That was the subject of today’s conference call hosted by the Workplace Project, Long Island Immigrant Alliance, New York Immigration Coalition, and the National Council of La Raza.

The death of Lucero is cause for great concern because this is the latest expression of hate that is not only happening in Long Island, but in the nation as a whole. The tragic death of this man must be seen as an urgent warning and call to action.

What we are experiencing is not just an immigrant or Latino issue, but this “hate” has also spread to the African-American community as well. Racism is a serious problem in America. Police has already documented a range of disturbing incidents since the election. These incidents range from vandalism and vague threats to physical attacks. More disturbing, these insults and taunts have been delivered by people from all age groups; from adults to young adults to small children. These are just some of the incidents being reported: (h/t to jobsanger, James of The Mahatma X Files, and Nez of The Unapologetic Mexican)

* Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: “Let’s shoot that (N-word) in the head.”
* At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: “Osama Obama Shotgun Pool.” Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. “Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count,” the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written “Let’s hope someone wins.”
* Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted “assassinate Obama,” a district official said.
* University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. “It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork,” Houston said.
* Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported.
* Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacon Township, PA
* A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted ‘Obama.’
* In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying “now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house.”

These are just a few of the hundreds of incidents occurring across the country. In Texas, we have our fair share of anti-Obama and anti-immigration racism. On the campus of Baylor University in Waco, TX, a rope resembling a noose was found hanging from a campus tree the day the nation’s first black president was elected into office. A thin, white rope tied with a loop at the end was found by a Baylor student hanging from a tree. Earlier that week, there were reports that students made a barbecue pit bonfire out of Barack Obama campaign signs. University president is now reporting that the rope was apparently an abandoned rope swing and is also denying students were burning Obama signs in a barbecue pit.

In Austin, TX, it was reported that member of the University of Texas football team was expelled from the team for posting a very racist remark that crossed the line to eliminationism about President-elect Barack Obama on his Facebook page. On the status update section of his Facebook page, Buck Burnette posted, “All the hunters gather up, we have a n* in the White House.”

These incidents are just limited to Barack Obama. Just before the election, in Colorado County, west of Houston, TX, people were outraged over a racist theme party that involved at least one area school teacher after pictures surfaced onto the internet. The pictures were from taken at a pre-Halloween party in the small town of Garwood, TX. They portray white men in “black face” drinking 40-ounce bottles of beer and carrying buckets of fried chicken.

More troubling is the way our law enforcement is contributing to this problem. Last week, a Montgomery County, TX deputy was under fire following comments he made concerning the killing of 17 year old, Eugene Posana Villaruel. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) demanded an apology after Montgomery County spokesman Lt. Dan Norris said the Hispanic culture played a part in the teenager’s murder.

“You can fill in the blanks with Hispanic culture and how they, meaning the Hispanic culture, sometimes deal with family, sometimes thinks and or deals with family issues,” Norris said last week.

Last night, it was reported that the father of Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver was in critical condition after Houston police beat him after being stopped for outstanding traffic warrants. According to the family, he can communicate through notes and has described “the torture he went through.”

Community activist Quanell X showed reporters the paper towels Marvin Driver wrote on from his hospital bed. Driver wrote that the officers, whom he said he knew personally, took him to a Valero station, kicked him in the stomach, elbowed him in the neck and forced something down his throat.

“They picked him up and took him behind a Valero station by a dark road, where he was beaten and forced to swallow something. What they gave him to swallow, he said that they made the statement that he was going to see Jesus. Told him to ‘Swallow this. You’re going to see Jesus,’” Quanell X said.

There are endless examples of this, and they continue to this day. The one example that continues to stay fresh to this day is the tragic and brutal beating of David Ritcheson, Latino teen who was brutally beaten, tortured, and sodomized with a plastic pole by two white racist teenagers.

Tuck and Turner began kicking, beating, and stomping [David Ritcheson], Tuck wearing black, steel-toe boots, one of which was emblazoned with a swastika. Yelling “Beaner!” and other racial epithets, Tuck inflicted most of the damage. After one especially vicious kick, Tuck shouted “White power!” and gave a Nazi salute. Unable to fight back or defend himself in any way, [Ritcheson] just lay there and took it, mumbling and groaning occasionally.

Americans are proud that we are people with different backgrounds, faiths, viewpoints, and personal characteristics. A nation with a long history of slavery, segregation, and violent forms of racism, a country has finally came together and elected its first African-American president. However, outside of the public view, the number of hate crimes taking place in the US is on the rise.

Whether intended or not, we are in the midst of a growing culture of hate. If we want to continue to extol the virtues of freedom and rail against oppression, then it is vital as a Nation that we must prevent ourselves from falling destructively under the influence of racist schemes that that are dividing our nation.

Recognizing that District schools are located in a somewhat isolated area and that response from emergency first responders, including law enforcement personnel, takes a minimum of approximately 30 minutes, the Board adopts the following policy to address concerns about effective and timely response to emergency situations at schools, including invasion of the schools by an armed outsider, hostage situations, students who are armed and posing a direct threat of physical harm to themselves or others, and similar circumstances.

For a teacher to carry a conceal handgun, they are required to have a Texas concealed handgun license, undergoing training in crisis management, and hostile situations and must use ammunition designed to minimize the risk of ricocheting bullets.

Defending the board’s decision, David Thweatt, Harrold ISD’s superintendent, told the Star-Telegram:

“When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that’s when all of these shootings started,” Thweatt said. “Why would you put it out there that a group of people can’t defend themselves? That’s like saying ’sic ‘em’ to a dog.”

There is a small problem. Texas law outlaws firearms at schools “unless pursuant to the written regulations or written authorization of the institution.” However, Thweatt counters that argument and states the district did their research before making their decision. It seems they did find a loophole. According to the new school policy, “under Texas Penal Code 46.03(a)(1), the Board may … authorize specific school employees to possess certain firearms on school property.” I would not be surprised if our state legislature will be closing that loophole next year, but then again, maybe not, this is Texas.

This is not the only security measure put in place. The Star-Telegram also reports that the school board also decided to include “one-way access to enter the school, state-of-the-art surveillance cameras and electric locks on doors.”

Harrold is a community located in Wilbarger County. In 2007, the population in Wilbarger County, TX, was estimated at 14,218, with 77% of people are white, 8% are African Americans and 23% are Latino. As of 2007, Harrold’s population is 268 people. Since 2000, it has had a population growth of 2.80 percent.

According to student data obtained from Texas Education Agency, there is only one school within the Harrold Independent School District – Harrold School. This makes sense since there were only 113 enrolled during 2006-2007 school year. As for the student demographic: Whites made up 57% (64) of the student population, Latinos 35% (40), African Americans 4% (4), and Native Americans 4% (5); of those 70% are eligible for the free or reduced-price lunch program.

One would wonder why a small town that lies 150 miles northwest of Fort Worth and 37 miles northwest of Wichita Falls on the eastern end of Wilbarger County, near the Oklahoma border would need to put the school in lock down. According to Thweatt, the town felt there was a need to take further action due to the incidents that occurred at Virginia Tech and the Amish school in Pennsylvania. However, could there be more than meets the eye?

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate watch list, there is an active chapter of the Independent Skins in Wichita Falls, TX. SPLC reports that Independent Skins are known racist skinheads, particularly violent element of the white supremacist movement. Are Thweatt and Harrold ISD school board protecting their students from potential racial threats from a neighboring town?

If there is anybody from that area or know somebody from area and who would like share with us some insight as to why a community of 200 plus would lock down their only, feel free to leave a comment. If you prefer to remain anonymous, I would encourage you to use the contact page to leave me a note. I realize things are different now from the time I went to public school; however, I really find it hard to believe that a small rural town with a very small student enrollment would have the same problems that many schools are facing the urban areas.

The ad shows a historical map of the Mexico before Texas’ Independence and the Mexico-US War of 1846-48 had occurred. The offending map showed when the American Southwest – Texas, California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and part of Wyoming – as we know it, belonged to Mexico. It was not until the signing of “Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo” that not only ended the war, but also defined our present-day borders.

The ad was created by TBWA’s Mexican advertising firm Teran/TBWA. A year ago, Absolut vodka’s embarked in a new campaign strategy, breaking away from the old bottle series. The new Absolut World campaign invites the consumers to imagine their idea of a perfect world; a world that possibly wouldn’t take place but only “in an Absolut World.” The ad was solely geared toward the Mexican market.

According to Roger Dooley, Founder/President of Dooley Direct and author of the Neuromarketing blog, Absolut’s new campaign message is hoping to convey that “Absolut vodka is the closest thing to perfection one can find in this world.” In other words, since the ad was solely geared toward the Mexican market, “unspoken message” was although Mexico will never regain their lost territories, “but you CAN appreciate the perfection of Absolut;” hence the “In an Absolut World” slogan across the map.

As to whether the ad campaign worked in Mexico is still unknown. What is known, the “unspoken message” was not received well here in the United States. Whether the controversy began with Laura Martinez’s blog post honoring the death of her mother or Los Angles Times writing an article about the ad, the end result is the same – wingnuttia falling off it’s hinges.

This all began when conservative columnist Michelle Malkin decided to use the ad to whip up anti-Mexican sentiment by dubbing the ad “Absolut Reconquista.” Soon after, the US media outlets noticed the ad. The outrage by the nativist over this ad has caused inspired an anti-immigrantion, FIRE Coalition, to start anti-Absolut website called AbsolutlyNot.com.

The group also created a new web ad depicting an “Absolut World” as today’s borders with a giant fence between the US and Mexico. The nativist group is also asking people to boycott Absolut Vodka and is demanded that person who approved an ad be fired.

All this has caused Absolut to withdraw the ad and make an apology on its consumer hotline and website after it evoked a barrage of paranoia, racist and xenophobic complaints.

In no way was the ad meant to offend or disparage, or advocate an altering of borders, lend support to any anti-American sentiment, or to reflect immigration issues. – Paula Eriksson, VP Corporate Communications, V&S Absolut Spirits

However, one does have to wonder, knowing the tension between the two countries regarding the immigration issue, one does have to wonder why TBWA would create this ad. Was it simply a case of bad judgment as Evelyn Schlatter of High Country News suggested? Or does this go beyond the immigration issue and the outrage that is taking place is merely faux outrage as Randy LoBasso suggests.

One thing is for sure, in the world of today’s economic and political systems, we are continually bombarded with advertising. Every waking moment, some company is trying to persuade us to by their product. Absolut Vodka is no different. Absolut prides themselves for being edgy, for being able to make “the evening news” so it can get “thousands of articles and countless sound bites of free exposure on TV.”

Did this marketing ploy really come with a price? According to Michael Dawson, author of The Consumer Trap, marketing plays a central role in our lives. It shapes the choices we make, our thoughts, feelings, and even our culture. Marketing specialists are very frank about their purpose: to generate profit by manipulating people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Corporate marketing is a trillion dollar juggernaut run by the power elite with the sole purpose to marginalize us into action. Even if we believe we an can be immune to such manipulation, we are not. Advertisers have spent billions of dollars developing and testing ways to influence us.

Whether the advertising company or Absolut Vodka expected this kind of reaction from wingnuttia, will never be known. But one this is for certain, sadly, even the nativists have a say in Mexico’s “Absolut World.” As the former Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz said a century ago: “Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States!”

The reason this was allowed to occur again with Ferraro has to do with the fact nobody really wants to sit down and have a true discussion about race in America. What Ferraro is what many “closet racists” and race neutral advocates do not have the courage to admit out in the open when they see any person of color rise to the top. Sadly, closet racists are unaware of their prejudices. Since this country refuses to take responsibility for sweeping racism under the rug, people will continue to feel like they are stepping on egg shells.

As long as we continue to believing in a fallacy racism does not exist because we live in color-blind society, closet racist will continue to point to other groups, using terms such as “they,” or “those people,” instead of referring to themselves. As a result, people start observing how other groups segregating themselves, such as the claim that Black people only voting for Obama and suddenly race becomes an issue. With blinders on their eyes, and the shield of manipulated language in their repertoire, closet racists can live a full life never confronting their own prejudices.

The post I wrote last year.

The quickest way to either build your career or destroy it is through controversy and for Sen. Joseph Biden, of Delaware, that is something he should have already known. Soon after Biden announced his intentions to run for the presidency, in an interview with the New York Observer, Biden described Sen. Barack Obama as “the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

However, Biden is no stranger to foot-in-mouth controversy, which tells you, he should have known better. He should have known that his biggest enemy has repeatedly been his own mouth. We often hear that “those who fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it.” In his first Presidential bid back in 1988, Biden was also surrounded by controversy. In my opinion, the whole plagiarism scandal is a bit questionable. There was a lot of funny business going on at that time. However, when it comes to Freudian slips, he definitely has not learned from his past mistakes. Last summer, in explaining the demographic shift in Delaware, Biden said, “you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.” Later that year, on “Fox News Sunday,” he bragged about his potential appeal to Southern voters by noting “You don’t know my state. My state was a slave state. My state is a border state. My state has the eighth-largest black population in the country.”

Words are needed to construct language and language is needed to express thoughts. It is funny how words often fail to meet the expectations we put on them. That is so true for Joe Biden, soon after he made that remark about Obama, he tried to explain his comment,

Earlier in the day, the Delaware Democrat said during a conference call his comments reflected his mother’s expression: “Clean as a whistle, sharp as a tack,” he said. Four hours later, he issued a statement saying, “I deeply regret any offense my remark in the New York Observer might have caused anyone. That was not my intent and I expressed that to Senator Obama.”

What was supposed to be his be coming out party as he announced his candidacy for President, he probably felt more like he was drowning in a vat of acid as he spent the rest of the explaining himself.

It really is not that hard to figure out precisely what he was alluding to by using racially coded language, such as “clean,” “mainstream,” “articulate and bright,” and “nice-looking” to describe Obama. Most white mainstream pundits on the right and left have primarily focused on the word “clean,” because they are acting as if they are concerned on how super-sensitive Black folk will take it. Basically, it is a facade to cover their real motives, a warped sense of congratulatory adulation for Bidin and how they wish they could skillfully do what many white corporate journalist do not have the courage to admit to: that they consider that Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson are everything Obama is not, your stereotypical uppity black man.

The fact is while many accept that while Biden’s use of “clean” was questionable, it is other elements of his statement that make it far worse than the possible jab at non-Obama Black leaders. A major problem with words is their perceived emotional connotations. Connotation in language involves the semantic or deep-structure of words, expressions and texts and is, therefore, strongly related to culture. The fact is, we live in a binary system of opposites which does reflect the archetypal dualism in man’s consciousness.

Here in the United States, we do divide people in the world into the categories of “Clean” and “Dirty” and historically, the use of the word “clean” has come to be synonymous with “whiteness.” In the late 1950s, the word “clean” was used to justify segregation. However, the rules separating dirty from clean are not clear or principled. For example, in Dearborn, MI, Orville Hubbard, Dearborn’s mayor, was blunt and unrelenting in his pursuit to “keep Dearborn clean,” which intended white people only. Our society and culture (especially in elite circles) have racist and classest legacies, which have yet to be fully reconciled or addressed. Former- Secretary of the Treasury under the Clinton administration and President of Harvard University, Laurence Summers, while working for the World Bank in 1991, wrote a memo about “dirty industries,” which was eventually leaked:

‘Dirty’ Industries: Just between you and me, shouldn’t the World Bank be encouraging MORE migration of the dirty industries to the [Less Developed Countries] LDCs I can think of three reasons:

1) The measurements of the costs of health impairing pollution depends on the foregone earnings from increased morbidity and mortality. From this point of view a given amount of health impairing pollution should be done in the country with the lowest cost, which will be the country with the lowest wages. I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that.

The problem with the arguments against all of these proposals for more pollution in LDCs (intrinsic rights to certain goods, moral reasons, social concerns, lack of adequate markets, etc.) could be turned around and used more or less effectively against every Bank proposal for liberalization.

This type of word use is not limited to African Americans. In book Understanding Words that Wound, Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic address the immediate danger of hate speech to Latinos and other historically disempowered groups. Hate speech does not just apply to overt charge words used by folks like the KKK, it further reflects the socially accepted stereotypes. Understanding Words that Wound agues that unpunished hate speech harm individuals and society because it diminishes targeted group members and advocates their different treatment. Walter Lippmann, who coined the term “stereotype,” explained that people make generalize about other people based on fixed views and because of that, our moral system rests on the “accepted version of the facts.”

Widespread belief in the disparagement of historically shunned groups is perpetuated through controversial statements about them. The acute attitudes that stereotypes can prompt in both speakers and victims indicate the extent that those who are affected by prejudices can range from the personal and to group identities. The term “dirty Mexican” is liberally attributed to the Latino community to which Latinos are viewed as being dangerous, lazy, hyper-sexual, intellectual inferior, and intemperance.

Destructive messages can catalyze crimes against humanity such as the Holocaust, American slavery, and Native American removal. There are plenty of historical examples where this has occurred. In a landmark study that was conducted after World War II, The Authoritarian Personality, it was revealed how it was possible for great masses of supposedly enlightened, Christian people were willingly to tolerate the systematic oppression and extermination of their fellow citizens who just happen to be Jewish, gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Black, mentally and physically-impaired people, and political dissenters. The goal of the study was to use scientific method in understanding what was “it” that caused an individual to act prejudicial to their fellow person, and to use those findings to help seek a solution to inter-group prejudice and hatred. The report revealed that authoritarian tendencies in an individual’s personality make him receptive to anti-democratic propaganda and policies that target out-groups for discrimination and destruction.

The personality tendencies of the authoritarian-disposed individual were found to include:

“Cultural narrowness” seen in rigid acceptance of the conventional middle-class values of “the culturally ‘alike’” and the tendency to reject and punish “the culturally ‘unlike’ . . . who violate conventional values.” (Ibid, pp 102, 228);

–Negative stereotyped perceptions of the members of “unlike” out-groups (Ibid, pp 228, 235, 236), rather than seeing them as individuals who also laugh and cry and love and hate, or who, in the words of Joseph Berger, “lived, laughed, cursed, fought, who did the things human beings do” (“At Holocaust Museum, Turning a Number into a Name,” The New York Times, Nov. 21, 2004);

–Anti-introspection, i.e. resistance to self-understanding, to soul- searching, to cause-and-effect analysis of individual and group behavior, unable to tolerate ambiguity, belief in mystical, unexplainable phenomenon, disparaging intellectual attempts to perceive life’s nuances and complexities (Ibid, pp 236, 235); and

–Aggression, involving “the ethnocentric need for an out-group” who represents “the intrinsic evil (aggressiveness, laziness, power-seeking, etc.) of human nature . . . [that] is unchangeable [and] must be attacked, stamped out, or segregated, wherever it is found, lest it contaminate the good.” (Ibid, pages 232-234, 148).

The urge to oversimplify dilemmas and find designated scapegoats for complex predicaments underlies the popularity of stereotypes. Approaching adversities from a biased perspective gives simplistic though meaningful answers to inexplicable predicaments. Latinos are often blamed for losses in jobs and the reduction in wages.

Continued uses of code words like “articulate,” “mainstream,” and “nice looking” are only manifested substitutions for the “oh you are not like them” messages. Repeating misethnic slurs only perpetuates institutionalized discrimination, which is only meant to detract from a person’s humanity, dignity, self-respect, standing, and potential. After a while, epithets become the norm and a frame of reference not only to individuals but also to the person’s entire cultural group. Biden’s the message implied that he saw black people in America as different from the “norm” – unfamiliar and not quite equal.

The message is a painful reminder, not only to African Americans, but also to all people of color of the extent of white society’s commitment to white supremacy. Biden’s, as a white man and representing this country’s power elite, message implied, if we strongly hope to achieve the “American Dream” we must become like Obama who is capable of using the proper subject/verb agreement, not look and act so “ghetto” so “barrio” or “rancho” – all forms of internal colonialism. As stereotypes are communicated repeatedly in diverse social contexts, in time, less information is require to evoke a whole series of negative connotations. The fact that Biden remarked that Obama was the first “mainstream” African American implied that Shirley Chisholm, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Carol Moseley Braun, and Rev. Al Sharpton were more uppity and did not know their place in society, so they did not count. The underlining question is, are people of color who seek leadership roles held to higher standards? The answer is yes.

For African Americans, it has been found that there are fewer black members of corporate boards or black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and those with a “black-sounding” names are less likely to be interviewed or hired than a person named John or Jenny. As for Latinos, studies have documented the challenges encountered by Latino applicants for presidencies and provostships at American colleges and universities. The studies found that “key decision makers in the selection process for presidents and provosts expected higher standards of qualifications and experience for Latino men and women than for members of other ethnic and racial groups.” Even though this article, The Dearth of Latinos in Campus Administration, by Roberto Haro focuses on Latinos, the patterns Dr. Haro found in researching the “type” of person sought for a leadership experience are the same patterns among other people of color I have found through my own personal conversations other people.

In the screening process used to select senior campus leaders, some questionable patterns surfaced. Four deserve mention: the “type” of person sought; the desired experience; the “style” of the candidate; and interview performance. What is meant by type? A particular image emerges that includes words like tall, distinguished-looking, well-dressed, and impeccably groomed. A trustee at a selective liberal-arts college I interviewed said, “Look at the pictures of our previous presidents. Now that’s what we want for this college.” As I looked at the photographs, they were all white males. In a nutshell, most of the institutions wanted a distinguished-looking, gray-haired, white man, standing about six feet tall and dressed in an expensive designer suit. A few might settle for a white woman with similar characteristics. Some white male candidates could get away with being shabbily dressed; they were simply viewed as tweedy intellectuals or athletics boosters in their sport coats, but Latino candidates who dressed down found that it was held against them.

The matter of “style” was difficult, but possible, to categorize. Decision makers wanted candidates of a particular culture, polished speakers, those at ease in any setting, attentive listeners, and stable personalities, the ideal Rotary Club leader. A white female vice president at a research university said she had voted against a Latino presidential candidate because he “did not appreciate the Western European tradition and literature.” This was surprising given that the Latino candidate had a strong reputation for translating some of the Great Books of European writers into Spanish. The head of a search committee at a selective liberal-arts college rejected a Latino candidate because he “spoke with an accent,” and used a “terminology and pronunciation in his vernacular that did not sound like good English.” The candidate had a soft Southern drawl and used terms he had learned during extensive study in England and France.

A trustee at a two-year college was displeased by the earrings a Latina applicant was wearing and said they appeared “cheap and distracting, reflecting poor taste.” They were modest family heirlooms handed down through three generations. At a different two-year college, a trustee voted against a Latina candidate because the woman “was overweight, and her blouse was too tight;” the college ultimately hired a white woman who was overweight. These are but a few of the subjective comments that revealed biases against Latino candidates.

It is that kind of thought process that is the root cause for the disparity we currently are having in this country between whites and people of color. It is why every year white students at prestigious universities – Clemson University (2007); the University of Texas at Austin (2006); the University of Chicago (2005); Cornell (2004); and MIT (2003) – feel they can mock the appearance and behavior of the black and brown people of the “ghetto” and “barrio” by throwing a “[tag]ghetto themed party[/tag]” – 40-ounce cans of malt liquor, fried chicken, fake guns, “ethnic” names, do-rags, jeweled grills on their front teeth, and loud jewelry were all part of their party.

Hate is addictive because it yields a sense of power but like all addictions it is a deception. We are very clever at trying to deceive our fellow people into unquestioning loyalty. Loyalty is where social power really is. It is rationalized by selectively picking out the evidence until there is sufficient evidence to justify their point. This fraudulent way of gathering evidence is a common trait of bigots and extremists.

Historically, charismatic bigots can galvanize dangerous social movements by manipulating widespread prejudices. Racial stereotypes of Latinos have already been exploited to gain support for federal statutes that curb the rights of legal and illegal immigrants. News is even further tainted when it becomes a platform for hate dressed in the cloak of respectability. Adolf Hitler used the indiscretions of some Jews as evidence of all Jews being “collectively guilty” to justify his plans for persecuting them in his autobiography, Mein Kampf, years before he became Chancellor of Germany. The KKK looks for incidents of black crime to justify their own hate crimes. Andrew Jackson won the presidency in 1829, in part, because of his vocal support for Indian removal, and he continued that aim during his term in office.

The essential need for the contextual analysis is of particular importance in avoiding the destructive psychological effects to children and adults. Prejudices are often learned early in life, before children are wary enough to question their validity. Culture imprints beliefs and practices in children that are easily manipulated by the advocacy of violent, antisocial behavior against a historically disempowered group. The depictions of Latinos as criminals or drunkards on television perpetuate racism by giving these false representations a de facto stamp of popular approval.

Jeanne Guana writes:

After the Mexican American War ended in 1848, people of Mexican origin faced lynchings, land theft and virulent racism. Later, in times of economic depression, people of Mexican origin–citizens and non-citizens alike–were deported en masse . . . . As a result, many Mexican-origin people internalized the racism and learned to despise all things Mexican.

Unfortunately, internalized oppression runs high within the Latino community because it is deep-rooted within us. We have been conditioned at many levels and for many centuries to believe that lighter skin is more desirable. Despising all things native to ourselves causes unhealthy behavior, including self-loathing and participation in the perpetuation of negative stereotypes. Latinos may be conditioned to believe that other Latinos – particularly recent immigrants – are also taking away jobs or are unfairly taking advantage of the social services they are not qualified to receive.

Additionally, we may avoid from using Spanish in professional settings because it will betray our heritage, or we may believe that Whiter is better. In fact, our own self-loathing curtails our own empowerment efforts because we have been conditioned at many levels and for many centuries to believe that lighter skin is more desirable. So it is not surprising when Latinos have stopped drinking the “kool aid,” like other oppressed people in this society, we should question the reasons when someone is able to twist reality in such a way that conforms to contemporary socio-political “norms.”

A letter from the Elizabeth (NJ) Immigrant Detention Center

To Whom It May Concern.

This letter is on behalf of all the inmates at the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. This “prison” or “detention center” is run by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). We have written this letter because of the mistreatment treatment from CCA Officers and the problems that this center has. First of all, the CCA officers here have chosen a career working with the public. They have an option to work here or not, and we are sure that there is no job requirement that states that they must treat people like animals as they do. Many of the officer are obnoxious and rude. They constantly curse at inmates and put them down. We already have very low self-esteem because of being in custody for immigration issues, why make us feel even worse? These officers are misusing their power. Since we are in custody and not working, our families are having difficulty putting money in our accounts for phone cards, writing material and most importantly snacks. The officers who are working and receiving a paycheck come to us and ask us for chocolate bars, coffee and other snacks. Some officers also bring their personal life to work and take their frustrations out on us. They constantly give us and our family who come to visit us attitudes. They sometimes abuse their power and don’t allow us to practice our religion. Numerous times, inmates had to stop praying because an officer ordered them too. In the middle of the night, the officers congregate in dorms, talk loud and constantly slam doors making it very uncomfortable to sleep. They have no decency.

Another issue here is commissary. Everything is overpriced to the fullest extent. For example, a radio which costs $2-$3 costs us $26 to purchase from commissary. We are not working and our families are suffering and being torn apart because the CCA is trying to make even more money off of us! As for the snacks, most of them are expired or soon to be expired. Not only are we being charged more for items, but they are also expired items! Sixty to seventy percent of the soda, chips and other snacks are already expired before we get them. In many instances, bird droppings have been found on soup boxes and bags of chips. They ban us from having many things, even pencils. Those who are in criminal jails are allowed to have more things than us and WE are not criminals! According to ICE policy for detainees, it states that the facility is required to give us writing material at no cost. It seems that the CCA does not want to follow that rule. They charge us for pens, paper and envelopes. Pens cost $0.30 each, a stamped envelope costs $0.51 and a notepad costs $0.90. What happened to writing material at no cost?

The phones here are a serious issue too. They calls are too expensive and the lines have very poor quality. There are only 2 phones for every 44 people. A lot of us need to call lawyers to discuss our cases and we cannot do so because it is to expensive to make phone calls. Local calls are so expensive, imagine how much they are charging us for international calls! We are paying at least $20 a week just to be able to speak to our relatives or lawyers for only 10 minutes.

As for the food here, the issues vary from day to day. The food is usually overcooked. The trays that we are served in are not clean. The portions are too small. If you are still hungry, they DO NOT ALLOW you to take an extra tray. They would rather throw out all the food than allow us to have a little more to fill us up. If we are in visitation or religious services during meal time, they do not save any hot lunch for us, they just throw it out. We are lucky if we are allowed to get a cold lunch when we come back from visitation.The food has no flavor and they do not give us salt and pepper. It seems that they want us to starve.

According to immigration laws, they can hold people for 90 – 180 days, but for some reason some people have been here for years. Some people in this facility have been here over a year. This facility was not made to accommodate people for over a year. There are no exercise rooms or recreational activities administered here. An hour in a room with 3 holes in the ceiling should not count as outdoor rec. The room is dirty and dusty. Why are we not allowed to have fresh air? Why are we not allowed to see the sun? The air-conditioning system always leaks water on our beds. We have complained many times but they never do anything about it. Some dorms have mold growing which is not healthy for us to breath in. Again, complaints have been made but no one does anything about it. There have also been instances where insects were found. We are the ones who are required to clean our dorms. They make us clean the bathroom, shower area, toilets, mop and dust.

Whenever inspectors, investors, or government officials come to see the facility, they make us clean more so that the rooms can be spotless. They also treat us better in front of these people. Little do they know, it is all a show so that their facility can pass inspection or so that they gain another investor! There have also been times where they have shut down water in dorms for long hours. During this time, we have no water to drink, or to wash up. Some days there is no soap for us to wash our hands or shower with. The bathroom or dorm has no ventilation. The bathroom is also open into the dorm. Imagine how the room smells when people go to the bathroom! Disgusting! We don’t know how they clean our clothing either. There have been many times when they return our laundry with more stains on it, stains that weren’t there when we gave them our dirty laundry. The razors that they give us seem to be old and reused. They tell us that they are new but there are times where we have found hair in them before we even use them, this is hazardous to our health. The dorms are always cold. Now that the weather is cooler, they have not turned down the AC. The officers walk around with jackets but as for us, we are not given that. We are always cold, especially at night. They do not allow us to have extra blankets to keep warm.

A major issue here is medical care. The response time is very poor. It take 4 – 5 days to be admitted for medical care. The medical facility is less than 100 feet away from the dorms, why does it take so long to get help? The nurses have attitudes and make judgments on our health without even checking us. It also seems that the nurses or medical staff are not trained. They hand out the wrong medicine. Technically this is considered malpractice which is a serious offense, but i guess that rule does not apply to us. No matter what problem you are having, they always give you aspirin. It seems that is the easiest way to get rid of us. There is also no way to get dental care here at this facility. If you have a toothache, they resort to giving us pain killers or the option of pulling out the tooth! There was a case where a woman had so much pain from a toothache that she was constantly crying out loud and requesting help. Instead of getting a dentist to help her, the CCA officers put her in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) which is supposed to be used for people with mental health problems or it is used as punishment for those with poor behavior. Was she supposed to be punished for having a toothache?

We are not criminals and we do not pose any harm to anyone. When we are taken out of the facility to go to our country’s embassy, they handcuff our hands and feet when leaving the vehicle. This is very embarrassing for us when people look at us while we are walking from the vehicle to the building. We are escorted through airports also wearing hand and foot cuffs, portraying us as terrorists in front of people at the airport. People get scared when they see us and this also makes us psychologically weak and is very emotional for us. As for being deported, there have been times where inmates have missed their flights because of CCA officers. Detainees are kept in caged vehicles with no food or access to restrooms for 8 or 9 hours until another flight is available.

Here at the facility, there is one television per dorm which houses 44 people. We are not allowed to control the TV. The CCA officers are the only ones that can change the channel. They always keep it on spanish TV which is unfair to many of us who speak english and are not of spanish descent. They restrict us to having only 3 books or magazines. This is ridiculous. They barely give us recreational time, what do they expect us to do during count time for 30 – 45 minutes when we must stay by our beds. How many times can we possibly read the same 3 books or magazines?

Sometimes they allow us to work in the facility. They pay us $1.00 a day if we work. We can work for hours but they still only pay $1.00 a day. Are we not even allowed to get minimum wage? We can’t even buy a plastic cup or a safety soon with $1.00.

What about our families who come to visit us. The visitation area only has 12 booths for the male detainees and 6 booths for female. There are 300 detainees here, many of which are male, are 12 booths enough for them for visitation? Sometimes there are so many people waiting outside on line to come to see us and they cannot because there is no room in visitation. On those days, we are not given a chance to see our loved ones. In criminal jails, they allow conjugal visits, but as for us, we pose no harm to the public, instead of granting us conjugal visits, they make us talk to our relatives through glass windows and telephones.

The biggest issue here is Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). People wait for months before they are told the real reasons why they are detained here. Sometimes, deportation officers don’t show up for months to answer some of the detainee’s questions. When we do ask questions, we are given vague answers like “YOUR CASE IS PENDING” or “BE PATIENT”. ICE officers run away when we have questions pertaining to why were housed there, when or if we will be able to go home, or why we aren’t being given custody reviews after our 90 day period has passed. As for information to help us, there are documents posted on walls with phone numbers and addresses to our embassies. Many of this information has not been updated, most of the address and phone numbers are incorrect, making it impossible to get in touch with our native countries embassy.

We are suffering here and no one wants to listen to us. No one wants to hear what we have to say. We cannot complain to ICE or the CCA because if we do, they treat us even worse. The United States should be ashamed at the way they are treating us humans. THANK YOU FOR READING TO WHAT WE HAVE TO SAY.

Voice of Detainees

This morning, Police Chief [tag]William Bratton[/tag] in a press conference stated that he disapproved of the conduct of some of his officers and he vowed there would be a thorough probe into the use of excessive force. Mayor [tag]Antonio Villaraigosa[/tag] who is in El Salvador, has asked the the Police Commission, the civilian panel overseeing the Los Angeles Police Department, to assess the use of force by officers clad in riot gear, and the Radio and Television News Association called “for an immediate and complete investigation of the violent treatment of journalists at the conclusion of Tuesday’s [tag]immigration march[/tag].

“There is evidence that officers knocked reporters to the ground, used batons on photographers and damaged cameras, possibly motivated by anger over journalists photographing efforts by officers to control the movements of marchers,” an RTNA statement said.

Brad Friedman of Brad Blog, noted that the media once again are contradicting each other on this horrific event. According to Friedman, the UPI reported that the “Los Angeles police fired rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.”

A day of peaceful immigration rallies in major U.S. cities Tuesday was marred when Los Angeles police fired rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

Witnesses said police wearing riot gear and wielding batons gave no warning before firing at rally participants gathered at MacArthur Park, CNN reported. Police said a protester knocked down a motorcycle officer, the news channel said.

There were no reports of serious injuries and no arrests were made.

However, LA Times has a different take on the event, which contradicts what was reported UPI:

Several people, including 15 police officers, were hurt. About 10 people were taken by ambulance to hospitals for treatment, said d’Lisa Davies, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles city Fire Department.
…
Late Tuesday, a staff member from [tag]Telemundo[/tag]’s newsroom confirmed that one reporter and three camera operators from the Spanish-language TV station had been injured and had been taken to a hospital by police.

Another TV station, Fox 11, showed video on its 10 p.m. newscast of a station camerawoman apparently being struck by a baton-wielding police officer in riot gear.

Here are three videos of the nightmare that the peaceful marchers had to endure on May 1 at MacArthur Park at the hand of the brutal LA police force (h/t to The Notorious VC at Chicano Forums, there are more videos there). This is not different from callus shooting of Ramiro Gamez Acosta, by the border by the Border Patrol.

Warning; Viewer Discretion Advised. Graphic images may be disturbing to some viewers.
Telemundo TV Crew caught in MacArthur Park clash

Footage from a local Fox TV Crew

The longer version of Fox’s raw footage of the event

Will post more if I happen to find new information.

This time around, [tag]Markos[/tag] thinks that if a blogger were to get a death threat, we should suck it up because “most of the time” they “don’t even exist.” Or, as Kalifornia’s Govnator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, would say, “Don’t be a girlie man.” For Kos, courage is used to taunt people into doing something stupid. Sure it is easy to say suck it up if your only threat is that someone tells you “I hope you catch AIDS” but it is another, when you get comments or emails that say “we’re moving to send your sorry asses back over the border” or “hope you enjoy your stay in Gitmo” for speaking truth to power. It is not that easy to “suck it up.” Especially for many people across the country who have already been assaulted and even killed by some psychopath cyber-stalker they did not take seriously.

However, Kos’ behavior isn’t really new really. Sadly, this Berkeley faux liberal whose ideology better matches that of Reich wingers has duped a large majority over at the Big Orange Mothership Daily Kos and the Democratic Party into thinking he is a true Dem. Kos has and will always be a pompous asshole beyond compare, a fraud, a phony and a seasoned snake oil salesman. All anybody has to do is just go over to [tag]Marisacat[/tag]’s blog. She has been warning people long before this consequence. The irony, she has been harassed and is considered to be a pariah among some of the B-listers who are now complaining about King Koz.

Very interesting, as wilfred and I had been banned the last weekend of August (Madman was personally banned by Kos, October 2005, for complaining about tired Red State Dems run as effing heroes before they do anything, yes that is Tester, Webb and Casey and others)… we were banned as individuals, not as part of a purge. I still to this day have never read the Hunter FP piece on the banning..

The Boyz, or whatever they are, have been slamming me and a lot of other people for years now.

People saying what they think that does not conform to what they want said, well, it really pisses them off. And their Box Car Site Minions and others on the Treats and Sweets Rez….

Who FP intellectually dishonest, numbers grabbing bullshit (Outing Bloggers, “Marisacat”, Paparazzi at the Box Car Site, BMT), lectures and drooling “erotica” attended by Maryscott with her tongue hanging out… Voyeurs, original and Maryscott’s reconstruction among other FP slams at MLW. In a sad, public loss of any grip on reality, METAmorphosis at MLW. Not to forget this gem. Eugene and Armando with others, did stand up routines at MLW thru 2005/06, parsing my banning over and over for the little hordes. In case you think there is something new in BlahgTown.

(Oh and as a chocolate on the pillow or extra vodka in your OJ: don’t miss the BMT proprietaire being cute with his hints.)

I won’t be stopping. And I am so amused at the lately landed stress and anger, sturm and drang, directed at Kos. Sure did ramp up after the BlogRoll trim…

However, if your inner-kindergarten self still insist she has cooties and anybody else who associates with her has cooties, then all one has to do is do a simple Google search on “banned by Kos” to see what Kos is all about. I genuinely understand when people have an agenda of trying to find a common ground among the more conservative wing (AKA centrist) of the Democratic Party. However, the deal with Markos, there are those who continue believing he is Dem. The reality is, he started off as Republican and changed sides roughly around the same time when other Republicans switched sides because they realized the Religious Right successfully infiltrated their [tag]Republican[/tag] Party and were able to exert considerable influence on policy and lawmaking. Instead of fight them off; they have opted to take over the [tag]Democratic Party[/tag]. That is why we are the big tent party. The central problem is this: there are those in the progressive blogosphere who believe it is wrong to criticize. Nevertheless, if the [tag]progressive blogosphere[/tag] is NOT the place to criticize and rail against Markos and DailyKos, then what is the proper arena? By keeping things inside it will only fester for so long before it finally explodes.

However, there is a double standard. Markos consistently criticizes whomever he elects to criticize, including Democratic politicians and other progressives. For him to try to use his muscle and personal connections to squelch criticism of himself and his opinions is very Orwellian – “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” It is not surprising that the chickens came, home to roost. The more Markos and his followers stopped others from challenging his opinions throughout the blogosphere, it was inevitable that revolt against the authoritarian and totalitarian impulses are taking place. Just look below this post on the number of people who are speaking out (courtesy of Wampum).

Regardless of whether it is coming from the left or right, totalitarianism is just as brutal and will repeatedly have to have a need to justify its so-called “goodness” to the world. Even worse is when mindless followers are complied to remain mindless in the face of over whelming evidence. Terror is used to keep the faithful from straying and indoctrination to imprison the mind. Fear of change, the outside world, of not having a strong ruler are amplified to increase their need on the totalitarian regime.

Given the state that we are in, we have voluntarily surrendered our freedoms that we once held to be essential. Do we even care that homes are being bugged, our emails being read, our letters being opened? Where we have feared the ominous presence of Big Brother constantly gazing through the multiple security cameras around us, we are have now become oblivious to them and worse, we have become a voyeuristic society while our constant need to check a person’s background has become second nature. As we continue to be force-fed shadows on the wall of Plato’s Cave, people are disappearing right before our very eyes, vanished without a trace in the name of the “border security.” Is all this just an Orwellian dress rehearsal in preparation for the larger scale version?

Instead of running away from living in the world Orwell feared, the modern world celebrates it. When we hear Bush and our war hawk Democrats begging people to give war a chance, are these signs we are embracing the language of doublespeak and newspeak, “War is Peace?” If so, then it should not come as a shock that Markos Moulitsas Zúniga is the poster boy for “progressive is conservatism.”

People who have spoken out
brownfemipower at Woman of Color Blog
Zuzu at Feministe
Jessica at Feministing
Belledame at Fetch Me My Axe
Echnide of the Snakes
Mark at Norwegienty
Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast
Bitch PhD
Chris at Creek Running North and Pandagon
Kip at Long Story, Short Pier
Bruce at Crablaw
Melissa at Shakesville
Jeff at Blog of the Moderate Left
Interrobang
Stephen at The Thinkery
Amp at Alas, A Blog
Amanda at Pandagon
Lindsey at Majikthise
Dan at Fitness for the Occasion
Nezua at The Unapologetic Mexican
Natasha, at Pacific Views
Kevin at Slant Truth
Aaron at Faithfully Liberal
Ntodd at Dohiyi Mir
Trifecta at New PairODimes
Steven D at Booman Tribune
Sheelzebub at Pinko Feminist Hellcat
Myra at Reno and Its Discontents
twoluvcats at a wealth of semi-useless information!
Scott at Lawyers, Guns and Money
PZ at Pharyngula
skippy the bush kangaroo
Mickle at The True Confessions of an Hourly Bookseller
WebWeaver’s World

Renee at the Independent Bloggers’ Alliance
Terrance at The Republic of T
Vox Aemeliae

Immigration officials have already detained over 200,000 individuals annually. Men, women, children, and sometimes even entire families are held in prison-like conditions, often awaiting decisions that will play a critical role in determining their futures. Unfortunately, some of those who are held in detention are sexually victimized. The events taking place in America’s privately run “immigration prisons” are getting worse. Corporate media refuses to discuss the seriousness of the concentration camps we have here in the US. For the past month, Greg Moses, editor of the Texas Civil Rights Review, has been reporting on the article of 20-year-old [tag]Suzi Hazahza[/tag] and the [tag]Hazahza[/tag] family who are detained in another privately run “[tag]immigration prison[/tag]” [tag]Rolling Plains Detention Facility[/tag] in [tag]Haskell, TX[/tag], which is managed by the [tag]Emerald Companies[/tag] of LA.

On Nov. 2, during a late-night armed raid conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, men armed with machine guns came to the Hazahza home in Richardson and seized the entire family at gunpoint. The mother and her 11-year old son were taken to a prison in Taylor, near Austin. The other five were sent to Haskell.

According to Moses, both Suzi and her 23-year-old sister Mirvat have been subjected to repeated humiliating full body-cavity searches at the hands of prison guards.

Suzi and Mirvat spent the first 48 hours at Haskell sleeping on the concrete floor of a drunk tank, because no beds were available. They both ran high fevers for two weeks after that, and were also denied requests to see a doctor.

The sisters were “strip searched” each time they met with an outside visitor, including humiliating inspections that took place in full view of male guards “on multiple occasions.” When taken to the recreation area, they were made to “walk the gauntlet” in front of male prisoners who [tag]sexually harassed[/tag] them with techniques that included exhibition and public masturbation while guards laughed.

This is not an isolated case, where a couple of women being sexually assaulted, under the guise of conducting “full body-cavity search,” each time they have received a visitor. In June 2003, Amnesty International’s (AI) report, Why Am I Here? Children in Immigration Detention, stated that 61 percent of the secure detention facilities that were surveyed for the report used strip-searches on the children in their care. AI also documented allegations of excessive use of force, administered in a way that may form cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, to an extent that reflects major regulatory deficiencies as well as personal misconduct.

Children and advocates told AI that at Berks County Youth Center’s Secure Unit in Pennsylvania, physical abuse might be used as a punitive and disciplinary method. Staff reportedly kick children, throw them to the floor and knock their heads into walls for infractions such as looking the wrong way, saying “can I use the bathroom” instead of “may I,” or not being able to count properly.

Immigration officials have raped detainees and have abused their authority by exchanging goods and privileges for sex. Threats of violence and deportation have been used by immigration staff to coerce detainees into performing sex acts. Staff members have watched female detainees when they are dressing, showering, or using the bathroom, and some regularly engage in verbal degradation and harassment of detainees. Detainees have further reported groping and other sexual abuse by staff during pat frisks and searches.

Despite the increasing push to detain and deport non-citizens, individuals who are detained by the ICE are not without legal protections – particularly when it comes to sexual abuse. Despite the increasing push to detain and deport non-citizens, individuals who are detained by the ICE are not without legal protections – particularly when it comes to sexual abuse. The right to protection from rape and sexual violence is guaranteed by other international human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which the US has ratified. Rape in detention violates the ICCPR’s protection of the right to security of person, the right to be free from cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment, the right of those deprived of liberty to be valued with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and, in extreme cases, the right to life. The federal government cannot legitimately claim that its national interest is advanced by the cruel treatment of detainees.

This not something made up, listen to the stories from those who were victimized by the American prison juggernaut:
Christina Madrazo – a Mexican national and a preoperative transsexual, was raped twice by a guard at Krome Detention Center in Miami, Florida. The officer who attacked her, Lemar Smith, was the same man responsible for bringing her meals and watching over her cellblock.

“My fear was incredible,” Madrazo recalls. “I didn’t know if anybody would help me or protect me. Nobody had given me simple human treatment since they took me there.”

“I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t,” Madrazo recalled. “He told me if I say anything, I’m gonna pay. I felt so angry, so impotent. He called me a bitch and said I deserved it, like he was glad.”

Aminata – was Senegalese national who was detained at Washington Dulles Airport in November 2003 on the way to visit her husband. Though she had a valid visa, immigration officials decided that she looked like a male terrorist dressed as a woman.

Aminata was forced to submit to a strip search. Her breasts and genitals were groped by female detention officers in what was characterized as an attempt to determine her gender.

Fadjar – a gay Indonesian male, was sexually harassed and singled out because of his sexuality while being detained at the El Paso Service Processing Center in El Paso, TX, where he was awaiting a decision on his application for asylum.

Fadjar was told by officers at the processing center to “walk straight” because “this is not a beauty salon, but a jail.” Officers on multiple occasions called Fadjar “puto,” a pejorative Spanish slang term.

He was also sexually badgered by an officer. The officer, Pedro Rodriguez, spoke to Fadjar as Fadjar was walking from the cafeteria to his barracks, saying “Hey Puto, how much for a blow job?

Bernadette – a Haitian immigrant who lived in the US since she was a child. After a criminal conviction, she was scheduled to be deported to Haiti and was being held at Krome Detention Center in Miami, FL.

At the detention center, an officer pressured Bernadette for sex. At first, Bernadette said she would cooperate with the officer, but she later changed her mind and resisted his advances. The officer, angered by her resistance, grabbed Bernadette by the throat and shoved her against a wall.

After this, the officer began to call Bernadette derogatory names, including “whore.” Another officer, who had also unsuccessfully pressured Bernadette for sex, repeatedly called her “lollipop,” a term intended to suggest that Bernadette was a lesbian.

The abuse culminated with an incident in a bathroom at the center, where a male officer ordered Bernadette to take off her shirt and bra, fondled her, and masturbated in front of her and another detainee. The officer also forced the second detainee to perform a lap dance, giving money to both women. “The whole thing made me feel dirty,” Bernadette recalled. “I had to see this guy every day.”

Yudaya Nanyonga – a Ugandan national, was sent to Pennsylvania’s York County Prison when she came to the US seeking asylum to escape the rape and violence she had been subjected to by individuals affiliated with the Ugandan government.

At the York County Prison, Nanyonga was transferred to the maximum security wing, where violent prisoners were kept. The 20-year old woman, still coping with the trauma she experienced in Uganda, broke down after the transfer, according to Amnesty International, and “grieved inconsolably.”

Officers responded to Nanyonga’s sorrow with a “Quick Response Team,” which included four men, three of whom wore riot gear. The officers stripped Nanyonga, tied her naked and spread-eagled to a cot and injected her with sedatives. She remained shackled to the cot for two days.

Fauziya Kassindja – at the age of 17, hoping to escape Togo’s female genital mutilation practices, she sought political asylum in the US, but only be sent to the Esmor detention facility.

At Esmor, Kassindja was subjected to a laundry list of abuses, including being beaten and shackled; being denied sanitary napkins; being forced to stand naked for long periods of time; and being arbitrarily strip and cavity searched.

After a riot at Esmor, Kassindja was transferred to York County Prison in York, PA. There, the strip searches and degradation continued. Kassindja also endured sexual pressure from York prison inmates. She recalls that a York inmate walked into her cell as she was eating an apple. “You either give me the apple or you sleep with me,” the inmate said. “Which is it?”

“Sleep with her?” Kassindja remembers wondering. “What was she talking about? Sleep in her cell? Sleep in her – and then it clicked. Sleep with her. She meant to have sex. I’d heard that expression on TV at Esmor. I’d heard it applied to women at Esmor too. Once some of the Ghanaian women in N dorm were gossiping about one of the female guards ’sleeping with’ one of the female refugees. I hadn’t heard of such a thing. I’d heard of men being with men, but I’d never heard of women being with women.”

The current situation that is occurring at the so-called “detention centers” reflects the current situation that is occurring the US prison system, which is a horrific national monument to racism revealing the US the foremost Land of the Un-Free, Home of the Locked-Down.

Yes, Cointelpro is back, but this time with a vengeance. This time around, it’s to firmly establish the groundworks for a centralized police-state regime that can respond swiftly and massively to the domestic turmoil that must inevitably accompany a New World Order that George Bush the elder had hoped would have been achieved by now.

If America is to survive as a nation built upon bedrock principles, if it is to avoid the hurricanes of fear, prejudice and hysteria, then it is time to be less forgiving of those, like Bush and his minions who exploit such fears for their own ambitions, their own aggrandizement. It is time to be more forgiving to the victims who are unjustly scapegoated, persecuted and abused in this milieu of hatred and hypocrisy. But most of all, it is time to be more pressing that fundamental morality be part of the political process at the inception of any proposed idea, policy or legislation, not simply a “I’m sorry” afterthought.

It is time to be the voice for the voiceless. It is time to help Suzi Hazahza and her family. Please help free her and the rest of her family from one of America’s concentration camps. Joshua Bardavid, Hazahza’s attorney, encourages to be part of a letter writing campaign to free Suzi. Here is a sample letter that Bardavid provides as a template to help write your own:

John P. TORRES
US-ICE Headquarters
Post-Order Detention Unit
801 I Street NW, Suite 900
Washington, DC 20536

RE: Radi HAZAHZA, A95-219-510
Mirvat HAZAHZA, A95-219-508
Hisham HAZAHZA, A95-219-507
Suzan HAZAHZA, A95-219-506
Ahmad HAZAHZA, A95-219-505

Dear Mr. Torres,

I am writing on behalf of Mr. Radi Hazahza and his four children held in prison at the Rolling Plains Detention Facility.

I strongly believe that the Hazahza family should be released immediately from the detention center, so they can be reunited with Nazmieh Juma (wife to Radi and mother of the children) as well as Mohammad Hazahza, the eleven year old child that ICE already released from prison.

The Hazahza family has been awaiting deportation since being ordered removed in 2002, yet there is no possibility of removal since both Jordan and the Palestinian Authorities have confirmed that travel documents will not be issued for them.

The Hazahzas are asylum seekers who sought freedom and safety in the United States. They have provided the government proof of employment offers, as well as extensive ties to the United States including Mirvat Hazahza’s U.S. citizen husband and Suzan Hazahza’s U.S. citizen fiancé.

In addition, several sponsors have stepped forward to ensure the Hazahza’s appearance upon demand by the government and to ensure that they obey any terms of supervised release.

The Hazahza’s continued detention costs taxpayers over $600.00 per day, as estimated by the government. That means that, to date, at least $60,000 in government funds have been turned over to the Emerald Corporation, the private company that owns the jail in Haskell. This amount does not include the money spent on litigation and other expenses related to the continued detention.

This detention is a waste of taxpayer money, particularly since the Hazahzas present no danger to society, have provided suitable alternatives to detention, and there is no purpose in continued detention as there is no likelihood of obtaining travel documents.

Please release Mr. Hazahza and his family from the Rolling Plains prison.

Sincerely,

cc: U.S. Customs & Immigration Enforcement
Attn: Officer Kelvin Meridith
8101 North Stemmons Freeway
Dallas, Texas 75247

Oftentimes we hear the phrase “think globally, act locally,” however, acting locally well only fall on deaf ears, therefore, we need to think outside the box. I suggest not only cc your letter to every media agency, and but cc that letter to every foreign news media and every alternative media you know. Let the world know of the atrocities and the immoralities we must endure while living under the tyranny of the Bush dictatorship. The immoralities that allow those in power to place ethical standards on other people and nations that they callously ignore themselves. The immorality of hiding behind religion to conceal greed, selfishness, hatred, and hypocrisy.

In Texas, there is an expression we like to say, “everything is big in [tag]Texas[/tag].” Within the continental United States, Texas is the biggest state by area, and the second biggest among the 50 states, only Alaska is bigger. The people of this state take pride in their bigness, from number of big oil companies to our prison system. Texas has the largest number of “immigration prisons” in the US to house the undocumented immigrants once they have been rounded up (here, here, and here); and Texas can proudly claim to the largest concentration camp in the US federal system’s archipelago of immigration prisons.

In June 2006, [tag]Willacy County[/tag] commissioners entered into a two-year contract with the US Department of [tag]Homeland Security[/tag] to build a futuristic cluster of tent-like domes in the Rio Grande Valley. Like a thief in the night, the prisons were quietly built in the rural town of [tag]Raymondville[/tag]. The Willacy County [tag]Detention Center[/tag] is one of a host of new or expanded prisons, both public and private, that [tag]ICE[/tag] has commissioned for an expected rush of illegal immigrant detainees. According to the Washington Post, about 2,000 undocumented immigrants are housed within the 10 giant tent city home for weeks, months and perhaps years before they are deported back to their home countries.

As the government invokes national security to sweep up and jail an unprecedented number of immigrants, the private-prison industry is booming. The $65 million camp build by Utah-based [tag]Management and Training Corporation[/tag] (MTC), is a sprawling squat of inflatable domes plopped down on top of massive concrete slabs. The facility was quietly built last summer between a federal prison and a county jail where,

…illegal immigrants are confined 23 hours a day in windowless tents made of a Kevlar-like material, often with insufficient food, clothing, medical care and access to telephones. Many are transferred from the East Coast, 1,500 miles from relatives and lawyers, virtually cutting off access to counsel.

Marc J. Moore, field officer for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Detention and Removal Operation, told the Brownsville Herald that the Willacy County Detention Center will be set up with 10 huge circus-like tents, surrounded by “14-foot-tall razor wire fences stand around each dome” with “two rows of razor wire fences” surrounding the 200,000-square foot prison site. The new prisons are made out of Tedlar, a “nylon material,” which they are stretched over “metal studs,” comparable to the structures that are used by the US military in Baghdad and made by Sprung Instant Structures, a company with offices in Utah. The Sprung’s structures will house about 200 beds in each tent and each tent will be divided into four 3,700-foot sections. It’s no surprise that “similar temporary buildings were used for troop recreational facilities in Iraq,” the article points out. According to OMB Watch’s searchable database of federal government spending, Strung has already won $16,864,710 in military contracts since 2000.

With an increase in stricter immigration laws and Washington’s push for tighter enforcement, these are signs to come of rural American sprawl of inflatable detentions. As Eric Schlosser mentions in his 1998 article, “The Prison-Industrial Complex” in The Atlantic Monthly:

The prison-industrial complex is not a conspiracy, guiding the nation’s criminal-justice policy behind closed doors. It is a confluence of special interests that has given prison construction in the United States a seemingly unstoppable momentum. It is composed of politicians, both liberal and conservative, who have used the fear of crime to gain votes; impoverished rural areas where prisons have become a cornerstone of economic development; private companies that regard the roughly $35 billion spent each year on corrections not as a burden on American taxpayers but as a lucrative market; and government officials whose fiefdoms have expanded along with the inmate population.

This contemporary push to privatize corrections takes place against a socioeconomic background of serious and seemingly difficult crisis. By the fall of 2007, the administration expects that about 27,500 immigrants will be in detention each night, a gain of 6,700 over the current number in custody, according to a 2006 New York Times article. Who is going to cash in on this, and who is ultimately going to pay the price? Under the push of Bushes social Darwinism, with its “toughness” on “illegals” as its battle cry, the war profiteers in this home front is the [tag]Corrections Corporation of America[/tag] ([tag]CCA[/tag]), the [tag]Geo Group[/tag] (formerly the Wackenhut Corrections Corporation) – the two biggest prison operators – and now [tag]Kellogg, Brown and Root[/tag], a subsidiary of [tag]Halliburton[/tag] (the makers of Guantanamo Bay Detention Center) are enjoying the spoils of war. Analysts state, profit margins are higher at detention centers than prisons. According the NY Times article mentioned above:

… the Correction Corp.’s revenue from holding immigrants jumped 21 percent, to $95 million from $70 million in 2004. Geo, the second largest prison operator, received $30.6 million last year, about the same as the year before. … Wall Street analysts said that detention centers produce profit margins of more than 20 percent.

Just recently, Williamson County’s T. Don Hutto Correctional Residential Center, come under review when people found out they were housing 200 children. Hutto is operated for the government by the CCA and according to the New York Times, is “under a $2.8-million-a-month contract with Williamson County.” The Hutto Residential Center is one of two family detention centers in this country; the other is the Berks Family Shelter Care Facility in Leesport, PA.

Ever since the [tag]Hutto facility[/tag] has under intense scrutiny for having a reputation as a prison that locks up children, officials invited the media to tour the place (video of tour).

In a 72-page report, “Locking Up Family Values: The Detention of Immigrant Families,” released last month by two refugee advocacy organizations, Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), concluded that the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Center and the Berks Family Shelter Care Facility were modeled on the criminal justice system “where residents are deprived of the right to live as a family unit, denied adequate medical and mental health care, and face overly harsh disciplinary tactics.” It went to say

“Every woman we talked to in these facilities cried,” said Michelle Brané, Director, Detention and Asylum at the Women’s Commission. “Many of the children were clearly sad and depressed. Some feared separation from their parents, a common threat used to ensure that children behaved according to facility rules. Alternatives exist that are not punitive and that keep families together while also addressing the enforcement concerns of the government.”

But this is not surprising, last month, NPR reported on the findings of a new study from the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security. According to NPR

Some non-U.S. citizens detained by the government for violating immigration laws are kept in rat-infested, cramped detention centers, fed noxious food and denied basic hygiene items such as clean socks and underpants.

Investigators found that two jails were infested with rats and roaches. The supposedly hot meals at one detention center were served cold. Detainees got food poisoning. The ventilation system didn’t work.

Some detention centers were so crowded that detainees were stacked up high, on triple bunk beds. They had to clamber up and down without ladders, because the jails refused to buy them. The inspector general reported that some detainees were injured because they fell off those bunks. And some facilities didn’t provide immigrants with clean socks and underpants, the way they are supposed to.

Don’t be misled into thinking this will end any time soon? Just recently, more than 300 immigrants were seized in a Massachusetts immigration raid. Federal immigration authorities carried out a massive raid on a New Bedford, Massachusetts, plant Tuesday morning, detaining 300 to 350 immigrant workers and charging the company’s owner and three managers with knowingly hiring undocumented workers.

Everything is going as planned with Bush’s Endgame, where jackbooted thugs of America’s ruthlessly capturing and hauling off 400,000 Latinos “absconders” to immigration prisons. History continues repeating itself, while the capital elites enjoy the spoils of a trumped up war. Yet we continue to be a society of sleepwalkers, not wanting to care or get involved. People have to remember that violence is prompted by those who oppress, who exploit, who fail to recognize others as individuals and not by those who are oppressed, exploited, and unrecognized. It is not the helpless, subject to terror, who initiate terror, but the violent, who with their power create the concrete situation which begets the “rejects of life.” How do people come to such a pass that they can commit such atrocities against each other? Where has our empathy and kindness gone? If we cannot even show an ounce of care for them, then what has become of our humanity? So look at that little girl who is currently in the Hutto facility who is forced to wear prison garb and who will only receive one hour of fun a day and tell her that she resigned to a life of life of humiliation and wretchedness. Tell her that she is less than human and will be doomed of a life of misery, while some shut their surrounding just to continue living in their comfortable place. Tell her you would rather see her dead because her parents came her looking for a better life, if you makes you happy.

We are living in a very fractionalized and disjointed America due to the policies of our administration, but in reality we have families being broken up. I am saddened because there are children crying because they have lost their parents; there are people suffering from nativist that are hell bent on making their idea of what America should be. How many more atrocities must be committed before any of this madness is brought to an end? More importantly: How can we see another’s woe and not be in sorrow too? How can we see another’s grief and not seek ease their pain? How can we see a falling tear, and not feel for their sorrow?

As predicted the College [tag]Republicans[/tag] are whining that the game is not really racist, it was only intended to raise awareness on immigration issues in the United States. College Republican President [tag]Sarah Chambers[/tag] had this to say:

“Just because we don’t want illegal immigrants being able to completely disregard the laws of our country doesn’t make us racist,” said Chambers, 21, a political-science major from St. Louis.

“Them saying that this event is racist is a way to discredit us without actually having to engage in the debate.”

The NYU Republican club members did show to hunt for an “illegal immigrant” for the remainder of the day. [tag]Caitlin Kannall[/tag], 20, secretary of the College Republicans and a sophomore from IL was the lucky gringa who play the role of the Brown. Nobody has yet mentioned what methods she used to hide or what stereotypes activities she used to evade the hunters.

This is really not new, last year, a student group, Young Americans for Freedom, from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor also played this game, which also was promoted by College Republican National Committee.

After a summer of intense debate over immigration, students wanted to keep the issue burning on campus. The Young Americans for Freedom at both the University of Michigan and Michigan State University in East Lansing considered hosting the game after it was suggested by Morgan Wilkins, then a field representative for the College Republican National Committee.

“In order to grab a college student’s attention, you’re going to have to do something different, something that might make a couple people mad, but it’s going to generate dialogue and it’s going to get students who are generally apathetic to get involved in political issues, and it did that,” Wilkins said.

I wonder what other colleges are playing this game?

[tag]Dalia Yedidia[/tag], alongside African Americans and progressive people of other nationalities, held it upon themselves to give a voice to the undocumented immigrant families who live in fear from xenophobic nativists, like the Republican Party. Yedidia, a freshman at [tag]NYU[/tag], who was instrumental in organizing about 500 demonstrators to show up and protest this sick and twisted game.

It is evident that student groups, like the College Republicans, are not concerned in debating the issue rather they prefer to minimize it. Over 3,000 people – including hundreds of children – have died in the desert. Their blood is on the hands of those who merely trivialize the seriousness of the matter.

Ms. Caitlin Kannall from IL, do you suppose the person who was desperately looking for work believed he was playing a game with his life? Ms. Kannall, the fact is, you have never and never will have to deal with the same difficulties or stigmas as undocumented immigrant. You have no earthy idea what it is like to be hunted; or grasp the dangerous conditions they go through. You don’t even have the faintest clue what happens once a woman is apprehended. Many of them report being raped is the “price” for not being apprehended and/or deported, or having their confiscated documents returned. This is not something you can just roll your eyes at, nor can you and your club claim that is another instance of the media making a huge deal out of nothing and demonizing the “racist white.” This is not an X-box game where you another life or simply walk away if you are killed; fascist scapegoating should never be up for academic discussion.

To think by having this would foster some type of discussion is seriously flawed. So what social ill is next on the group’s agenda they plan to tackle, cross burning to facilitate a conversation on racism? Or is it beating up the downtrodden, to discuss the homeless issue? Truth is, this is type of behavior is not new among college students either. There is a regular trend that is taking place around colleges and universities across the country; it is in the form of racist parties where white people believe it is fashionably acceptable to exploit degrading stereotypes of minority cultures for the purpose of humor. A private, off-campus party organized by [tag]Santa Clara University[/tag] students is the latest report regarding another theme party with racial overtones, “South of the Border.” (h/t to VivirLatino)

A “South of the Border” theme party has stirred outrage at a Jesuit university in Silicon Valley after students showed up at the bash dressed as Latino janitors, gardeners, gang members and pregnant teens.

Photographs from the private, off-campus party organized by Santa Clara University students in late January appeared on the Internet soon afterward, prompting an outcry on campus.

Just because segregation is no longer legal, does not mean racism is dead. All it did was take on a different form and now it has become a collective problem. Like a virus, racism has entered our school and through out this country in the most dangerous form: a subconscious and institutionalized one – [tag]structured racism[/tag].

This form of racism disguises itself with subtleness making it more palatable, more digestible for those being subjugated to it and that we ought to focus more on blatant racism because it is easier to deal with. I know I am repeating myself, when I say that repeating misethnic slurs will only bring about [tag]institutionalized discrimination[/tag], which is only meant to detract from a person’s humanity, dignity, self-respect, standing, and potential.

I have been holding back, but as of this writing, VivirLatino just report that immigrant sweeps are occurring across 17 states and the District of Columbia. Sabes que? I am tired and now I’m am just going lay it down whether you like it or not.

What people refuse to accept, America is reverting back to classifying people of color and the working class as second-class citizens. And second-class citizenship is nothing but modern day slavery. As long as people have this mentality of not wanting to talk about it in the “Land of Free” racism will continue to exist. We are at the point again where it is liberty or it is death. It’s freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody This message must be and has to be ingrained into our subconscious. We cannot afford to roll our eyes whenever the issue of race is brought up. Things will not be fixed by watching Oprah or Dr. Phil. It will not get resolved by watching some 30 min sitcom show.

America today finds herself in a unique situation because this government has abandoned us. The Democratic controlled Congress that claims that they are concerned about our rights, that is still the government. Don’t be fooled by party labels because any manner of activity that takes place on the floor of the Congress or the Senate, that is the government. Any kind of act that is aimed to hinder or strip us of obtaining OUR full rights, the government is accountable for it. And any time you find the government involved in a conspiracy to violate OUR civil rights then we are wasting our time expecting government redress.

It is time we start a new civil rights struggle, and frame our argument that is not only limited to civil rights but include human rights as well. In order to win, we must do what Malcolm X suggested, we must take this struggle to the UN. By doing this we allow the world witness the crimes against humanity committed by the rich elites who are running this country through the guises of Uncle Sam. They are guilty of violating the human rights of the working class and community of color, yet, they still have the arrogance to stand up and represent themselves as the leaders of the free world.

The only way we are going to solve this problem is through unity. We can no long afford air out our differences in public; we have to accept the fact that we are all in the same boat. We must bridge our difference with other ethnic/racial/cultural groups in the community, in the city, in the state, and throughout this country. We remain divided because it is the strategy of the capitalist elites and it has always been their strategy “divide and conquer.” They keep us divided in order to conquer us.

The decision is yours. If you are not ready to pay that price, don’t use the word freedom in your vocabulary.