Politics

Tea Party Bullies Republicans to the Far Right

Written by Chris Bober

Last week, as the Tea Party movement pressed forward with its eerie “we are the people” message, Sarah Palin drew a deeply troubling line in the sand. Her message for mainstream Republicans was: get on board with the Tea Party movement or you will be left behind. While many in the Republican Party have already funded and promoted the Tea Party, it would appear that those few moderate voices that remain have a choice to make. To understand what is at stake for the Republican Party in this upcoming election, I believe we need to take a close look at the recent past.

During the 1980s and ‘90s, there was a similar takeover of the… Read more

Immigration

Stephen Colbert Testifies

Written by Chris Bober

This past week Stephen Colbert testified before Congress about his one-day experience picking beans as a member of the “Take Our Jobs” campaign. The campaign, initiated by the United Farm Workers, invites Americans to take a position in farm labor in order to shed light on the extremely distressing nature of the work. It also intends to highlight the aversion most Americans have towards taking one of these jobs – even in times of economic hardship. Colbert was invited to testify by Rep. Zoe Lofgren who chairs the subcommittee as a way to use his face to bring more attention to the issue – unfortunately, many in the media have been critical of Colbert’s… Read more

Politics

Morrissey Describes Chinese as a “Subspecies”

Written by Chris Bober

Morrissey is in the news again. In an interview with Simon Armitage of the Guardian Weekend magazine, the English pop-singer describes Chinese people as a “subspecies.” He made this comment in a discussion about the treatment of animals in Chinese circuses and zoos. According to Alexandra Topping of the Guardian Morrissey said,

“Did you see the thing on the news about their (the Chinese) treatment of animals and animal welfare? Absolutely horrific. You can’t help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies.”

Despite the fact that Morrissey has denied accusations of racism and has even donated to Love Music Hate Racism in the past its spokesmen has had enough. In… Read more

Immigration

Tea Party Exhibits Racism, House Gives It a Caucus

Written by Chris Bober

According to Vice President Joe Biden, neither he nor the Obama administration believes the Tea Party to be a racist organization. This past Sunday on ABC’s This Week, Vice-President Joe Biden said, “I don’t believe—the president doesn’t believe—that the Tea Party is a racist organization,” Biden said on ABC’s This Week. “Very conservative, very different views on government…but it is not a racist organization.”

Additionally, the Tea Party Express was expelled from the Tea Party Federation after one of its top leaders, Mark Williams (the author of “Taking Back America – One Tea Party at a Time”), wrote an abhorrent and racist blog on his website. In the supposedly satirical piece the Tea… Read more

Politics

White Supremacists Rally After Racist Beating

Written by Chris Bober

The Rev. Al Sharpton paid a visit to Indianapolis on Sunday to shed light on the case of Brandon Johnson – a 15-year-old biracial teenager who was brutally beaten and subjected to racial slurs on May 16 by four white police officers.  According to Ken Kusmer of The Huffington Post,

“A police report said witnesses saw Johnson’s brother try to kick in the door of an abandoned building…Police say Johnson and others protested the arrest and that when an officer tried to arrest Johnson he resisted.”

It was at this point that an off-duty officer, Jerry Piland, joined the scene to assist the officers. According to Police Chief Paul Ciesielski via Mr. Kusmer,

“He

… Read more

Politics

Armed Neo-Nazis Hunt Immigrants in Arizona Desert

Written by Chris Bober

The climate of fear in Arizona’s desert has just reached new levels. Stephen Lemons’ piece in yesterday’s Phoenix New Times clearly illustrates this as he documents his trip with J.T. Ready -a neo-Nazi and border vigilante.

As previously reported by Imagine2050, J.T. Ready is a well-known member of the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group. According to its website,

“Only those of pure White blood, whatever their creed, may be members of the nation. Non-citizens may live in America only as guests and must be subject to laws for aliens. Accordingly, no Jew or homosexual may be a member of the nation.”

In May, J.T. Ready and his white nationalist friends showed… Read more

Immigration

Attacks On LGBTQ Community Part Of The Anti-immigrant Agenda

Written by Chris Bober

Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, is in the news again attacking immigrants. This time his target is the LGBTQ community – specifically bi-national, same-sex families.

In a June 4 article in the Boston Globe, Mr. Krikorian went on record opposing the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to grant a temporary parole to Genesio Oliveira of Brazil. The humanitarian parole allows Mr. Oliveira to be reunited with his spouse, Tim Coco, for one year. Although they were married in Massachusetts in 2005, Mr. Coco has been unable to sponsor his spouse for legal residency because their marriage is not recognized under federal law.

In the same article, Mr. Krikorian… Read more

Politics

Anti-immigrant Network Inflicting Legislative Damage Nationally

Written by Chris Bober

If it wasn’t already apparent, Arizona’s anti-immigrant law (which legalizes and mandates racial profiling), is a civil-rights nightmare that is quickly spilling out into other states.

Last week Seth Freed Wessler wrote a chilling article in Colorlines that detailed the political agenda of a far-right movement seeking to use Arizona Senate Bill 1070 as model for the rest of the country. The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and its legislative arm, State Legislators for Legal Immigration (SLLI) are drafting and introducing legislation similar to Arizona SB1070 in at least 11 more states. In addition to Wessler’s reporting, other news sources verify that local and state legislators from around the country… Read more

International

Fighting Fascism is a Global Effort

Written by Chris Bober

Since early last year the United States has seen rapid growth in many sectors of the radical right. There has been unprecedented expansion of anti-government militia groups, increased anti-immigrant rhetoric in the tea party movement, and deeply troubling proof of the relationship between anti-immigrant groups and white nationalists. With all this rage in our own backyard, it has been easy to forget that fighting fascism is truly a global effort. While the outcome may be disappointing, one effort stands out amongst all others.

Over the course of the last year and a half in Poland, the anti-racist organization ‘Nigdy Wiecej’ (translated as Never Again) has patiently attempted to convince the online auction… Read more

Politics

Hardcore Racists Flock to NumbersUSA’s Campaign

Written by Chris Bober

NumbersUSA deployed its counter-action to the immigration reform march in Washington D.C over the weekend. The plan, S.T.O.P Amnesty in four days, contained carefully crafted talking points that tea party and hard-core, anti-immigrant activists used to lobby state and federal lawmakers. NumbersUSA’s anti-immigrant rhetoric was used once again to demonize immigrants and create the illusion that Americans are strongly opposed to immigration reform.

In order to facilitate its efforts, NumbersUSA re-tooled its home page to include webcasts, detailed action alerts, and a social media feed. Not surprisingly, its attempt to create a web-based community backfired as its action alerts and website brought out racists, bigots, and the worst of the anti-immigrant movement. Even… Read more