To Be an American by Hing Bill Ong

Author:Hing, Bill Ong. [Hing, Bill Ong.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780814735237
Publisher: New York UP
Published: 1997-09-15T05:00:00+00:00

chapter 7

Low-Wage Immigrants and African Americans

During the fall of 1994, I opposed Proposition 187 and participated in many 187 debates on radio, television, and public forums. Time and time again, one of the bases for passage urged by proponents of the initiative was that excluding immigrants—in this case the undocumented—would be beneficial to African Americans. Of course in most debates where this issue came up, the proponent generally was not African American, and was certainly not sympathetic to civil rights issues supported by most African Americans. As far as the drafters and primary organizers of Proposition 187 were concerned, the for-the-benefit-of-the-African-American-community argument was insincere, designed to pit one subordinated group against another. For many proponents, the dispute was about freeing up low-wage jobs for African Americans who ought to be happy with those opportunities rather than living on welfare or crime. Invariably, however, although most African Americans I met were opposed, occasionally an African American in a public or talk show audience would voice support for Proposition 187.

In spite of the fact that exit polls revealed that most African Americans opposed Proposition 187 and that the Congressional Black Caucus has a long record of support for immigration, an image persists among many African Americans that immigrants are competing for their jobs, depressing their wages, or taking away business opportunities in their own communities. Consider the comments of Joyce Punch, a retired Houston public schoolteacher:

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