Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Is the Arizona Immigration Law Racist?
http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=2685 ^ | William M. Briggs

Posted on 07/27/2010 7:18:45 AM PDT by mattstat

Is the Arizona law racist? Not only no, but obviously no. And for the simple logical reason that a law cannot be racist, only people can.

For example, suppose our betters in Congress passed a law stating that self-identified whites shall be granted twenty bonus points on each SAT test. So-called race-norming laws, rules, or mandates like this are quite common.

By which is meant, awarding advantages to individuals because their self-reported race matches certain categories are often institutionalized as lawful. Interestingly, it is still, at least here in the States, “self-identified” and not externally measured race.

But it is the people who created the law, and those that follow or implement it, who are racist, if by racist we mean people with a prejudiced belief that one race is superior to others, or a person who discriminates based on race (dictionary definitions).

Those who created the bonus-point law must either have believed that non-whites are, for whatever reason, superior to whites in SAT test scores, or they just felt like discriminating against non-whites for reasons of race, or they shared both attitudes.

Two things are of especial note here. First, you cannot have a positive without a negative, for just the same reason you cannot have a one-sided coin. Our race-norming law positively discriminates for whites, and simultaneously negatively discriminates against non-whites. Thus, whether the law is “good” discrimination or “bad” depends on your perspective.

Second, the people who created this law are racist while the people who create another law which awards points to specific whites who suffer identifiable (or provable) specific acts directed against them are not. That’s confusing, so here’s an example.

A white person, while taking the SAT, ...

(Excerpt) Read more at wmbriggs.com ...


TOPICS: Politics
KEYWORDS: aliens; arizona; immigration
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last

1 posted on 07/27/2010 7:18:48 AM PDT by mattstat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: mattstat

How can you say that a law cannot be racist? What would you call the Jim Crow laws or the laws that compelled Jews in Germany to wear a yellow star or not be allowed to go to the movies?


2 posted on 07/27/2010 7:24:33 AM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mattstat

Is Mexican a race?? Me thinks not.


3 posted on 07/27/2010 7:24:57 AM PDT by Sacajaweau (What)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mattstat

> Is the Arizona Immigration Law Racist?

I musta missed something.

What race is “Illegal Alien”?

As far as I can tell, their ancestry does not differ from that of Legal Immigrants from the same nation.

I surmise that Gramscian deconstruction of the language proceeds apace.


4 posted on 07/27/2010 7:27:19 AM PDT by Westbrook (Having children does not divide your love, it multiplies it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kabumpo

I would call them old, outdated and repudiated laws and rules that expired over 50 years ago, which keep being thrown in the faces of people who had NOT a damn thing to do with any of it....Newbie...go back to DU.


5 posted on 07/27/2010 7:29:24 AM PDT by FrankR (It doesn't matter what they call us, only what we answer to....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: mattstat

A law can be illegal. Affirmative action, race quotas, race-norming, reparations are all illegal, even if a law is passed making them “legal.”


6 posted on 07/27/2010 7:32:44 AM PDT by Leftism is Mentally Deranged (leftism: uncurable mental deterioration)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kabumpo

ALL AFFIRMATIVE ACTION LAWS ARE RACIST. Time to get them off the books.


7 posted on 07/27/2010 7:33:47 AM PDT by sniper63 (I am the leader of the TEA Party, I, myself am the leader of me, myself for I am the TEA Party!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Westbrook

“What race is “Illegal Alien”?”

As pithy an observation as I’ve seen in this entire conversation about AZ’s law. Well said.

Colonel, USAFR


8 posted on 07/27/2010 7:34:56 AM PDT by jagusafr ("We hold these truths to be self-evident...")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: FrankR

I’m not a newbie. And if name-calling is your first resort in answering, you must not have much of an argument.
It doesn’t matter how old they are — they were laws, and they were racist, so your statement that laws cannot in of themselves be racist doesn’t hold up.


9 posted on 07/27/2010 7:37:07 AM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: sniper63

I agree. But your friend who says that laws cannot be racist clearly doesn’t agree wsith you.


10 posted on 07/27/2010 7:38:18 AM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: kabumpo
If your only arguement is 50-60 year old repudiated and outdated laws from another era, instituted by democrats and communists, then you are obviously in the business of racebaiting.

Those laws have NOTHING to do with Arizona, and "Mexican" is a nationality, not a race. ILLEGAL is a crime and not a racial epithet. There is not one word in the law that specifies "mexican" or "hispanic"...it's intended to catch people who are in this country illegally...if you don't get that then English is obviously not your first language.

The Arizona law does nothing but enforce the Federal law that your boy obama seems so crazy about.

And a lot of Newbies moved onto FR in 2008 - the year of obama - and you seem to be one of them. And, you've already lost the argument...go back to DU.


11 posted on 07/27/2010 7:51:06 AM PDT by FrankR (It doesn't matter what they call us, only what we answer to....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: kabumpo

Kabumpo,

Vile laws, to be sure, and created by people who were racist. But the law itself is just paper. Inanimate, non-sentient things cannot be racist.

The people who implement laws can, of course, be racist.


12 posted on 07/27/2010 7:51:06 AM PDT by mattstat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Sacajaweau

Sacajaweau,

I mean to distinguish between those of white, Spanish decent and those “native to the soil.” This kind of discrimination, incidentally, is also performed by the Mexicans themselves.


13 posted on 07/27/2010 7:52:27 AM PDT by mattstat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: kabumpo

“How can you say that a law cannot be racist? What would you call the Jim Crow laws or the laws that compelled Jews in Germany to wear a yellow star or not be allowed to go to the movies?”

Go back over to KOS, American hating Moron.


14 posted on 07/27/2010 7:59:36 AM PDT by Cheetahcat (Zero the Wright kind of Racist! We are in a state of War with Democrats)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Cheetahcat

I’ve never been on KOS in my life, and I find your name-calling pathetic. You clearly have nothing of substance to say in answer to my questions.

I thought that this kind of low-grade personal attack was not permitted on FR.


15 posted on 07/27/2010 8:21:02 AM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: mattstat
I am a racist.....
I hate some blacks.. and I hate some whites.. I even hate a few Mexicans..

I am a bad man.. a sinner really..

16 posted on 07/27/2010 8:27:31 AM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: hosepipe
I am a racist..... I hate some blacks.. and I hate some whites.. I even hate a few Mexicans.

That doesn't make you a racist.

You have to think that your race is superior to all others....like NASCAR or drag racing.

17 posted on 07/27/2010 8:53:47 AM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER (Celebrate: Republicans freed the slaves Month.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: hosepipe

Are you running for office?


18 posted on 07/27/2010 9:01:43 AM PDT by Southbound ("A liar in public life is worse than a full-paid-up Communist, and I don't care who he is." - HST)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: kabumpo

“I thought that this kind of low-grade personal attack was not permitted on FR.”

Dude YOU have the balls to post that?? after posting This Leftist Crapola ????

“How can you say that a law cannot be racist? What would you call the Jim Crow laws or the laws that compelled Jews in Germany to wear a yellow star or not be allowed to go to the movies?”

It is not going to work Jesse!!!!!!!!!!!


19 posted on 07/27/2010 10:44:45 AM PDT by Cheetahcat (Zero the Wright kind of Racist! We are in a state of War with Democrats)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: 1_Inch_Group; 2sheep; 2Trievers; 3AngelaD; 3pools; 3rdcanyon; 4Freedom; 4ourprogeny; 7.62 x 51mm; ..

Ping!


20 posted on 07/27/2010 1:34:04 PM PDT by HiJinx (I can see November from my front porch - and Mexico from the back.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson