Letters to the Editor
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re sabrina07
shhhh....don't go bringing up that nasty little "c" word! This is america after all, why talk about "class" when you can neatly obscure the issue with "race"?
you're spot on by the way - it's all about class, it always has been, but that simply doesn't fit into the neat little lie of The American Dream, so the issue gets conflated with race.
actually I'm Canadian, we seem to be doing pretty well with immigration. I was reading an article for one of my politics classes and it pointed out that pretty much across the board our policy of multiculturalism is better at integrating immigrants into Canadian society than the melting pot (intermarriages, non segregated living etc). It seems counter-intuitive I know, but allowing people their culture actually speeds up integration!
I know that sounds like a bit of an aside, but it seems to me the underlying issue is one of nativism, or fear of losing cultural homogeneity...but I hate to tell you, the idea of a cultural and ethnic homogeneous state pretty much went out the door with Wilsonian Democracy - it's a 19th Century ideal that's simply outdated and impractical. You're just going to have to get used to it - brown people will be your neighbours.
Also, it seems to me that the same sort of dodge is going on here as with gay marriage - i.e it's not immigrants I hate but illegal ones = it's not gays I hate but gay marriage - that's a neat little way to sidestep any charges of bigotry, but underneath there's a whole lot of bigotry going on.
thanks,