The report below is about the “La Raza” organization — apparently now quite respectable in U.S. Hispanic circles. But what does “La Raza” mean? It means “The Race” — the Mexican race (though anthropologists would be hard-put to identify any Mexican race). The organization is explicitly devoted to promoting the interests of the Mexican race, in other words. So who is introducing race and racism into the immigration debate? We hear furious accusations of “racism” flung at people who think America should have control over who enters the country but the actual racists are never accused of racism! Conservatives and patriots in America are just too polite. Maybe they should be less polite

For many in the Hispanic community, it has become a time of high anxiety, said Janet Murguia, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza. The debate over immigration, once simmering, has now begun to boil: This year’s struggle over comprehensive immigration reform legislation drew out impassioned voices on both sides. Local laws and ordinances are sprouting up to make Latinos feel harassed and discriminated against, she said. [Wrong! It's only some Latinos. Latinos who are in the country legally have exactly the same rights as everybody else]

Latino leaders have long seen the warning signs, but now they are impossible to ignore, Murguia said at a talk Thursday to Hispanic community members at the Guadalupe Center, 1015 Avenida Cesar E. Chavez. She said the failure of efforts to pass bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform has led to local laws that imperil the rights of Hispanics [Only law-breaking Hispanics] A directive issued by Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt is an example, she said. Blunt ordered the Missouri Highway Patrol to check the immigration status of anyone who is arrested and in some cases, only stopped.

“It’s a dark moment in our history,” Murguia said of the current wave of anti-immigration sentiment. “We are in real trouble. . This is not just a political debate anymore,” she said to an audience of more than 35 people. “It’s now getting personal.” Murguia asked concerned citizens to join forces with her to “strategically combat” these anti-immigration forces. She asked people to promote “civic engagement” by helping immigrants gain citizenship, by registering naturalized citizens to vote and by bringing out the vote in historic numbers for the 2008 election. She also said that an alliance of Hispanic organizations was “going to be ramping up our efforts” to use new media and the Internet and would offer downloadable tool kits and tips on how to get their message out.

Murguia emphasized that political power would no longer be the only kind of power Latino leaders would be willing to exercise. “We have political power, but we have growing economic power we can leverage, and we can speak with our economic power as well,” she said. She said that in the past several years, Hispanic leaders have learned to focus less on boycotts and more on targeted economic strategies. An example is La Raza’s recent decision to consider pulling the 2008 convention out of Kansas City because of the appointment to the city’s parks board of a member of a militant group opposing illegal immigration.

The possibility of moving the convention was met with enthusiastic applause and open support at Thursday’s meeting. Kansas City Councilwoman Beth Gottstein was among those who stood up in support. “If you have to come back to make that announcement (that you’ve chosen not to have the convention in Kansas City), I will stand with you,” Gottstein said. “We know we are right on this.” Murguia said Hispanic leaders were successful when they applied similar pressure in Los Angeles by threatening to take their convention elsewhere because of a labor dispute involving Hispanic workers.

Source