Oberlin Blogs

Intolerance is the new black

April 4, 2009

Alice Ollstein ’10

Because I grew up in Santa Monica and then set up camp at Oberlin, Arizona is probably the most conservative place I've ever called home. Case in point: I wore my Obama shirt on inauguration day (nothing flashy, just a grey T with his gorgeous face and "Yes We Did") and as I was walking downtown a woman on the street glared at me and shouted, "Don't be rude!" People are far worse when it comes to migration, illegal or otherwise. Many studies have shown that communities near the border tend to be more intolerant of migration than their farther-north brethren. Not that people elsewhere are particularly compassionate. It's more a question of indifference. Out of sight, out of mind. I don't see the migrant who picks my $1.99 strawberries or smuggles my drugs across the border, so I don't really think about it all that much.

But down on the border, indifference often hardens into outright discrimination. A quote from a Texan local politician in yesterday's New York Times read: "The people who come here illegally across the border are not educated people," Ms. Richardson said. "They don't have any culture or any respect for ours."

Worse still is the cover article of this week's Tucson Weekly, which rails against "illegals" for "dumping" trash in the Arizona desert while crossing. The writer longs for the desert's "pre-invasion beauty," and reinforces racist stereotypes such as migrants bringing diseases into the U.S. and Latin American men as sexual predators. Yes, the water bottles and backpacks left in the desert are a problem, but let's place blame where blame is due. U.S. policies cause migration and more U.S. policies push the migration out into the desert. Let's not let people play on our environmental sensibilities as they dehumanize (the article basically calls migrants animals) and demonize migrants.

Responses to this Entry

"Many studies have shown that communities near the border tend to be more intolerant of migration than their farther-north brethren."

It's also true that the larger the black communities in southern states, the more each state opposed integration / civil rights initiatives. South Carolina, one of the worst ones, the one that started secession, had the largest % black population, I think.

Posted by: anon on April 6, 2009 8:30 AM

I was just thinking, would rewriting NAFTA or all together banning? I mean, migrants wouldn't be coming here illegaly if their own countries didn't have problems. And one of these problems is NAFTA, right? These are good posts but I'd like to learn a little more about what we can do.

Posted by: Harriette on April 6, 2009 11:00 AM

Well, Harriette,
While NAFTA has devastated Mexico's economy, stripped millions of their jobs and wreaked havoc on the environment, getting rid of it wouldn't solve everything. NAFTA was more the officialization of the neoliberal thinking of privatization and deregulation that has been around since the 80s. As for what we can do, the options are endless, but all begin with educating yourself and others. You can lobby our government to change its policies, volunteer for an organization in the U.S. (I have several suggestions, if you're interested) or simply use your influence as a consumer and boycott products produced by companies that themselves cause migration by putting millions out of business and exploiting workers. You have more power than you think!
Thanks for reading, Alice

Posted by: Alice on April 6, 2009 1:24 PM

Winter Term in Southeast Asia

March 8, 2023

Ilana McNamara

I spent my Winter Term in Indonesia and the Philippines learning about the musical cultures of both countries, meeting incredible people, and maybe even learning something about myself along the way.