Old Habits Die Hard- Alabama and Institutionalized Discrimination

"Hispanic Alabama Schoolchildren Face Bullying In The Wake Of Anti-Immigrant Law"

This should come as little surprise. When a society creates law and policy that reinforce underlying prejudices we often very quickly see this reflected in more open hostility towards people perceived as part of the group.

Of course its a shame that anti-imigrant sentiment has driven politicians of the state of Alabama to do, perhaps, what seems normal in their circles, and create laws that make treating other people like equals impossible or criminal. What generally follows, when one institutionalizes cruelty, is that people become cruel and discriminating towards anything aproximate to the blighted group in question. We're certainly seeing this here.Human decency and fairness take a backseat to policing the overt cultural biases.



UPDATE: Excellent op-ed in the NY Times on the subject here.

And now for some daytripping music. Killer track from Chromatics, "In the City".

Bitter Harvests

Ala.: Inmates can replace Hispanic farmhands - Mackenzie Weinger - POLITICO.com:

In other words "They'll have their barely paid, possibly coerced labor system one way or another, damnit!!!" Be it chattel slavery, illegal immigration or this proposal of forcing prison inmates to work the fields...the imagery and the similarities overall seems entirely the norm for the deep south.

The latent functions and social fallout from this legislation seems to be having more sweeping real world  implications than the mavericks in Georgia and Alabama intended (not that any of that is surprising in and of itself).

What does it say about the local economies of areas like this that they cannot function without exploiting or compelling its workforce to do so for either pennies on the dollar and the threat of deportation or as a contingency of their punishment? Either way, they seem insistent on making sure brown people (especially given the sky high incarceration rates for black men in these states) line their fields one way or the other...
'via Blog this'

Southerneese- Mean "Girls", and Other Political Class Acts

Nikki Haley Gets Busted on Lavish Vaca, Calls the Reporter a 'Little Girl' | Crooks and Liars:

'via Blog this'

This. This is classic southern dismissiveness at its finest. Not only did Haley manage to get in a "Bless Her Heart"- Southerneese for "You poor, pitiful diluted individual- you're so far beneath me I have to squint to see." in the soundbyte, she then goes on to dismiss the character and professionalism of the young but likely accurate journalist instead of refuting the allegations. Meh. The hubris is staggering. Welcome to dixie, ya'll.