Minutemen’s Outreach to Blacks Proves Immigration Makes Strange Bedfellows

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/stateof/hutchinson505

At first glance, it seemed absolutely ridiculous that Minuteman Project leaders would pick a park in a predominantly black neighborhood in Los Angeles as the May 3 jump-off point for their national caravan to Washington D.C. (The caravan will stop in 13 cities including President Bush’s hideout in Crawford, Texas.). Since the Minutemen first toted their cameras, beach chairs and binoculars to the Arizona-Mexico border last year to shame politicians into taking action to stop illegal immigration, they have been roundly lambasted as a racist organization.

Minuteman Project leaders bristle at the charge. They claim they do everything to shoo racists away from their organization and that the FBI does background checks on potential members (The FBI denied the claim). They also claim to have a multi-ethnic, diverse membership.

Yet, the avowed white supremacist National Alliance group, Neo-Nazis and an assortment of kooks, cranks and crazies flocked to the border last year to join Minuteman protests. On the white power website, Stormfront a National Alliance activist implored the “white nationalist community” to back the Minuteman Project.

The Minutemen have few visible black supporters, and up to a week ago, their presence has been nil in black communities. They have been denounced by mainstream civil rights organizations and black elected officials and have taken no public stand on issues such as affordable health care, failing public schools, police misconduct, the extension of the Voting Rights Act and unemployment. These are issues that most concern blacks. Their website is filled with xenophobic, nativist, borderline, race-tinged code word taunts at the “invasion” of “hordes” of “illegal aliens.”

The Minutemen’s pitch to blacks is a shrewd, cynical ploy to capitalize on the split among blacks over illegal immigration. And that split is wide and deep. The NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Congressional Black Caucus vigorously oppose the punitive the Sensenbrenner House bill and have generally supported the massive immigrant rights marches. A Field Poll in California in April found that blacks -- by a bigger percentage than whites and even American-born Latinos -- back liberal immigration reform. But many blacks express views that are wildly at odds with the black leaders and the polls.

[qanda]

1. I am black

And am embarrassed by the black callers that I hear on Washington Journal every morning. It seems like we are living in a parallel universe when I hear them say, "This is our country and they have no right to be here." Wow! Just wow! It's amazing to hear black people talk like that.

[madrchsod]

2. here ya go

great article about mexico and blacks through history
http://www.blackcommentator.com/182/182_mexico_black_history.html