(AP photo/Star Tribune)and from the chicago tribune:
On the way to Grant Park, the dominant chant was "si se puede" (yes, it can be done). No matter their apparent background, participants raised the Spanish chant to support their Latino comrades.
Serigne Diop, 40, led a group of Mexicans in the chant. "I studied Spanish in college," the Senegalese immigrant said with a smile.
Brian Smith and Zack Wicks, both 15-year-old students from Francis Parker School, turned "si se puede" into a modified rap.
A busload of Koreans and Filipinos riding to the march broke into the chant, banging a traditional Korean cymbal-like instrument for punctuation.
And Roger Brewin, a British immigrant, joined in the chant as he marched through the Loop. "I am an immigrant. These are my people," he explained.
what thrills me about today is the message of solidarity. now i'm no expert on economics, or immigration law. so, while i can say that i think "learn to speak american" is an idiotic argument for harsh immigration law, i can't argue for or against the particulars of the proposed immigration reforms. i have my own ideas about what make basic sense and what doesn't, but i recognize that it's a complicated issue. like anything else, there are no easy blanket solutions that will please everyone.
but here's what i do know. there are many categories of people that need to start standing up, together, and demanding better treatment under the mantle of american democracy. as mr. shakes put it last month,
The internecine warfare that occurs between women and men, people of color and white people, straights and gays, as they all squabble like schoolchildren in an attempt to gain or deny rights, is exactly what those in power want. They promote it, they foment it, they do everything they can to aggravate it, because they know that if we were all ever to get our fucking shit together, and demand that the society we all live in and contribute to should be fair and decent to everyone, then the egregious wealth and power that they enjoy would finally meet its end.
in these dark times, the only way out is going to be building bridges that unite movements. the only solution is going to be a critical mass. you read a people's history, you know, and you take away this idea that the only way anything ever changes in when enough people get enough riled up to demand it. (of course, even then, there's as good a chance that we'll all just get clubbed to bloody pulps and no progress will be made. but sometimes, just sometimes, the ground shifts.)
the last time i felt this kind of intoxicating solidarity was just over two years ago, when a million people converged on the mall to stand up for reproductive rights. now, i've certainly experienced the depths of despair since then - that all of us marched and sweated and chanted wasn't enough, and the conservative christian agenda rolled on in spite of our efforts - but that doesn't change the fact that there was a breathtaking amount of potential swirling around in DC that day. and i think that, while at the moment it seems like our efforts were for naught, that day was hopefully part of a bigger turning of tides. and maybe A Day Without Immigrants is another push of that tide, a surge toward people standing up for their rights, standing up against unjust power structures, standing together and saying "enough is enough."
si, se puede, indeed.
4 comments:
The bus I take to come home stops in front of a McDonald's. It was packed to the gills and seemed to be operating very slowly. Just before the bus showed up, two black kids came out with bags of fries and said "Man! We really would be fcuked without Mexicans."
Learn to speak American” mat be a bad way of putting it. But acknowledging that a multi-cultural society benefits from a common language is a basic fact of immigration. I live in a place that is 85% expats. Arabic may be the official language but it is English that everyone speaks. Britons and Americans make up a fair portion of the population over here but our combined numbers are far smaller than that of Indians, Pakistanis or Filipinos. As the immigrant population of the States grows and becomes more powerful their cause will be pushed forward by speaking of English. Not in the imperialist “come here, learn our ways and be like us” way. There is no other language (at least now and in the US) that can be the common ground between all the groups of immigrants and ‘us.’
Speaking English should not be some silly and unenforceable government mandate, but it should be the goal of the immigrants themselves.
Lets all hope that Congress will take note of these demonstrations in the way you have and get serious about finding a real solution to the current problem that does not involve the short sighted and protectionist “send ‘em all home” rhetoric that marred the last attempt.
fact is simple.
We would be in trouble without immigrant. This is a NATION of immigrant. And now, some fat cats NEOCONS want to say some immigrants our so called "illegal".
Well, I know one immigrant that make the BEST espresso. My personal Barista.
Also, how many immigrant speak english? Almost none. We get all upset when they want speak Spanish but we complain they speak British? No we do note!
Facts is facts, nobody need English in the Barrio.
I blog extentsivelie on ths other topic
Hillary-for-President.blogspot.com
toast, i hear you on the terminology thing - i've been lazy and referring to them collectively as immigrants rights marches because i'm approximating. oh, and i'm lazy.
but i did read an interesting article somewhere (i might try to go find it, but again, with the laziness) that talked about the idea that illegal immigrants might actually (or should actually) have "rights" here under the spirit of the constitution - life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, the affirmation of the inherent dignity and worth of "Man", etc and so on. it was an interesting take on the whole thing.
and i do have to say, a lot of people who some would consider to be "in their right mind" are saying things about immigration in general that would make them seem pretty much against it!
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