Master Class in Systemic Racism : Learn to identify Powerful people maintaining system
Case Study: US Democratic Senator Richard (Dick) Durbin
Thank you for caring enough about equality to read this article!
Introduction
When talking about #BlackLivesMatter, we talk a lot about Systemic Racism in May/June 2020. People want to know what is “Systemic Racism”? Can you give examples of how this is implemented and how we can identify this?
Systemic Racism is a way to beat down another community using the system which consists of laws and news organizations, while quieting and misleading people who do not condone said oppression.
Since a lot has been written about #BlackLivesMatter, we pick another skin color suffering in the USA, to understand Systemic Racism in the USA. We are going to analyze how Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin tactically and masterfully executes a racist agenda in the USA against brown people. The following is playing out in the political sphere, as we speak (as of June 2020) and has been impacting millions of people in the United States of America.
Introducing Focus Example Issue
Bear with me, while I quickly explain the legal issue which is being used to describe Systemic racism.
We are speaking about the issue of legal immigration for which the law was written in 1965. This law is still in force currently and was written to “restrict” or “discriminate” against Asians. The following snippet is from a speech justifying the racist law, on the US Senate floor in 1978 in a time when it was “still ok” to be racist against Asians publicly on the Senate floor.
Asians represent six-tenths of 1 percent of the population of the United States ... with respect to Japan, we estimate that there will be a total for the first 5 years of some 5,391 ... the people from that part of the world will never reach 1 percent of the population ... Our cultural pattern will never be changed as far as America is concerned.
— U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization of the Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, D.C., Feb. 10, 1965, pp.71, 119.[1]
This law is still in force today and basically imposes a “per-country” cap on employment based immigration. Immigration advocates, Democrats, Republicans and Business leaders have called this per country cap as racist and counterproductive to American interest. People cannot control which country they are born in and they shouldn't be discriminated against based on which country they were born in. In fact, people are hired for jobs based on their skills and not based on their country. Having Per Country Caps on immigration stops employers from hiring the best for their business and are instead forced to hire less skilled workers from other countries or ship jobs outside of the USA. The easiest fix to this, is to remove per country cap on employment based immigration, so that all workers are treated equally.
But, treating all workers equally would mean, you cannot discriminate based on skin color! “Country Cap” is basically a proxy for “Skin color”. This law, discriminating based on a proxy for skin color, is an example of Systemic Racism.
When laws are written by politicians who want to take America forward, it is blocked by powerful people who use all possible arguments to prevent equal treatment of people. To block “removal of country caps” or “discriminate based on skin color”, powerful Senator Dem. Richard (Dick) Durbin shows masterfully execution of “Systemic Racism” in the USA.
Suffering
Currently, discrimination in the immigration system based on a proxy (Country cap) for skin color, has created an unjust system where Indian immigrants are forced to deport their kids who have grown up in USA for more than 10-15 years as well as undergo significant economic, cultural hardships because of racist immigration law. Watch: Legal Immigration: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver to understand the suffering by immigrants in the backlog.
The Fix
Immigration advocates have tried to comprehensively fix Immigration over several years. Being the hot button topic that it is, a comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) has never made any progress. So, the following small bill to tactically fix immigration in pieces was suggested by Immigration advocates on both sides of the aisle.
HR1044/S386 is a bill that aims to treat all immigrants equally, by removing discrimination based on Country. This bill passed the House with a huge bipartisan majority! Both Republican and Democrats support this bill in the Senate and House, because this is humane AND also is good for America, as it gets the best immigrants without losing anything (not increasing the number of Green cards given out per year).
The Problem
So, it would be easy to pass this bill in the Senate right? After all, the senate version of the bill has a lot of bipartisan sponsors - both Democratic and Republican! But, lo and behold, there is one Senator who doesn't like it. A self proclaimed pro-immigrant Senator who secretly hates brown people.
The following chapters explain the different ideas used by oppressors to silently and systematically oppress people. These ideas can be extended to minorities of any sort around the world. In this example, we examine how Senator Richard (Dick) Durbin masterfully and tactically kills bills which have a hope of removing systemic racism against Legal Immigrants to the USA.
Chapter 1: The Posturing
One of the best ways to destroy any idea or project, is to become the leader of the project and lead that project into the group. People with a malicious mindset, posture that they are “for” the topic which they are secretly against. If one tells people they are against a particular topic, they would invite a lot of acrimony. Instead, being a leader allows one to innocently drive a project into the ground. For example, If you were a race car driver who wanted to lose the race intentionally without seeming to do so, you would intentionally drive the car slowly and blame the car manufacturer, because being the driver you could ensure no one else gets to drive this car to the finish line either!
Let us look at the concrete example of this in action by Senator Durbin.
Senator Durbin self-models as a “Champion of Immigrants” and puts on a “pro-immigrant” face, but has not passed a single Legal or Undocumented Immigration bill since 1997! Verify this at the Senator Durbin’s Senate website.
To appear pro-immigrant, Sen. Dick Durbin has introduced multiple bills (legal immigration: S.2603, S.3134, etc; undocumented immigration: S.1291, S.874, etc) in the Senate which would aim to increase immigration by several millions. Watch him admit in the Senate that his bills will not\cannot pass. He wants to pass it, but, oh it cannot pass! His bills ask for unrealistic goals such as doubling or tripling Legal Immigration before he will treat all Immigrants equally. Ask yourself what could be a reason why a career politician with several decades of legislative experience would introduce bills knowing fully well they would not pass.
Let us dig into Sen Dubin’s actions a little more. Something smells like a double standard here. Senator Dick Durbin claimed to be actually fine with “The Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act” when it had a special work visa carveout for white-skinned Irish immigrants. In 2011, he actually was THE original co-sponsor for S.1983 - The Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act, which is largely identical to the bill he is blocking now (S.386 - The Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act) - with one notable difference: the 2011 bill had a special carve-out for white-skinned Irish immigrants. If white-skinned Irish immigrants were the victim of per-country limits and were forced to deport their own children, as Indian immigrants are forced to today, Senator Dick Durbin would be the biggest champion of The Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act.
Chapter 2: Poison Pill
If there is a project nearly succeeded that an oppressor wants to block without seeming to do so, the best way is to try to “improve” the project while secretly adding poison pills into the project. Eg: If a race car team manager wants their cars to fail, one way to make it fail is by saying adding an extra additive into the fuel would make the car go faster while instead it would get the team disqualified. But, the manager could claim that they were only trying to help.
Let us look at the concrete example of this in action by Senator Durbin.
When other Senators do not like a bill, they get minor amendments to protect their interests which no other senator will disagree with. But, if you're interested in “hate brown people”, you would do your best to kill the bill HR1044/S386! You would fight tooth and nail to request poison pills to be added into the bill which will incite other Senators from the other party and have more blocks be added on to the Bill. Then, you can blame the other senators for having blocked the bill. Yes, that is exactly what Senator Dick Durbin did between Oct 2019 and Dec 2019.
HR1044/S386 is a very small bill which does not get taken up for a roll call vote as this requires debates for a couple of days, on the Senate floor. Small bills rarely get debated as Senate time is constrained. These small bills have to get passed by a motion called Unanimous consent which means if any Senator objects to this, the bill will get blocked. When Rep. Sen. Mike Lee tried for unanimous consent for this bill, it was blocked by Sen. Rand Paul and Sen. David Purdue. Both requested small changes to the bill and lifted their holds. When Sen Mike Lee tried for Unanimous Consent for this bill again, a bill which has huge Democratic and Repulican support in the Senate and House, Sen. Dick Durbin blocked this bill with gigantic poison pill requests. He added poison pills which would make it impossible for departments of homeland security and USCIS to implement it. Obviously, when those departments requested changes along with other Senators as this bill was unimplementable, Sen Durbin refused to negotiate and has blocked this bill since!
Senator Durbin’s amendment wants immigrants to be given Green cards “soon” after they arrive without having to wait for USCIS to check for Americans who could be displaced by these immigrants. Neither legal immigration advocates nor any legal immigrants nor any one in their right mind requested this amendment. Legal immigrants want to legally immigrate to the US while contributing to the improvement of the US and not throwing it to the dogs. Obviously, this is an unpalatable change made to appear “pro-immigrant” and invite blocks\challenges from other Senators. If he actually wanted the bill to pass, he would negotiate on his amendments instead of running away from the negotiating table. “Did I hear you calling him racist?” A person promising the moon cannot be racist, right? Even if it is Sen Durbin’s amendments (read promises of the moon) which have sunk every immigration bill from 1997!!!
Chapter 3: Victim Blaming
Victim blaming is a very common practice that we see in the media everyday. Victim blaming is blaming an entire race for mistakes of a few and allows the oppressor to systematically oppress everyone in that race. For eg: It is easier to call all black people thugs instead of realizing there are only a few bad apples in people of every race and do the hard work of making the community safe and equitable. It is easier to call all white people racists instead of realizing that there are only a few bad apples of every color who are racists.
Let us look at the concrete example of this in action by Senator Durbin.
From our earlier discussion, We do know that Sen. Dick Dubin does not like “brown” people. What would be the best way to ensure the oppressed are oppressed more easily? One of the best ways to turn the public against the victims, is to blame and slander the victims! Being a powerful Senator, what the Senator says has a lot of effect.
Senator Durbin has repeatedly acted in ways to victim-blame Indian immigrants by amplifying the message that the backlog was due to "abuse of the H1b visa system" by a few while discrediting the plight of hundred of thousands who participated in no such abuse and followed the law to a T. He is a strong voice in the Senate has slandered Indian origin people as stealing jobs or “low skilled labor” by regularly introducing legislation saying so.
NOTE: This is NOT true. USA gives out 1m Family based Green Cards and 140k Employment Based Green Cards. Only 7% of Employment Based Green cards go to Indians! And since most Indians are in a backlog for ~10 years, these Indians have proven multiple times by using PERM\Labor Certifications by USCIS that there are no Americans who can fill those jobs and generally make upwards of $100k per year. On the other hand, read here about how the most of the Employment Based Green cards are given out to kitchen helpers, pizza delivery drivers, etc for less than $25000 salary per year. Senator Durbin tells a story that there is no one in America who can take a kitchen helper job or do pizza delivery and these folk deserve a green card in 1 year, but, Asians(Chinese/Indians) who have proved multiple times to the USCIS with valid PERM/Labor certificates should wait for 100 years for a green card. This data is publicly made available by USCIS and can be read by anyone.
Slander by people like Senator Durbin puts immigrants at immediate risk
A Indian man was shot dead while sitting in a bar in Kansas which was later designated as a hate crime.
Man charged with hate crime for allegedly beating Indian motel owner - ABC News
New FBI Report Reveals Alarming Rise of Hate Crimes Against Indian Americans
Chapter 4: Divide and Conquer
One way to keep people oppressed, is to get them to fight each other instead of calling your systemic racism out. For Eg: in the USA, it is easier to have the poor in the extreme right wing fight poor in the extreme left while providing huge tax breaks to the 1%.
Let us look at the concrete example of this in action by Senator Durbin.
What better way to do that for the Honorable Senator, than pit one immigrant group against another. The Senator makes false arguments (watch:senator-durbin-making-false-claims-s386-bill) that ROW (Rest of the world nationalities) shouldn’t have to wait to wait 3-4 years for a Green Card and hence, should be given a green card immediately in 1 year, but is OK with Indians having to wait around 70-100 years for a green card. His basic intention with involving other nationalities is to pit one immigrant group against another, to avoid having himself as the target of the ire.
This link shows a video of Senator Durbin publicly bringing together Iranian Immigrants and having them attack Indian Immigrants. He has tried to bring up “other nationalities” in speeches on the Senate floor to try pitting them against Indians and Chinese Immigrants. This did not work, till the Iranians (supposedly funded by Iranian government) took the bait.
Sample problem: How would Sen Durbin have handled calls for School Desegregation?
Read: Desegregation of schools was a major topic of systemic racism which was struck down in the Supreme Court in 1954 (Brown v. Board of Education).
Solution
Senator Durbin would have opposed desegregation of Schools. He would have said, let schools not be desegregated till there are 2-3 times the amount of schools built, so that no white child misses out before black children are treated equally as humans!
Chapter 5: Media Control (The New York Times & The Washington Post)
The last thing that oppressors do, is that they control the media! If the media starts calling any one out, people will notice. Eg: The CEO of a company which is doing badly and has no integrity, could pay off certain journalists for only positive news about the company and to keep negative news from being published.
Let us look at the concrete example of this in action by Senator Durbin.
Nytimes(article) and Washington Post(article), are extremely vocal in calling out racism and discrimination by Republicans. When HR1044/S386 was blocked by Republican Senators, the newspapers called out Republican Senators (Sen Rand Paul and Sen. David Purdue) in article1, article2. But, even after several months of block by Senator Durbin, Nytimes and Washington post do not call out Sen. Dick Durbin! Since these operations are behind the scenes, it is possible that to surmise that Senator Dick Durbin has considerable influence over the liberal media and keeps them muzzled to control the agenda!
Result
We have read 5 different techniques that people in power use to systematically oppress the minorities. I request you to use the 5 techniques not to oppress others but to identify people who systematically oppress other people and call them out. The least you can do, is bring awareness about racism by speaking with others or at least sharing this post. With a concerted effort, we can make this world a better place to live for all!
I found the following on the internet which struck a chord with me and bears repeating.
I want my friends to understand that being “sick of politics” is privilege in action. Your privilege allows you to live a non-political existence. Your wealth, your race, your abilities or your gender allows you to live a life in which you likely will not be a target of bigotry, attacks, deportation, or genocide. You don’t want to get political, you don’t want to fight because your life and safety are not at stake.
It’s hard and exhausting to bring up issues of oppression (aka “get political”). The fighting is tiring. I get it. Self-care is essential. But if you find politics annoying and you just want everyone to be nice, please know that people are literally fighting for their lives and safety. You might not see it, but that’s what privilege does.
-Kristen Tea