Racism versus Economics

Immigration. Few words evoke more emotion than that word in our country. Few subjects have so divided our country than what to do about immigration. For all the wonderful things our country has accomplished, it has never done immigration and integration very well; at least not at first. Whether it was the Irish in the mid-1800s or the Italians, Chinese, Pols and Slavs of the late 1800s and early 1900s, the waves of new immigrants to our shores have always created a tsunami of fear.

As we have again been debating immigration, we have heard a great deal about racism and prejudice as one of the leading causes for the contention around immigration. Is racism, the color of ones skin, why this subject has so vexed our country since its beginning? Or, is there something besides race that really drives our prejudice? In my opinion, I think it is because somewhere in the primordial reaches of our conscience we believe we live in a world of finite resources and opportunities. Therefore, we think anyone coming in after we came in some way jeopardizes what we have. I’m sure that racism exists, and that indeed some do not like another simply because of the color of their skin. However, I believe this type of uncivilized individual is now in the minority. I believe that most prejudice is not racial but economic. In other words, we tend to feel uncomfortable with another person not because of the color of their skin but by their economic situation. When I put forth that position to my wife, she asked what I meant. I gave her the following scenario:

You have just left the grocery store with a cart full of groceries. As you approach your car you see that now parked next to your car is a nice shiny Mercedes Benz. Standing outside of the car are three Hispanic men, in their thirties, dressed in nice suits, well-groomed. One is speaking on a cell phone, and the other two are talking. They are obviously well-to-do.

I then asked her, “Do you feel uncomfortable when you see them? Do you feel threatened or intimidated as you approach your car?” She thought a few seconds and then said, “No.” I then gave her the next scenario:

You have just left the grocery store with a cart full of groceries. As you approach your car you see that now parked next to your car is a late model sedan, rusted, dirty, and looking like it is in need of repair. A wave of cigarette smoke greets you as you approach the car. Standing outside of the car are three Caucasian males in their thirties, shabbily dressed and unshaven. They do not look well-off financially.

I then asked her, “Do you feel uncomfortable when you see them? Do you feel threatened or intimidated as you approach your car?” She thought for a few seconds and then said, “Yeah, I guess I do.”

It wasn’t the color of the skin that was the problem; it was their economic state. I wonder if we had Canadian brain surgeons pouring across our northern border bringing with them the promise of contributing riches to our economy if we would have the same feelings we have with our current situation on the southern border. I think it would be different. Probably, instead of working at a fevered pitch to try and stop them from coming in, we would be working hard to make it easier for them to get here legally.

I’m not sure what it is about poverty that makes us so uncomfortable, but it does. For most of us, when we walk down a street and pass someone sitting there with a sign reading “Please help. I’m homeless,” we feel a strange twinge, an uncomfortable feeling. I know I do. For a few of you saints, that uncomfortable feeling may be a sense of pity or even guilt for wanting to help but maybe not being able to. I think that for most of us that uncomfortable feeling comes from a perceived sense of desperation we feel from the one in poverty. This perceived desperation creates a fear in us of the unknown, i.e. “Is this person desperate enough to try to take what is mine?” Because of that uncertainty, fear guides us and we take on a defensive position. Throw in a lack of being able to communicate in the same language and having different cultures, and the fear and mistrust grows and deepens.

I think the great angst in our country over immigration stems from the feeling that those who are coming here, especially the undocumented, are threatening our country economically. There has to be a way of determining how accurate that feeling is. Is there an independent third party out there, one with no agenda (if such an animal exists) that has done a study to look at the economic impact of illegal immigration? Let’s do some research.

We will look at this in future blogs.

Also, at the beginning of this blog I wrote, ‘For all the wonderful things our country has accomplished, it has never done immigration and integration very well; at least not at first.’ There is a reason that I bolded that last part of my sentence. I will explain that in a future blog.