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“They don’t think about how racist laws make it easy to bring an adopted child into the country while preventing parents from bringing their birth children. And they don’t see how their anti-immigrant bigotry affects their children. Do you think being
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“Steven Gilliard Jr., a political journalist who found his calling as a combative and influential blogger on the left, died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 42.”
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“The underground passageway is just steps from the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. It was designed so Washington’s guests would not see slaves as they slipped in and out of the main house.”
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“Artist and legend Frida Kahlo celebrates her 100th birthday this year and Mexico City is set to celebrate her with the largest-ever exhibit of her paintings at the Palacio de Bellas Artes.”
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Thx Tereza. “Mohammed will likely become the most popular name for baby boys in Britain by the end of the year, local media reported on Wednesday, citing government data.”
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Thx ananser. “In an attempt to overcome years of budget shortfalls, the NAACP announced that it will temporarily close its regional offices and cut its national staff by 40 percent.”
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Thx Tereza. “In a political environment in which a choice of the “lesser of evils” is considered inevitable, the Black Caucus has chosen the greater evil: FOX News, the most virulent purveyor of “hate speech” in U.S. corporate media.”
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Thx ananser. “Not that DeMint has anything against guest workers…But weakening the guest-worker program would leave the bill in tatters — and in the twisted logic of the Senate, that served DeMint’s greater goal of derailing the legislation.”
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WTF. Thx nsekuye. “The prestigious think tank officially approved Jolie’s membership nomination, adding her to a group whose membership includes presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, ABC’s Diane Sawyer, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and journali
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Thx Sylvia. “in a new study, researchers found instead that all children were admitted equally when they had true emergencies, and the white children were over-admitted for conditions that could be readily treated at home”
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
gatamala wrote:
I went to the Frida Kahlo house 10 years ago. I would love to get to this exhibit.
Posted 11 Jun 2007 at 7:44 am ¶
tasha wrote:
Unless you believe that making distinctions between legal and illegal residents is unjust, then that blogger’s statement “I love my son desperately, regardless of his nation of birth . . .” isn’t racist, especially since three of the top five destinations for foreign adoptions by American citizens are China, Guatemala, and Ethiopia. Unless these “primarily white” parents are excluding whole segments of children based on eugenics, I’d be hard pressed to call any of those white parents bigots if they’re voluntarily raising, feeding, educating and sheltering children of color as their own simply because of their stance on illegal immigration. I don’t know much about the author, Andrew Greeley, but how many orphans of color or orphans from developing countries has he taken in? Now, whether or not you believe in an open border policy is going to affect your decision about this issue, but, for starters, foreign adoption is not merely a “white privilege”. There are plenty of minority couples that adopt abroad. Are they suddenly white because they can afford the adoption agency fees? And secondly, the whole article plays into the misconception that only white people disapprove of illegal immigration, when in fact, illegal residents draw the ire of many people of color, including Hispanic-Americans. And of course the adopted children of American citizens would take priority over illegal residents in America. Adopted children of American citizens would take priority of those on the path to citizenship that haven’t yet been naturalized or those with work visas and the like, but that’s not a white privilege, that’s an American citizen privilege. Just like if I was born in Norway, I would pay massive amounts of taxes, however, I would benefit from things like two month paid vacations, universal healthcare, and the perks and pitfalls of living in a cradle to grave welfare state, and why? Because I was born in Norway and that’s how they do it there, and if you’re not a Norwegian citizen, then why should you expect the same? Even children of illegal immigrants, who are born here are eligible to sponsor foreigners once they reach a certain age, and should such children decide to adopt internationally once they reach adulthood, then their adopted children would receive the benefits of American citizenship despite having been born abroad.
Posted 11 Jun 2007 at 8:32 am ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Tasha: you’re taking Greeley’s commentary too literally. Andrew Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, fiction author, sociologist, and theologian. He hasn’t adopted anyone, but since when does one have to adopt someone to have an opinion on adoption? Just like one does not have to be an immigrant (legal or illegal) to have an opinion about immigration…
The POINT of his criticism is that the current national debates over immigration have an intrindically racist bias (as does almost everything in our society that is still mired in institutional racism). We see the face of illegal immigrants as being uniformly brown, universally Spanish-speaking, poor, unskilled, etc. The stereotypes, although present in reality, are being used to sculpt debate.
I took Greeley’s article to be more of an appeal to the compassionate side of the immigration arguments. The current bill that just was killed in Congress would NOT give privelege to relatives (unlike the current system), including parents and children, but rather to those with “needed” skills (guess child rearing and family cohesion aren’t the “skills” needed). Many people currently illegally working in the US are supporting family members in the home nation.
Greeley thinks that there should be a change in tone in how we discuss the issues - the virulence coming out of some people definitely has a racial element, and needs to be addressed. How it’s been talking about in the media, by politicians, by self-appointed vigilantes, is troublesome. International TRA also often has a racial element, and a little awareness might go a long way to finding solutions instead of spreading the hate around.
Posted 11 Jun 2007 at 12:00 pm ¶
ilana wrote:
hey- thanks for the link on frida kahlo, I love her work. just a note though; kahlo was half jewish and half mexican (her father was an armenian jew).
Posted 12 Jun 2007 at 11:39 am ¶