Ch. 6

Taylor discussed the "racial fantasyland" we've created in America and the racialized stock characters we fill it with, explaining that this invented reality obscures the true reality. This is why we are able to push forward public policy based on inaccurate statistics and assertions. He talked specifically about immigration and the way policy is focused on enforcement rather than administrative services within the broader context of a society that deals with social problems punitively.  This reminded me of a book we read in one of my Sociology courses called Righteous Dopefiend, which detailed the lives of homeless heroin addicts in Los Angeles. Their campsites and drug use were criminalized and funding was funneled into the police force rather than shelters and clean needle facilities. The police would periodically seize their needles and trash their sites, effectively forcing them to relocate and share needles rather than getting them off the streets and dealing with their addictions. There was also explicit racism within the homeless community, with white users at the top and blacks at the bottom. The black users were stereotyped in specific ways and their practices were looked down upon by their fellow users. They also had fewer resources and less stable families. Even in extreme environments where these people are fighting for survival and rely on each other to a certain extent, race still plays a significant role in their individual interactions and creates divides and animosity. As Taylor pointed out, "The point has not been that these phenomena are always and only about race. It has been that race is relevant" (202). Going back to immigration, Taylor talks about how those who emigrate to the US, particularly those who are Latino/Latina, are seen as   "...inassimilable, perpetual foreigners--even if they happen to have been born in their 'new' home" (189).  If you are not white, you are your race or ethnicity first, American second. We classify their food, traditions, behaviors, etc. in negative, abject terms that classify them as 'others' and assume our Western, white way of life is right and normal. This ideology helps to justify exploitative policies and overlook the issues faced by immigrants in their home countries. If we see them as problem people who caused their own issues by virtue of being a particular race and having a certain of traits, then we don't have to think about our own role within these injustices and don't need to offer assistance. Instead, we can discuss them in dehumanizing terms, accuse them of undermining our economy and job market, and police them with policies that are essentially forms of racial-profiling.