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My Turn by Maileen Hamto

From The Asian Reporter, V17, #12 (March 20, 2007), page 6 & 16.

Despite what our leaders think, say, and do, the American people do not hate you or wish to undermine your progress. Never mind the U.S. government’s engines of war and economic subjugation. The hard truth is that, despite our democracy, the current regime hardly represents the true sentiments of many Americans.

The majority of people of color living in the United States share the same struggle: access to resources and opportunities, not to mention prejudice in all of its forms.

Many of us understand full well what it’s like to live in communities bound by love, affinity, and mutual trust and respect.

Citizens of Guatemala, Mexico, Brazil, and at all stops of President Bush’s visit to Latin America took to the streets to protest U.S. foreign policy in the region. We understand your disdain for the anti-immigrant (translation: anti-Latino) sentiment that is spreading throughout the U.S. We understand how rhetoric about building a fence along the southern border and criminalization of many of our workers — your people — have instilled much anger.

In many communities across the United States — both rural and urban — business and civic interests have formed interdependencies with immigrants of color. For example, it is not uncommon for Asian-owned restaurants to hire Latino kitchen staff. Access to hardworking and dependable employees is important for any emerging business — willing and eager to do the work most Americans wouldn’t do.

Railroad barons knew this back in the 1800s, when the important work of laying tracks for the transcontinental railroad necessitated Chinese labor. The Pacific Railroad Company needed 5,000 workers, but had only 600 on its payroll. In 1865 the first "guest workers" from China were paid $28 per month for the very dangerous work of blasting and laying ties over the treacherous terrain of the high Sierras. In 1882, the success of the Chinese in securing steady railroad and other types of work on the West Coast spurred the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act — the first immigration law that targeted a specific ethnic group.

Across the developing world, it’s understandable how socialism may seem like a good alternative at the moment. The U.S. government didn’t exactly keep its end of the bargain on various iterations of so-called regional "free trade" agreements. Billions of dollars (taxpayers’ monies) fund U.S. farm subsidies that encourage U.S. farmers to overproduce, then dump massive surpluses onto global markets. In many cases, cheaper agriculture imports from the U.S. make it difficult for domestic farmers all over the world to compete.

We know that the oft-used justification for U.S. farm subsidies — protecting small and family farms — couldn’t be further from the truth. Small U.S. farmers hardly benefit from these subsidies. From 1995 to 2005, the top 10 percent of recipients were paid 73 percent of all USDA subsidies. Monies also are being paid to Americans who don’t farm at all. It is estimated that the U.S. government has paid at least $1.3 billion in subsidies for rice and other crops since 2000 to individuals who do no farming at all, according to a 2006 analysis of government records by The Washington Post.

Beyond the U.S. government’s foreign economic policies, Americans — particularly citizens of color — can relate to the struggles of peoples dealing with marginalization because of creed, religion and/or color of their skin. Throughout the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Southeast Asia, people find themselves backed to a corner, pushed to the margins by the United States’ anti-Islamist stance. Peoples of color in the United States understand what it’s like to face prejudice in all of its forms. The civil rights era ensured that laws are in our books to combat discrimination, yet many of us continue to fight to have the same access to resources and opportunities as the dominant culture.

Asian-American communities cringed at the backlash against Muslim Americans after the September 11 terror attacks. Japanese Americans still bear the emotional scars of the unjust and inhumane concentration camps during World War II. The public’s indignant reaction to Arab Americans after 9/11 served as a grim reminder of the desolate internment camps that imprisoned innocent Japanese Americans during the war.

Despite a small segment of the U.S. political spectrum that advocates protectionism and prejudice, many Americans today are immigrants or descendants of immigrants who have lived in collectivist and pluralistic societies. Our elders remind us often of the benefits of harmony, understanding, and generosity in keeping communities and families intact. We know what it’s like to take care of family back home.

Particularly among Asian Americans, the humbling effects of colonization and exclusion have left a deep scar in our psyche. Here in America, where our struggles may seem trivial compared to the hand-to-mouth existence of many in the developing world, tolerance isn’t the right word for what we do to ensure harmonies and interdependencies in our communities.

Love has something to do with it.