So while House
Republicans who have hypocritically refused to approve additional funding for
border security and yet engage in their politically-motivated impeachment games
with current target (after looking like idiots during Hunter Biden’s “surprise”
appearance) being Homeland Security head Alejandro Mayorkas—parading about their
only piece of “evidence,” an anecdotal incident involving an MS-13 gang member
who they forget to mention was “bred” in
the U.S.—as “proof” that the country is less “safe” with migrant families in
the country.
Of course it is pointless to point out that crime statistics show migrants are much less prone to violent crime (since that is what they are escaping from in the first place), and border cities have less violent crime than most other U.S. cities, and that MS-13 and other Hispanic gangs account for only a tiny percentage of gang-related homicides in this country. That doesn’t matter; if they were not here, such crimes wouldn’t happen. Too bad that “logic” doesn’t apply to the “natives.”
Republicans and other xenophobic types of any ideology thrive on depicting migrants as something less than human, applying the worst characteristics to their “nature,” while ignoring their own massive defects. A recent incident involving migrants and a New York City high school once more gave us a picture of the dark heart that beats in some people, fed by hate and ignorance that is fueled primarily by the right but can also be found in those who believe in the victimhood of their own “group.”
On January 11, 70-mile-an-hour winds and rain persuaded NYC officials to give 500 migrant families being kept in a tent city at a mostly abandoned airfield 12 hours of crowded shelter in the gymnasium of the James Madison High School in Brooklyn, having students at the school take remote classes for a day. Some of these migrant families are from Ecuador, which I talked about last week, a once more or less peaceful country suddenly upended by the importation of drug violence in the past few years; they must feel this is the “price” they must pay for not being threatened with death every day.
Schools have often been used to provide shelter during emergencies, but only for “our people,” apparently. A human city education department spokesman said “turning our back on the most vulnerable is not what we stand for,” and one of the migrants from Ecuador said the experience at the airfield had been “nerve-wracking,” especially for the young children. But save for shelter from the wind, “sleeping” in seats in the school gymnasium until 2 AM when they were told to prepare to leave was apparently to some less “stressful” than the experience of students who just stayed home to do what they had been doing for a year during the pandemic.
The negative reaction from right-wing pundits, politicians, parents, a few students and even that moron Elon Musk demonstrates that ignorance of the situation migrants come from and the lack of public discussion about what behaviors this country can modify to create more livable environments for migrants to “happily” remain in their own countries—and because there is no such discussion, we see what is happening now, and some people are hypocritical enough to be “shocked” by it.
According to the local newsletter The City, “pundits raged about a supposed ‘takeover’” of the high school, despite the fact that students were only “inconvenienced” with having “one day of remote lessons on Wednesday, with after-school activities canceled and a dance scheduled for that evening postponed.” Poor babies. For those concerned with “vermin” scurrying about their school, “School officials said the NYPD had thoroughly inspected the building and custodians gave it a deep clean before students and staff returned on Thursday.” As if the school hadn’t needed one for years. I’m not going to say where this school is located at, but it begins with a “D” and it is “open” for “business”:
While Musk opened his own filthy mouth to proclaim that migrants “will come for your homes next”—one wishes it would be his home, which could probably comfortably house 100 families—“Angry commentators flooded the school’s Facebook page... ‘They are putting these people over our students...That school needs to be disinfected.’”
An “agitated mother” stood outside the school to heckle the migrant families entering the school in the rain, probably resembling the way “agitated” white parents “heckled” black students entering previously all-white schools during desegregation in the South. “During a Zoom call hosted by Principal Jodie Cohen and Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol, the two were shouted down by several outraged parents, several attendees said.”
Local politicians of course got into the act. The City went on “Assemblymember Michael Novakhov (R-Brooklyn) held a rally outside the school Wednesday where he invoked the white nationalist ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory, saying that ‘they wanna bring more and more people who rely on the government and vote for them.’ Republican Councilmember Inna Vernikov, who represents parts of southern Brooklyn, made the rounds on national television to complain that ‘our kids are really being punished.’”
How, exactly, are they being “punished”? Most students interviewed didn’t see what the “big deal” was, and some expressed sympathy for the migrant families. But of course there were a few influenced by their parents’ bigoted views: “’They put them over us students which is kind of crazy,’” said a 15-year-old. Another student lamented the school no longer felt safe for her. ‘It doesn’t feel like my safe space. It usually feels like my safe space.’” Like families with small children are “dangerous”? And you call yourself “human”?
The inhumanity and prejudice that underlies such views is truly despicable, although as usual the New York Times forgets its own reporting on events in places like Ecuador where some of these migrants are escaping, and feed into the paranoia: “The outrage was the latest political eruption over the tens of thousands of migrants crossing the southern border in recent months. Republicans have attacked Democrats over how they are managing a crisis that has overwhelmed government agencies.”
The outrage of the few naturally outweighed the humanity of the many who took the situation in stride, so long as it was for just a day; according to the Times “’We don’t foresee us using James Madison High School again,’ said Zachary Iscol, the city’s emergency management commissioner.” But this certainly wasn’t going to be the only storm that the poorly-sited migrant camp was going to face, which was already making travel to schools and services “exhaustive” for migrants. But that is of no concern to the bigots: “Every time there’s a flood, are they going to find a new school?” asked Vernikov, the conservative city councilwoman whined to everyone who would listen.
Note she doesn’t offer any alternatives, save, probably, to “go back where you came from.” I blame most of this on broadcast media. It is so eager to show people images of a border in “crisis” without explaining to them what created this “crisis.” I have talked about the reasons here ad nauseam, but one suspects that the powers behind the scenes do not want the public educated about any honest assessment of U.S. culpability. Gen. Smedley Butler once said this about U.S. involvement in Latin America…
I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service as a member of our country's most agile military force -- the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from a second lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for Capitalism. Thus I helped make Mexico...safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in...I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-12. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras 'right' for American fruit companies in 1903
…but economic exploitation (which included U.S. companies adhering to their own slave-labor “laws,” and destroying infrastructure they built after they were done exploiting so it could not be used by the natives they exploited) wouldn’t even be the worst of it. The only thing that has “changed” to any degree is the U.S.’ desire to run away from its guilt. Rather than “guilt,” we are told, there is “shock” that the high school story was even a “story.”
There are those who are embarrassed by all the publicity, but of course it wouldn’t be a “story” at all—or if it had to be, it could have been as an indication of the better side of human nature—unless one side wanted it to be one so they could exploit it for nativist political purposes to inspire fear and loathing; I mean why else would they be on national television using the episode to demonize and dehumanize migrant families who just wanted a safe place to stay for a few hours? I mean do these people even hear themselves? Sometimes I wish there was a “God,” because I know where these people won’t be headed to when they pass on.
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