The Chicago and Illinois minutemen showed up to protest the National Council of La Raza’s (NCLR) Annual Conference yesterday. When I spoke to the 10 or so minutemen members gathered outside the first thing one of them said to me was “La Raza is a racist organization, in my opinion.” When I pressed several members to explain why NCLR was racist, I received responses like “they don’t support English,” “we have to protect our borders,” and that they promote “ethnicity over nationality.”
Just for the record I am including an excerpt of NCLR’s mission statement from its website: “The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) – the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States – works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans. To achieve its mission, NCLR conducts applied research, policy analysis, and advocacy, providing a Latino perspective in five key areas – assets/investments, civil rights/immigration, education, employment and economic status, and health. In addition, it provides capacity-building assistance to its Affiliates who work at the state and local level to advance opportunities for individuals and families.”
As I covered the conference, I spoke to attendees of all ethnic backgrounds that support and applaud NCLR’s work. In fact, NCLR launched the campaign We Can Stop the Hate specifically to address, to counter, and hopefully to prevent hate and violence from entering the immigration debate.
Unfortunately for the Minutemen, when one accuses another of racism, one’s own viewpoints will certainly be scrutinized.
So let’s discuss Chicago’s most prominent anti-immigrant activist, Rosanna Pulido. I was told by several Minutemen members that she was at yesterday’s protest; however, she left before we had a chance to speak with her. Rosanna is not just a leader of the Minutemen, she is also a former field staff member for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and a spokesperson for a FAIR front-group called You Don’t Speak for Me.
FAIR is listed as a hate group by the civil rights organization Southern Poverty Law Center.
In March it was uncovered that Rosanna had made several controversial remarks under an Internet pseudonym, “Chicagolady.” While we previously reported on her posts, here are some excerpts from them.
The website http://rosannapulidoisafreeper.wordpress.com/ was recently launched by a sharp-eyed anonymous blogger who made the connection between Pulido and a frequent poster on Free Republic called Chicagolady. Rosanna Pulido aka Chicagolady has been posting juicy commentary on the conservative site as far back as 2001. As I scrolled through Pulido’s comments I was particularly shocked to come across this one made in response to a discussion about men at mosques, kneeling in prayer:
It appears her religious disdain extends beyond Islam and into Catholicism (her own faith apparently). As a contributor to this blog reported in January, Pulido stated at a public forum in October 2007, “The Catholic Church is not Catholicism. It has nothing to do with Christianity or the Bible.”
Of the Catholic Church and immigration she stated at the same forum, “What better way to fill your pews and fill your offering coffers than with inviting in and giving sanctuary to illegal aliens.”
As recently as March 21, 2009, Pulido harshly criticized Chicago’s Cardinal George for his appeal for humanity on behalf of immigrants. She told ABC news, “Cardinal George is responsible for every illegal immigrant who dies while crossing the border coming over here because he is luring them.”
The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights pointed out at the time of her campaign that:
Rosanna Pulido has also attacked viciously the gay community. In a post by Chicagolady dated November 7, 2007. “Face it, its better to be in a meat packing town than in a fudge packing town.” Another post on November 18, 2008: “Great! Now the gays can indoctrinate the other kids who are struggling, they will be told that they have gay tendencies and be lead along like sheep to the slaughter.”
Several community organizations that include Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Council of American-Islamic Relations, Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, Jewish Council of Urban Affairs, Priests for Justice for Immigrants, and other civic organizations and friends of mine, whose judgments I highly respect, have been referring to clippings of your quotes, published on blogs under the pseudonym of Chicagolady, demonstrate that while advocating your viewpoints you frequently transgressed the boundary of robust discussion and veered off to demonize and dehumanize the groups you wanted to oppose.
Make no mistake, anti-immigrant leaders like Rosanna Pulido are political extremists, and like all extremists, they cannot resist vilifying anyone who doesn’t fit their narrow sketch of what an “American” should look like and believe.
Before we even start a discussion on the Minutemen’s accusations against NCLR, I think we need to answer the following: why would we even consider the claims of anti-immigrant groups whose members spew such malicious bigotry?