Lawrence Downes /NYT: strongly supports illegal activity, has mental issues

Lawrence Downes of the New York Times offers "Notes From the Immigration Battlefield" (link). Like his earlier article (here, update here), it shows that he very strongly supports illegal immigration and thereby all of its associated illegal activity. And, the article shows that he has mental issues. Specifically, he views white people (presumably including himself) as inherently bad, and those who aren't white as inherently good. He's a racist, but not in the usual sense of that term.

Back in February 7, a few hundred people marched on the Border Patrol office in Riverside, CA regarding the claim that the BP office there has a quota system and is engaging in racial profiling to meet it. Jim Gilchrist and others from the Minuteman Project staged a counter-protest, and their report is here. The report from the other side, with pictures, is at la.indymedia.org/news/2009/02/224529.php. From the last:

In total, more than 300 people, members of Warehouse Workers United, LiUNA, the National Day Labor Organizing Network, Pomona Economic Opportunity Center, the Inland Empire Rapid Response Network, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and other churches, student groups from UC Riverside and the Claremont Colleges, the Mexica Movement, and the Brown Berets made the trek. When rain began to fall, march organizers and security handed out plastic ponchos.

Most people would consider the last two groups extremists and reconquistas. If either group had their way, those of European descent would move back to Europe.

How does Downes portray a march featuring such extremists? As one big giant fiesta:

...Unauthorized immigrants are not about to destroy anything, not even when they get angry and loud and march in large groups. On the contrary, they are inspiring. Their ethic of self-reliance and hard work is one that Americans should recognize and celebrate... [The marchers] looked like any Americans, though maybe more cheerful. They chanted and sang and got soaked. The ink on their signs bled. They looked like poor people marching for a better life, the kind we root for in movies like “The Grapes of Wrath.”... ...I went to the Latino side, where the singing was better.

Downs also says:

"Reconquistas," [Gilchrist] called them, citing a Mexican plot to seize the U.S.A. through mass migration. It’s fictional, but Jim believed it.

There doesn't have to be an actual plot for something similar to happen; Mexico already has a great deal of political power inside the U.S., and even more immigration from that country - especially in case of an amnesty - will give them a strong say in our policies. And, of course, Downes was marching with people who support reconquista, even if he's too much of a useful idiot to recognize it.

Thu, 03/19/2009 - 09:42 · · Importance: 4