REVOLUTION 73

Black people hating on immigrants. Nonsense, and worse, from people who should know better.

BOB AVAKIAN—REVOLUTION

Number Seventy-Three: Black people hating on immigrants. Nonsense, and worse, from people who should know better.

One of the most maddening and heartbreaking things these days is to hear Black people, who have suffered so terribly under this system, hating on immigrants—talking about how immigrants are supposedly taking jobs and resources that should go to Black people and ruining neighborhoods where Black people have lived for generations.

When I hear this, I can’t help thinking about what happened when the mass migration of Black people from the South took place beginning after World War 1, a century ago. Coming into cities in the North, Black people were repeatedly and viciously attacked by racist white mobs, claiming that Black people were taking jobs from white people, that Black people were ruining the cities, and just refusing to “stay in their place.”

Sound familiar?

The same thing happened after World War 2, in the 1950s and 1960s, when Black people were moving into segregated “all-white” neighborhoods, or going to previously all-white schools, and they were often viciously, violently attacked by racist white mobs—even as, on the other hand, many white people were actively taking part in the fight against segregation, discrimination and racist oppression overall.

And today, especially with the Trumpite MAGA fascists, we see open, aggressive racism—against Black people, and against immigrants from what Trump has called “shit-hole” countries (and you know what that means—you know he doesn’t mean Norway)!

So I have a question for any Black people today who are caught up in this hating on immigrants: Do you really want to be like the rabid white racists?

Or, do you want to put an end to this madness—that you, and the immigrants, are being put through?

It is this system that has put Black people through hell for centuries, and is still putting Black people through hell.

And it is this system of capitalism-imperialism that is putting masses of immigrants through hell—making life unliveable for tens of millions throughout the world—forcing them to leave their homes and homelands in a desperate search for a decent life, and then be exploited and discriminated against if they make it to the country most responsible for their miserable situation: this country, the imperialist USA.

Instead of being played to hate on and fight against each other, all the people who are oppressed, exploited, misused, abused, tormented and terrorized under this system—and all people who really care about justice—need to unite to rise up against, and put an end to, this system that is the cause of all this madness, injustice and atrocity.

We are living in a time when it is possible to carry out a revolution that can put an end to this system, and bring into being a radically different and much better system where the fundamental needs and the highest aspirations of people for an emancipating, uplifting way to live can become a reality. All the outrage that people feel, and all the hope and striving for a better way, needs to be dedicated to and focused on working to bring about that emancipating revolution.