The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[Alex]

Irish isn't a race. Calling anti-Irish sentiment racism does a real disservice to actual racism. But since use of English words to mean specific things has been specifically precluded by iSm, I guess I haven't a leg to stand on.

The two populations of illegal immigrants I have had the most direct exposure to are Southeast Asians and the not insignifant illegal Irish population in San Francisco. I'm just as opposed to them as I am other illegal immigrants. And yet I have no problem with every member of the Hispanic, Irish, or Laotian "races" coming here legally. I'm guessing I support a more liberal legal immigration process than just about anybody that might post here. But it is good to know that since the majority of America's illegal immigrants are of the Hispanic "race" then such opposition is racist. I'm also opposed to illegal immigration in France where it is mostly Angolans and Turks. I'm opposed to it Germany where a significant portion is white Eastern Europeans. I'm opposed to it in South Korea where it is Malay, Thai, and Indonesian. I'm opposed to it when it is Canadians (and yes, there are lots of Canadians illegally in this country). I'm opposed to it when it is Americans in Canada (and yes, there are a fair amount of those as well). I'm opposed to it when it is Nicaraguans into Mexico and Haitians into the Dominican Republic. I'm just the most racisist person in the world.

To correlate crime with illegal immigration is a mostly baseless assumption (except insofar as certain crimes correlate well with the segment of the socioeconomic class in which most illegal immigrants find themselves) but it is not an inherently racist one.