Immigrants and Race in the US: Are Class-Based Alliances Possible?

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Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge Jonathan Scott and Victor Wallis whose comments on earlier drafts improved this essay.

Notes

1. Supreme Court Bakke case (1978).

2. Close behind are Nevada, Maryland, and Georgia at 42% each. US Bureau of the Census. “US Hispanic Population Surpasses 45 Million.” May 1, 2008. http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/011910.html.

3. A useful distinction is sometimes made by analysts between “immigration policy” and “immigrant policy.” “Immigration policy” determines which immigrant groups are permitted to enter the US and in what numbers. “Immigrant policies” refer to federal, state, and local laws that influence the integration or the treatment of immigrants after they have arrived. The federal government sets US immigration policy. US immigrant policy is comprised of various state and local provisions and programs, which are less consistent and coherent than federal policy. Of course, both immigration policy and immigrant policy flow from the larger political economy. Here we focus on immigrant policy and its impact on multiracial politics.

4. DeWind and Kasinitz 1997; Bonilla-Silva 1997; Hellman 2008. To be sure, many 19th- and early 20th-century immigrants were not regarded as “white” at the time of their arrival, but became so as a result of violent social conflict and historical processes creating different patterns of ethnic group identity (Roediger 1991; Ignatiev 1995).

5. Of course gender issues are also integral to the socialist project. See New Labor Forum (Summer 2008) and Eisenstein (forthcoming).

6. According to a recent study published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, “Bad jobs – ones that pay less than $17 an hour and provide neither health nor retirement benefits – account for about 30% of all jobs in the typical state.” This means that around 30% of Americans live in poverty, that is, around 90 million people (Fremstad, Ray, and Rho 2008).

7. “The Wealth of Hispanic Households: 1996 to 2002.” http://pewhispanic.org/. Of course, class inequalities within immigrant groups may also be wide and are concentrated spatially.

8. In 2007 alone, more than 280,000 immigrants were held in detention and 270,000 were deported; nearly two million have been deported since 1996 (New York Immigration Coalition). In March 2008, 57% of all new federal criminal cases involved the prosecution of immigrants, particularly the undocumented, an all-time high (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, TRAC, Syracuse University. http://www.trac.syr.edu).

9. Yancy 2003. While many Latinos and Asians report their identities as “white” on Census forms (Allen 1999), most recent immigrants identify as neither black nor white and occupy – or are ascribed – an “in between” or “transnational” space. Jones-Correa 1998; Roediger and Barrett 2002; Kasinitz, Mollenkopf, and Waters 2004; Lien 2004; Tienda and Mitchell 2006.

10. Many non-white immigrants – whose skin is dark as any African American – do not consider themselves black or the descendants of Africans. For example, darker skinned Dominicans frequently say their roots are Taino (an indigenous group on the island of Hispaniola).

11. Portes and Zhou 1993; Portes and Rumbaut 1996. The foregoing description of this literature is based on a summary in Nancy Foner 2005: 56.

12. Steinberg (2005: 42) quotes Toni Morrison's stark challenge to advocates of multiracial alliances: “.… the move into mainstream America always means buying into the notion of American blacks as the real aliens. Whatever the ethnicity or nationality of the immigrant, his nemesis is understood to be African-Americans.”

13. “The word ‘racism’ is commonly understood to refer to instances in which one individual intentionally or unintentionally targets others for negative treatment because of their skin color or other group-based physical characteristics. This individualistic conceptualization is too limited. Racialized outcomes do not require racist actors. Structural racism refers to a system of social structures that produces cumulative, durable, race-based inequalities” (Powell 2007).

14. Under the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, “The national origins quota system classified Europeans as nationalities and assigned quotas in a hierarchy of desirability, but at the same time … deemed all Europeans to be part of the white race, distinct from those considered to be not white…  . The 1924 Act also excluded from immigration Chinese, Japanese, Indians, and other Asians on grounds that they were racially ineligible for naturalized citizenship” (Ngai 2004: 7). Mexicans and other Latinos from the Western Hemisphere were considered white and not limited by quotas. However, “enforcement provisions of restriction – notably visa requirements and border-control policies – profoundly affected Mexicans, making them the single largest group of illegal aliens by the late 1920s” (Ngai 2004: 7). Of course, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was an earlier instance of restricting immigrants on the basis of race and national origin.

It is interesting to note that the Ku Klux Klan played a key role in passing the Johnson-Reed Act. See Curran 1975: 143; Chalmers 1965: 283; Heer 1996; Miller 1998. A 1924 House of Representatives Report acknowledges this fact (Report #350, 68th Congress, 1st Session, II, 4f).

15. The need to include victims of racial oppression finds a parallel in the history of the women's movement. The “second wave feminism” of the early 1970s was born out of civil rights struggles. Because this wave was dominated by white women, it maintained a blind spot to race and racism. Hence, the voices of black women were not heard. Subsequently, many of those voices expanded discussion and analysis of women's oppression and how to combat it. Today, immigrant women are increasingly calling attention to the value of women's rights.

16. Pew Center for the People and the Press. “America's Immigration Quandary: No Consensus on Immigration Problem or Proposed Fixes.” March 30, 2006. (http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=274); Leslie Fulbright. “Polls, leaders say many blacks support illegal immigrants.” San Francisco Chronicle, April 13, 2006.

17. David Bacon. “Looking for Common Ground.” ColorLines. Vol 9, No. 1. Spring 2006; Mary-Frances Winters. “Why Blacks, Latinos need each other.” USA Today, April 21, 2006. Chaka A.K. Uzondu. “African-Americans, Economic Well-Being, and Immigration.” United for a Fair Economy, The Radical Wealth Divide Project, April 17, 2006; Ajamu Dillahunt. “Solidarity Statement to the April 10th Immigration Justice Rally.” Black Radical Congress. April 17, 2006.

18. Community Service Society. “US and Foreign-Born Low-Income New Yorkers: Competition or Coalition?” New York: Community Service Society, January 2007. http://www.cssny.org/pdfs/uht06slides/ImmigrantSurvey.pdf

19. Carroll Doherty. “Attitudes Toward Immigration: In Black and White.” Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, April 26, 2006.

20. Earl Ofari Hutchinson. “AWOL: Black Leaders and Immigration. Where are the Old Line Civil Rights Groups?” BlackNews.com, March 29, 2006; Rachel L. Swarns. “Growing Unease for Some Blacks on Immigration.” New York Times, May 4, 2006; Yvonne Abraham. “Immigration hits home in Lynn: Blacks voice fear of a loss of jobs.” Boston Globe, April 16, 2006; Valencia Mohammed. “Immigration: Where Blacks Stand.” New American Media, April 18, 2006.

21. Jesse Jackson, Sr. “‘Si Se Puede’ means ‘We shall Overcome.’” May 3, 2006. Email communication from the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network.

22. We prefer the term “multiracial” as opposed to “multiethnic.” The term multiethnic can lead to burying race and thus power dynamics. As for “people of color,” the advantage of this term lies in its inclusiveness and its equalizing effect. This strength, however, is also a weakness. The formulation homogenizes groups that possess different rights and social privileges. Moreover, it sometimes leads to disregarding the white working class. For example, some contend that people of color can and should organize themselves separately as a bloc to gain power. Although this position has a certain short-run merit, we believe that multiracial alliances are necessary for changing power structures. The failure to engage working-class people could cause the Left to succumb to one of the great failures of progressive movements – not confronting white supremacy. Thankfully, as we show below, new political formations are not taking the bait and are instead building multiracial working-class alliances.

23. Sen, Rinku. “White Progressives Don't Get It” Colorlines. Oakland, California, January/February 2007. http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=169

24. David Bacon. “Looking for Common Ground.” ColorLines, Vol. 9, No. 1, Spring 2006; Mary-Frances Winters. “Why Blacks, Latinos need each other.” USA Today, April 21, 2006. Chaka A. K. Uzondu. “African-Americans, Economic Well-Being, and Immigration.” United for a Fair Economy, The Radical Wealth Divide Project, April 17, 2006; Ajamu Dillahunt. “Solidarity Statement to the April 10th Immigration Justice Rally.” Black Radical Congress, April 17, 2006.