Below is an article about the likely encampment of the children of many undocumented immigrant parents who have been deported recently.
We live in a country where those in power have promoted what they call family values. "Family values", my ass. This country has only valued white families (i say this as someone who is white). It can be easily argued that "family values" has been used only to control people's sexual and reproductive rights when they have a history of and continued participation in dividing families.
Take indian schools for example. Not only did the u.s. government physically take native american children away from their families, they did a number of other things to "kill the indian, save the man" (or woman?). Although i have never personally heard anyone white express any regret over that (besides people i associate with), perhaps we'd hear, just like slavery, that that is in the past. Not only was it acceptable a lot more recently than slavery, there are also other things that occur that are against family values. Like the poisoning of people via placing toxic facilities on their land which often result in health problems and high rates of miscarriage.
I could also mention all the examples of efforts to curb the fertility of women of color, such as the forced sterilization of many women, the testing of unapproved unsafe birth control on women, etc. such as on puerto rican women.
There is also the example of some separation of family during the japanese internment. And then as recently as a couple years ago, families were separated in the aftermath of hurricane katrina. These are very anti-family actions- if in some cases only consequences of negligence. These things happen in high proportions in communities of color. It is no surprise then, that the parents deported out of the u.s. would not be re-united with their kids. And it's also no surprise that someone will be profiting from keeping them encamped. Is it anyone affiliated with the private prison business? Or militarization of the border? Perhaps we'll find out...
Immigrant children being shipped to 'orphan camps,' source claims
By Bill Conroy, Posted on Wed Jun 27th, 2007 at 11:27:46 PM EST
As the immigration reform legislation reaches a critical circuit in the U.S. Senate, it is not inappropriate to raise an important question that all Senators must consider when they vote.
Over the past year, there have been numerous federal operations, carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), where thousands of immigrants have been rounded up in surprise workplace raids — a number of them likely not even reported in the national press.
In many of those cases, the children of the immigrants, a number of them U.S. citizens, were at school or in daycare when the raids came down.
the info below sent by a UK comradista, with much experience. please send your own What's Hot/Not!
-j
What's hot and not - G8 2007 Heiligendamm
WHAT’S HOT
Wandergesellen
An itinerant crafts people with a tradition dating back to the 12th century. Not only do they sport shapely, arse-hugging, double zipper cords and sexy Han Solo waistcoats, they also created the most incredible camp at Reddelich. We were all feeling the spacious showers, the capacious bar and the bodacious children's playground.
As a cultural phenomena they have gone from geek to chic in an astonishingly short space of time...
A really comprehensive and good article, I think that a lot of this is relevant to discussions of gender and communication in lots of contexts outside of technology also...
In preparation for the march for immigrant rights that drew tens of thousands to Chicago's streets on May 1, 2007, Anita Rico stenciled T-shirts with the face of the woman who most inspires her: Elvira Arellano.
Since last August Arellano, an undocumented immigrant, has been holed up in a small Chicago church with her U.S.-born 8-year-old son Saul to avoid an order of deportation back to Mexico.
"She gave a face to the crisis that is going on," said Rico, a youth coordinator at Centro Sin Fronteras, a community advocacy group in Chicago. "The way the government is treating people, especially women, is very inhumane. She's taking a stance. It's how Rosa Parks took a stance. We're literally turning the pages of history."
this is the text that i read for a workshop i did at feminist/queer event. the ideas could use some expanding, but i wanted to share it...
June 1969, New York City, at the Stonewall Inn, one of many regular raids on gay bars, which often involved humiliation, arrests, and physical assaults on queer, and transgender people at those bars. But this particular night, people fought back, throwing bottles, setting the bar on fire once the police had retreated into it… the people to be arrested were the employees, and those without identification, and those who were considered to be wearing clothes of the “opposite†gender… They continued to fight the police who had been called there to disperse them. They threw rocks and bottles and shouted “gay powerâ€. These were the Stonewall Riots, which are now often celebrated among the LGBTQ community as a major turning point in history.
You could say that back then, the police acted as a sort of gender border patrol, targeting people who crossed the line in terms of “correct†gender. Today the cops don’t act that way in an official sense, but certainly queer people and transgender people, as well as women who don’t act “properly†(i.e. prostitutes) often are subject to police harassment, assault, and beyond. And police still enforce laws that have to do with gender borders, such as using the “correct†bathroom.
Before I move on, what do I mean by gender borders?
By gender borders, I refer to the line that’s drawn between female & male, woman & man.
The line that causes doctors to feel an obligation to use surgery on a non-consenting intersex baby to make it conform to the sex on one side of the border or the other.
The line that means you don’t put a baby boy in a pink outfit or give a young girl a beebee gun or a toy truck and such examples.
But also the line that means women should be put in their place- and stay there. If she rejects her submissive role, she’s called a bitch.
The line that makes it so there are certain things that if a guy does, he’s subject to be called “fag†or “pussyâ€.
And obviously the line that determines who you’re supposed to be attracted to (the “opposite sexâ€), who you’re supposed to identify with, what pronouns you should use, etc…
If you cross that line- or border- you’re breaking these known rules (ridiculous as they are) and therefore you could be considered a “gender outlaw†a term Kate Bornstein has used.
Please join us in an ongoing electronic Iran vigil in
solidarity with women's rights activists in Iran at:
http://opinionware.net/iran_vigil
On Sunday, 4 March 2007, the police and security forces violently
attacked and arrested 33 women's rights activists as they stood in
peaceful protest outside the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. The
activists had gathered in solidarity with the five women who were
being tried in connection with demonstrations held on 12 June 2007 to
demand equal rights for women.
As of this writing, (8:49 a.m. GMT, Thursday, 8 March 2007), three
Priscilla Huang is the Reproductive Justice Project Director and Women’s Law Fellow at the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF ), an organization advocating social justice and human rights for Asian Pacific-American women and girls.
Yuki Lin , born on the stroke of midnight this New Year’s, became the winner of a random drawing for a national Toys “R” Us sweepstakes. The company had promised a $25,000 U.S. savings bond to the “first American baby born in 2007.” However, Yuki lost her prize after the company learned that her mother was an undocumented U.S. resident. Instead, the bond went to a baby in Gainesville, Georgia, described by her mother as “an American all the way.”
