President Carter was correct to characterize Congressman Joe
Wilson’s outburst during President Obama’s health-care speech as
racist. Racism is at least part of the fuel that detonated the
reflexive, angry two words —”You lie!” — shouted at Obama
during his nationally televised speech to a joint session of Congress
on September 9th.
But few commentators have reflected on the 16 words spoken by Obama
immediately prior to Wilson’s reaction. The president, in attempting to
win over moderate Republicans and independents to his
health-care-reform proposal, said, “There are those who claim our
reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants; this too is false.”
Let us not forget that it is the “Latin factor” that forms much of
the racism represented by Wilson. Brown-skinned, Spanish-speaking
people, who make up 78 percent of all undocumented aliens in the U.S.,
represent the real challenge to the South Carolinian legislator and his
allies. In Wilson’s world, denying 13 million people health care
becomes a political virtue rather than what it really is: divisive,
cruel, and completely against the founding principles of our
nation.
We’ve tried this before. In 1994, during a period of anti-immigrant
activism, voters in California passed the Proposition 187 ballot
initiative, which sought to deny education and any health care (except
for emergency) to the undocumented. Proposition 187 was never
implemented, and by 1999, the California Supreme Court declared it
unconstitutional. California voters then rebuked some of the
politicians who supported the anti-immigrant legislation. (Governor
Pete Wilson was one such politician; he is now a political
afterthought.)
The question for President Obama is clear: If he can manage to
squeak through some sort of health-care reform in the next few months,
will he then have the political capital needed to begin the fight for
comprehensive immigration reform? Considering the current political
climate, real immigration reform might elude this president, just as it
did his predecessor. And that’s a shame.
With unemployment in the U.S. hovering at about 10 percent, many
claim that illegal immigration is responsible. In fact, the
undocumented laborers who work in occupations that U.S. citizens abhor
(in chicken processing plants in the Carolinas, in the strawberry
fields of California, in the apple orchards of New York) have brought
vitality and relative economic prosperity to many cities and towns
across the nation. New Orleans after Katrina; Galveston and Houston
after last year’s Hurricane Ike; Riverside, New Jersey, Hartford,
Connecticut, and hundreds of other communities have recently witnessed
the direct economic benefits of immigrant labor.
With our economy in crisis and our overall sense of American
exceptionalism seriously challenged by recent economic realities, it’s
time to act on comprehensive immigration reform by recognizing the
economic and social contributions immigrants (documented and
undocumented) make to our society. Regarding health-care reform, it’s
clear that forcing people to visit the local emergency room as a last
resort is grossly inefficient and cost-prohibitive.
Comprehensive immigration reform would make life more peaceful and
secure for millions of people who live and work in this country and
contribute their energy to our society. The reform legislation must
include the “Dream Act,” which would regularize the immigration status
of hundreds of thousands of young people who are citizens but are
effectively denied both the dream of education beyond high school and
true social mobility in the U.S.
Frightened racists sit in the hallowed halls of our legislatures,
but racism is far more complex and insidious than the two-bit words
used by a white Southern congressman. Millions of Hispanics among us
have felt unkindness and prejudice in a nation that prides itself on
celebrating diversity and supporting the ambitions of those who hope to
make a better life here. Comprehensive immigration reform must become a
national priority. President Obama should tune out the shouters and
haters and move a more rational nation forward on this critically
important enterprise.
