DOCSLIB.ORG

Multiculturalism: Battleground Or Meeting Ground?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Multiculturalism: Battleground Or Meeting Ground? Multiculturalism: Battleground or Meeting Ground? Ronald Takaki "It is very natural that the history written by the victim does not altogether chime with the story of the victor'" Iosi Ferndndez of California, 1874' importance ot In 1979,I experienced the truth of this state- tries should not diminish the in- ment when I found myself attacked by C' what happened here. Balance should also denial or a ten- Vann Woodward in the New York Review of sist that we steer away from Woodward's contrast Books.I had recently published a broad and dency to be dismissive. and the "horrors comparative study of blacks, Chinese, Indi- of the "millions of corpses" Nazi Germany to racial vio- ans, irish, and Mexicans' from the American of genocide" in both heart- Revolution to the U.S. war against Spain. But' lenie in the United States seemed Africans for Woodward, my lron Cages: Race and CUI' less and beside the point. Enslaved South would have felt little ture in Nineteenth-Century America was too in the American for narrow in focus. My analysis' he stridently comfort to have been told that conditions should have compared ethnic their counterparts in Latin America were complained, it .onfli.ts in the United States to those in "worse." They would have responded that black population in BrazTl, South Africa, Germany, and Russia' mattered little that the than"l27.6 Such an encompassing view would have Brazil was "17.5 million" rather whether slavery beyond shown that America was not so "bad" after all' million" by 1850, or "three-mile limit" The author of scholarship that focused ex- whatWoodward called the and deadlY' clusively on the American South, Woodward was more terrible from was arguing that mine should have been What had provoked such a scolding One might cross-national in order to be "balanced." But this dean of American history? how I wondered, was balance to be mea- have expected a more supportive reading The Strange Career of sured? Surely, any examination of the "worse from the author of lim stir our soci- instances" ofracial oppression in other coun- Crow, a book that had helped What Is Multicultural Americq? 481 general and Amer- ety's moral conscience during the civil rights know about the world in is the issue Allan BIoom era. My colleague Michael Rogin tried to ex- ica in particular. This plain Woodward's curious reaction by saying raises in his polemic, The Closing of the Amer - ihat the elderly historian perceived me as a ican Mind. A leader of the intellectual back- he articulates a bad son. History had traditionally been writ- lash against cultural diversity, curricu- ten by members of the majority population; conservative view of the university students now some younger scholars of color like me lum. According to Bloom, entering have re- had received our Ph.D.'s and were trying to are "uncivilized," and faculty the "re-vision" America's past' But our critical sponsibility to "civilize" them' As a teacher, "hungers" are scholarship did not chime with the tradi- hi claims to know what their tional version of history. Noting my and "what they can digest." Eating is one of "large nonwhiteness, Woodward charged that I was his favorite metaphors. Noting the he re- guilty of reverse discrimination: my charac- black presence" at major universities, ierization of whites in terms of rapacity, grets the "one failure" in race rela- to be "in- greed, and brutality constituted a "practice" iions-black students have proven "melt as have all ihat could be described as "racism." Like a fa- digestible." They do not ther, Woodward chastised me for catering to other groups." The problem, he contends, is the "current mood of self-denigration and that "blacks have become blacks": they have self-flagellation." "If and when the mood become "ethnic." This separatism has been permissiveness passes," he lamented, "one would hope a more reinforced by an academic "Black balanced perspective on American history that has befouled the curriculum with "Learn will orevail."2 Studies" along with Another Culture-" is "the good Looking back at Woodward's review today, The only solution, Bloom insists, we can see that it constituted one of the open- old Great Books aPProach."a ing skirmishes of what has come to be called Behind Bloom's approach is a political the culture war. Some of the battles of this agenda. What does it mean to be an Ameri- "by conflict have erupted in the political arena' can? he asks. The "old view" was that rec- Speaking before the 1992 Republican Na- ognizing and accepting man's natural rights"' ti,onal Convention, Patrick Buchanan urged people in this society found a fundamental and his fellow conservatives to take back their cit- Lasii of unity. The immigrant came here "recent educa- ies, their culture, and their country, block by became assimilated. But the block. This last phrase was a reference to the tion of openness," with its celebration of di National Guard's show of force during the versity, is threatening the social contract that \992Los Angeles riot. On the other hand, in had defined the members of American soci- rights his first speech as President-elect, Bill Clinton ety as individuals. During the civil recognized our ethnic and cultural diversity movement of the 1960s, Black Power mili- a group iden- as a source of America's strength. tants had aggressively affirmed But many of the fiercest battles over how tity. Invading college campuses' they de- we define America are being waged within manded "respect for blacks as blacks, not as "propa- the academy. There minority students and human beings simply,'and began to This scholars are struggling to diversifythe curric- gandize acceptance of different ways." ulum, while conservative pundits like emphasis on ethnicity separated Americans "essential Charles J. Sykes and Dinesh D'Souza are from each other, shrouding their fighting to recapture the camPus.l humankindness." The black conception of a The stakes in this conflict are high, for we group identity provided the theoretical basis are being asked to define education and de- for a new policy, affirmative action, which termine what an educated person should opened the doors to the admission of un- 482 Multicuburalism in the United States qualified students. Once on campus, many about Koreans, and Hispanics about blacks. black students agitated for the establishment Our very diversity offers an intellectual invi- of black studies programs, which in turn con- tation to teachers and scholars to reach for a tributed to academic incoherence, lack of more comprehensive understanding of synopsis, and the "decomposition of the uni- American society. Here the debate over versity."s multiculturalism has gone beyond whether Bloom's is a closed mind, unwilling to al- or not to be inclusive. The question has be- Iow the curriculum to become more inclu- come, How do we develop and teach a more sive. Fortunately, many other educators have culturally diverse curricuiu m? been acknowledging the need to teach stu- What has emerged are two perspectives, dents about the cultural diversity of Ameri- what Diane Ravitch has usefully described as can society. "Every student needs to know," "particularism" versus "pluralism." But, by former University of Wisconsin chancellor regarding each as exclusive, even antagonis- Donna Shalala has explained, "much more tic, Ravitch fails to appreciate the validity of about the origins and history of the particu- both viewpoints and the ways they comple- lar cultures which, as Americans, we will en- ment each other.e counter during our lives."6 Actually, we need not be forced into an ei- This need for cross-cultural understand- ther-or situation. Currently, many universi- ing has been grimly highlighted by recent ra- ties offer courses that study a particular cial tensions and conflicts such as the black group, such as African Americans or Asian boycott of Korean stores, Jewish-black antag- Americans. This focus enables students of a onism in Crown Heights, and especially the specific minority to learn about their history 1992 Los Angeles racial explosion. During and community. These students are not nec- the days of rage, Rodney King pleaded for essarily seeking what has been slandered as "Please, calm: we can get along here. We all self-esteem courses. Rather, they simply be- can get along. I mean, we're all stuck here for a lieve that they are entitled to learn how their while. Let's try to work it out." But how communities fit into American history and "we" should be defined?7 society. My grandparents were fapanese im- Earlier, the Watts riot had reflected a con- migrant laborers, and even after I finished flict between whites and blacks, but the fire college with a major in American history and this time in 1992 Los Angeles highlighted the completed a Ph.D. in this field, I had learned multiracial reality of American society. Race virtually nothing about why they had come includes Hispanics and Asian Americans. to America and what had happened to them The old binary language of race relations be- as well as other fapanese immigrants in this tween whites and blacks, Newsweekobserved, country. This history should have been avail- is no longer descriptive of who we are as able to me. Americans. Our future will increasingly be The particularistic perspective led me to multiethnic as the twenty-first century write Strangers from a Different Shore: A His- rushes toward us: the western edge of the tory of Asian Americans. This focus on a spe- continent called California constitutes the cific group can also
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Ronald T. Takaki Papers, 1823-2009 (Bulk 1968-2008)
    Finding Aid to the Ronald T. Takaki papers, 1823-2009 (bulk 1968-2008) Collection number: CES ARC 2009/1 Ethnic Studies Library University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California Finding Aid Written By: Janice Otani Date Completed: October 2014 © 2014 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. COLLECTION SUMMARY Collection Title: Ronald T. Takaki papers, 1823-2009 (bulk 1968-2008) Collection Number: CES ARC 2009/1 Creator: Takaki, Ronald T. Extent: 42 Cartons, 33 Boxes, 5 Oversize Folders; (66.2 linear feet) Repository: Ethnic Studies Library University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California 94720-2360 Phone: (510) 643-1234 Fax: (510) 643-8433 Email: [email protected] Abstract: The collection contains general correspondence, mainly with colleagues and students. Correspondence relating to other series are filed with those series: Professional activities, Writings, Teaching, Research files, and Personal papers. The Professional activities materials include Takaki’s numerous lectures and presentations, special projects, consultations, media interviews, and awards. They consist of correspondence, speeches, conference programs, proposals, drafts to review, event announcements, articles, newspaper clippings, background materials, certificates, posters, audiocassette tapes, compact discs, and photographs. Takaki’s many published works are represented in the collection with related correspondence, proposals and contracts with publishers, book reviews, promotional events, awards and citations, manuscript drafts and revisions, newspaper clippings, posters, compact discs, and photographs. Some of the titles included are Iron Cages: Race and Culture in 19th Century America (1979); Pau Hana: Plantation Life and Labor in Hawaii, 1835-1920 (1983); Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans (1989); and A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (1993).
    [Show full text]
  • The Nativist Lobby Three Faces of Intolerance
    The Nativist Lobby Three Faces of Intolerance A Report from the Southern Poverty Law Center Montgomery, Alabama February 2009 The Nativist Lobby Three Faces of Intolerance By Heidi BeiricH • edited By Mark Potok the southern poverty law center is a nonprofit organization that combats hate, intolerance and discrimination through education and litigation. Its Intelligence Project, which prepared this report and also produces the quarterly investigative magazine Intelligence Report, tracks the activities of hate groups and the nativist movement and monitors militia and other extremist anti- government activity. Its Teaching Tolerance project helps foster respect and understanding in the classroom. Its litigation arm files lawsuits against hate groups for the violent acts of their members. MEDIA AND GENERAL INQUIRIES Mark Potok, Editor Heidi Beirich Southern Poverty Law Center 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, Ala. (334) 956-8200 www.splcenter.org • www.intelligencereport.org • www.splcenter.org/blog This report was prepared by the staff of the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Center is supported entirely by private donations. No government funds are involved. © Southern Poverty Law Center. All rights reserved. southern poverty law center Table of Contents Preface 4 The Puppeteer: John Tanton and the Nativist Movement 5 FAIR: The Lobby’s Action Arm 9 CIS: The Lobby’s ‘Independent’ Think Tank 13 NumbersUSA: The Lobby’s Grassroots Organizer 18 southern poverty law center Editor’s Note By Mark Potok Three Washington, D.C.-based immigration-restriction organizations stand at the nexus of the American nativist movement: the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and NumbersUSA.
    [Show full text]
  • Construction of Race and Class Buffers in the Structure Of
    Fordham Law School FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History Faculty Scholarship 1997 Construction of Race and Class Buffers in the Structure of Immigration Controls and Laws, The Symposium: Citizenship and Its Discontents: Centering the Immigrant in the Inter/National Imigination: Part II: Section Three: Rethinking Agency: Global Economic Restructuring and the Immigrant Tanya K. Hernandez Fordham University School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the Immigration Law Commons Recommended Citation Tanya K. Hernandez, Construction of Race and Class Buffers in the Structure of Immigration Controls and Laws, The Symposium: Citizenship and Its Discontents: Centering the Immigrant in the Inter/National Imigination: Part II: Section Three: Rethinking Agency: Global Economic Restructuring and the Immigrant, 76 Or. L. Rev. 731 (1997) Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/faculty_scholarship/25 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TANYA KATERI HERNANDEZ* The Construction of Race and Class Buffers in the Structure of Immigration Controls and Laws n the midst of current anti-immigration sentiment,1 which is motivating dramatic changes in the United States' immigra- tion laws, there exists the myth that prior immigration laws were more equitable and humanitarian.' Yet historical analysis reveals that immigration law has been put to uses far from idyllic, and has always been concerned with the racial makeup of the nation.
    [Show full text]
  • American Book Awards 2004
    BEFORE COLUMBUS FOUNDATION PRESENTS THE AMERICAN BOOK AWARDS 2004 America was intended to be a place where freedom from discrimination was the means by which equality was achieved. Today, American culture THE is the most diverse ever on the face of this earth. Recognizing literary excel- lence demands a panoramic perspective. A narrow view strictly to the mainstream ignores all the tributaries that feed it. American literature is AMERICAN not one tradition but all traditions. From those who have been here for thousands of years to the most recent immigrants, we are all contributing to American culture. We are all being translated into a new language. BOOK Everyone should know by now that Columbus did not “discover” America. Rather, we are all still discovering America—and we must continue to do AWARDS so. The Before Columbus Foundation was founded in 1976 as a nonprofit educational and service organization dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of contemporary American multicultural literature. The goals of BCF are to provide recognition and a wider audience for the wealth of cultural and ethnic diversity that constitutes American writing. BCF has always employed the term “multicultural” not as a description of an aspect of American literature, but as a definition of all American litera- ture. BCF believes that the ingredients of America’s so-called “melting pot” are not only distinct, but integral to the unique constitution of American Culture—the whole comprises the parts. In 1978, the Board of Directors of BCF (authors, editors, and publishers representing the multicultural diversity of American Literature) decided that one of its programs should be a book award that would, for the first time, respect and honor excellence in American literature without restric- tion or bias with regard to race, sex, creed, cultural origin, size of press or ad budget, or even genre.
    [Show full text]
  • The Social Construction of Race: Some Observations on Illusion, Fabrication, and Choice
    THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF RACE: SOME OBSERVATIONS ON ILLUSION, FABRICATION, AND CHOICE Ian F Haney L6pez* Under the jurisprudence of slavery as it stood in 1806, one's status followed the maternal line. A person born to a slave woman was a slave, and a person born to a free woman was free. In that year, three genera- tions of enslaved women sued for freedom in Virginia on the ground that they descended from a free maternal ancestor.' Yet, on the all-important issue of their descent, their faces and bodies provided the only evidence they or the owner who resisted their claims could bring before the court. The appellees ... asserted this right [to be free] as having been descended, in the maternal line, from a free Indian woman; but their genealogy was very imperfectly stated ... [T]he youngest ...[had] the characteristic features, the complexion, the hair and eyes ... the same with those of whites .... Hannah, [the mother] had long black hair, was of the right Indian copper colour, and was generally called an Indian by the neighbours 2 Because grandmother, mother, and daughter could not prove they had a free maternal ancestor, nor could Hudgins show their descent from a female slave, the side charged with the burden of proof would lose. * Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin Law School. B.A., M.A., Washington University, 1986; M.P.A., Princeton University, 1990; J.D., Harvard University, 1991. Mil gracias to Terrence Haney, Maria L6pez de Haney, Deborah Drickersen Cortez, Rey Rodriguez, Juan Zdfiiga, Maria Grossman, Richard Ford, Jayne Lee, Leon Trakman, Michael Morgalla, Ricardo Soto, and the participants at the Fifth Annual Critical Race Theory Workshop, in particular John Calmore, Jerome Culp, and Richard Delgado.
    [Show full text]
  • Allyship and Antiracism Reading List
    ROCKY TOPICS: ALLYSHIP AND ANTIRACISM READING LIST Racial Justice Resources Compiled by the UTK Women, Gender and Sexuality Program and Dr. Patrick R. Grzanka 75 Actions for Racial Justice: https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial- justice-f2d18b0e0234 How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzuOlyyQlug The African American Policy Forum: https://aapf.org INCITE! Women of Color Collective: https://incite-national.org/resources-for-organizing/ Black Mama’s Bail Out: https://nationalbailout.org/black-mamas-bail-out/ Locally: @knoxvillesblackmamasbailout The Bail Project: bailproject.org Race: The Power of an Illusion (film and resources) https://www.racepowerofanillusion.org/ Dismantling Racism Resources: https://www.dismantlingracism.org/resources.html?fbclid=IwAR1qLTwd- kD6p23tYmrhzqJjvYGyZv5aGFNRVlz9e5N2wttug3jcLub3wWE Black Feminism & the Movement for Black Lives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV3nnFheQRo&feature=youtu.be Philadelphia MOVE Bombing Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpbGgysqE4c The 1619 Project: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america- slavery.html (also available at lib.utk.edu) 30+ Resources to Help White Americans Learn about Race and Racism: https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/07/white-americans-learn-race/ Movement for Black Lives: https://m4bl.org (see especially The Platform) Southerners on New Ground: https://southernersonnewground.org Reading toward Abolition: A Reading List on Policing Rebellion, and
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Asian-American Literature
    Course Outline of Record Los Medanos College 2700 East Leland Road Pittsburg CA 94565 Course Title: Introduction to Asian American Literature Subject Area/Course Number: ENGL-128 New Course OR Existing Course Author(s):Joellen Hiltbrand Subject Area/Course No.: ENGL-128 Course Title: Introduction to Asian American Literature Units:3 Discipline(s): English Pre-Requisite(s): none Co-Requisite(s): none Advisories: Eligibility for ENGL-095 Catalog Description: This course is an introduction to Asian American literature. It focuses on particular contexts and theoretical issues that have informed the study of Asian American literature. Students will read from literature written by authors of various Asian American ethnic groups. They will be introduced to the unique history and thematic concerns of Asian American authors, as well as to the contexts in which this literature has been written. Students will also be introduced to the historical experience of Asian immigrants in the United States, and learn to connect literature to its historical and social context. Schedule Description: Asian American culture has a long and rich history in the United States. Come discover the complexity of Asian American experience as revealed in work written by Chinese American, Japanese American, Filipino American, Indian American and Vietnamese American authors. The "Asian American" identity is informed by individual and cultural differences, and is reshaped by each generation. We will explore this diversity in our readings and discussions over the course of the semester. Our topics will include: generational differences within Asian American cultures, Asian Americans and popular culture; the impact of World War II; and how Asian Americans deal with issues of cultural continuity in the face of the larger American society.
    [Show full text]
  • Historical Reinterpretations of Race: Breaking Stereotypes, Creating Archetypes Meaghan Mari Kozar Iowa State University
    Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2003 Historical reinterpretations of race: breaking stereotypes, creating archetypes Meaghan Mari Kozar Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Kozar, Meaghan Mari, "Historical reinterpretations of race: breaking stereotypes, creating archetypes" (2003). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 16110. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/16110 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Historical reinterpretations of race: breaking stereotypes, creating archetypes by Meaghan Mari Kozar A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Major: English (Literature) Program of Study Committee Jane Davis (Major Professor) Laura Winkiel John Schuh Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2003 Copyright © Meaghan Mari Kozar, 2003. All rights reserved. 11 Graduate College Iowa State University This is to certify that the master's thesis of Meaghan Mari Kozar has met the thesis requirements of Iowa State University Signatures have been redacted for
    [Show full text]
  • Middletown Township High School North and High School South AP Language and Composition Summer Reading Assignment 2015
    Middletown Township High School North and High School South AP Language and Composition Summer Reading Assignment 2015 Students are expected to read a total of six books during the summer months and complete a reader’s response journal entry for each title. Required Texts: • Eat, Shoots, Leaves by Lynne Truss • One selection from the nonfiction section Student Choice: • Four additional titles chosen from the recommendations listed below Students may read partial selections to satisfy the Student Choice four-text requirement.“Partial selections” may include articles, poems, essays, or other short works, taken from a variety of authors (see representative authors). Assignment: Students should complete a reader’s-response journal entry that includes the title and author, a few (3-5) meaningful quotations, and a short personal reflection (1-2 paragraphs) on each selection. Recommended Readings: Nonfiction In Cold Blood-Truman Capote Fast Food Nation-Eric Schlosser Woman Warrior-Maxine Hong Kingston The Glass Castle-Jeanette Wall The World is Flat-Thomas L. Friedman A Room with a View-Virginia Woolfe Black Like Me-John Howard Griffin Walden-Henry David Thoreau The Tipping Point-Malcolm Gladwell Drama Death of a Salesman- Arthur Miller Additional Representative Authors (College Board recommended) Autobiographers and Diarists Maya Angelou, James Boswell, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Charles Dana, Thomas De Quincey, Frederick Douglass, Benjamin Franklin, Lillian Hellman, Helen Keller, Maxine Hong Kingston, T. E. Lawrence, John Henry Newman, Samuel Pepys, Richard Rodriguez, Richard Wright, Malcolm X, Anzia Yezierska Biographers and History Writers Walter Jackson Bate, James Boswell, Thomas Carlyle, Winston Churchill, Wine Deloria, Jr., Leon Edel, Richard Ellmann, Shelby Foote, John Hope Franklin, Antonia Fraser, Edward Gibbon, Richard Holmes, Gerda Lerner, Thomas Macaulay, Samuel Eliot Morison, Francis Parkman, Arnold Rampersad, Simon Schama, Arthur M.
    [Show full text]
  • N C B R Northern California Book Reviewers 1450 Fourth Street #4, Berkeley, CA 94710, 510/525-5476, [email protected], Poetryflash.Org
    N C B R Northern California Book Reviewers 1450 Fourth Street #4, Berkeley, CA 94710, 510/525-5476, [email protected], Poetryflash.org 38th ANNUAL NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARDS Media contact: Joyce Jenkins, cell 510-612-3958, [email protected]. Photographs available on request. Winners Announced! Northern California's vibrant literary scene celebrated at the 38th annual Northern California Book Awards, Sunday, June 23, 2019, Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street in San Francisco. The NCBAs recognized the best published works of 2018 by Northern California authors. Berkeley poet and critic Sandra M. Gilbert was honored with the Fred Cody Award for Lifetime Achievement and Service; the award carries an honorarium of $1,000. Winning authors read briefly from the winning books. A book signing and reception followed the Awards Ceremony. Eligible books were divided into eight categories: Fiction, General Nonfiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, Children's Literature (Younger Readers and Older Readers), and Translation (Poetry and Prose). Northern California reviewers and editors read the books and discussed their merits to pick the winners. All of the nominated books on this recommended reading list were acknowledged at the ceremony. Master of Ceremonies: Caille Millner, columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle and author. NCBR GROUNDBREAKER AWARD - Small Press Distribution on their 50th Anniversary NCBR RECOGNITION AWARD - John McMurtrie, San Francisco Chronicle Books Editor 2008-2019 The 2019 Northern California Book Award Nominees and Winners are: FICTION The Incendiaries, R.O. Kwon, Riverhead Books The Winter Soldier, Daniel Mason, Little, Brown and Company (winner) There There, Tommy Orange, Alfred A.
    [Show full text]
  • Immigration and SPLC
    Center for Immigration Studies Backgrounder March 2010 Immigration and the SPLC How the Southern Poverty Law Center Invented a Smear, Served La Raza, Manipulated the Press, and Duped its Donors By Jerry Kammer Introduction This report examines the efforts by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to smear the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and, by extension, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and NumbersUSA. With no serious analysis, the SPLC in late 2007 unilaterally labeled FAIR a “hate group.” That poisonous designation became the centerpiece of a “Stop the Hate” campaign launched by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), also known as La Raza, to call on Congress and the media to exclude FAIR from the national debate on immigration. The campaign gathered strength as newspapers across the country reported that FAIR had been “designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.” While the news stories generally included FAIR’s denial of the charge, thereby providing a semblance of balance, the designation’s taint lingered. The SPLC, presenting itself as a non-partisan, public-interest watchdog, never acknowledged — and no reporter ever disclosed — that the center was an active ally of the NCLR in the campaign. The evidence presented here demonstrates that the SPLC became a propaganda arm of the NCLR. The SPLC’s decision to smear FAIR was the work of a kangaroo court, one convened to reach a pre-determined verdict by inventing or distorting evidence. The “Stop the Hate” campaign would more accurately be labeled as a campaign to “Stop the Debate.” As this report notes, FAIR, CIS, and NumbersUSA have raised questions about the social, economic, and fiscal costs of the “comprehensive immigration reform” sought by La Raza and such allies as the National Immigration Forum and America’s Voice.
    [Show full text]
  • Rodrigo's Tenth Chronicle: Merit and Affirmative Action
    Alabama Law Scholarly Commons Working Papers Faculty Scholarship 6-27-2012 Rodrigo's Tenth Chronicle: Merit and Affirmative Action Richard Delgado University of Alabama - School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_working_papers Recommended Citation Richard Delgado, Rodrigo's Tenth Chronicle: Merit and Affirmative Action, (2012). Available at: https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_working_papers/223 This Working Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Alabama Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Working Papers by an authorized administrator of Alabama Law Scholarly Commons. FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY 83 Geo. L.J. 1711 Georgetown Law Journal April, 1995 *1711 RODRIGO'S TENTH CHRONICLE: MERIT AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION Richard Delgado [FNa1] Copyright (c) 1995 by the Georgetown Law Journal Association; Richard Delgado INTRODUCTION: IN WHICH RODRIGO AND I MEET BY CHANCE AT THE NEW PROFESSORS CONFERENCE AND I LEARN OF A RECENT EVENT AT HIS SCHOOL I had just put down my papers from the talk that, as one of three graybeards, I had just given to a roomful of eager new professors when a familiar face materialized in front of me. “Rodrigo! I didn't see you in the room. Where were you sitting?” “Over there,” my young friend and protegé [FN1] replied, “behind Henry Abercrombie. He's a giant--I'm not surprised you didn't see me. That was a great talk.” “Thanks,” I said. “They called me up at the last minute. I didn't have much time to prepare.
    [Show full text]