfect color-blind society. But thanks for proving my point, anyway
Wrong, just because the Democratic Party can’t figure out how squash accusations doesn’t mean we don’t. I hope Daniel’s quick response serves as an example.
Let me correct that statement for you, any thinking bigoted person would make that connection.
I have my facts all wrong? I guess Christian Grantham never blogged about your infamous post and Washington Blade was wrong. You never posted on your site the “WANTED: GAY TERRORISTS,” which I guess I will never know since the Blade did say you deleted, so it is your word against mine and the Blades. And Rogers just out of the blue decided to call your employer.
Funny, I thought I read the same story written by Christian Grantham on Outlet Radio Network. I guess he too has his facts all wrong. Grantham never really talked to Rogers, either.
I could go on listing other blogs who posted about story.
But it is obvious you missed my point. It really does not matter what occurred two years ago, I don’t care what spat you had with Rogers, the point was you, like Michele Malkin have this nasty habit of advocating violence and not taking responsibility for it. Just like the death threats the college students received last year right after she posted their emails on her blog.
I know exactly what you meant you stated I had facts “all wrong,” because it is all the same to y’all, its all a game to you. How far can I go without being caught. Using the same ole sorry excuses - It’s my First Amendment right, but never willing to take into consider what happens after the message has been delivered. So you wash your hands of it, this is all fun and games to you. Claiming we must have read too much in to it. It was never meant to advocated violence. It is not my responsibility how my readers interpret what I write.
But when the tables are turned, you, like Malkin, play victim. Trying to tug at heart strings with “who me.” Why would I would I want cause harm, it’s those loony moonbats, the lefties. Funny, thing, isn’t the argument about moonbats is that lefties are soft on crime, tree hugging hippies. Funny how suddenly when the tables are turned the lefties are painted as psychopathic vigilantes.
Well, enough already, stop playing ignorant damn it. You know full well what this is all about, how well you can manipulate fear without getting caught.
I just want so say thanks for the support everybody. I think if there is a lesson to be learned, is how people like GayPatriot are quick to make connections. In fact, it goes beyond the millions of Meso-Americans, it affects you the commenter too. We live in a the guilty until proven innocent society with a guilt by association attitude so it easy for them to make whatever implications they want. They can start scouring people’s comments looking for anybody who agrees and say “Gotcha.”
And to prove GayPatriot means busy…in Dec 2005 he advocated that criticism of the President should be criminalize. In a post entitled Mr. President — Arrest Harry Reid For Treason, he wrote:
For the record it is not a Lincoln quote, the person who first came up with it admitted it was wrong.
The point is, it may be loony, but it is a serious matter because two days ago, congressman Don Young said the same exact quote. Repugs like these mean serious business. The best way to counter it is to stand up it head on. It is really to bad that AlterNet is fixed on proving how the quote never came from Lincoln, they should be putting their focus on how this is become the Repug mindset.
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