Blacks Against Immigrants? Don’t Believe the Conservative Hype

By Mark Winston Griffith & Andrea Batista Schlesinger
Guest Contributors

There’s a corrosive idea currently being spread by the conservative right. Designed to enlist African Americans in a race battle against immigrants by intentionally exploiting current economic anxieties, The Manhattan Institute’s recent publication of “The Rainbow Coalition Evaporates,” by Steven Malanga, argues that black people are fed up with illegal immigrants taking their jobs, committing crime in their neighborhoods, and messing up their schools.

Before this toxic narrative seeps further down into the public debate, it’s important to set the record straight on the Manhattan Institute and their opposition to a policy agenda that promotes the best interests of Black, Latino and White communities alike.

Like a petty gossip trying to instigate a school yard cat fight, the Manhattan Institute uses the Malanga article to pose as a friend and ally to black folk by whispering warnings about Latino people out to get them. But what’s the skin in the game for them? It certainly isn’t a deep commitment to improving the prospects of the African-American community.

The Manhattan Institute is the well oiled think tank based here in New York City that published “The Bell Curve” by Charles Murray, arguing that African-Americans have lower IQ’s.  It’s the hatchery of “welfare reform,”, “’compassionate’ conservatism,” the end of open admissions at CUNY, and the “broken windows theory” that formed the basis of Rudy Giuliani’s crime-fighting strategy of aggressive policing of poor communities of color. The Manhattan Institute, like much of the conservative movement, has identified the problem of cities to be the moral deficiency of the dark and poor people who inhabit them. To paraphrase the words of Manhattan Institute “scholar” Heather MacDonald, if the poor had “bourgeoisie values”, they wouldn’t be poor.

Malanga’s intentions are consistent with this view.  In his article he argues that Latinos have brought violence, in the same way conservatives have depicted African-Africans as criminal animals wreaking havoc in New York City.  He interviews one Black parent frustrated with the overwhelming Latino presence in his child’s school, with no ironic or historic sense of the cultural arguments against integration.

Malanga concludes that Black people are fed up with their own leadership for opposing “immigrant restrictions” and makes a call to action, suggesting that “Blacks could play a far more decisive role, though, if their political leaders felt threatened enough to pursue tougher immigration policies actively.”

And there we have it.  Malanga’s article isn’t about improving African-American neighborhoods, schools or prospects – or even immigration policies that could strengthen African-American communities. It’s about enlisting African-Americans in the politics of a racist, draconian position on immigration. Nothing more, nothing less.

Malanga tips his hand when he quotes a political scientist as saying that “some Republicans have positions on immigration that would resonate in the black community, but only a few have tried to take advantage of black anger of immigration.” Take advantage is right. The Manhattan Institute and their conservative movement must believe it is in their best interests to devise a political strategy based on black and Latino division, lest they face an America in which all of those on the fringes of our new economy – from African Americans to laid off white workers – demand something better than a sorry agenda of tax cutting for the wealthy and trade policy for the few. Why else would this article hint with glee at the misguided idea that there is no Black-Latino political coalition?

Fear mongering is the last gasp of the ideologically bankrupt. Rather than try to hawk an unrealistic policy of mass deportation, or actually devise a way to bring millions of immigrants out of the shadows by providing a road to legal status and employment protection, it’s easier to try to convince socially and economically vulnerable voters that immigrants are looking to take their jobs, victimize them, and overtake their schools.

One thing is for sure.  The immigration policy status quo isn’t working for anyone, no matter what community you live in. Race-baiting and racial scapegoating won’t change that. The only immigration policy that will allow this nation to move forward is one that squarely addresses the legal status and the working conditions of the 12 million undocumented immigrants who are here, a policy that recognizes that no matter what color you may be, our fates are all inextricably bound.

 

Mark Winston Griffith is a community economic justice activist, journalist and Senior Fellow in Economic Justice at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy. From 2005 to 2007, Mr. Griffith served as the co-director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, a policy and community resource organization that promotes economic justice in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Prior to that Mr. Griffith served for twelve years as the founding Executive Director of the Central Brooklyn Partnership, a neighborhood-based organization that builds the capacity of local people to exert political and economic power. While directing the Partnership he also served as the founding Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Central Brooklyn Federal Credit Union, which at the time was the country’s largest Black-owned, community-based financial cooperative.

Since 2002, Andrea Batista Schlesinger has applied her background in public policy, politics and communications to lead the effort to turn the Drum Major Institute into a progressive policy institute with national impact.  She has doubled DMI's staff, capacity and budget, making it a leading source for progressive ideas.  She has been profiled in publications including the New York Times, New Yorker magazine, and Latina Magazine. She has appeared on television shows including CNN's 'Lou Dobbs Tonight' and has been published in publications including The Nation, New York Newsday, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Mississippi Sun Herald, New York Daily News, Alternet, Tom Paine.com, New York Sun, Colorlines Magazine, The Chief-Leader, and City Limits magazine. She serves on the Editorial Board of The Nation, the New York City Traffic Mitigation Congestion Commission, and the boards of the Sadie Nash Leadership Project, WireTap and the Applied Research Center. 

Comments

[Marc S.]

The idea that illegal Latin immigrants are taking Black jobs is ludicrous. I travel to a number of architectural firms and I only see the occasional black or Latino receptionist. Now I know there are black and Latino architects. I saw them twenty years ago in college. I went to school with them. But I haven’t seen any in the seven firms that I’m currently involved.

I mention this because immigrants, the ones most of us are talking about; tend not to have any skill sets. They often take jobs bussing tables, cleaning buildings, or working stockrooms. These not the jobs African Americans want. Now these may be the jobs we African Americans tend to get, or take, but these aren’t our first choices.

As to the assertion the “bourgeoisie values” will keep you wealthy, this isn’t even remotely true. I make about eighty percent of what I made four years ago, because the Japanese company I work for decided that they either couldn’t or wouldn’t pay my, and a whole lot of other people’s good salaries anymore, so they sold to another company and we all got pay cuts. If you didn’t need health care, you could pack your office and walk out with pride. If you did, you shut up, took your cut, and you did your new job.

Trust me on this: I’m as bourgeois as they come. My home is filled with books. My toddler is being taught Hindi, American Sign Language, and Spanish by my also African American wife in the various libraries.

When I had money, I bought that mid-twentieth century furniture (a Barcelona chair, and Naguchi coffee table, a Barcelona sofa, and a Le Corbusier sofa). I’m a graduate of a famous art school, and a former executive.

Now I’m a mobile IT tech, trying to figure out my next move, because I can’t even get another job making what I’m making now, let alone what I used to make.

In the short story by Flannery O’Connor, “The Displaced Person” a Polish immigrant comes to work on a Southern farm in the 1940’s. He is industrious and keeps to himself. The Black farmhand and the White sharecropper that work the farm before him, have been playing mind games with one another for years. Lazily getting nothing done, as they spend their days manipulating one another. They only unite to fight the newcomer, who has no gripe with either, yet he only wants to get ahead..

That was sixty years ago, and Conservatives try to perpetuate that dynamic. Today, Blacks are no longer relegated to farms, and scrub rooms, so why would we think that anyone is taking “our” jobs? The problem is, even when we are trained, we can’t get the job. There is always a friend, or relative, or in-law that needs a job and a favor that keeps the playing field from being completely fair.

Many immigrants today still work farms. After five hundred years on U.S. soil, who wants to farm?

The others, the only Latinos I see in ad agencies with jobs I would want, are the ones that identify themselves as Spanish, Not Latino, and not Hispanic. Spanish. As if Argentina ain’t down South.

[George]

Hey Iam the black guy who did'nt make it out the hood. I live in Dallas Tx which is illegal immigrant friendly,So let me tell you my perspective from ground zero. It's not blacks against Immigrants it's the other way around, Immigrants don't hire blacks they are racial eltitist , when ther're #1 advocasy group is called La Raza (the race)it's not a track and field event.Iam so tired of you so called intellecuals selling this false we are the world crap I could scream.We as a people must understand that racism is a brand name that's been sold world wide, Ive been called me ah te chongo(monkey) and just the other day a young hispanic with menance in his eyes called me nigger outright, they don't want a coalition with us, they don't want their need and concerns to associated with black needs and concerns they want to assimulate with white america unless they run into trouble then they stary touting Martin Luther King Jr.So as a black who is a 2nd class citizen in a country he helped build want to be 3rd class citizen(how are blacks treated south of the border).you are on the wrong side of history on this one consider ms13 in San Francisco so therfore the enemy of enemy is my friend.

[Brandon]

The attempt to create division between Blacks and Latino's is no different then the southern strategy used in the south to keep poor Blacks and Whites separated. Hopefully, the African American community will not be bamboozled by the Manhattan and other right wing groups.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for publishing a long overdue analysis of this issue. As I was reading this piece, I couldn´t help but think how Asian Americans are often used as the ´model minority,´ not to show any acceptance or welcoming of Asian Americans into white America but just to create a ´contrast´ with blacks and Latinos. In the same way, blacks are being used to advocate for more hatred against undocumented (read Latino) immigrants. That´s always been the way to ´become American´ throughout history. Just hate the latest exploited and oppressed group in our society.

[rawdawgbuffalo]

divide and conquor

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[Ty dePass]

Good article. Sharp critique of the strategy and goals in play.
But the right has been nurturing this “corrosive idea” for a few years, now, working through a network of right-leaning foundations to support the work of national think-tanks (AEI, Hoover, Manhattan) which churn out the books, policy papers, periodicals, and Op-eds (City Journal, Hoover Institution Report) promoting right-wing causes. Think-tanks also feed content to a growing number of rightist webzines (Townhall.com, Issues and Views), some promoting conservative black voices (Elder, Sowell, Williams etc.). Lastly, well-funded stables of black front groups, like L.A.-based Project 21, are recent additions to the network of reactionaries on immigration. Allegedly a network of black conservative thinkers, Project 21is actually the wholly-owned initiative of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a “communications and research foundation supportive of a strong national defense and dedicated to providing free market solutions to today's public policy problems.”
May I offer one small correction to your text? Charles Murray was with the Manhattan Institute between 1981-90, where he completed Losing Ground (1984) a major conservative tome against social spending. Hwvr, when the overtly racist thrust of the Bell Curve (1994) became too controversial, he was quietly asked to take his Bradley Fellowship elsewhere — landing at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) where he’s been ever since.
The Manhattan Institute also maintains an in-house Center for Race and Etnicity, providing an intellectual home to racism apologists Tamar Jacoby, John McWhorter, Abigail Thernstrom and Stephan Thernstrom.
Readers interested in the New Right’s funding and organizational infrastructure can check out the following from mediatransparency.org, an on-line, progressive databank tracking the money:
“The Strategic Philanthropy of onservative Foundations: Moving a Public Policy Agenda,” From a 1997 reort by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP)
http://www.mediatransparency.org/conservativephilanthropy.php
“Sponsoring Conservative Minorities,” From a report by NCRP
http://www.mediatransparency.org/conservativephilanthropypageprinterfriendly.php?conservativePhilanthropyPageID=13 \
“Buying a Movement,” Report by People for the American Way Foundation (1996)
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=2052
“The Manhattan Institute: Launch Pad For Conservative Authors,” by Norman Solomon (IPA/Extra!, March 1, 1998)
http://www.accuracy.org/article.php?articleId=49
more on Murray and his writing
PERSON PROFILE: Murray, Charles
http://www.mediatransparency.org/personprofile.php?personID=3
“The Bell Curve: Roadmap to the ‘Ideal’ Society,” by Phil Wilayto (Jan. 1, 1997)
http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=8
“The Feeding Trough: The Bradley Foundation, The Bell Curve & the Real Story Behind W-2: Wisconsin's National Model for Welfare Reform,” by Phil Wilayto (June 1, 1997)
http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=6
on the Manhattan Institute