David Neiwert

Character will out

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

-- by Dave

We've known for a long time that the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) -- a favorite "think tank" for right-wing nativists, who find their endless churn of often dubious statistics grist for their own anti-immigrant mills (Lou Dobbs in particular has a penchant for citing them) -- has a background that is, to put it kindly, a bit sketchy.


Feeling the thuggery

Tuesday, December 11, 2007
-- by Dave

David Love at In These Times has a followup to the recent SPLC report on "noose incidents" as an indicator of a growing white backlash against minorities, and concludes:

But why are these racially motivated crimes on the rise at this point in time? Potok suggests that the recent noose incidents reflect not a fringe phenomenon, but a major social problem. "We're looking at an upsurge in racial nationalism," says Potok. "What's going on is a serious backlash against globalization. You have a certain level of economic rage that provides fertile ground for these groups." He says that with more people of color immigrating to the country, "whites are angry and uneasy."